The man trudges up the forest trail, his boots crunching over fallen leaves and twigs, each step a deliberate effort against the incline. His breath comes in rhythmic puffs, visible in the cool, crisp mountain air. Tall, ancient trees towered around him, their canopies forming a mosaic of green and gold as sunlight filtered through the leaves. The scent of grass and damp earth filled his lungs, invigorating him with each inhale.

He raises his arm to wipe his sweat with his rough robes tied by a sash at the waist. His face is dirty with cuts and his disheveled hair is tied behind him with a soiled cloth strip. His trousers are made of homespun cotton and his muddy shoes are merely cloth with threads sticking through the seams. His back is slightly bent from the rucksack he's carrying. By his appearance, with sticky hair and sweat forming a path down his face, he has been hiking for a long time. The man scrunches over, pants, then looks up and sees a deer in front of his path.

The deer’s head turns to the man. Its ears twitch as its dark liquid eyes focus on him. Then it leaps away and up. The man is about to continue on his way then stops as he sees the same deer standing ahead of him, watching him. Deer cannot talk, but it looks like it wants him to follow. The man picks up his heels and chases after it. When the deer stops when he does, it confirms his suspicions.

 Perhaps the deer is leading me to a water source, he thinks as he follows the deer’s steps. The air already feels colder, biting his face and the light is dimming as the sun sits low on the horizon. Streaks of orange and pink are streaming on the sky. A long time has already passed then, he thinks to himself and stops when he sees the deer staring at him.

 The deer is standing in the edge of a cliff facing the void. It snorts and paws its hooves at the ground then bounds away, into the bushes. The man starts to follow but stops in front of the bushes when he could not find the deer.

Perhaps this was the end of its guidance, he thinks to himself.

The man walked towards the edge and sees the world unfurling beneath him in a breathtaking panorama. His chest heaves with the exhilaration of the climb, the cool mountain breeze drying the sweat on his brow and rustling his ponytail. The sun, perched low in the azure sky, cast a golden glow over the landscape, highlighting the rugged terrain. As he enjoys the beauty of the world, he ponders about the site of his camp for the approaching night.

The man looks further up and sees creatures far away, flying in a snake-like movement among the clouds like water reeds in the river. Among those, one changes direction and growing bigger, heading for his location.

The man stands still as he guesses what creature is coming and gasps.

It is a dragon. A dragon was coming to him!

Its body is covered in scales of shimmering silver with a subtle purple tint that catches the sunlight and casts an iridescent glow that shifts with every movement as it flies to him. Long silver hair streams behind it in the wind like wispy smoke. Slender whiskers trail from its snout like ribbons, and its majestic antlers frame its noble head, the very image of an ethereal, celestial being. As it comes closer, the man notices a curious black splash over the chest and belly.

The dragon’s eyes are fixed on the man as it flies closer in a mesmerizing swimming movement. It reaches the end of the cliff and heads down in front of the human where it transforms into a man with silver hair and amethyst eyes. His pale skin gives a striking contrast to his dark grey robes. The human’s breath catches at his extraordinary beauty, but the dragon man’s air is cold and he glances at him with a cold glint in his stormcloud eyes. After a moment, he turns away.

The man’s eyes follow the dragon man for a while then looks forward. He gasps in surprise when he suddenly sees the other dragons hovering above him.

 “A human!” exclaims a dragon on the left, a blue-green one with green hair. “A human finds a way to our abode! How curious!”

 “Yes,” said the dragon that is larger and more majestic  than the rest. Blue scales shimmer along its elongated, sinuous body while a cascade of pure white hair billows like clouds along its back, providing a striking contrast to its vivid blue scales. Its sapphire eyes, sharp and intelligent, glowing with the light of divinity, are trained on the man. “Speak, human. How and why have you come here?” it asked, its voice sonorous and deep, showing his age and wisdom.

 The man kneels and bows to the ground thrice, his hand and forehead touching the dirt. “Oh Lord Venerables, this lowly self ‘s name is Yijun and requests your help.” His hand trembling, he gets the rucksack from his back and opens it. He places a pack of rice, some fruits and meat in front of him. Humans have never spoken to a dragon before so he has no idea what offering will please them. When they pray to the dragons, his village always offers whatever the best they have available. And the best they have is the rice grown and harvested from their labors and fruits they bought from another county. He was asked by his fellow villagers to give these offerings to the dragons by leaving these items at the highest peak but he never expected or planned to meet them, much less talk to them. “Please accept this humble offering and hear my plea.”

 The dragons look questioningly at the offerings then back at the human.

 “Recently, my village was destroyed with a flood. Many of us did not survive. I humbly ask you, have we offended Your Lordships? If so, we ask for forgiveness and we shall submit to any punishment you may give to appease your anger.”

 The dragons glance among themselves, their tails waving in the air nervously like ripples on the pond. Then they turn back to the man.

 “We..didn’t do that,” one of them finally answers. It comes from a slim green colored dragon on the far left. 

 The man looks up in surprise.

 “Really, we didn’t,” insists the dragon.  “It wasn’t part of our plan…”

 Yijun scrunches his brows in confusion. “Forgive me my Lords, but don’t you have absolute control over the world?”

 The dragons look at each other uneasily again. The head dragon looks intently at Yijun. “Yes, but something unprecedented has recently occurred," it answers. "Events are unfolding beyond our control and understanding, similar to what happened in your settlement. We….do not yet know the cause or how to correct the errors at this time.”

