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The dragon and I talked for what felt like hours that day, and the first thing I learned (as it would have been rude to converse without a formal introduction) was that his name was Arh'eoban, and he was around two-hundred and fifty years old. That seemed ancient to me but for a dragon it wasn't much at all.

And he asked that I call him Arh, as it would feel too formal to use his full name.

He was surprisingly open about most of what we talked about, however the only thing he seemed to balk at was what would happen during the process that would transform me into a dragon. I asked for clarification but he only sputtered and blushed.

At the end of our conversation I was left with two directives; should I decide to take him up on the offer, I was to return to the clearing within one full day, and I must not talk about this with anyone.

As to the time I had to decide, it wasn't much. But it was explained to me that he only had enough magic to wait for that much longer, else he would be trapped in the space between our worlds; the clearing.

Walking back to town went faster than I thought, but I suppose that was more because my mind was filled with so many things. Where would I live? What would I look like as a dragon? And of course, how would I be transformed?

I found myself back in the park, my skepticism having decided to scream at me with accusations of finally losing my mind. It kept saying that none of what I experienced could have possibly happened and that I must have been hallucinating. There was no other way to explain it.

Though if it was a hallucination, it didn't explain how the sun seemed to be in the same spot above me when I exited the path as when I started down it hours earlier.

Since I was almost back where I started and I was still hungry, far more hungry than I would have been if mere minutes had passed, I decided to continue on my mission and visit the cafe down-town.

The walk was uneventful, but that may have been because I kept finding myself lost in thought as I went over and over the details of our conversation and how it felt to be sitting with a dragon that entire time.

I was walking through the door to the cafe before I realized it and settled in my usual spot near the back. A place where I could watch the activity in the cafe (as desolate as it was at this time of day) in peace and comfort.

I ended up spending more money than I intended during this meal. My thought was that if this was to be my last meal in this world I wanted to make it memorable.

But now that my meal was over I had to get back home so I could prepare. I had already decided before I took my last bite that I would take Arh up on his offer.

When I got back to my apartment building I heard a familiar voice call to me.

"Ahh, William. It is good to see you!"

It was Sebastyen, and yes it was spelled with a "Y." He became quite irate when I handed him the receipt for his rent and anglicized his name; he said it was disrespectful to his heritage.

He owned the store on the first floor; an old book shop. So in a sense when I purchased the building at an auction, he came with it.

"I have the rent for the next few months" he said as he reached into his silk shirt to fish out an envelope.

"Thank you, Sebastyen." I hastily replied. "I'll make sure Carolyn has you marked down and she'll have your receipts ready."

"Oh? You're not going to give them to me yourself?" he inquired as he fiddled with the tear-drop pendant he wore. "Are you planning a vacation?"

"You could say that, yes." I said, wanting to avoid the subject of where I'd be going. I didn't have the heart to tell him I wouldn't be coming back.

"Ahh, I have been thinking of traveling as well." He grinned. "A chance to return home and see how my family has been doing in my absence."

"Sounds lovely" I said mindlessly, my eyes darting to the door to the stair-well. "Though--"

"You have places to go and people to see. I understand." He came forward with his arms raised for an embrace. "You have been such a treat these years. I shall count the days until I see you again."

'Don't hold your breath' I remember thinking. Arh said that it was only a great and deep need that would allow the gods to connect our worlds. The way he said it also confirmed that this would be a one-way trip... not that I would want to come back anyway. Regardless if I was happy here or not, after becoming a dragon it would cause a lot of problems for me to be waltzing around the city.

"In any case, I shall not waste any more of your time, yes?" he smiled after our embrace ended. "I pray that your journey is a safe one."

"And yours as well." I said as I opened the door to go upstairs.

When I entered my apartment, I had to navigate through the piles of books I had amassed over the years.

Though before I thought too much about what I would be bringing with me, I decided that I should at least write a note to the tenants informing them of what was going on so they could make sure Carolyn would collect their rent.

It wasn't that I'd need the money, but they did live here and I knew Carolyn was capable of filling in in my absence.

With that done I then set to gathering things I'd need for the journey. I was told to pack light, but that I would need to bring some extra layers of clothing.

But when I looked at the piles of books stacked everywhere, I started to feel the slow bubbling of panic set in.

Looking at the piles of volumes around me, I dreaded parting from them. All those stories that helped keep my mind from running away from me all those years had grown on me like they were my children.

I could theoretically just write a note about willing them to my sister in the event of my disappearance. But then I remembered that she wasn't much of a fan of reading. Often saying that it was boring, and after she had kids, what little time she had surely wouldn't be spent lost in a good novel.

