moamiswriting – Page 15

we’re all approaching death with each passing day so follow your dreams, confess to your crush, dye your hair, learn latin to summon an elder god and become its best and only friend, sing no matter who can hear, take a road trip with your elder god, be kind when you can, descend into the otherworld

please be aware that every time I say “excuse me”, what I actually mean is “excuse you”

henry purcell’s symphonic “come if you dare” is the arthurian 17th century equivalent of today’s “fucking fight me” and I demand we re-establish it as the official challenge to a duel.

the oxygen in the air that you breathe is eating you alive but you’re still here so breathe a bit more of it and exhale and go conquer the world or something just as terribly wonderful that a species dying from its own metabolism can achieve.

The universe watches always, sees everything, but judges nothing, and responds never.

and let me tell you a secret, love: if you were really as cruel and terrible and loveless as you think you are, you wouldn’t try and work so hard and do everything to be as kind as you just proved yourself to truly be.

cruelty never doubts itself.

so don’t allow your kindness to do so.

What if all humans are really born as dragon riders?

What if all of us have a soul out there, yearning and calling out to us and so unbelievably lonely, connected to our own?

And what if the only reason we haven’t become the most terrifying force to ever be reckoned with in the history of everything is simply… that they’re too far away from us? That we were never allowed to find them? We have the legends, we have the stories and almost-forgotten memories passed down from ancestors that desperately tried to let us know, hoping we would bring back what has been ripped away from us. They were here, our myths whisper. Find them. Find them. Find them.

It’s been two hundred years since we first left our planet. Our ships roam the solar system. Trade flourishes and we are met with a strangely reserved kind of respect – almost as if we are merely tolerated, though never outright insulted or rejected.

And then, a ship vanishes. Another follows. We search for our lost people, don’t find, help refused by the creatures more intelligent than us, stronger, larger, still keeping their distance instead of overthrowing us. But when our ships return, we know why. When they return from what we thought was a prison colony planet full of caves underground and mountains too high to land, we learn.

They all speak different languages, those other creatures, but they share an age-old saying in all of them:

“You cannot kill a dragon, but you can tame it if you take the eggs from its nest.”

But we’re humans, and they didn’t know what that meant. Without the warmth from our other souls, we took the nearest hand. We made ourselves hatch.

What if all humans are really born as dragon riders?

And what if someone’s out there, waiting for us to find them?

“Tell me the truth,” the human demanded.

The universe rippled, almost like a smile. “I grant you permission to ask any question, and this is what you want to know?”

The human glared a little bit. “Tell me. Unless you’re breaking your promise,”

“Of course not,” said the universe. It pulled the human closer, made the space around it warm, slowed time into a gentle river.

“Well? What’s the truth of if all? The one thing that’s always true, no matter what?”

The universe held its human for a long or short while. Then, it said:
“There’s no always.”

“Okay,” said the human slowly, “okay, but – ”

“The only truth is change.”

For a tiny or an endless while, the human said nothing. When it looked up at the universe, its eyes were shining with tears (maybe happy ones, maybe sad ones; the universe couldn’t be sure. Nothing was certain with humans, and how magnificent that was).

“So even if – no matter what – ” The human couldn’t speak anything else. It curled against the universe and held on tight.

A pulse of light wove around the human as it dissolved. The universe watched its way back to the stars, back to its home, and whispered a little something after it for when it woke up again.

Indeed, my human… you’re right. No matter what, even if something and anything happens, change is true, and truth will always come.