Kunstzinnigheid

I woke up in the middle of the night.. I don’t know why. It was strange. As if some there was a presence in my room. I couldn’t see a lot, even though the moon shone through the curtains. All I could make out were the silhouettes of everything in my room. My room was furnished not too complex. I just had a closet for my clothes, a desk for my computer, and a bed. Nothing more. Just to keep it simple. I generally dislike overly decorated rooms. They drive me nuts, especially when I’m looking for something which I lost. Because that happens far too often to me, I’m kind of chaotic.
After I sat up, scoped out my room, and laid down again, I heard a faint voice trough my head, and although it was soft, it seemed as if it was yelled in my ears in some kind of paradoxical manner. I knew it wasn’t a thought of my own and I was greatly disturbed by it. Because I knew for a fact it wasn’t something I heard. It would mean either two things. I don’t know which I would have liked it to be better, they were both incredibly concerning. It would either mean I was slowly going mad, or something seriously wrong and strange was happening. All that voice said was a single word that would have been completely normal in any other situation.
“Hello.”
The amount of strange theories circulating through my head about how I could hear that while still being sure the sound I heard wasn’t real was insane. The thing I thought of most was that I just imagined that, still sleeping half, or even being inside a dream. Which would probably qualify as a lucid dream, since my state of mind being active and thinking about it being in a lucid dream.
“I know you’re there…”
The voice in my head almost released a small sigh at the end of its sentence. As if it was impatiently awaiting my response. As if my response would happen anyways. As if my behaviour didn’t matter, that voice would eventually get to the point where it would get whatever it wants anyway. Quite the discomforting thought, even though I did not know its intentions at all, whether they’re good or bad.
“You’re right. Your behaviour doesn’t matter.”
I was shocked. It read my thoughts. I went into my comfort zone and assumed it was just my imagination or mind playing games with me, or some kind of nightmare, at least something my mind could handle. Something that would eventually stop, whether because it would become day, my mind would stop doing that or because I would wake up. That comforted me little though. Whatever kind of nightmare this was, how weird and unique to me it may seem, it would be over. Even though it hadn’t done anything, I subconsciously called it a nightmare. I felt as if my mind wasn’t just my mind. But also of someone or even something else.
“You could say that’s the case.”
After a while of my mind being frozen of shock, I slowly decided to communicate.
“Hello..?”, I said out loud, but quietly, lest someone would somehow be able to hear me.
“You don’t need to speak out loud. You know I read your mind.”
That seemed logical. Well, it is actually far from logical; it isn’t possible for anything to read your mind. As far was humanity knows. But still, I decided to roll with it, and tried to think clearly.
“What are you?”, was the first thing I thought. It seemed strange, asking a question inside your own head and awaiting response from something that isn’t you.
“Well… You’re right about the ‘what’ part of your question.”
Suddenly two eyes appeared out of nowhere between my bed and the door. They seemed like they belonged to a reptile, but they gave off a strange, dim, light, the same way those neon light things that are used in children’s adventuring quests, where you lay those lights down in the woods in some path which they follow. They don’t give off a lot of light, but they are clearly visible. The same for those reptile eyes. They gave of a faint tint of green, which even seemed to pulsate ever so slightly. To say I was scared was an immense understatement. I felt horrified.

“Don’t be scared…”
It didn’t feel like it was comforting me. Instead, because of the fact that that already faint voice sounded even softer in my head, in a more sinister way, I got terrified. The reptilian eyes blinked. The first time I noticed that. Strangely enough, those eyes didn’t blink simultaneously. There was a short delay. Which made my even more discomforted. And then those eyes slowly came towards me and I could make out more of a shape of it, but it still seemed vague. It seemed like it took a century before it came a little close, and although I know it didn’t move to fast, it seemed to take far longer than it should have, almost as if time slowed down immensely. When those eyes were almost at my bed I could differentiate the scales on the face of the thing. It didn’t look like anything I had ever seen before, not even counting the myriad pieces of art I had seen on the internet. The scales looked both rough and smooth at the same time in a strange way. It had almost unnoticeable markings along the veins of its body. Maybe they even were veins. Just like the eyes, they were pulsating, but a lot less noticeable. After the shock of that thing being there was gone, I decided to open up the curtains some more so I could take a closer look at it, even though I knew I would regret it. It was just a little curiosity.
