Nearly Forgotten
#30 of The Life and Times of Jarzyl Mintaka (Slice of Life Stories)
A dream dredges up an old memory from Jarzyl's childhood, and she goes digging for truth.
A short, simple, slice-of-life story.
When Jarzyl stirred from her sleep, the turbulent, swirling remnants of her dreams rendered her overcome by intense, deeply sorrowful emotion that she couldn't explain. Clenching her eyes tightly shut, she covered her mouth to stifle the heaves and quiet sobs that came whether she wanted them to or not. For at least a minute Jarzyl found herself shaking and trembling, but finally her mind started to reassert itself as the illogic of dreams dissipated.
Jumping off her bed, the young dragon fledgling shook herself from head to tail. What had she even been feeling so upset about? Jarzyl expected that her dreams would quickly fade away, yet surprisingly enough she remained able to fully recall what she had been dreaming about. Taking a deep breath, she hopped about on her feet a few times, then headed off to her bathroom to take a morning shower.
The Library of Avaeria was as quiet as always, and Jarzyl's paws were silent against the carpeted floor as she skipped down the corridor, pausing repeatedly to look down each row of bookshelves. Sometimes she would see other library users browsing for books, but finally she spotted what she had come here to find--a three-legged young dragon who was slightly smaller than her, who had scales of a deep sooty black and was wearing a flight harness with the blue markings of a librarian (or an intern librarian, at least). Atlas was holding a feather duster in his jaws, and he was resting his forepaw on a shelf, balanced up on his hindlegs to dust off books with the implement.
Jarzyl sprinted over towards her friend, dashing down the aisle with barely a sound. Atlas saw her coming at the last moment, but he hardly had time to react before Jarzyl tackled her friend and pulled him into a friendly hug, wrapping her wings around his sides. Still holding onto the feather duster in his jaws, Atlas shook his head. "No running in the library..." he muttered.
Jarzyl released her friend from her hug, and she playfully stuck her tongue at him. "You always say that."
Atlas took the feather duster from his mouth and slid it behind the shoulder strap of his flight harness, pinning it between the strap and his scales to hold it in place. "That's because it's always true. You're not supposed to run in the library. It's noisy and disruptive, and you might run into someone carrying books, causing damage to them."
Jarzyl flicked her neck frill. "I don't think I would damage someone just by running into them!"
Atlas gave her a dismissive look. "It's not about damaging someone, it's about damaging the books they might be carrying. Those are far more important. Dropping a book causes serious strain to the spine, even if the book doesn't appear visible damaged."
Jarzyl held back a giggle, and she nudged her friend's side. "You're not damaged from me running into you, and that's the most important part. Ok, now I need your help with something."
Atlas grabbed his feather duster and resumed dusting the shelves. "Jarz, I'm on duty. I don't have time for any of your adventures while I'm working."
"That's the spirit! It's so hardworking of you to waste a whole weekend morning by working! As if all the time spent in school wasn't enough work... And it's alright--this is related to your work. I need help finding information in the library." Jarzyl took a deep breath, and she made sure Atlas was paying attention to her before she continued. "I... I had this dream. I thought it was a dream, but now I actually think it was a memory. I want to know about magical animals."
"Magical animals? Like... blink fish, or colossal sand worms, or the living sycelle crystals?" Atlas prompted.
"What was that about colossal sand worms?" Jarzyl found herself intrigued by the three suggestions Atlas had made, but she stored this line of inquiry away for some other time and stayed focused on her topic. "No, no, not like that. Let me explain!"
Atlas said nothing. He continued observing her with the quiet, contemplative, neutral expression that the young dragon fledgling always seemed to have.
Jarzyl continued. "Back when I was much younger and just a tiny hatchling, I remember my parents taking me on an afternoon trip out of the city. My mother let me ride atop her shoulder, and we flew out to the countryside to visit a small little village in the Outer Colonies. We walked through a forest trail, and skipped stones over this big, open lake that was nestled amongst hills."
Atlas said nothing, but he nodded his head.
"And there was this... this event that I clearly remember. I forgot about it because it happened when I was so young, but then just this morning I saw it in my dreams and I felt all sad because I had forgotten about it, even though it's not important at all and just a weird memory. But I remember now, and I won't forget it again." Jarzyl paused for a second to get her thoughts straight. "Out in the forest, next to the lake, there was this... this leaf on a tree. It was a shrivelled, dried-up, old, brown leaf that was hanging off a tree, sticking up from the bark. And I remember noticing it because it wasn't attached to a branch or even a stick, but the brown leaf was just sticking out directly from the tree trunk."
Jarzyl gestured with her paws. "So I ran over to the tree and I tried to poke that leaf, and suddenly it just flew off. Instead of being a boring brown old leaf, it transformed into this beautiful butterfly with black wings, with an outline of red, and big shiny blue patches in the middle. And I was so shocked and amazed that I waved for my parents, and they saw the butterfly too, but they didn't believe me when I said it had magically transformed from just a leaf. That thought I was just a silly young dragon who was imagining things."
Atlas blinked slowly. "Ok...?"
Jarzyl's neck frill perked up. "So that's what I need your help with. I need your help to find some... some encyclopaedia or research book or something that talks about magical transformation or transmogrification, to prove that I wasn't being silly and that it's a real thing. I saw a transforming butterfly--not transforming from a caterpillar like butterflies normally do, but an instant magical transformation from being a boring brown leaf into this bright coloured thing. You believe me, right?"
