Horns ✖

Dreamwalking

The world was teeming with life today.

The sky was a bright blue hue corked above the young earth without a cloud in sight. And, given such leeway by the sun above, the ground began to glimmer with power, every single teardrop from the night before now earthen stars of the morning anew. They clung to my softened scales as I wandered onward, softening my heavy steps and cleansing me of the dust and grind of my peculiar little herd.

Alas, this was the one time I could escape them, and with mother and father too busy to spend time and too tired to bother waking, I figured it was time to be on my own and seek something, or rather 'someone' special.

Today seemed too perfect to do so, given the melodious tune of the forest before me. There flowered no terrible scents, no dangers, nothing fearful, and nothing to squander about. The rainy storms of the past had ceased at last, and after a grumpy week under a pale lifeless sky, this day was already setting a new age, for us and our indefinite future.

There was a muffled cry of a strange lost word, something that I recognized but couldn't quite deter. No matter, I followed the steady calls afar, weaving through the fresh undergrowth and thickened brown trunks of the forest. The radiating starlight above seared colors against my flesh, glowing like a diamond in the roughness of Mother Earth. And, like any ordinary hatchling, the forest loved me, as if bending away from it's king, giving me hindsights of it's marvelous beauties rather than its real violence.

Unfortunately, it couldn't hide away all that wasn't so peaceful.

What struck me first was the common aroma of my friend's hide, before his rambunctious tannish-orange body collided with my own. Lost in the moment, I confusingly yelped, weakening myself against his playful tackle, and in just a matter of seconds his foot pinned down upon my spine in victory.

"Where's the fire?!" He cackled, bumping the backside of my mud-soaked frill, "I usually never win like this!"

"Haha..." I shook my head, looking up at his rather perplexed face, "You usually never win at all! Consider yourself lucky, and 'spared' for life."

"Lucky? I'll consider myself skilled, thanks for asking."

I scoffed at him in amusement, shaking his foot off of my back as I stumbled back to my own feet, "If that's your excuse, but clearly I'm the better fighter."

"Not today you're not!" the dinosaur scolded, swaying his thick tail from side to side, "There's a new king in these woods."

"Oh? Is that what you think?"

I growled lowly before lunging horn-first into his underbelly. My friend yelped in shock, the strength already knocking him off his feet, and to the ground. He scrambled up, his eyes narrowed and a wild grin curling across his snout. He too lunged at me, colliding with my side as I nibbled his tail, the action alone bringing both pain and humor to the two of us. After a moment of wrestling, my paw managed to slither it's way through the battle to his pulsing chest, pinning him down, back first.

"Are you sure there's a new king in these woods?"

My friend's wild eyes flashed green as he drew his head back to meet my own, "It'll come around eventually, you'll see. When I get big enough I'll make sure of it."

"Me, too," I smiled, plopping down beside him as we shared a moment of silence together underneath the radiating star above. The land was as lush as I've always seen it, a green canvas of molten bright colors, gaping holes of water, and the twinkling lights of dust. Indeed, the world was buzzing with indefinite life, surging in the wind's whispers, and across all time and space alike. We both inhaled a piece of the primal world, our twin snouts raised, our eyes closed, and our hearts embracing it all. We felt so connected to it all. So bonded to each other. And we both knew it.