No, I felt like I should at least bring some of them with me... even if I couldn't take all of them.

That lit a fire underneath me and I began to step around and over the piles of books to sort them. If I was going to bring some with me, I wanted to make sure they were the ones I cherished the most.

When I sat down, the heat of the day slowly tapering off as the sun crawled below the horizon, I tried to figure out which books were best.

I sorted through them as best I could, but I snuck a peek at a few pages. Mostly to re-capture what that book made me feel, but I'm sure part of it was trying to prepare myself for when I would eventually be separated from them.

And that thought started to spiral away from me and into other thoughts. Thoughts I hadn't felt since I worked as hard as I could through most of my life to rein in what I had been told was merely an over-active imagination.

Dragons were real.

Magic was real.

And this sense of being an alien in my own body wasn't merely delusion.

I could feel it start in my belly. A slight twinge as my breathing became short. A flinch in my eyes as they chased down shadows hoping, no, expecting to see some evidence of some kind of creature peering back at me.

And as the sky was now dark, the sallow light from the street lamps poured through into my apartment giving the shadows a sickly appearance as their darkness intensified.

I leapt up, my heart in a narrowed throat, to flick on the light. It's harsh, blue-tinged glow tamed the shadows that tried to slink up and crowd me. What horrors they could have hidden were vanquished back into the depths of my mind... but that offered little relief.

And then, when I had slumped back down on to the floor, I started to think about what I was about to do. What I had decided I was going to do before I had taken the last bite of what was to be my last meal on this earth.

I tried to push it out. But it refused to obey.

I had built my entire life around the insistence that none of this was real. That dragons weren't real. They couldn't be. Because if they were, then all those times when I never felt like I belonged, all the moments where I would face the jeers and taunts of those that society told me should care for me, was because I didn't belong here.

I had to accept that the life I had lived was a lie.

And for a moment I thought... no, I hoped I would wake up as I always had to the repetitive screech of my alarm-clock. It's shrill song piercing my ears to convince me to stretch, rub my eyes, yawn, and let all of this vanish into the aether as all dreams eventually did.

The page I had the book opened to gave off a single, muted tap and as I moved my eyes to it, I saw a blot of water bleeding into the fibers of the page.

I didn't think this would hit me as hard as it did. I was too caught up in my imagination again as it ran free and unfettered, insisting that there was more to this world than what I could see.

But unlike before, when my imagination was a refuge where things just made more sense, this time it had betrayed me. I had let it twist my thoughts into vicious barbs that dug deep, drawing out a gasp, and inflicting the kind of deep and unrelenting pain only souls felt.

But that pain gave way to a softer touch; A promise that what didn't make sense soon would.

Tears of sadness, of pain, but also relief... joy.

And when they found their ways to the corners of my mouth, and seeped onto my tongue, those tears were bitter, but also sweet.

What had my life been before then but an endless string of dreams stamped out by everyone around me? Lectures and ridicule that I was normal, and yet not. Ordinary enough to be able to "take it" but strange enough to inspire cruel stares and dismissive lectures. Proclamations of care carefully wrought to instill in me the menace of guilt that only I would discern when people were around... and outright threats when said in private.

There wasn't anything in this life that I felt could hold me here. No loyalty earned, no tenderness given, just cold eyes and pursed lips. And a hand that could, in a time when I was innocent enough to believe in the concept of unconditional love, provide a comforting pat in public... but when when nobody else was to blame, that same hand inflicting sharp welts and bruised cheeks.

I had to grow up. Fast. And the first thing I had to shed to meet that goal was the innocent belief that dragons were real and magic existed.

No. Now wasn't the time to let myself get caught up in this again. I was doing so well. I was able to hold off on taking the pills my doctor gave me to quell the mess inside me.

But I had to find something to occupy me, and the task at hand offered me precisely what I needed.

I made stacks of books. Books I wanted to bring for one reason or another, and books that I was less upset about abandoning.

Though I found myself hesitating trying to place any of them on the stack of undesirability. Despite the world they ushered me off to not being as good as I would have wanted, they still offered an escape.

I worked like that well into the night. I didn't even notice how much time had passed until my eyes grew heavy from exhaustion.

When I pulled the bed-sheet over me after retiring to bed, I lay there staring at the ceiling. Although I was tired, and my body was screaming for rest, my mind refused. Churning around and around inside my head were with all sorts of thoughts that presented question after question. Things I felt I should know the answer to, but no answer ever came.

Eventually my body won this war and I fell into a deep sleep.

Tomorrow was the day my life would change. Maybe then things would finally start to get better.