Atlas' eyes narrowed slightly, but he nodded. "I have a hunch. I believe you, yes. I definitely believe you saw what you did. It probably wasn't magic though. Follow me--the non-fiction shelves are on level two."
Jarzyl trailed behind her friend as he strolled through the library, taking them through all the rows of bookshelves with barely even a glance at them. Atlas clearly knew this place, and he clearly knew where he was headed. Up the stairs and in the non-fiction section, the two young dragons went to the bookshelves about wildlife. Atlas glanced over the books until he found one particular encyclopaedia, which he pulled out. Sitting back on his haunches, he put the book down on an empty space in one of the lower shelves and flipped through the large hardcover book, quickly browsing through until he found what he was looking for.
Atlas spoke in a soft voice, respectful of the library's quietude. "Here. This is what you saw," he suggested, stepping away so that Jarzyl could look at the encyclopaedia.
What she saw made her gasp, and her neck frill perked straight up. "That's it!" she murmured quietly, and it was. Across the book was a splitting image of that exact same type of butterfly, rendered in lifelike pictorial detail with its black wings that had an outline of red and big patches of blue colour. Jarzyl gently ran her paw across the paper, looking at the winged insect that was exactly as she had recalled it from her dreams and memories. "It's real! So is this a magical insect? It can transform?"
Atlas chuckled softly. "Hah. Not really." He flipped the encyclopaedia back one page, and the picture of the butterfly was replaced by a picture of a leaf... Except that it wasn't really a leaf, it was just the same butterfly as before. "There's nothing magical about it. It's just a natural camouflage pattern. The bottom halves of the wings are brown and disguised to look like leaves, while the upper halves are more colourful and dramatic. So when the butterfly is just resting with wings closed, you can only see the brown sides and it looks just like a leaf. But when it flies off, you can see the black, red, and blue colours."
Jarzyl froze up. "Oh?" As she thought about what her friend had said, her neck frill slowly drooped down, getting lower and lower until it was just flat again her neck. "Oh..."
Atlas flipped the encyclopaedia pages back and forth to demonstrate. "There are plenty of magical insects, but this isn't one. This is just a butterfly with a camouflage pattern. When resting it pretends to be a leaf, but if a bird or something manages to see it, the bright colours are to distract the predator into trying to attack the spots on the wings instead of the main body."
"Oh. That's... hmmm." Jarzyl spent a few minutes staring at the pictures and reading through the accompanying informative text of the encyclopaedia. A grand, partially-forgotten mystery of her childhood had been solved in such a simple, obvious manner. "So... no magic then. Just some camouflage."
Atlas shook his head. "No."
Jarzyl let out a quiet sigh. Back when she had been younger, thinking that she had witnessed a leaf had magically transforming into a butterfly had been one out of many events that had together instilled her with a sense of wonder and adventurousness about the world, for there was so much to see and be amazed by. Even though that one encounter had faded from the forefront of her memory, its effects lingered on in her personality and worldview, undiluted and perhaps amplified now that she was a fledgling. Did it matter that it was not real magic, but simply just a species of butterfly that had good natural camouflage? Perhaps it didn't. Perhaps that was just as wondrous as she had always remembered it being.
Jarzyl enjoyed another moment of melancholy, then she flicked her neck frill back up and shrugged. "I suppose I should have just asked you about this earlier, and you could have explained it to me. I always feel like I read so much, but somehow you always read and know more than me. Whatever. So what other sorts of insects actually use magic?"
Atlas tilted his head to the side as he thought about it. "Fireflies glow by magic. Every time they flash their abdomens, it's a tiny burst of natural magic. The processes by which fireflies absorb sunlight during the day and release that sunlight during the night involve micro crystals of needlemir and are technically magical, not just purely biochemical."
Jarzyl slowly nodded, and she now she had a vision of a far-off place--a quiet, moonlit meadow of tall, messy grass gently shifting in the cool breeze, filled with hundreds or thousands of tiny flickering fireflies, pulsing their lights out into the dark of night, drawing glowing trails through the air. This time it felt not like a memory, but something powered by imagination. A true dream, and a promise for the future--because somewhere out in the wilds was that incredible sight, waiting for her to one day come and see it. The young fledgling swallowed, then she leapt up and pulled her friend into a tight hug again.
Atlas let out a soft grunt, but he didn't otherwise object as Jarzyl wrapped her forelimbs and wings around him. He didn't hug her back, but he didn't resist. "Uh. Why?" he asked, sounding mildly awkward as he always did.
Jarzyl pressed the side of her snout against Atlas's neck, leaning into her friend's warmth as she hugged him. "I'm showing my heartfelt appreciation for the hardworking public servants who keep the City of Wings flying, including its libraries!"
"Um... ok?" Atlas muttered. He took his feather duster and dusted the bookshelves that he could reach while Jarzyl was still hugging him and restricting his movement. Then he casually dusted the back of Jarzyl's head. She didn't mind.
Finally letting go of her friend, Jarzyl glanced back at the encyclopaedia. "So what were you saying earlier about the giant sand worms? That sounds far more interesting. Tell me about that, please."
Atlas nodded, and he eagerly continued to share his knowledge with her. "Not giant. Colossal sand worms. Far to the southwest, there is a place called the Endless Desert where the dwarfs surf over the sand dunes, but their greatest enemy are the fearsome, monstrous creatures called..."
END
_Hail, wandering reader. _
Never stop dreaming.