“Don’t be scared to open up the curtains to see me. I don’t mind.”
Even though I still did not know what it, or for that matter, I, wanted, I opened up the curtains and I saw its scales gleaming in moonlight. I saw its shape clearly. It was human-sized. Its slender, but fairly pointed face is less terrifying as I could make out the specific details of it. It had a pair of small horns pointing backward, and things resembling spikes from the back of its head, along his body to the end of its tail. It had four legs, and its claws were of preposterous size. The pulsing markings became a lot clearer, and even seemed to reflect moonlight, intensifying the glow even more. They were all over its body. And suddenly my mind registered the fact that it had got wings folded up on his back.
“Yes. I know what you’re thinking. I am indeed a dragon.”
These words shocked me. It was impossible for a dragon to be in my room. Dragons do not exist. They simply could not exist. They would too heavy for their legs to support them, they would be too heavy for their wings to support their flight, they would be in need of far too much nutrients to sustain their body. But here was one. In my room. Communicating to me telepathically. It just did not make sense. I fell back onto my conclusion of being in a dream.
“Even if I were in a dream, I’d be in your subconscious forever. A vague memory of one of the strangest dreams you’d have ever had.”
Its soft but screaming voice in my mind seemed to get more and more menacing the more I thought about it. As if it was planning to do something to me. And if it did, I’d have no protection at all, I live alone, so I would just be at its mercy.
“You don’t need to be scared of me. Not at all. Not at all…”
This time it did not seem as a scream trough my brain. More like how a mother would lull a baby asleep. But all the more sinister. A cloud dimming the moonlight did not help. I could not manage to find it anymore. No eyes or markings anywhere in the room. It was just darkness in the room. But the feeling of its presence had not gone away. I knew it was in my room still. But I just did not know where. I was thinking it might be going to do something. And the something would probably be something evil. It is the least comforting thought my mind could have came up with.
“You’re right.”
A rush of profanity and realisation of being helplessness went trough my head. I wanted to get up and run. But I couldn’t. My body prohibited me getting up. As if something heavy was on my chest. Then I realised. And just as I had realised, the cloud floated past, allowing full moonlight to shine into my room again. And it was just as I thought. It stood there, right on top of me. Its markings were completely black, with an almost unnoticeable tint of red, and its eyes were shut.
“Don’t you worry. It will benefit me, and that’s all that matters.”
That thought was nauseating. It would do anything to me, just to help itself. I know there are egoistic and egocentric people and creatures on this planet, but going this far?
“Just relax. It won’t last long.”
First thing that came to mind is the question of what “it” actually is. It would not have said it if it was something minor. It made me far more nervous than I already was. Suddenly, I felt a sudden surge of pain in my chest, and I closed my eyes as I did not even want to know what was happening. I felt something inside my body. Something was carefully going through the inside of my chest, as if it was searching for something. I wanted to scream. I couldn’t. My mouth was completely covered by something that feels like cold scales. It probably had one of it paws on my mouth. I felt a fluid flowing on my skin. It was rather thick, not flowing easily at all. I opened my eyes, partly because I was curious, partly because something in my head said to do so, and saw it had carefully made a hole in my chest and had one of it’s paws inside me. Even though those paws were far too large to be able to do what it was doing. I also saw the fluid. It was my blood. What else did I expect. I realised these would be my last moments on earth. And my final sight was nauseating. After a matter of seconds, everything went black. No more sensory perception. Just me inside my mind. It seemed as if it lasted forever.