 “The flooding your settlement had is very unusual for summer,” muses a cerulean colored dragon behind the head dragon. “No flood dragons are in the area and there is no other force we can find that can be possibly responsible. Meanwhile, there is a wide-spread drought at the south of the continent. It is most curious.”

“There’s also the case of the great earth-shake a century ago,” a black dragon added. “It should be the birth of a divine beast yet no new divine beast is found. Only corpses.”

“Not to mention the incident at the western plains. These disasters are beyond the normal parameters,” a snow-white dragon concluded. “Something external must be interfering with the Great Will.”

“Indeed, there is a noticeable imbalance in the elements, bringing about these disasters,” the green dragon concurred. “Unfortunately, without our Sight restored, we cannot fix this imbalance by ourselves.”

As the dragons recount about the unusual disasters occurring, Yijun’s jaw drops in shock. He cannot believe the holy dragons, the most powerful rulers of the world, admit their powers are not working and the world is working away from their rule. Dragons are the instruments of the Great Will and if they themselves do not understand It, what is the world coming to? What hope do mortals like him have?

"Is there anything else you wish to ask?” asks the head dragon, its deep voice cutting short the arguments and instantly silencing the crowd.

Yijun blinks. “Um, no, my Lord. That was all,” he says, bowing his head hiding the confusion and dread on his face. He is still too awed by the dragons’ presence and too shocked about hearing their powerlessness to think of asking other questions.

The head dragon looks to the side at the dragon man standing aloof a distance away. “Ender, escort the human back down the mountain. Afterwards, find and deal with the rebels who may be causing these instabilities. Also,” the head dragon’s eyes drop to the dragon man’s chest, “your life may end soon. You may not return to us unless you find the cure to your illness.”  

Yijun looks curiously at the dragon man, who has impassive look to his eyes as he receives the head dragon’s order. He hasn’t got over yet about the news of dragons losing control of the world and he now hears a dragon is ill, never mind having the possibility to die. He was told dragons are immortal and had been present since the birth of the universe so news that they could die is too shocking and absurd.

The dragon man nods and looks at Yijun with cold eyes. Yijun looks down, breaking in cold sweat. He tries not to shiver as he felt the dragon man’s gaze sweep over his body.

A minute passed and the dragon man speaks. “Where is your settlement?” he asks, his voice as cold and elegant as a snowdrift.

“About seventy miles away east, down the mountain, at a bend of the Blue River,” he answers, almost tripping over his words.

The dragon man continues examining him for a while with his cold gaze until Yijun thinks the dragon means to freeze him on the spot.

Suddenly, a pale hand shoots out of the dragon's robes and grab the front of his shirt. Yijun shrieks  as the dragon man lifts him up the ground and away. He screws his eyes shut as wind whistles past them, biting at his face and make him turn his head to the side. The trees were speeding right on both sides, faster than any human can run, and despite his terror, he thinks with humor about the hike up that took three days and now they will arrive at the foot of the mountain in no time at all.

Indeed, trip down has taken no time at all. The dragon man releases his hold over his shirt. Yijun lands on the ground with a plop and a yelp. He looks up and sees they have arrived at the foot of the mountain, in a small clearing overlooking the valley where his village was. The brown streak of the river between the valley snakes its way to the horizon, the same river that brought the freak flood a week ago that has taken his parents, his siblings, some of his uncles and aunts and cousins and their neighbors.

The dragon man gives one last look at him and starts walking away. Yijun looks at the direction of his village then at the retreating back of the dragon then back to the village. His return with no answers gives an uncomfortable, stuffy feeling in his chest. The wails as they bury their dead is still ringing in his ears. His face still stung from the tears he had shed. His trip up the mountain was fueled mostly with the injustice he feels from his family being taken away for no reason and he was able to bravely confront the dragons  because his sense of unfairness was far greater than his awe of them. Though it is true that his family is too insignificant for even dragons to bother over, but even worms feel pain.

He scrambles to his feet and runs after the dragon.

 “Why do you follow me?” the dragon asks as Yijun catches up to him then falling respectfully behind. “I did not give you permission to do so.”

 “Forgive me, Your Lordship but may I come along?” Yijun asks meekly. He has finally recovered from the meeting with the dragons and is eager to get answers to his situation. He does not like to do another three day hike to ask the dragon council at the mountaintop so he thinks it better to tag along with the dragon.

 The dragon does not respond or even turn his head to him and continues walking through the forest without slowing down.

 “I still haven’t gotten an answer to my question,” Yijun calls out, his voice slightly rising. “I would like to find out about the rebellion the Lord Venerables mentioned.”

 “That is none of your concern and I do not see how you can be of assistance to me.”

 “I can serve you my Lord. Perhaps I can take care of minor annoyances you will have in your trip?”

 “You are one such annoyance.”

 Yijun purses his lips and chooses another tactic. “But the Lord Venerables also mentioned you are ill? I know a bit of nursing," he suggests, volunteering his fledgling healing skills. He knows how to clean and bandage a cut and maybe make some poultice since he goes on a lot of hunting trips, but he's not exactly a healer. Still, it's worth a shot, he thinks.

 The dragon stops and gives a mocking glance at him. “My illness is beyond a mortal’s help.”

 Thoroughly humbled, Yijun bows his head and wrings his wrists. It is truly daring of him to follow the dragon and offer his help. How can a puny mortal like him even help a god, much less a dragon?

 The dragon snorts dismissively and continues walking. Yijun has nothing more to offer, but he can't go back like this. He peeks at the dragon's back then follows after him with quiet steps, like a lost child after a stranger.