Chapter 17

Word still had a chance to eliminate me? Scales, what now.

"It's simple, really," Word said with a cunning look. "The dragon of legend is attempting to prevent us from constructing the time machine in the first place by destroying the gear it's based on."

The other Word said, "Yes, but he's already done it. It's too late."

"Not yet it isn't. You see, there are two of dragons here and one is the future self of the other. That means the dragon was unable to destroy the gear on his own and needed his future self to help. That in turn means that one of two dragons here now is the past self that must proceed into the future in order to become that future self and come back in the time machine again. All we have to do is prevent that past self from leaving here. If he never leaves, he can never come back to help destroy the gear and this version of reality we just witnessed will be erased. It will be as if it never happened. The gear will not have been destroyed and we can again build the time machine as planned."

The other Word smiled and seemed to get the idea, "Yes, I see. And the dragon can only power his armor for a limited period of time. My guess is he's been running it for quite awhile as it is to have gotten this far. Therefore, time is on our side. Once he's out of energy, it will be all over for him."

"Exactly," the other said while clenching his fist in the air. "And the doors sealing us in here are strong enough to withstanding a dragon's strength, even the combined strength of two gold dragons. We have only to wait now. Before too long, their energy will run out. As long as the dragon can't get to the time machine before then, we will have won," he finished with a malevolent smile.

This was getting confusing. Didn't the presence of my future self mean that I had, or rather, will get out of here and travel back again? Or was that outcome only one possible future that could lie ahead of me?

Yes, I think that's it. What Word said seemed to make sense. After all, here I was disrupting the past myself. The Word who was here from the future said he hadn't encountered me when he originally experienced this portion of time. That seemed to imply that reality was fluid and subject to influence.

If that was true, then my future wasn't set. That would be both good news and bad news. It would be good news because it would mean I actually had free will and wasn't a complete slave to prophecy. It would mean I actually had a life of my own. But that would also be bad news because it would mean if I made the slightest mistake in my next actions here, everything I had done so far would unravel and the world would plunge into a dragon-human war and end up in the hands of Word Paynn.

I sighed. It was hard to know what to do. This almost made me wish that I had no free will so I wouldn't have to make these decisions. But then Connor never said being the dragon of legend would be easy. In fact, he said it would be the most difficult thing any dragon had done in 3000 years.

Whatever the case, one thing was certain: whatever happened in the next few moments would decide things forever. Either I'd get out of here and then attempt to complete what my future self did or it would all end here and now and Word will have won.

Standing here wasn't going to solve anything, so I moved back out into the hall to take another look at the door that was blocking my way back to the time machine. It was definitely solid. There was no way I could break it down or force it open, even with the help of my future self.

Just then I heard the sound of grating metal behind me.