I drift onward through the endless night.
My belly filled with fire keeps me warm and alive in this cold, dead space.
As I drift, I sleep. I sleep the long rest of the guardians. And as I sleep, I dream.
I dream of Tarugal. I spread my leathery wings and fly over its craggy mountains, its dense forests, the wide open seas. I breathe in the fresh and salty air alike.
I dream of what it used to be.
I failed my duty as guardian and slept too long. When I awoke everything was turned to ash. I found no creatures left to protect. No other guardians remained.
I was alone.
But that was long ago. Once I was sure that there was nothing left and I had roared my last fiery breaths of fury, I launched myself in the air and flew higher than ever before.
Tarugal was lost, yet it clung to me. The winds grew cold, buffeting me. They tried to keep me from leaving but there was no reason for me to remain. I flexed my wings and used all my strength to rise through the ever-darkening skies until the winds stopped and all that remained was the endless night.
I have been traveling ever since. I drift through this space, away from the sun that I once knew and ever onward until I find a new home.
I hibernate and dream until something flickers in my mind. My senses come awake and I open my eyes. Something is out there. I am not alone.
It’s still far away but I can see it. A long white tube of metal. My wings are useless in the space of the endless night but the fire in my belly rumbles and its strength propels me forward.
My guardian senses have lain dormant for so long, it feels strange to have them reawaken. That was the flicker in my mind. I can feel living creatures within the metal tube that is about twice my size. There are dozens of them.
What are they doing out here? So far away from any sun, any planet. Can they truly live there, locked inside?
I wonder if they are in need of a guardian? If they need me to guide them to a new home, for them and me?
I come ever closer to the white metal tube and await contact. I can feel the life within but I cannot connect my mind to theirs without touch.
My fire settles and I slow down. Something is released from the tube. They seek the touch. I extend my claws to meet their metal canister. It holds nothing living so I don’t know if it will work.
When the canister collides with my scales there is a mighty explosion. One much greater than the metal tube itself.
I understand why they would want to get rid of it but why did they send it towards me?
Already, I feel my old guardian senses tingle with satisfaction. The explosion could not harm me but I was there to protect them from it.
Then another metal canister is released from the white tube and it begins to turn away from me, gaining speed.
The canister explodes when it reaches me and they send another.
My guardian senses flicker in irritation. They had more canisters with them. Many more. They were not getting rid of them, they were trying to get rid of me.
The fire inside me seethes. It rages, demanding to be set free. These tiny lives within that tube are not worth guarding. They’re harbingers of destruction. They could have been the ones who destroyed my beloved Tarugal.
My fire rumbles and sends me onward. Canisters explode on my claws and scales. More and more of them come my way but they will not stop me.
I rake my claws across the metal and tear it apart. Red lights flash within and I see the little creatures that dared attack me.
One by one I feel their lives dim and flicker out. My claw finds its way to their canister storage and the whole white tube goes up in a ball of flame.
And again, I am alone.
I close my eyes and drift there for a long time. I wait. For what, I do not know.
I don’t understand why these creatures attacked me but I know that not all life in the endless night is like them. Life on Tarugal was not like them.
Somewhere out there I will find life that needs a guardian like me.
And so, the fire in my belly rumbles and I drift onward through the endless night.
Kai Delmas loves creating worlds and magic systems. He is a slush reader for Apex Magazine and The Cosmic Background. His fiction can be found in Zooscape, Martian, Crepuscular, and several Shacklebound anthologies. His debut drabble collection, Darkness Rises, Hope Remains, was published by Shacklebound Books. If you like his work you can support him at patreon.com/kaidelmas and find him on Twitter @KaiDelmas or Bluesky @kaidelmas.bsky.social
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