Zakary couldn’t believe what was happening to him. He was eight years old and had never been punished. He hadn’t even known what the word meant until now. Here he was, confined to his room, more than that, confined to his bed.
He had his hands behind his head on top of his pillow as he stared at the walls of the bedroom. There were the culprits, a host of ghosts and vampires drawn upon the wall. There were black ones and purple ones, red ones and green ones. He had made them and that was why he was in trouble. Not for drawing on the wall, Daddy had said, but for lying about it.
Grownups were so strange some times. On any other day, he knew, he could have made Daddy understand. Then it wouldn’t be a lie. “I didn’t draw on the wall. The monsters made me make them,” he had told his father. Something about that explanation had set him off. He started talking about responsibility and owning up to one’s actions and mistakes, finally explaining punishment to Zakary and sending him to bed as an example.
Zakary tried his best not to cry but felt tears filling his eyes, then turned over and buried his head in the pillow. He was reluctant to turn his back on the monsters but didn’t want them to see him cry. Crying made him sleepy, just like a little baby, and he felt himself slipping away.
Zakary was wrapped in gossamer wings. White clouds drifted above him and he knew he was having the dragon dream. It was one of his favorite dreams but it was scary how real it felt this time. He could see the clouds, the three Suns, and the tall lofty peaks of the Great Stone Mountains. It was all very clear. He was in the land of the dragon but could not find the beast.
He stood up, blinked his eyes, and fell through the clouds he had been resting on. He fell down and down, arms flailing, until he heard a great whooshing sound. He extended his left arm, whoosh! His body went spinning madly to the left. He extended his right arm, dropping his left to his side. Whoosh! He went spinning wildly to the right. He extended both arms at once, straight out from his sides, and was relieved to feel himself slow down as he began to glide, riding the smooth currents of the Stone Mountain winds.
Zakary saw a clear mountain lake and used his arms to guide himself over it. He was startled badly by his reflection in the water. He didn’t know how it had happened but it was clear why he hadn’t been able to find the dragon in his dream. He had become the dragon in his dream.
His body was enormous. He felt bigger than a school bus. His vision was different. Up close things were all out of focus but far things radiated their shapes to him. He could see a fox hiding under a bush and two rabbits behind a rock. Were they hiding from him? He didn’t understand how but he ‘felt’ them. He knew they were there. No living thing could hide from him. He knew that.
Zakary was riding the cross currents, exhilarating in the freedom of his flight. He was an avid swimmer and enjoyed the illusion of weightlessness when falling into and pushing himself through water. But he could perceive no density in the air, no sensation of plunging through, no sense of displacement. He belonged here. His was a titled space of existence in the place he filled, his path of flight, all of it.
There was a waterfall ahead and Zakary let the dragon fly him through it. Even though he was the dragon, he knew the monster still had a will of its own. He was but a visitor learning about dragon things. They flew upside down through the falls, bathing in millions of splashes of water and tiny arcs of rainbow light. Zakary felt himself laughing and the dragon roared. The terrible power and projection of the dragon’s voice frightened Zakary and made him want to go home.
The dragon flew through the falls and landed in a cave on the side of the cliffs behind them. Zakary pleaded with him, “Please, Mister Dragon, I want to go home”.
The dragon shook itself and lumbered slowly into the darkness of the cave. Its armored plates made clicking noises against each other as it walked along. It didn’t feel or move slick and smooth like it had in flight. The cave got darker and darker the deeper in they went. It smelled wet and old and musty. The dragon growled at Zakary, “You sent your little wall monsters to find me. They said you wanted to play and to experience some dragon stuff.”
Zakary trembled inside and the dragon laughed. This made Zakary angry and he said, “I wanted to fly like a dragon and stuff like that! I thank you for showing me but now you must let me go home!”
Zakary could feel a big tear welling up in the dragon’s eye. It snuffled a bit as it said, “But... but we didn’t do any real dragon things. Aw shucks, one little dragon shower.. We flew a bit but I wanted to show you that other ‘dragon stuff’ you wanted to see. Now all you want to do is go home and leave me all alone.”
The big ol’ dragon felt all sad inside. He was very lonely and, being part of him like he was, Zakary was sharing his sad emotions. He said, “Okay, show me some dragon stuff, then I gotta go home and finish being punished.”
The dragon was so happy it jumped up and down and rolled around on the floor. It rolled farther into the cave and right into a giant pile of bones. “What are those?” asked Zakary.
The dragon pulled himself up proudly next to the pile. “These bones are some of my best dragon stuff,” he boasted. “They are my trophies from the hunt.”
