My Fated Dragon Prince

You Only Know Your Mind

I’m in the middle of a sea of grass. It’s not like the grass on Earth, though. It’s a vibrant, silvery-white, and it glows with its own light, despite the darkness of the air and sky. It comes up to my knees, but it’s soft, smooth, and effortless to walk through, as if it were made of silk. 

Above me are two moons. The closer one to me is so dark, it nearly disappears into the night sky, if not for its deep, purple glow. The other looks similar to the Earth’s moon, but is even lighter and more brilliant in its luminescence. 

The sea of grass is vast—seemingly never-ending—but when I squint in the direction of the darker moon, I can make out a building in the distance. It’s the same dark, glowing purple shade of the darker moon, and it’s vast—almost like a castle.

I stare at the castle-like structure for several seconds, contemplating whether or not to approach it. I know this is only a dream, but it doesn’t feel like a dream. It doesn’t feel like reality, either—at least, not the reality I’m used to. It feels like…

Well, like another world. 

Before I get the chance to make up my mind about the castle, I hear grass rustle behind me, and I whirl to face the source of the noise. 

When I see it, my jaw drops.

It’s a f*****g unicorn.

It lowers its head as if bowing for me. The horn spiraling out of its head is the same shade of silver as the grass; its long, flowing mane and tail share the hue, as well. Its gleaming coat is pure white, and its eyes are black, like a normal horse’s, but there is a kindness and familiarity to them that confuses me.

I’m transfixed. I can hardly dare to breathe, for fear that it might cause this fantastical creature in front of me to somehow disappear.

And then I hear it. The unicorn doesn’t move a muscle, and yet, when I hear the voice inside my head, I somehow know that it belongs to this creature.

Welcome to Farnethia.

I take a step back, eyes bulging with both fear and intrigue. The unicorn follows me with his eyes—his; I suppose I think he sounds like a male—but remains still.

“I can’t be in Farnethia,” I whisper. “Farnethia isn’t real.”

Your body is still on Earth. There’s something familiar about his voice—like I’ve heard it before. But how can that be? But you’re starting to believe, and because your spirit believes, it can visit us here while your body sleeps.

I shake my head. It isn’t possible. None of this is possible. How could this bizarre dream time out so perfectly with the letter my birth parents wrote me eighteen years ago? Why does everything look so vivid and feel so real?

“My spirit doesn’t believe,” I say weakly. 

You don’t know your spirit yet; you only know your mind. You won’t know your spirit until you accept Farnethia as your home and travel here through the portal.

“Where’s the portal?” I hear myself asking, as if I believe a word of this. Which I don’t. Obviously.

It’s less of a place and more of an action. But we’ll get to that later. Farnethia needs your help, but it has to be your choice to come here. For your certainty, we must wait. That’s what these dreams are for.

I still don’t want to believe it, but I decide that, for now, I might as well stop fighting it. It’s only a dream; no harm can come to me. “Okay—say I believe you. Why is it just you? Why aren’t my parents here, or this Queen Ava they wrote about?”

I’m your familiar, which means that wherever you are, I appear. Queen Ava is on the other side of the world from here, in the Castle of Light. And your parents… well, they’re dead, Nell. They died many years ago.

It’s silly, really, how much my heart aches to hear him say that. Until this morning, my birth parents were as good as dead to me; I knew I’d never see them again, that they didn’t want me, wherever they were. But then I read that stupid letter, and I let myself hope. Maybe they are alive. Maybe they really do love me as much as they claimed to.

“How did they die?”

They were killed by dragons. Which brings us to a very important subject: our current location.

I glance back at the castle and start to connect the dots before he explains it. My mother wrote to me about Light and Dark—about phoenixes and dragons. If I’m on the other side of the world from the Castle of Light, this must be the Castle of Darkness.

“Why would I appear here?” I ask him. “If I’m supposed to be a phoenix—the ultimate creature of Light, as my mother called it—why here?”

That, I don’t know, he admits. The other five Senses all appeared in different parts of Farnethia, too. We think it has to do with personality and destiny, but the specifics remain a mystery.

“Did any of them appear on this side of the world?”

No. But it doesn’t concern me, Nell. It just makes me think you came here for a reason—a reason that we’ll learn soon enough.

I glance curiously at him. I have so many questions, I’m not sure why this one comes to me, but it does: “How do you know to call me Nell?”

He looks amused, which I find strange. I’m not sure you’d believe me if I told you.

I cross my arms impatiently. “I’m not sure I believe any of this, so you might as well just tell me.”

The familiars of the other five Senses came into existence the first nights of their journeys back here—essentially, when their spirits awakened. For me, though, it was different. I came into existence here in Farnethia about a year ago—on the day Archie Evans died.

I stiffen instantly at the mention of my best friend. What is he saying? He can’t be saying what I think he’s saying. “You… you’re…?”

The Senses each named their familiars after their best friends on Earth. They’re not one in the same, but their similarities are remarkable—like kindred spirits. I think, though, in my case, it’s different. I’m less his kindred spirit and more his reincarnation. Sometimes, I even see flashes of his memories.

It’s suddenly all too much. It was an entertaining concept before—something I was willing to explore out of curiosity and boredom, more than anything—but now it’s something more. It’s a unicorn standing in front of me, claiming to be the reincarnation of my dead best friend.

“What memories?” I whisper.

There’s sadness in his eyes. There’s love, too. The day at the Santa Monica Pier. The road trip through Big Sur. The day you almost drowned in the ocean. The accident.

A tear streams down my cheek, and I take a step back from him. “Archie?”

I don’t claim to be him. But I carry him with me.

I want to stay there with him. I want to ask him a million more questions. Even if none of it’s real, I want to know more about the lie.

But I can’t. It hurts too much to think about Archie. And it hurts too much to know that whatever this is can’t be real, at all.

So I take the final step away from him and wake back up.