When I was a young boy, I had a most unusual friend. She wasn’t my only friend, but she was the only friend I truly trusted. We would play around for hours every day, and I would ride her back over the rooftops and above the city. We would travel to faraway lands and meet all sorts of characters. And wherever we came, everyone would bow to my friend and I. Pirates and kings and elves and wizards alike would fall to one knee when Serelarh and I flew by. We were the most respected pair in the whole world. And we were the best of friends from even before I learned to walk, and all the way through my childhood.
Unfortunately, there is this thing with dragons. The older you get, the weaker they become. Until one day they are no more at all. And then there is me. As I grew older, I started to doubt myself. I was never too confident, and as I grew older, and my time with Serelarh became less and less every day, I started to see dark creatures around me. It started one summer evening, when Serelarh and I had flown off to a beach in Honah Lee, to see the sea turtles burry their eggs. As the sun was coming down and we turned towards home, I spotted a shadow on the beach below us. Serelarh didn’t seem to notice at all, so I thought nothing more of it then.
It took almost a week before I saw another shadow. It seemed to be following me home, as I was leaving school. It scared me, so I started running, and as soon as I came home, I called Serelarh, and we flew off. It wasn’t long before we reached Honah Lee, and I almost forgot about the shadows, as we soared over the city. Then we heard the sound of canons firing not too far from the harbour. Serelarh quickly turned towards the sound, and when we reached the water, we saw that several of the king’s ships were firing at a large, black-sailed schooner. It wasn’t pirates, and I couldn’t see any flags, indicating where the ship was from. Even the ship itself was hard to make out. Every feature of it was black as the night, and that made it impossible to see if there were any crew on board, and if so, how many men. The black schooner was heading straight for the harbour at full sail. They didn’t seem to care that the king and his fleet were firing at them. They just kept sailing. Serelarh and I kept our distance to the schooner, but we circled around it to see if we could make out where it was from, or why it was here, but we couldn’t see anything but blackness on the deck of the ship. Then out of nowhere there was a loud rumbling as the schooner opened fire from two large bow canons. How could I have missed them? We looked on in terror as the first of the king’s ships was blown to a million pieces. Nothing was left of the ship when the smoke cleared. It was time Serelarh and I joined the fight. Serelarh turned sharply, and we soared towards the stern of the schooner. When we were close enough Serelarh opened her mouth and covered the backmost half of the ship in flames. As soon as she was done, I jumped to the deck and drew my sword. Serelarh went straight for the sails. The second I landed on the deck, I realized why we hadn’t seen the crew. They were as black as the ship. They didn’t have black skin. Truly I wasn’t sure if they even had skin. They looked more like shadows, than people. Standing, walking shadows. We fought them, Serelarh and I. It felt like hours, we were on the ship, fighting for our lives and for Honah Lee.
When the fight was over, and the last of the shadows had been run through, the ship seemed different. It was still dark, but it had colour now. Not just black. We were greeted as heroes when we returned to Honah Lee, but when I asked who it was we had fought off, Serelarh picked me up, and flew off, before anyone could answer. I didn’t understand, and it would take a few years before I would finally get it. During those years my trips and adventures with Serelarh became fewer and fewer, and more and more often we ran into the shadow people again. Every time we encountered them, it was a little harder to fight them. But the worst part was that I started seeing them at home as well. After the first encounter at home, on my way from school, I thought we had made sure the shadows would only exist in Honah Lee. But after a few months, I saw them again in my world. They weren’t as aggressive here at home, but they seemed to become more and more daring. At first, I would only just get a glance of a shadow on the street on one day and a feeling of being watched the next. But as time passed, they came closer and closer. I started seeing them more often and more clearly, and at one point I saw one in my back yard, staring straight at my window. I also started to understand better what they were.
By the time I was seventeen I almost never saw Serelarh anymore. The last few times we travelled together she seemed tired, and she couldn’t help much when the shadow people attacked the kingdom in Honah Lee again and again.
It was a few days before my eighteenth birthday. The shadow people had been coming closer every day for years now, and I hadn’t seen Serelarh in months. Then on this, seemingly regular Wednesday evening, Serelarh showed up in my yard, urging me to come with her. I was keen to get going, but before I could climb on her back, the shadow people were all over her. This was the first time they ever attacked here. Maybe because a dragon showed up, they realized that the border between the reality of Honah Lee, and the reality at home, was nothing but an idea. We quickly fought off the shadows in the yard. They were weak here, still. I mounted Serelarh and she took off faster than I had seen in a long time. We flew as fast as she could, her huge, painted wings pushing us forward aggressively. Only when we arrived in Honah Lee, I realized why she was in a hurry. The shadows were all over the city, and even inside the castle. I had never seen this many of them before, and the city itself seemed darker than ever, and its features were starting to blur. We didn’t even have time to assess the situation, we just dove right into the fight. It was the hardest and longest fight I had ever been in. We fought for what felt like days, but the shadow people just kept coming. I was up on the castle walls when I first spotted the old mill. It was completely black now, and so was the bakery next to it. I realized we were losing the city. But we kept fighting. The king’s men and I on the ground with every able man in the kingdom, and Serelarh in the sky, breathing fire from above.
I was so tired at that point. Somehow, I had found my way to the tower above the castle. Even here the shadows were outnumbering us. They were everywhere. As I looked out over the land, beyond the city walls, I saw darkness, so many places. It was not just the city that was being attacked. The whole of Honah Lee was infested and loosing. It was only a matter of time before the whole kingdom would be blackened. Serelarh had realized this too and swept by the tower. I jumped on, ready to go home. We didn’t stand a chance here. Serelarh turned towards home, but before we crossed the city wall, a black chain caught her around the neck, and she crashed into the ground, with a painful roar. I was thrown off her back and tumbled across the ground. As I got up Serelarh had gotten on her feet as well and dragged a large chain on the ground after her. I grabbed her neck and pulled myself up, as she went by. She tried to fly, but the chain was too heavy. She couldn’t take off, so she ran. As fast as any dragon can run, towards the city wall, to bring me home safe. We reached the city wall, but we were too late. It had been knocked down and shadow people were blocking our way. I didn’t have a chance to figure out what to do before Serelarh threw me over the shadow people and into the forest outside the city. The shadow people didn’t seem to care about me. They wanted the dragon. As soon as I was on my feet once again, I saw Serelarh being dragged off by the black chain, and before long, she was pinned to the side of the castle tower. I couldn’t do anything, but stare in horror as Serelarh, my friend through so many years, was hung as an ornament. And worst of all, was her wings. They were no longer painted and beautiful. They were turning black. Serelarh was turning black. She was gone.
I took off. I ran and ran for hours through the forest, towards the sunset. I could hear the battle still in Honah Lee, but I had to get out. Then, out of nowhere, there was my garden. I was home, finally. I went to my room and locked the door. I cried myself to sleep. Honah Lee was lost to the shadows and the darkness, and Serelarh was dead. And the shadow people were here, too. I could feel them staring at me as I went to sleep.
It has been a few years now and I have moved to my own place. I thought that would save me, but now I am sitting on the floor of my apartment, all alone, and the lights turned off. I am hiding my face in my hands, and trying to concentrate, as I fight the shadow people. They have grown much stronger over the years. Some days they win the battle, and some days I do. The only thing that is for sure, is that every day is a new battle. And every day, I consider surrendering to the shadows, before they attack. Going to sleep and never waking up. Letting the shadows drag me off to wherever they go at night, when they are not torturing me. But every day so far, I have kept fighting. Fighting for me. Fighting for Honah Lee. And fighting for Serelarh.