Zakary didn’t like the looks of the bones or the far darkness of the inner cave. “Let’s fly some more!” he suggested eagerly.
The dragon dragged itself reluctantly from the bone pile and headed for the curtain of water at the mouth of the cave. “Here we go,” he grumbled and they tumbled pell-mell into the waterfall.
Zakary extended both arms out to his sides and, whoosh! They swooped across the water at the bottom of the falls. He was thrilled now to see his giant dragon face mirrored in the clear blue water. He flicked his long tail about, splashing the water as they turned and began to soar up and up, beyond the cave and the falls, beyond the boundaries of Earth itself.
The dragon’s deep voice told Zakary, “My name is Cannon and we are a bullet. Watch this!” They had ceased climbing and Zakary felt his arms pinned tightly against his sides, his legs straight out behind him. They were plummeting toward the ground at an incredible speed. Zakary could feel the density of the air now as it tore at his skin, making his dragon eyes water. There was a terrible quaking, a deep rumbling. It felt as if they were being torn apart. Zakary was terrified. He was afraid to take a breath or make a sound. The rumbling grew louder and louder as the dragon streaked toward the ground like a missile.
Zakary felt his arms spread apart and at the same time opened his eyes and saw the ground speeding toward him. There was a huge haystack in an open field and they were flying madly toward it. Workers and livestock ran for cover as they heard the terrible rumbling roar and felt themselves in the shadow of the flying dragon.
Zakary saw the face of his father on one of the men in the field as he rolled under a wagon. Zakary closed his eyes as they bore down on the haystack, then felt an intense and searing heat as the dragon breathed a raging jet of flame into the standing hay. The stack exploded as they thundered into it, throwing balls of fire in every direction. Zakary held his breath again and Cannon roared as he began to climb toward the heavens once more.
The man with Zakary’s father's face rolled out from under the wagon just as its harnessed horses were stung by a fire ball and bolted. He jumped into the seat, grabbed the reins, and began to yell, “Whoa! Whoa!” Zakary felt Cannon turning and, sensing the dragon’s intent, he pulled his arms straight and stiff into his sides. They went flying sideways and Zakary extended his left arm which threw them into a violent turn. He could feel the dragon’s fear as they went spinning out of control.
The Stone Mountains were just ahead and Zakary flew fast into the waterfall. He frolicked a bit to wash off the soot from the wild haystack fire. He opened the dragon’s mouth and gulped a mouthful of the falling water. They were immediately swallowed by a great cloud of steam. They fell into the mouth of the cave, Cannon choking and gagging as he stumbled across the floor. “You are a mean little boy!” he gasped.
Zakary was standing beside him now. He was amazed at the size of the dragon. Cannon really was as big as a school bus. Zakary felt no fear and couldn’t understand why as he said, “I am not mean, you are. You were gonna hurt my Daddy.”
Cannon’s big head drooped. His nose almost touched the floor. “I was just playing and teasing,” he said. “You could have hurt us. We could have crashed and that water might have put my fire out. Then I wouldn’t be a magick dragon anymore and you wouldn’t be able to go home.” His head continued to droop and his ears tilted forward at an odd angle as he said, “I thought you wanted to see dragon stuff.”
Zakary put a reassuring hand on Cannon’s neck as he looked into his big sad eyes. “I didn’t know dragons scared people. I thought they just did magick stuff.”
Cannon perked up a bit. “We were never really magick. People just say that because we’re different. It is kinda fun to scare them though. That’s the way I used to hunt. I’d run the herds from the air and pick off the stragglers, the weak and lame. Not very noble but it is the way of the hunt. The strong survive and all that.”
Cannon let out a deep dragon sigh. “Then the people came and the herds disappeared. I followed them at first but only found more people coming from every direction until the herds were gone and only people remained. Now I hunt by scaring off the people and picking off the lone cow, horse, or sheep left behind.”
Zakary thought for a moment, still looking into the luminescent eyes of the dragon. “You don’t eat people?” he asked.
Cannon huffed, “I should say not! One of the oldest rules of the dragon is that we don’t eat people!” He giggled, “I’ve heard they’re not very tasty anyway. Hee hee.”
Zakary laughed, “Okay, I believe you. I think if you went higher into the Great Stone Mountains you would find food and a place with no people.”
Cannon’s head drooped down again. He stammered, “I... uh, I know that, b-but I... uh, I.. well, I get lonely.”
Zakary hugged Cannon’s big neck. How ‘bout if I come out every Saturday and go flying with you?” he asked.