Anamar liep langzaam door de struiken naar beneden, af en toe keek hij achterom om te kijken naar zijn broer en zus. Recto liep achter Anamars staart aan, en daar achter liep Rozie. Ze keek angstig om zich heen, en dat snapte Anamar wel. Ze was als de dood voor vliegen.
Hun moeder sloot de rij, ze waren allemaal verbaast toen ze hoorden dat ze naar de bossen naast de stad zouden verhuizen, want hun moeder kende een diepe haat voor mensen.
Het is al een paar 1000 jaar geleden, dat mensen de drakenwereld vonden en begonnen te koloniseren, had Anamar gehoord. Ze waren niet echt vriendelijk voor de oorspronkelijke inwoners van de planeet. Ze moorden hen uit, als de draken hun plannen in de weg zaten.
Veel draken leven ver weg van de door de mensen bewoonde gebieden, net zoals hun moeder, ze dachten dat mensen nog steeds slecht waren. Anamar zou wachten tot hij een mens had leren kennen.
Ineens botst hij tegen zijn moeder op, ze was stil gaan staan.
“Jongens, we zijn bij de richel.” Anamar strekte zijn nek uit om het goed te kunnen zien, een grote beboste vallei strekte voor hen uit. Hij hoorde Rozie kreunen.
“Als ik mijn vleugels spreid, doen jullie dat ook. En wel meteen, begrepen?” Anamar wist dat ze het tegen Rozie had. Maar hun moeder wachtte niet op antwoord, maar begon met haar klauwen op de grond te schrapen, als teken dat ze ging vertrekken.

Al snel vlogen ze door de lucht, Rozie leek een beetje valer van kleur te worden, maar Anamar genoot ervan. Zijn staart hield hem in evenwicht en hielp bij het sturen, terwijl hij omhoog in de lucht klom telkens als hij zijn vleugels neer sloeg. Zijn familie lag al een paar meter onder hem. Maar Anamar moest terug komen van zijn moeder. Zodat ze hem goed in de gaten kon houden. Bij Rozie leek de wind haar tegen te werken, maar bij hem hielp het hem verder.
De vlucht duurde te kort, vond Anamar, toen de bergen aan de kanten van de vallei lager en vlakker begonnen te worden. En er twee rivieren langzaam naar elkaar toe liepen om op een punt samen te komen vlak bij de rand van de stad. Hun moeder gaf hun het teken om te dalen, en ze ploften op een open plek bij het bos neer, vlak bij één van de rivieren, die dwars door de vallei sneed. Rozie rende naar de rivier en stopte haar kop er in, die heel licht roze was geworden. Anamar bekeek zijn moeder, ze had bijna dezelfde kleur als Anamar, alleen wat groeniger. Haar hoorns waren totaal anders, ze waren om zichzelf gekruld. Haar ogen waren knalgeel, net zoals die van Anamar. Ze leek doodmoe, en plofte neer op mossige grond.
Recto was donkergroen, met lichtrode ogen en dezelfde hoorns als Anamar, maar dan in het zwart. Zijn staart eindigde in een paar lange zwarte stekels.
Rozie liep langzaam terug naar haar moeder en plofte ook neer. Zij was anders, haar schubben waren roze en haar ogen waren spierwit. Wat zeldzaam was voor draken. Ze was ook de kleinste van de groep. Rozie legde haar kop op haar moeders rug (niet op de plaats waar een paar puntige schubben uitstaken) en sloot haar ogen. Hun moeder leek al uitgeput, maar Rozie was doodop. Al snel hoorde ze haar vlugge ademhaling overgaan in een rustig patroon. Anamar was helemaal niet moe, hij was klaarwakker.
“Mam, mag ik wat te eten halen?” Vroeg hij.
“Alleen konijnen. Die zijn vast in de buurt.” Zei zijn moeder, met een schorre stem.
Hij rende weg en keek goed uit naar prooi, al snel hoorde hij het geritsel van een konijn tussen de bladeren. Mooi zo, die beesten zijn hier toch geen draken gewend. Dacht hij.