Like Always

I lay there on the grass, my elbows on the soft dirt, my forearms parallel to the rest of my body and my ankles crossed out before me as if I were on a beach chair, enjoying the endlessly soothing crashing of the waves.

I sucked in some of the warmth of the summer night around me, crickets chirping, lightning bugs lighting up the night a little at a time. The moon graced me with its presence and moreover with its light, shining down upon the grass, emblazing them in neon blue and white.

I shivered, the darkness around me seeming to hold me. I blinked and looked over. Where is he? Isn’t he supposed to show up? I feel I’ve been waiting an eternity.

I checked my watch. 9:10pm. Where’s he?! He’s supposed to be here right now! How could I not be able to meet him here—

A crunch sounded, and I looked up. Startled, I scrambled up. “Finally, you’re here!”

He nodded, the moon’s almighty glow making him almost like a silhouette. I shivered again, excitement pushing me forward to grab his hand and put my other on his right shoulder. He put out his hand, and my left hand was in it. He led me over to the brightest part, and we slow-danced, me imagining us in a ballroom, us wearing beautiful attire for such a magical occasion.

As we stepped, I stared as the grass and dirt below me traded itself for a transparent glass, black as night but with twinkling stars above it. I jerked my eyes up—yes, the stars were smiling down at me, my partner catching my eye. I had felt it.

“You okay?” His white gloves went nicely with his almost black tuxedo. “I can stop dancing if you like.” He looked behind him. “You okay to sit down at one of the tables?” He said, pointing at a scarlet-clad tablecloth hanging from one of the circular tables.

I took a deep sigh. I didn’t want to stop. “Is it still warm outside? May we step outside?” I always wanted to be outside—it felt so peaceful and calm. Why waste the outdoors? He didn’t answer. Then nodding, we went outside. I took his hand in mine.

“You okay? We don’t have to—”

“No.” He shook his head, but I adamantly refused to feel guilty. I didn’t want to spoil our night. I was waiting for him for hours, and I get this treatment? No! The show must go on.

“Please.”

Whether this was from me or him, I don’t know. I found myself pursing my lips and wringing my hands. Anger bubbled up inside me. This was a magical night—and he’s manipulating me! I turned on him. “How dare you. How dare you ruin our night together.”

“How dare I? I just don’t want to go back inside—”

“No—you want to ruin this perfectly amazing night together—”

His face twisted up into confusion. “What? Sorry I barged in on you like that back in the moonlight. Didn’t know this was your cute little dance—”

“We were both dancing together!”

“Yeah!” He threw his arms up. “Until you decided to freaking feel guilty or whatever. You know, you’re always doing that. Feeling this and trying to explain that. You know what?” He shapeshifted into a dragon, flying away. but I found him, settling my ginormous clawed feet on the pebbles right before a monstrously large cave. it was neon blue, from the crystals. I stepped into the light.

“Go away!” His thorny back didn’t even move so that his eyes could see me. He totally stayed where he was. I shook my head. “You know what? You just don’t get it.”

“Get what?”

I turned, huffing away, my hands squeezed in balls of fury. How dare he make me wait so long? We’re best friends, and he does this to me? Tears welled and then escaped down my face. Sniffling, I imagined it as a moonlit night, grass being my only comfort. But I couldn’t talk to grass. I could talk to the moon, if the Man in the Moon were there. But he wasn’t.

Folding up, I blinked and wished I were hand in hand with him, his beautiful red lips on that dark chocolate face spreading widely, his white beach shirt waving in the wind as the waves besides us crashed again and again. The sand was warm. The sun was setting, I noted, as we both let our eyes flood with the beauty of such a picturesque moment. We looked at each other, his smile never slipping away until now.

“Honey?”

“Honey? Why are you calling me ‘honey’?”

My eyes jerked up. I got up. “Hey.” I said softly.

“Hey—isn’t that your word?”

I laughed for real. “Yeah—it is.”

“So let’s go.”

“Can we go tomorrow night? I’m sorry I was so—”

“Hey’s for horses.”

I nodded. “Do you want to continue dancing?”

“Yeah—if you…if we change our ways.”

I swallowed. “I’m scared.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Can we at least—”

“Hey—let’s make this moment count.”

My hands found his hand and shoulder, and he rested his hand on my hip and had placed his other hand in my hand. Clasping it, he whispered, “It’ll be okay. We’ll just tell him we’re—”

“Late?”