Cannon danced a little jig. “You mean it? Do you? An’ could we like, play checkers an’ little boy stuff? Could you teach me? Huh?”
Zakary reached into his pocket and pulled out his favorite yo-yo. He performed three ‘around the worlds’ and ‘walked the dog’ in front of Cannon. He put the yo-yo in the dragon’s huge three-fingered paw. “Here,” he said, “You practice ‘til I come back next week.”
Cannon couldn’t believe his eyes as he clumsily wound the string onto the yo-yo. His big feet were prancing up and down. He just couldn’t stand still. “Oh boy,” he squealed, “I got me a real pal! Oh boy!” A little puff of happy smoke shot out of his nostrils.
Zakary hugged him again and Cannon touched his cheek with his dragon lips, gave him a leathery kiss. Zakary giggled. “Now cut that out! I’m coming back in. You have to fly me home now so I can clean up the monster mess.”
They flew out of the cave, up and up the waterfall they went. There was a light rain falling. They followed a perfect arc of rainbow colors into a fluffy white cloud where Zakary was once more wrapped in a gossamer wing. He heard Cannon whisper, “I’ll see you next Saturday, friend.”
Zakary’s father was rubbing his back. “Wake up Son,” he said, “Let’s you and me go out to dinner.”
Zakary rubbed his eyes with his fists. “Cannon?”
His father hugged him. “When we come back from dinner, I’ll help you clean that crayon off the wall,” he said. He touched Zakary’s cheek as he smiled. “Got some on your face,” he laughed.
Zakary touched the place on his cheek, tasted his fingers with his tongue, dragon breath. He looked at his father. “You’re right,” he told him, “I shouldn’t have done what the monsters told me. It’s better to have a good friend. Am I still being pun.. puni... What’s that word, Dad?”
Zakary’s father hugged him to his chest, then lifted him over his head and seated him on his shoulders. “Never mind that word,” he said softly, “It has nothing to do with good boys like you. Sometimes daddies overreact to perfectly good explanations. I feel like I owe my special boy an apology. Now just pretend I’m a big flying dragon and you are my dragon master. You’re riding me and we’re soaring the heavens in search of a meal.”
Zakary was glad his father couldn’t see the look of astonishment on his face as he hugged his head and whispered happily back to him, “And your name is Cannon.”
He had his hands behind his head on top of his pillow as he stared at the walls of the bedroom. There were the culprits, a host of ghosts and vampires drawn upon the wall. There were black ones and purple ones, red ones and green ones. He had made them and that was why he was in trouble. Not for drawing on the wall, Daddy had said, but for lying about it.
Grownups were so strange some times. On any other day, he knew, he could have made Daddy understand. Then it wouldn’t be a lie. “I didn’t draw on the wall. The monsters made me make them,” he had told his father. Something about that explanation had set him off. He started talking about responsibility and owning up to one’s actions and mistakes, finally explaining punishment to Zakary and sending him to bed as an example.
Zakary tried his best not to cry but felt tears filling his eyes, then turned over and buried his head in the pillow. He was reluctant to turn his back on the monsters but didn’t want them to see him cry. Crying made him sleepy, just like a little baby, and he felt himself slipping away.
Zakary was wrapped in gossamer wings. White clouds drifted above him and he knew he was having the dragon dream. It was one of his favorite dreams but it was scary how real it felt this time. He could see the clouds, the three Suns, and the tall lofty peaks of the Great Stone Mountains. It was all very clear. He was in the land of the dragon but could not find the beast.
He stood up, blinked his eyes, and fell through the clouds he had been resting on. He fell down and down, arms flailing, until he heard a great whooshing sound. He extended his left arm, whoosh! His body went spinning madly to the left. He extended his right arm, dropping his left to his side. Whoosh! He went spinning wildly to the right. He extended both arms at once, straight out from his sides, and was relieved to feel himself slow down as he began to glide, riding the smooth currents of the Stone Mountain winds.
Zakary saw a clear mountain lake and used his arms to guide himself over it. He was startled badly by his reflection in the water. He didn’t know how it had happened but it was clear why he hadn’t been able to find the dragon in his dream. He had become the dragon in his dream.
His body was enormous. He felt bigger than a school bus. His vision was different. Up close things were all out of focus but far things radiated their shapes to him. He could see a fox hiding under a bush and two rabbits behind a rock. Were they hiding from him? He didn’t understand how but he ‘felt’ them. He knew they were there. No living thing could hide from him. He knew that.
