Light as a Cloud

Chapter 24

Meroch was lying on a stone bed when he woke up. It took him a few moments to realize he was awake. Hazy images flew through his mind, seemingly too fast to grasp. A cave, a pile of gold, a dragon... It was as if he'd had a nightmare.

Meroch tried to open his eyes, but they wouldn't open. After a little research he found no muscle in his body would stir. However, they did start to ache.

Suddenly a door opened. Two pairs of heavy footsteps approached. Meroch heard two voices, speaking the eminn language, but with a strange, raw accent. He recognized it from somewhere, but his head was too hazy to figure out from where.

"I still can't make out if this guy was straight out insane or just overconfident," the one voice said. It clearly belonged to a man.

"Was? He's still alive, right?" asked the other. This was a female voice, though a deep one.

The man replied: "Barely. He made it through the worst part of it, though." 

A rough hand touched Meroch's forehead. It seemed to come through a great distance. 

"He doesn't have a fever," the man stated, and he pulled his hand back. "That's a good sign. Though I have to say, infections are the least I'd worry about if I tried to fight a dragon."

It wasn't a nightmare, Meroch realized. The images became clearer. He'd awoken the dragon and it had attacked him. Meroch remembered running and jumping around, trying to dodge the dragon's claws that reached for him. And then there was the fire! If Meroch hadn't been paralyzed, he would've shivered all over. With agony he relived a claw coming awfully close to his chest, but scraping his stomach instead. There was a soft cloth wrapped around it now. 

"Why he didn't simply fly away the moment he saw there was a dragon in the cave, is beyond me," the man said. "The guy had wings, for gold's sake! Why didn't he use them?"

"Well, maybe... that... happened to him... Before he could..." The woman spoke slowly, leaving many silences within her phrase. 

The man took a step away. "Of course not," he denied. "The fire would be Slaughterer's last option. He wouldn't want to melt the gold."

Meroch had already stopped listening. My wings! he thought. What happened to my wings?  He couldn't feel them. It was as if they weren't there. However, he did feel them through his sleeves under his arms. They were still there, but it was like they weren't a part of him.

The woman now approached Meroch. He could feel the warmth of her body on his skin. Her breath was like a breeze over his face. 

"Will he make it, doctor?" she asked softly.

"All I can do is hope so," the doctor replied. "If he does, he can explain to me what in the world came over him."

Suddenly, Meroch felt something wet under his eye. A warm drop of water made its way to the side of his head. Was it a tear? Was it his tear?

"Look," the woman said. "He's crying. Do you think he can hear us?"

"I wouldn't count on it," the doctor mumbled, "but it could be. I see no tears, though."

A finger touched Meroch's head, next to the tear. "Over there. Can't you see it?"

"I can't." He walked away from the bed. "You must be imagining things."

It's there! Meroch screamed inside. It's there! I'm here! If only I could tell you!

But the door opened again, and the two people walked out of the room. Meroch was left alone with his thoughts.