long and winding
i had a good dream for once. this moment is so momentous that i wrote out the entire dream. i am sure no one will read it, as it is long and requires effort. but it was touching and now i will have a record of it. careful, the ending is sad (surprise, surprise.)
have you ever heard the story of the viper and the prince?
of course you have. this is like that story, except it’s the viper and the dragon.
the father of the viper was bitten by a dragon and thus became a dragon spirit. no one knew what had happened to him, so they left him out of the history books as a matter of convenience. presently they forgot his face, forgot his voice, forgot him entirely - even his own daughter.
it is a sin to let the legend of a dragon go unrecorded, so he was doomed to roam the earth forever or else go straight to hell. a dragon king is forbidden to speak of his own legend, as it is a mark of self-absorption, which dragons are not permitted to show.
the viper was left for dead, stabbed by a rose thorn, poisonous to humans but not to a viper princess.
she lay desolate, mourning for her cobra prince. she was unable to move, imprisoned by her own depression.
as she lay crying, the dragon spirit, touched by the magical viper’s plight, came to comfort her.
the proud princess and her father presently fell in love, neither knowing the true identity of the other, as each found their pasts to be too painful to speak of.
it came to pass that the asian castle (not the asia we know of) was to be visited by a renowned merchant ship.
they decided, in their vanity, to decorate the castle with the viper’s carcass, which, insofar as they knew, lay lifeless under the rose tree.
not wishing to upset the humans and thus jeopardize their love, the dragon and the viper decided to go along with them. the viper lay, not breathing, on the ground, and the dragon.
by this time the people of the castle had forgotten entirely what the king looked like. when they saw him next to the viper carcass, they took him for a trespasser and sentenced him to death by drowning.
they bound his arms and legs and tied him to a tree by the water. fortunately for the two lovers, they also left the cobra’s carcass by the sea, along with the pike they planned to display her body upon. now, the people of the castle did not know this, but the only way to destroy a viper spirit is to fill the long cavity that runs from tip to tail. they had sentenced the viper princess to death. she would have no time to reconcile her sins and was destined to go straight to hell.
neither spirit would have this. the dragon king, in his man form, chewed through the rope binding him to the tree. he draped the viper carcass around his neck.
but what now? he had to be untied, or else he would be choked to death by the ropes around his neck when he resumed his dragon form. he must find someone to untie him, and quickly.
night began to fall.
just as the situation seemed hopeless, a serf fishing boat passed by. the dragon king jumped into the water, barely able to keep his head above the waves, and struggled over to the boat.
serfs, in this asia, were not bound by masters, but to money due to a cruel enchantment. they could perform no action that was not paid for, unless it was a bodily function, which they were free to do at will.
the dragon king splashed by, begging to be untied and rescued. the serfs, bound as they were to the almighty yen, could do no such thing for the dragon king had no money. the dragon king, thinking quickly, offered to tell jokes in exchange for yen. the serfs could speak no assent, but as the dragon king rattled off joke after joke, they were forced to laugh - a bodily function.
since the serfs really did not want to let the poor vagabond (for so he appeared to be) die, they acknowledged the laughter he had given them with money tossed into the sea. he caught one in his mouth, and shouted out his offer - money in exchange for being rescued. this the serfs could do. they pulled him onto the fishing ship and untied him, careful not to disturb the dead viper around his neck, for he was very possessive of it. they took him for crazy and dropped him off on land nearby.
the dragon carried his viper princess off into the wilderness.
“darling,” he said, regaining his dragon form, “there is no love for us here. let us wait 2000 years until you and your legend have been completely forgotten. then no one shall disturb us, and we shall be free to love each other. come now, and give in to slumber with me.” this being said, the dragon king lay down and began to snore softly.
unbeknownst to both viper and dragon, the cobra prince had been awakened from his underwater slumber the second the viper’s body touched water. he had seen the man thrashing with his love around his neck and had recognized the man as the king that had ruled long ago. the prince had followed the two spirits into the wilderness and lay nearby. as he heard the dragon snore, he came over and awoke the princess. she recognized him immediately, and was overjoyed by his appearance.