Zakary was riding the cross currents, exhilarating in the freedom of his flight. He was an avid swimmer and enjoyed the illusion of weightlessness when falling into and pushing himself through water. But he could perceive no density in the air, no sensation of plunging through, no sense of displacement. He belonged here. His was a titled space of existence in the place he filled, his path of flight, all of it.
There was a waterfall ahead and Zakary let the dragon fly him through it. Even though he was the dragon, he knew the monster still had a will of its own. He was but a visitor learning about dragon things. They flew upside down through the falls, bathing in millions of splashes of water and tiny arcs of rainbow light. Zakary felt himself laughing and the dragon roared. The terrible power and projection of the dragon’s voice frightened Zakary and made him want to go home.
The dragon flew through the falls and landed in a cave on the side of the cliffs behind them. Zakary pleaded with him, “Please, Mister Dragon, I want to go home”.
The dragon shook itself and lumbered slowly into the darkness of the cave. Its armored plates made clicking noises against each other as it walked along. It didn’t feel or move slick and smooth like it had in flight. The cave got darker and darker the deeper in they went. It smelled wet and old and musty. The dragon growled at Zakary, “You sent your little wall monsters to find me. They said you wanted to play and to experience some dragon stuff.”
Zakary trembled inside and the dragon laughed. This made Zakary angry and he said, “I wanted to fly like a dragon and stuff like that! I thank you for showing me but now you must let me go home!”
Zakary could feel a big tear welling up in the dragon’s eye. It snuffled a bit as it said, “But... but we didn’t do any real dragon things. Aw shucks, one little dragon shower.. We flew a bit but I wanted to show you that other ‘dragon stuff’ you wanted to see. Now all you want to do is go home and leave me all alone.”
The big ol’ dragon felt all sad inside. He was very lonely and, being part of him like he was, Zakary was sharing his sad emotions. He said, “Okay, show me some dragon stuff, then I gotta go home and finish being punished.”
The dragon was so happy it jumped up and down and rolled around on the floor. It rolled farther into the cave and right into a giant pile of bones. “What are those?” asked Zakary.
The dragon pulled himself up proudly next to the pile. “These bones are some of my best dragon stuff,” he boasted. “They are my trophies from the hunt.”
Zakary didn’t like the looks of the bones or the far darkness of the inner cave. “Let’s fly some more!” he suggested eagerly.
The dragon dragged itself reluctantly from the bone pile and headed for the curtain of water at the mouth of the cave. “Here we go,” he grumbled and they tumbled pell-mell into the waterfall.
Zakary extended both arms out to his sides and, whoosh! They swooped across the water at the bottom of the falls. He was thrilled now to see his giant dragon face mirrored in the clear blue water. He flicked his long tail about, splashing the water as they turned and began to soar up and up, beyond the cave and the falls, beyond the boundaries of Earth itself.
The dragon’s deep voice told Zakary, “My name is Cannon and we are a bullet. Watch this!” They had ceased climbing and Zakary felt his arms pinned tightly against his sides, his legs straight out behind him. They were plummeting toward the ground at an incredible speed. Zakary could feel the density of the air now as it tore at his skin, making his dragon eyes water. There was a terrible quaking, a deep rumbling. It felt as if they were being torn apart. Zakary was terrified. He was afraid to take a breath or make a sound. The rumbling grew louder and louder as the dragon streaked toward the ground like a missile.
Zakary felt his arms spread apart and at the same time opened his eyes and saw the ground speeding toward him. There was a huge haystack in an open field and they were flying madly toward it. Workers and livestock ran for cover as they heard the terrible rumbling roar and felt themselves in the shadow of the flying dragon.
Zakary saw the face of his father on one of the men in the field as he rolled under a wagon. Zakary closed his eyes as they bore down on the haystack, then felt an intense and searing heat as the dragon breathed a raging jet of flame into the standing hay. The stack exploded as they thundered into it, throwing balls of fire in every direction. Zakary held his breath again and Cannon roared as he began to climb toward the heavens once more.
The man with Zakary’s father's face rolled out from under the wagon just as its harnessed horses were stung by a fire ball and bolted. He jumped into the seat, grabbed the reins, and began to yell, “Whoa! Whoa!” Zakary felt Cannon turning and, sensing the dragon’s intent, he pulled his arms straight and stiff into his sides. They went flying sideways and Zakary extended his left arm which threw them into a violent turn. He could feel the dragon’s fear as they went spinning out of control.
