Filmon, a man of 30 years, looked fit & young in his 20s, but the last few years have been harsh. His once tailored and perfectly fit clothes now make him look like a child playing dress up with their parent’s clothes. His slightly gaunt skin adding decades to his apparent age. The one unchanged feature is dark brown shoulder length hair neatly tied away, typically left down unless working. A brace wrapped his left leg, the treks taking their toll. A race for aid but the faster he sought, the faster he declined.

Filmon rose his pickaxe but drops it to the side as a fit of coughs come over him. Stumbling a few steps back, Filmon hunches over coughing up a blob of phlegm that quickly rolls beneath fallen leaves on the ground. Standing back up, he takes in a deep breath and the surrounds. Fresh cool air filled him, mocking his failing lungs. The countless trees looked down at him. Distant birds laughing at his futile quest. Taking a swig from his waterskin to clear his throat, Filmon coughs once more, wasting dwindling supplies.

As the minutes pass he finds a soft patch to sit and lay back against the base of the mountain to rest. Stories of old told of a dragon that lived within. Ageless beasts of greed with the power to kill, to corrupt, to rule but also their almost divine nature told of the power to aid and heal those who are worthy. Filmon hoped it was the latter. As he sat, the sun grew low in the sky but he could not find strength to rise from his new found spot. His eyes rested.

His dreams weren’t filled with visions and sounds, but of emotion and thought. Feelings of loneliness swelled initially, then of curiosity, these feelings were similar to his but not his own. A thought with feminine tone pushed into his sleeping mind. ‘A KreSuun, we will meet soon.’

Filmon awoke violently to an earthquake. The mountain shaking and rock came loose. Filmon felt a vigor he hadn’t felt in years. He scrambled and dashed behind a large tree. Beside him, a large rock tore through a tree, toppling it in less than a second. The surrounds lulled, a few remaining rocks tumbled in the distance. Peering back a boulder was atop his seat but where he had chipped at the mountain was now a tunnel.

The thought resurfaced. ‘If you seek wealth, I will find you rend. If you seek health, you are at journey’s end.’ Filmon stood in fear. He did not seek wealth, but the threat was clear, and journey’s end wasn’t overly reassuring. He found it difficult to walk away. His search for healing took him to the edges of society, from world renown to fringe practice and everything between. With the promise of journey’s end, he still found it hard to take the remaining steps.

It felt like an hour had passed before he could reach the entrance, down the dark void there was a small glimmer, dancing and enticing any to investigate. Filmon took a step into the tunnel and his leg twisted and buckled, the makeshift brace breaking. Falling to the ground he waited for dust to clear amongst the coughs and wheezing, the dancing light still waiting. He tried to stand, but the pain was too great. Filmon began the long crawl, eyes locked down the hall.

As Filmon reached the end, clothes torn and dirtied, he saw a brilliant vein of silver ore. No, this silver has the scales of a lizard. He felt a wind of warmth, not from the tunnel but from his side. Unmoving, he turned his head to see the source. A colossal head matching the descriptions of dragons, this one almost completely silver. Filmon quickly searched for a body and tail, but could only see the head free from the surrounding stone. Neck leading into what he thought was an ore vein.

“So KreSuun, what do you seek under the mountain’s peak?” The dragon’s voice was soft as a whisper in a language Filmon didn’t understand, but its meaning echoed in thought.

“KreSuun? What does that mean?” Filmon replied, his curiosity overtaking the threat and question posed by the creature.

The dragon answered, “You are KreSuun. In your voice it means forty-second. I’ve answered your query, now answer mine.” its calm tone was still the same throughout but threat was clear.

Filmon rolled over and leant against the wall, the dragon watching every move, unblinking. “I seek health, my legs and chest fail me. I am still young and wish to continue living.” As he answered, placing his hands first on his legs, then over his chest.

The dragon was silent for a moment. “You and I are alike KreSuun, both have no future,” Filmon’s eyes grew, mind racing. The dragon continued, “I am at peace, so should you.”

Filmon grew angry, “No. I travelled for years, burnt bridges. Tore myself apart, all to live!” coughing and pain set in once again, he leant back against the wall, trying to hold coughs back but still sputtered through. “I was told that dragons aid and heal the worthy?” Despite phrasing it as a question, his tone was of desire, of demand.

Filmon heard the dragon’s full voice, the harsh and foreign tongue almost overtaking the translated thought “The KreEsh were not worthy, they were filled with selfish-greed and spite for each other just like the KreSuun are now! I will not aid or heal you. Even if I could, what makes you worthy?”