“My love, you have committed a sin by falling in love with your own father. you are destined to go to hell, and i am bound to live forever with my pain. if your father awakens and finds you gone, he will surely find and kill us both, and we will never meet again. you must wait for him to awaken, then tell him you no longer love him. he must not know i am still living, else he will destroy us and we shall be parted eternally. i will wait in the ocean for you - you have only to touch the water to awaken me.”
this being spoken, the cobra disappeared into the wilderness, and the viper lay down to sleep next to her father.
2000 years later, regular as clockwork, the king awoke to a completely different world. people no longer believed in magic, and could not see him in his dragon form. as a result, they had left the area where he lay untouched, not truly understanding their inability to pass through the area, and not truly caring either. as he brought his mighty face next to the princess, he saw her lips moving. she was whispering in her sleep.
as he listened, his face grew angrier and angrier. he heard all about he cobra prince, heard that the princess was going to tell him she no longer loved him. he could not stand the thought of parting with her, even when he learned that he was the father of the girl.
upon her awakening, the viper princess feigned that she had had a revelation in her dreams, and was no longer in love with the dragon king.
“Do not be silly, we have spent so much time speaking of our love. one dream does not undo all.”
“but it has. please, drown me in the ocean so that i may have peace.”
the dragon king roared with rage.
“no! i cannot let you go! you are a liar, and i am going to keep you here with me forever!”
just then, something inside the princess snapped. she felt something besides despair. she felt anger. broken free from her prison of desolation, she regained her ability to move. fast as a bolt of lightning, she slithered off into the wilderness and out of the dragon’s sight.
The dragon was livid. he would catch the viper. it would not be hard to find a snake in the middle of the city.
but the princess had another trick up her sleeve. along with her ability to move, she had gained the ability to resume her human form. knowing her father would not recognize her face, grown up as it was, she camouflaged herself against a background of human bodies. unfortunately, her clothes and strange manner caused her to stand out. she knew she was going to have to defend herself. she ran into a building, looking all around for any object to protect herself with.
the building was huge and filled with many rooms, each one themed differently. what a castle it was! the princess spied a display of swords and armed herself with one. unfortunately for her, this was very uncouth behavior for the time. she soon had what she perceived to be guards attacking her from all angles. she fought them valiantly, but was eventually captured and brought to a prison.
they took her clothes and forced her into a shower, as she needed the blood washed from her skin. unbeknownst to her, the plumbing of the prison led directly to the sea. the cobra prince, sensing her sweet red nectar, awoke. quick as could be, he followed the trail of blood up through the pipes and into the bathroom where the princess was standing.
the guard, upon opening the shower door and finding a man with the young woman, opened fire without thinking. the bullets passed through the cobra prince but did not kill him. They grew afraid, shouting out, “demon!” he took the opportunity to grab the princess and run. they passed shooting guards unscathed, as they would only shoot at the man who appeared to be kidnapping the naked girl.
the racket alerted the dragon. he swooped towards the gunshots. he recognized the clothes the prince wore as being from his time, and it was not hard then to figure out who the running girl was. he swooped down and grabbed both in his dragon claws, carrying them out to sea.
the humans below could see only the floating man and woman. they sent helicopters to follow the spectacle.
the dragon king flew out over the middle of the ocean and dropped the cobra prince, thinking the prince would drown. he did not know the prince was doomed to live forever with his pain. the prince, not wanting to be caught and imprisoned by the people in the helicopters, changed into his cobra form and dived deep down into the sea, mourning his lost love.
the dragon vowed to carry the princess until the end of time.
“but you do not understand,” she said, “i am your daughter - a love between us can never be.”
“It was once, and it shall be again, for we have all of eternity to spend together.”