He smirked. “Beats being early and being bored!”

I laughed out loud. I couldn’t believe we were together. He wasn’t a dragon anymore. I wasn’t a goat. I would always escape the stupidity of our arguments by being a horned animal. My hooves sounded like metal the way they clacked against cobblestone or pebbles. Yes, we were shapeshifters, but ever since that coloring assignment back in preschool, he promised me a patch of grass, and I promised him a whole worthless city to burn down. I mean, what’s more fun than attacking the enemy?

I turned to him with this bright idea.

“Yeah?” He looked me right in the eyes, us stopping dancing.

“How about…” I locked eyes with him. “We burn the king’s monarchy down. Set everything on fake fire so they’ll see us for what we really are?”

His mouth was spread into a grin smoother than peanut butter spread on bread. My eyes glistened, and his did, too.

Under the moonlight we danced. Together. My head resting on his bosom. His words distracting me, another shiver shot down my spine.

“What?”

I just want to see the look on that king’s face when his beard is alight, I said.

Yes.

And his queen’s hair—what a show!

Yes.

All was done on that summer’s night, my eyes soaking in the satisfying burning that was the king’s beard and the queen’s hair. Their subjects couldn’t hold back their laughter. The guards were rolling on the floor. The servants and cooks and midwives were birthing laughter all around. They were all set free. The dead bodies of the king and queen’s good subjects were burned along with the evil couple. The garbs of the two king and queen were burned, all of them, the jewelry melted into a castle, as this castle was beautified by such colors as amethyst, Falvus, Sarcolin, Macado, Locust and other colors I had no idea of the pronunciation but he did.

Saying it slowly, he acted like I didn’t speak English. Shoving him away, I shook my head. “I can say it; I just need you to let me!”

He couldn’t stop laughing, and he even clapped. “You’re…so particular and precise. I could never let you mess up.” He came back, and swept me up. “Come on. We just showed that monarchy how to—”

“Dance?”

We froze. Did they come back from the dead?

A dark-haired, dark-eyed woman stood before us, a gorgeous smaragdine dress wrapped around her thin body. A dress fit for a queen. Her crown—pointy with silver gems glistening in the moonlight—stood atop her head. “Glad you’re admiring my servants’ handmade gown—”

“For a clown like you, you don’t deserve it!”

I turned towards her, and he did, too, us daring her to fight us. She simply showed us her husband sitting on his throne. It was like half the world disappeared—the moon was cut out. This woman didn’t care if the poor moon was shoved aside—she wasn’t kidding when she actually ended people’s lives if they didn’t give her this world. The whole world.

A canary-colored robe flowed around the throne like it owned it rather than the person sitting on it. An ugly throne, with twigs poking out of it. Was this couple poor? Anyway, the woman continued. They escaped.

Duh.

“Don’t state the obvious when you’re not stupid.” Thankfully, his clawed feet rested beside my hard hooves. My horns, I hoped, were powerful enough to kill a man in the chest. My teeth may have worn down, but I kicked like the best of them.

“You can just go die in a fire—like your burned corpses. I mean, what made you think those innocent people should just go die in a fire? I’d rather die in my sleep—peaceful, painless and free. But, no, you need to subject them to the guillotine!”

Soon, everyone’s eyes were on me. I stopped bleating, and looked at everyone. I pursed my lips, looking at him. He reared back, bright red fire glowing inside him and then radiating above the king’s head and around the queen. Soon, the queen became a majestically beautiful dragon, all soot-black with hints of dark purple on the scales. She fought him, striving to fry him into a pile of ashes, but he blew with the hotness of a thousand suns. He roared with pain at one point, and my eyes flashed.

“No!”

I charged, my horns out in front of me. The king’s cackle reigned behind me, but I didn’t care how small my horns were. I just wanted to save my best friend. He was wounded, and he was going to be a pile of ashes before I could get to him. I screamed for him to turn into a hawk or something small enough to dig through the earth and fast enough to confuse the witch, but he kept flying around, and soon, he fell like a meteorite, me barely able to hurtle out of the way. The earth shook, and all went quiet. A light moan followed. I almost retched.

“One down, and one to go.”

