Eternal Ramblings

“So what happened to you?”

The young man didn’t want to acknowledge the dragon floating in front of him. There were too many people who had already deemed him insane by this point; he didn’t need evidence that would convince him they were right.

“Hey, please talk to me. It’s lonely here…” the strange thing pouted. He grunted, shaking his head  to throw off the bad thoughts. He glanced at a peek at his surroundings, his eyes focusing anywhere but the thing he called a hallucination. To his despair however, everything was white and a little cloudy. In other words, absolutely nothing of interest. The young man sighed and gave in to curious boredom.

“Because people just don’t appreciate the great taste of rat poison” he replied, his tone dripping with brutal sarcasm. 

The dragon’s expression morphed into something reflecting sadness.

“That’s…um…unfortunate”

The creature continued to float there for a few more minutes of awkward silence. Against his best efforts, the more aesthetically human of the pair couldn’t help but stare out the corner of his eye. He noticed that, aside from the pleading eyes and poor attempt at a smile, this fake hallucination was sporting some unusual faint scars on its stomach. The young man narrowed his eyes.

“Why don’t you tell me what happened to you?” he asked in return. The dragon looked startled, awash with depression greater than the sad expression from before. It didn’t respond this time. He sighed, scratching at the needle hole on his forearm.

“Look…my name is Charlie. What about you?” he tried asking, with an attempt at a friendlier tone. The fantastical thing seemed to perk up at this.

“My name’s Rowan. It’s so lovely to meet you Charlie!” the creature responded. Its colourful, reptilian wings were flapping in a gleeful display. Charlie groaned internally but maintained a false smile.

“That’s nice Rowan. So, why are you here, pray tell?” he questioned again. The same depressed look came back, but at least words came with it.

“I…was trying to make some sweet dreams” it replied, clawing lightly at its stomach. Charlie felt a twang of empathy at the sight of the action.

“Sweet dreams, huh? How do you make that?” he said, trying to humour Rowan. The reaction this elicited from the dragon was instantaneous and grand.

“Oh, it’s just a matter of a few ingredients, though a little hard to source. Ten serpent tongues, half a boiled cabbage, five-star shaped cuts of cheddar cheese. Oh, the type of cheese can be substituted but it can change the outcome of things. What else…” Rowan continued to ramble, occasionally stopping to snort puffs of smoke from its nostrils.

Charlie was surprised to find himself listening intently to Rowan’s recollections, indulging more in the insanity of 

the situation. He found it especially remarkable how this creature was able to recount such traumatic events as evading serpents in the dark and the detailed description of how a fork rips through flesh. Then again, he supposed the thing was simply used to such dark things as he was. So, he ignored it and tried to focus on the delightfully unusual recipe instead. He wondered to himself what it would taste like, and would it be better than leek and potato soup.

What a silly notion. Nothing was better than leek and potato soup. His wife never understood that. Sadly though, no-one else ever would.