And so the dragon king flew on. Eventually the helicopters ran out of fuel and had to turn back, and the people thought they had lost the magical naked girl forever.
from that day on, the people of asia (not that asia) could hear the wind moaning for the sea every night, as the airborne princess laments for the prince in the ocean she can see but cannot touch. if they look carefully, they can almost see something darting about the horizon. and the prince? whenever he hears his love’s moans he stirs up the sea with cries of his own, sometimes so violently that he creates a storm. it is deadly to be caught at sea during one of these storms, not because of the violence of them, but because you will be so filled with despair at the noises that you will throw yourself into the ocean to drown without a second thought. so beware those desolate moans of sea and wind, and be careful not to get caught in such a passionate storm.
yeah.
have you ever heard the story of the viper and the prince?
of course you have. this is like that story, except it’s the viper and the dragon.
the father of the viper was bitten by a dragon and thus became a dragon spirit. no one knew what had happened to him, so they left him out of the history books as a matter of convenience. presently they forgot his face, forgot his voice, forgot him entirely - even his own daughter.
it is a sin to let the legend of a dragon go unrecorded, so he was doomed to roam the earth forever or else go straight to hell. a dragon king is forbidden to speak of his own legend, as it is a mark of self-absorption, which dragons are not permitted to show.
the viper was left for dead, stabbed by a rose thorn, poisonous to humans but not to a viper princess.
she lay desolate, mourning for her cobra prince. she was unable to move, imprisoned by her own depression.
as she lay crying, the dragon spirit, touched by the magical viper’s plight, came to comfort her.
the proud princess and her father presently fell in love, neither knowing the true identity of the other, as each found their pasts to be too painful to speak of.
it came to pass that the asian castle (not the asia we know of) was to be visited by a renowned merchant ship.
they decided, in their vanity, to decorate the castle with the viper’s carcass, which, insofar as they knew, lay lifeless under the rose tree.
not wishing to upset the humans and thus jeopardize their love, the dragon and the viper decided to go along with them. the viper lay, not breathing, on the ground, and the dragon.
by this time the people of the castle had forgotten entirely what the king looked like. when they saw him next to the viper carcass, they took him for a trespasser and sentenced him to death by drowning.
they bound his arms and legs and tied him to a tree by the water. fortunately for the two lovers, they also left the cobra’s carcass by the sea, along with the pike they planned to display her body upon. now, the people of the castle did not know this, but the only way to destroy a viper spirit is to fill the long cavity that runs from tip to tail. they had sentenced the viper princess to death. she would have no time to reconcile her sins and was destined to go straight to hell.
neither spirit would have this. the dragon king, in his man form, chewed through the rope binding him to the tree. he draped the viper carcass around his neck.
but what now? he had to be untied, or else he would be choked to death by the ropes around his neck when he resumed his dragon form. he must find someone to untie him, and quickly.
night began to fall.
just as the situation seemed hopeless, a serf fishing boat passed by. the dragon king jumped into the water, barely able to keep his head above the waves, and struggled over to the boat.
serfs, in this asia, were not bound by masters, but to money due to a cruel enchantment. they could perform no action that was not paid for, unless it was a bodily function, which they were free to do at will.
the dragon king splashed by, begging to be untied and rescued. the serfs, bound as they were to the almighty yen, could do no such thing for the dragon king had no money. the dragon king, thinking quickly, offered to tell jokes in exchange for yen. the serfs could speak no assent, but as the dragon king rattled off joke after joke, they were forced to laugh - a bodily function.
since the serfs really did not want to let the poor vagabond (for so he appeared to be) die, they acknowledged the laughter he had given them with money tossed into the sea. he caught one in his mouth, and shouted out his offer - money in exchange for being rescued. this the serfs could do. they pulled him onto the fishing ship and untied him, careful not to disturb the dead viper around his neck, for he was very possessive of it. they took him for crazy and dropped him off on land nearby.
the dragon carried his viper princess off into the wilderness.
“darling,” he said, regaining his dragon form, “there is no love for us here. let us wait 2000 years until you and your legend have been completely forgotten. then no one shall disturb us, and we shall be free to love each other. come now, and give in to slumber with me.” this being said, the dragon king lay down and began to snore softly.
unbeknownst to both viper and dragon, the cobra prince had been awakened from his underwater slumber the second the viper’s body touched water. he had seen the man thrashing with his love around his neck and had recognized the man as the king that had ruled long ago. the prince had followed the two spirits into the wilderness and lay nearby. as he heard the dragon snore, he came over and awoke the princess. she recognized him immediately, and was overjoyed by his appearance.