Her light laughter sent a white-hot sense of fury through me. My teeth chattered, but I refused to be any more frightened of this fool. I charged at his stomach, and he sounded like he was going to get up, but he didn’t. I dared look up—the lava forming in the dragon’s mouth grew brighter and brighter until a spray of it shot out, me shutting my eyes, we doomed—

I opened my eyes. The moon was bright. The mosquitos were around us. I swatted at them. They never went away. I slapped my face, ordering them to back off. More came, buzzing around me, forcing me to hit my ears and plug my nose so no more gnats went up inside it.

I turned. The man beside me was stone silent.

“You can’t, can you?”

His only words.

I grabbed the Japanese knife before me. I clenched it. I stood up, holding it close to my heart. And then—

“No!”

The man’s scream was all I heard as pain flooded my body. I screamed—

The man blinked. His eyes were wet with tears, and then his face was drenched in tears.

“A dead body.”

A woman’s voice tempted the man to pull out the knife and throw it at her.

“She couldn’t save anyone.” Her soft, silky voice made the good man ball his fists in complete anger, his mouth puckered. “So sad.”

But he calmed down. He took the knife, ran to her and—

“Stop. I can heal her.”

The knife was inches from her heart, and she was holding it just above, she pressing it away and he trying to gouge it into her. But he then let go, stepping away. She leaned back up, continuing in that smooth voice. “I’ll put a little drop of milk into her, and that should revive her.”

He blinked. “You…” He nodded. “Do it.”

She walked over, her gorgeous smaragdine dress so pretty he couldn’t help but wonder at. He walked up to her, she grabbing a flower and draining it of life. When her hands were wet, she dropped some milk into the woman’s mouth, opening it and then telling her to wake up.

I awoke.

The man was told I wasn’t really dead. I was just out like a light.

“So both of us could die!”

“Murderess!”

We both shapeshifted, bent on destroying this witch once and for all. We had the power, we needed to just use it—

The witch smiled a little, it suddenly cold on a summer’s night. This irritated me. I rolled my eyes, and she disappeared. Not in a cloud of smoke or anything. Just turned away and wasn’t there anymore.

“She’s not dead.”

“I’ll roast her. And her husband.”

The woman was back in her husband’s throne room. She joined him in their bed chamber, he lying in his bed. The woman crawled into bed, and she turned over, telling her husband goodnight. He said goodnight well naturedly, and then they said they couldn’t sleep. Nightmares plague me. I see them in my dreams, they’re alive. The king said, his voice shaking. He gulped, his eyes bulging. The woman soothed his back, his hair and caressed his hands.

I know. The woman calmed him, him turning to her. Just go to sleep.

They did, the woman singing a lullaby, his eyes closing slowly…

The woman stayed awake, the moon shining on her, making her silhouetted in neon blue and white.

“What do you want?”

I sighed. I looked at him. “Can we just dance?”

The man pulled a Yeah! Can we? face.

The woman stood there, not moving. A wicked smile played on her lips.

Just go to sleep. She started to say, and my best friend’s eyes started to close, his knees buckling under him. He slowly fell to the ground, and then he was asleep! I lunged for him, shaking him awake. Turning into a goat, I head butted him, bleating away. Nothing worked. I turned back, trying not to get put to sleep—and eventually murdered.

I rammed the woman, surprising myself at my ability to not only jump into people but also knock them clean off their feet and watch with satisfaction as this woman smacked her head on the ground. But she slowly got up, her husband always there, watching me. I tried ignoring him.

I grew desperate. Where could I go? The moon just shone. My enemies were before me. Maybe if I bit her, she’d get…no, goats don’t give rabies. Then I came back with a fox, who charged her. He bit down, she screaming, and then foam escaping her mouth. Mad, her eyes became bloodshot. The fox escaped, bolting from the terrible look on the king’s face. I, too, ran.

“In here!” The fox lead me into his den. “It’s safe!”

“Now bite the king!”

The fox charged the king, turning him into a raving lunatic as well, foam seeping from his nose. They both went mad, grabbing anything that would, they hoped, would return them to normal. But it didn’t. They died a few minutes later.

I jerked a nod. They died, just like their victims.

“Thanks!” I told the fox.

“Yeah…” But he was looking at someone else.

I spun around, gritting my teeth. But then I widened my smile.

My best friend was alright! He was there, standing before me.

With a huge grin on his face.

“Want to go to the beach? And walk along the shore?”