“I…” Filmon stopped himself and avoided eye contact with the dragon before switching topic. “Where are my manners? My name is Filmon Green, what’s your name dragon?”

“Do not avoid my queries, Filmon Green of the KreSuun. Your manners will not change your fate. I am Retornadvim of the Suun in your voice, it would be Retornadvim of the tenth.”

Filmon pondered, “So Retor, tell me…”

“Retornadvim. Do not defile my name.”

“Apologies, so if KreSuun is forty-two, how is Suun ten?”

“Filmon Green, you leave a question unanswered. That is unwise.” Filmon tries interjecting but the dragon leave little room. “Our languages and counting differ. You count to Suun or ten, we count to Ruun or fifteen.”

“Fine. If you believe me unworthy and can’t heal me, why would I try to convince you otherwise? Why shouldn’t I leave and search elsewhere?”

“I believe you are unworthy as you make demands out of selfish desire. You can try to leave, but you will die here.”

“You’re going to kill me? I came all this way to live, not die!”

“I will not kill you, but you will die here. I hear your heart, it grows weak and will not last until sunrise.”

Filmon slumped, letting out a single deep cough. “So this is it? I won’t be able to return home to die in my bed? You said you have no future yet seem so at peace?”

“This is it. You will not return, but you can rest and pass peacefully here. I became trapped hundreds of years ago, the mountain and I have become one. One day it will crush me and I will die here too.” Silence between the two lingered for a few minutes. Occasionally broken by coughs and winces of pain from Filmon before Retornadvim spoke again. “You do not have to die alone. Tell me of your life and the memory of you will live with me.”

“Why bother?” Wheezed Filmon “Seems to me that’s selfish, which it seems you despise.”

“I despise the greed to be known, to be coveted. You like I, will be forgotten with time. None to learn our lives or mourn our deaths.”

Filmon pauses for a moment before replying. “Maybe, if we’ve time.” He pauses for another moment, “You seem to know a bit about us humans, or KreSuun as you call, but we know little of dragons. Hard to know fact from fiction.”

“Very well, what do yo wish to know?”

“You don’t like unanswered questions. Is that just you or all dragons?”

Retornadvim rested her head on the ground. “Not all but most Suun covet information. An unanswered query is bad luck. It covers more than just questions, including anything left incomplete. Projects, meals, stories.”

“In that case I must apologies again, we tend to shorten words, names and uh.. deflect uncomfortable questions.” The dragon nodded in acknowledgement before Filmon continued. “Our legends debate whether you’re ageless or deathless. From what you said about the mountain, it’s ageless?”

“Correct. We are ageless. Aging stops after we mature. In a perfect world, we could live forever.” She lifts her head and looks at the wall of stone and silver. “While time stops for us, it does not for nature.”

“So what happens in the end?”

“There are many ends, do you speak of the end of life?”

Filmon looks hesitantly at Retornadvim but brings himself to nod “Yes.”

Retornadvim sets her head back down. “I do not know.”

“That’s it? You’re okay not knowing what happens?” In his agitation, Filmon stirs up another fit of choughs and wheezes.

“Yes. We Suun do not believe in a continuation after death. We do not think on it much at all. We are lonely beings. We hatch alone and we die alone. Many have thought of us as gods. They are wrong.”

“Wrong as in you aren’t gods or wrong as in there are no gods?”

“Pardon the answering with a question. What do you believe Filmon Green?”

“I believe in Thobin, the god of the lands.” The human searches his neck for the symbol around it but none is found.

“Then the gods are real. Thobin is real. It matters not what I believe.”

“So are there gods? Is there an afterlife?”

“I do not believe there are gods or life after death, but you do. I do not know which of us is wrong.”

“Retornadvim.” the man paused, causing the dragon to raise an eyebrow. “You’ve told me I will not see the sun again. I know this to be true but can’t make peace of it. Aren’t you scared of the end?”

“I am not, just like I am not scared of breathing or blinking. It will be but a moment in time. You tremble Filmon Green, tell me a story.”

Filmon looks down at his hands, shaking. Unable to stop, he crosses them under his arms. The pressure on his chest causing his straining breath to slow further. He looks to his legs, noticing they no longer hurt, no longer feel, no longer move. A sharp breath at the realisation pains his lungs. He thinks back to his earliest memory, that of his mother reading a story.

“There once lived two brothers, both who served the King. The first was a knight, the other a mage…”

Filmon’s voice fell into a mumble. Retornadvim remained in silence, listening to his heart and mind as it drifted away.