The Stone Mountains were just ahead and Zakary flew fast into the waterfall. He frolicked a bit to wash off the soot from the wild haystack fire. He opened the dragon’s mouth and gulped a mouthful of the falling water. They were immediately swallowed by a great cloud of steam. They fell into the mouth of the cave, Cannon choking and gagging as he stumbled across the floor. “You are a mean little boy!” he gasped.
Zakary was standing beside him now. He was amazed at the size of the dragon. Cannon really was as big as a school bus. Zakary felt no fear and couldn’t understand why as he said, “I am not mean, you are. You were gonna hurt my Daddy.”
Cannon’s big head drooped. His nose almost touched the floor. “I was just playing and teasing,” he said. “You could have hurt us. We could have crashed and that water might have put my fire out. Then I wouldn’t be a magick dragon anymore and you wouldn’t be able to go home.” His head continued to droop and his ears tilted forward at an odd angle as he said, “I thought you wanted to see dragon stuff.”
Zakary put a reassuring hand on Cannon’s neck as he looked into his big sad eyes. “I didn’t know dragons scared people. I thought they just did magick stuff.”
Cannon perked up a bit. “We were never really magick. People just say that because we’re different. It is kinda fun to scare them though. That’s the way I used to hunt. I’d run the herds from the air and pick off the stragglers, the weak and lame. Not very noble but it is the way of the hunt. The strong survive and all that.”
Cannon let out a deep dragon sigh. “Then the people came and the herds disappeared. I followed them at first but only found more people coming from every direction until the herds were gone and only people remained. Now I hunt by scaring off the people and picking off the lone cow, horse, or sheep left behind.”
Zakary thought for a moment, still looking into the luminescent eyes of the dragon. “You don’t eat people?” he asked.
Cannon huffed, “I should say not! One of the oldest rules of the dragon is that we don’t eat people!” He giggled, “I’ve heard they’re not very tasty anyway. Hee hee.”
Zakary laughed, “Okay, I believe you. I think if you went higher into the Great Stone Mountains you would find food and a place with no people.”
Cannon’s head drooped down again. He stammered, “I... uh, I know that, b-but I... uh, I.. well, I get lonely.”
Zakary hugged Cannon’s big neck. How ‘bout if I come out every Saturday and go flying with you?” he asked.
Cannon danced a little jig. “You mean it? Do you? An’ could we like, play checkers an’ little boy stuff? Could you teach me? Huh?”
Zakary reached into his pocket and pulled out his favorite yo-yo. He performed three ‘around the worlds’ and ‘walked the dog’ in front of Cannon. He put the yo-yo in the dragon’s huge three-fingered paw. “Here,” he said, “You practice ‘til I come back next week.”
Cannon couldn’t believe his eyes as he clumsily wound the string onto the yo-yo. His big feet were prancing up and down. He just couldn’t stand still. “Oh boy,” he squealed, “I got me a real pal! Oh boy!” A little puff of happy smoke shot out of his nostrils.
Zakary hugged him again and Cannon touched his cheek with his dragon lips, gave him a leathery kiss. Zakary giggled. “Now cut that out! I’m coming back in. You have to fly me home now so I can clean up the monster mess.”
They flew out of the cave, up and up the waterfall they went. There was a light rain falling. They followed a perfect arc of rainbow colors into a fluffy white cloud where Zakary was once more wrapped in a gossamer wing. He heard Cannon whisper, “I’ll see you next Saturday, friend.”
Zakary’s father was rubbing his back. “Wake up Son,” he said, “Let’s you and me go out to dinner.”
Zakary rubbed his eyes with his fists. “Cannon?”
His father hugged him. “When we come back from dinner, I’ll help you clean that crayon off the wall,” he said. He touched Zakary’s cheek as he smiled. “Got some on your face,” he laughed.
Zakary touched the place on his cheek, tasted his fingers with his tongue, dragon breath. He looked at his father. “You’re right,” he told him, “I shouldn’t have done what the monsters told me. It’s better to have a good friend. Am I still being pun.. puni... What’s that word, Dad?”
Zakary’s father hugged him to his chest, then lifted him over his head and seated him on his shoulders. “Never mind that word,” he said softly, “It has nothing to do with good boys like you. Sometimes daddies overreact to perfectly good explanations. I feel like I owe my special boy an apology. Now just pretend I’m a big flying dragon and you are my dragon master. You’re riding me and we’re soaring the heavens in search of a meal.”
Zakary was glad his father couldn’t see the look of astonishment on his face as he hugged his head and whispered happily back to him, “And your name is Cannon.”
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