“My love, you have committed a sin by falling in love with your own father. you are destined to go to hell, and i am bound to live forever with my pain. if your father awakens and finds you gone, he will surely find and kill us both, and we will never meet again. you must wait for him to awaken, then tell him you no longer love him. he must not know i am still living, else he will destroy us and we shall be parted eternally. i will wait in the ocean for you - you have only to touch the water to awaken me.”
this being spoken, the cobra disappeared into the wilderness, and the viper lay down to sleep next to her father.
2000 years later, regular as clockwork, the king awoke to a completely different world. people no longer believed in magic, and could not see him in his dragon form. as a result, they had left the area where he lay untouched, not truly understanding their inability to pass through the area, and not truly caring either. as he brought his mighty face next to the princess, he saw her lips moving. she was whispering in her sleep.
as he listened, his face grew angrier and angrier. he heard all about he cobra prince, heard that the princess was going to tell him she no longer loved him. he could not stand the thought of parting with her, even when he learned that he was the father of the girl.
upon her awakening, the viper princess feigned that she had had a revelation in her dreams, and was no longer in love with the dragon king.
“Do not be silly, we have spent so much time speaking of our love. one dream does not undo all.”
“but it has. please, drown me in the ocean so that i may have peace.”
the dragon king roared with rage.
“no! i cannot let you go! you are a liar, and i am going to keep you here with me forever!”
just then, something inside the princess snapped. she felt something besides despair. she felt anger. broken free from her prison of desolation, she regained her ability to move. fast as a bolt of lightning, she slithered off into the wilderness and out of the dragon’s sight.
The dragon was livid. he would catch the viper. it would not be hard to find a snake in the middle of the city.
but the princess had another trick up her sleeve. along with her ability to move, she had gained the ability to resume her human form. knowing her father would not recognize her face, grown up as it was, she camouflaged herself against a background of human bodies. unfortunately, her clothes and strange manner caused her to stand out. she knew she was going to have to defend herself. she ran into a building, looking all around for any object to protect herself with.
the building was huge and filled with many rooms, each one themed differently. what a castle it was! the princess spied a display of swords and armed herself with one. unfortunately for her, this was very uncouth behavior for the time. she soon had what she perceived to be guards attacking her from all angles. she fought them valiantly, but was eventually captured and brought to a prison.
they took her clothes and forced her into a shower, as she needed the blood washed from her skin. unbeknownst to her, the plumbing of the prison led directly to the sea. the cobra prince, sensing her sweet red nectar, awoke. quick as could be, he followed the trail of blood up through the pipes and into the bathroom where the princess was standing.
the guard, upon opening the shower door and finding a man with the young woman, opened fire without thinking. the bullets passed through the cobra prince but did not kill him. They grew afraid, shouting out, “demon!” he took the opportunity to grab the princess and run. they passed shooting guards unscathed, as they would only shoot at the man who appeared to be kidnapping the naked girl.
the racket alerted the dragon. he swooped towards the gunshots. he recognized the clothes the prince wore as being from his time, and it was not hard then to figure out who the running girl was. he swooped down and grabbed both in his dragon claws, carrying them out to sea.
the humans below could see only the floating man and woman. they sent helicopters to follow the spectacle.
the dragon king flew out over the middle of the ocean and dropped the cobra prince, thinking the prince would drown. he did not know the prince was doomed to live forever with his pain. the prince, not wanting to be caught and imprisoned by the people in the helicopters, changed into his cobra form and dived deep down into the sea, mourning his lost love.
the dragon vowed to carry the princess until the end of time.
“but you do not understand,” she said, “i am your daughter - a love between us can never be.”
“It was once, and it shall be again, for we have all of eternity to spend together.”
And so the dragon king flew on. Eventually the helicopters ran out of fuel and had to turn back, and the people thought they had lost the magical naked girl forever.
from that day on, the people of asia (not that asia) could hear the wind moaning for the sea every night, as the airborne princess laments for the prince in the ocean she can see but cannot touch. if they look carefully, they can almost see something darting about the horizon. and the prince? whenever he hears his love’s moans he stirs up the sea with cries of his own, sometimes so violently that he creates a storm. it is deadly to be caught at sea during one of these storms, not because of the violence of them, but because you will be so filled with despair at the noises that you will throw yourself into the ocean to drown without a second thought. so beware those desolate moans of sea and wind, and be careful not to get caught in such a passionate storm.
yeah.