Dying

written from the point of view of Gavia
All the dragons seem to believe that your life flashes before your eyes before you die. Like all the parts of your life just fly past, giving you a summary of yourself. All the good memories, all the bad ones, and everything in between. You get the sum of your life just as you lose it. And I laugh, because that's not what happens at all.
Being in my condition, you have very little stability. The doctors don't tell you anything, and everyone hides your health from you. But of course, their silence is the sign that you're not doing good. You're dying. But they won't tell you that. All you know is that death is somewhere in the dark, and the suspense just builds up and up and up. It's like walking in a haunted house: you know someone's there to jump out at you, but the only scary part is not knowing when they're going to get you. That's what it's like just before you die: for about a week before you're gone.
The day before you die, you can kind of feel it: something in the air maybe. There's this tension in the world, very faint though, and you can only notice it once you look back. It's like everything is just waving goodbye, but you're just too busy dying to notice.
Actually dying isn't bad. It doesn't hurt. It's not scary. It very calm, and quiet. Like falling asleep, but a little lightheaded, and like there's a heavy school textbook on your chest. It's not cold, or hot, or anything. It's just dark. It's very still, and you can't move, or breathe, nor do you want to. You just kind of let go, and float away into the void.
They say your whole life flashes before your eyes. It doesn't work like that. I only had one memory blur my vision: and it didn't flash by. It was slow and gauzy. Almost better than the actual memory...
The sky was vast and s t r e t c h e d along the horizon, painted a vibrant golden orange, splattered with flecks of violent yellow and smeared in the corners with dark, rich violet. Crimson clouds brimming with ultramarine tails and billowing in the salty ocean breeze floated like flower petals on the surface of a glassy lake. All was serene and quiet, and the only sound was the rhythmic lapping of the white-rimmed waves on the wet sand.
It was the end of summer, and the air wasn't humid and choking like it was the month prior, but not yet bearing the frosty nip of the next month. There was a long, flat stretch of beach that flanked the city, and the sea wall climbed up to the sidewalk high overhead.
On the sand, it was a whole different world.
Shallow pools of water were trapped away from the ocean, heated to a comfortable warmth by the sun, who had recently begun its descent. The sand was fresh and perfect, unmarked by anything, and even the seagulls remained still and tranquil.
And then two floundering dragons soared onto the sand, skidding to halt and kicking up the perfectly textured sediment and whirling around to face each other. Their snouts were smeared with bright, gleeful smiles, and they playfully chased each other down the length of the beach, kicking up sand, chasing seagulls, and splashing in the warm tidal pools. Their laughter rang throughout the air, and the sun seemed to glow brighter with mirrored joy.
The two eventually slowed and stopped, panting and trying to calm themselves. They grinned at each other again, and began a slow, leisurely walk down the beach. The tide was going out, and the beach was growing larger and larger by the hour.
They came across a long, narrow tide pool with a small sandbar in the middle. They reached the edge, and one of the dragons, with pitch black feathers speckled with stark white, leapt over the water and landed on the sandbar neatly, whirling around to see if the other had followed, only to find herself with a face full of salty water, splashed up from a stone the second dragon had thrown into the water in front of her. The two laughed, and began a rock battle, tossing rocks at the water in front of each other, trying to soak the other to the bones. They laughed again, and the waves leapt higher.
Eventually, the two tired once more, and sat on the sandbar, and looked out over the receding ocean. The sky was a bloody red now, with tendrils of dark violet creeping from the horizon over the ocean, and the clouds were navy, and feathered on the edges with fiery pink from the dying light. The moons were becoming visible. The stars were silver pinpoints in the sky, and all just seemed right in the world.
and then you're dead
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Fanfictions (Completed)
Category:Content (Luster the rainwing)
Category:Genre (Short Story)
Category:Fanfictions