They burst through the two doors. Poe grabbed a piece of wood, and rushed back to help Myar...

Myar and Poe shut the door behind them and barricaded it. There was no turning back. There's nothing for them back there.

They seemed to be in a great dining hall. The ceiling rose high above them, and the upper floor balconies were shaded/draped in red curtain. The only light came from the small chandeliers hanging from the castle ceiling. The lambency that they provided did little to light up the gray stone walls decorated with emblems, swords, drapes, but was bright enough to show the dust that rose from their boots as they stepped into the center of the room; Their soles echoing on stone.

Poe stopped.

With a sweeping motion he turned around to Myar and drew blade from flesh. From above his wrist, a twelve inch dagger slid out and fastened, pointing steadfast at Myar's throat. Myar stepped back, and for a moment, all seemed to be frozen in the room. Poe spoke.

"You keep AWAY from me you hear!? I'm sick of your mistakes, your trips! Get back! I'm tired of this castle!! I'm tired of searching!!"

Poe turns back around, glaring at the stone wall in the distance.

A small red beam of light peers up from the stone floor at Poe's feet. The beam circles Poe, etching a pattern into the stone. The floor begins to glow and shines up onto Poe's body, dying his face and clothes red. The heat drives Myar back, Poe incites:

"I call upon the beast of flame!! Dragon of lore, destroy the siege before me!!"

The glowing glyph at Poe's feet erupted with flames, engulfing Poe himself and throwing Myar back onto the ground. The flames assimilate into a great dragons head and soar skyward, crashing through the chandeliers and tearing the curtains to ash. The beast circles the room, it's snakelike body rivering behind it, burning the very air that Myar was breathing. It turns and lets out a great roar as it pummels down, crashing in on itself, as it collides with the wall. The explosion thunderclaps the room as stone fragments and dust shower from the ceiling, blotting out the candlelight from the chandeliers.

The flaming dragons body rushes behind it's head, folding in on itself. Ripping its form apart, it crashes onto the wall and engulfs the remaining stone in hellfire. The plumes of flame wash across the wall, and burn out.

The room is shrouded in smoke and dust. The candlelight limpidly flows across stone, giving it color once more. Whiplashes from the summoned dragon scar the walls. Curtains have burned away. Stone is etched with black. The wall where the dragon crashed is shadowed in ash, the remains of its body, and where the stone wall met floor the rocks gave way to a blue glow. Moonlight.

Poe stood up and staggered one foot forward, Myar grabbed his arm to balance him. Poe no longer cared about Myar's differences. He was too distracted.

Myar slowly dragged Poe to across rubble. Their boots stirring up dust, but new dust. dust laden with stone and ash. Through the hole, Myar could see the hedges. Dry leaves, almost as gray as the stone in the castle walls. With each step the chill air shaved the heat from their skin.

They stepped outside...

The Shuttle of Life

Have you ever thought about it. About what it would be like, what if on one of those cold nights that you saw a shuttle launching, what if I was on it. What if I was. What things would dare to cross my mind.

I have a new worldview, this epiphany that free thought has brought to me, has got to be one of the most important and influential ideals that I've ever thought. No longer do I look at a pro-skater and hope to be like them, and wish I was them. I've come to the realization that I still can be them. I still can go out and learn how to skate better. I may never be as good as Tony Hawk, but I've got a shot. I still can be better and enjoy something I think is awesome. And that's just the thing. I've only got one shot. That's it. After this, its the end of the line, and I'm done. This world is such and amazing place, how dare I sit here and waste it away. I want to go skydiving. I want to skate half-pipes. I want to be the one in that shuttle.

Can you imagine? In space there's nothing. Just outside the station there's nothing! Just a vacuum of death and cold! You're literally nowhere, you could die any second! And the launch is such a carefully prepared thing. The shuttle could go down on its way up. What a horror that must be. Imagining my family's reaction had the shuttle blown up with me inside it. What it would be like...

What it would be like if we did make it though. For the people you love, in fact, every person on the planet to look up at you. You're the one in the sky, the heavens that so many people in the past had worshiped, the constellations. You're in the sky, you are, in fact, where people used to believe god lived. Amazing. As Richard Feynman said “You gotta stop to think about it, to really get the pleasure.”

Looking down, or thinking down,,, what would you think on the way up? Everything you'd ever dreamed of is right here. Everything you know and love, below you, and everything you've ever done has lead you up to this point.

If I were on that shuttle. If I had blown apart with it, then I'd damn anyone who dared to cry for me. There is no sorrow in that. Cry if you miss me if you must, cry if you think it's sad that a life was lost, but I want no pity. I went up on that ship, I followed my dreams and got to go where so few people have gone before. If YOU were the one that wanted to be aboard with me and didn't take the ambition to make it happen, then that pity should be for YOU. Cry for yourself. I would rather chase my dreams and gamble my life to live, than to let it wash away, dull and boring.

I've only got one set of parents. It's time I start acting that way.

I've only got one life.

I'm going to live it.

I pity those who never had the chance, those who grew up unfortunate, or were indoctrinated at a young age and live in a fantasy realm that enables them to raisin away their precious lives without realizing what an amazing and wondrous world is is out there. I wish everyone could, no, would feel this way. Because everyone has the capacity to. Growing up, they tell say you can do anything you want to in life, if you put your mind to it. I say if you knew the world for what it is, you would want to do everything you could do. Everything to make you feel alive.

I'm going to fly myself away on rollerblades. I dont care if I break bones.

I'm going to jump out of a flying plane. I won't fear a failing parachute.

And if I found a way, I would go up on that shuttle. I don't care if I die on the way up. I tried. I lived.

And don't you dare cry for me.