I was angry at myself for having hit the one who had saved me.

Kate was right, I was blinded by violence, madness, murder, massacres and exterminations and above all... I had become an ogre, a blind devourer, a cannibal.

I collapsed and started to cry.

I was in a ball and the spectacle was pitiful to watch.

The violence had lost me, as if consumed a part of me...Like when I was a medical and physics student. I was rather a handsome young man and when I met Kate, it was love at first sight. Then with the discoveries, the science, the secrets and the lies, I ruined everything. However, I didn't fall off the wagon...

She had just given birth to our son and daughter... and paranoia did the rest: a double life.

I was Dr. Jekyll in the family and Dr. Hyde at work...

In fact, I was a monster long before I became and merged with the dragon that was, a gentle, misunderstood and simple-minded creature, incapable of the complex and Kafkai-like reasoning of which I was capable...

But slowly, my moaning subsided and so did my crying. I was exhausted and sank into sleep.

I was Professor Hans, dressed in my costume, and I was standing by the river.

It was warm and on the banks of the river were large meadows.

In our back, if we looked at the river bank, railroad tracks were laid, in front of a huge tunnel, opening a gaping black hole giving access to the interior of the hill.

There were hundreds of people walking, walking and cycling on the bike path along the river.

Others were lying on sheets, enjoying the sun or a well-deserved picnic.

Kate was in the Grand Bazaar, an underground gallery, more like a souc than a store. A real Bazaar, a souc.

Europeans, Asians and other ethnicities crossed there and the access was along the railroad tracks.

On the river, not very wide and hardly navigable, small boats took the passengers to the city of the lost ships...A'Arnateth.

Yet it had no African or Egyptian connotation. It looked like the Ourthe and the Esneux tunnel but different.

I was in a jovial mood...and I liked to watch, observe and study everything that was happening around me. So much so that I didn't see the time passing.

There were stalls like in a market and I approached the tunnel. An exhibition was being held there... in addition to the souk, well the Bazaar...

On posters, minerals and fossils. It is always interesting and the sellers are often collectors... I had a cane because I always had difficulty standing... but why? I don't remember.

Everything was peaceful and in this beautiful spring sky, you could also see hot air balloons.

Everyone seemed to be having fun.

Then, in the main square, a little further on, to the right of the tunnel entrance but on the right bank of the river, where I was, there was a brass band with elephants pulling a decorated float. A chariot, but it was a miniature Alladin style temple and standing on the chariot decorated with golden trumpets and thousands of small bells and red drapes set with small mirrors. Typically Indian, stood a figure dressed in blan with a red turban and a pan feather in the center, protecting a ruby.

It was the great Vizier, the Sultan of this country... but which country?? or was I? But these questions did not worry me. It was as if I was used to being here but each time, the memories and the memory of my passage in these places were as if erased.

The music grew louder and trumpets sounded.

"THE GREAT VIZIER..."

No one remembered his name, if he ever had one...all knew him as the GREAT VIZIR....

All the inhabitants and those lying in the sun stood up and listened. It was as if silence was imposed. Even the insects did not make any more noise.

Behind the chariot, there were other elephants pulling a covered cage. The cage was so big that it took two axles with four wheels each to pull it.

I thought to myself... ah this is a circus... but I was wrong... I was like a stranger now. The people were as if frozen... attentive as if nothing else mattered.

Vizier: "Dreamers, today is the big hunt. Followers of the terrible Queen of Nightmares still exist and are on the prowl. They want to bring her back. Let's stop them..."

And suddenly everyone went back to their duties while others began to search the area and stare at every passer-by.

This made me laugh... but nobody was laughing.

So I entered the tunnel and saw all sorts of crystals, some of which had been taken from my shining helmet.

This disturbed me.

"Sir, your collection of stones and crystals is really complete. "

"But we also have fossils. Since you seem to be a connoisseur, I just received some incredible specimens."

He came out from behind a box and I saw an egg.

I was seized with an uneasiness...

"Sir???? Sir????"

It was Kate's egg.

Memories assaulted me and I felt like waves of heat, of suffocation.

I became aware that I was a dragon in human form.

"Put that away, it's dangerous... it could explode..."

"Yes, sir... in Ten minutes everything will blow up...."

??????

All these people were going to perish...

Kate!! quickly.. warn her..

I had to save Kate first...

I started to run like crazy and I had to push and shove people in the stalls to make my way

"Excuse me!!! get out of the way!!! It's urgent... There's a bomb" but people were smiling and didn't give a damn.

I saw Kate, pushed by a crowd of people wanting to get to the Vizier.

It was crazy.

But I slowed down. Kate... Kate... The explosion... it's already happened!?? This doesn't make any sense...

THE KIDS!!! where are they???

I turned left, right and everyone was gone.

All that was left were the crates, racks, mats and displays. And in the crates, eggs with a digital counter with a zero and a 9 and a little dot clicking the seconds.

They were everywhere!

Then I heard the clamor.

"Traitor!! Death!!! Monster!!!!"

I rushed to a kind of mezzanine with a hole through which one could see out. This hole was surrounded by stones and greenery, making it impossible to see from the outside into the cave...

I was no longer in the tunnel? But a cave???

On the side, a tent...with a glow. It attracted me.

But I turned my head to look out and saw Kate as a dragon, shod and chained in the cage, right next to the Vizier.

"This creature, we must spare her... She did not betray... she tried to eliminate the nightmares She is white!!! She is the antithesis of the black queen!"

Kate was crying and 5 children went behind the bars and squeezed her paws and neck.

"Mommy... mommy we miss you... Come and get us... we are waiting for you... Ask daddy!"

I bit my finger

There were 3 girls and 2 boys... I recognized them, well 2 but the other 2 girls and the boy, it was the first time I saw them as human and I knew they were dragons... my dragonets..

Then they looked at the hole that nobody could see and their eyes crossed mine... "DADDY!!! DAD!!! help, we want to go home..."

Then they turned back into dragons and stuck to Kate...

Then a voice... the one I feared of all made me flinch.

It came like a sigh to my ears, coming from the half-open tent.

The interior was a thousand times larger than the exterior and I could see orange stone columns with braziers, rings and thick chains marking a passage to a throne. But it was empty.

On my left, between the columns, was a neolithic stone altar.

On the altar which had to be 2 meters long, in fact, the size of a burea... was a cushion on which rested a huge crystal ball.

I approached the sphere and I saw green eyes inside... and I raised my head, and I saw a gypsy with a floral turban and one of her hands was going to rest on the ball while the other one was holding a plastic bag with ice cubes inside.

I felt a twinge of sadness and fell to my knees.

I started to cry...

The voice became a squeak and I looked at the stone floor.

The voice became a squeak and I looked at the stone floor, where the shadow of the gypsy fortune teller could be seen

"Queen of darkness... Darkia... Sorry... I don't know what came over me... I'm going crazy..."

The silhouette, its shadow cast stopped.

I could see the ball and the gypsy on the ground, but I felt above my head, like a T rex blowing on my neck. I knew that at the slightest movement, the jaws would close for real this time.

"Queen Darkia... Dear sister... if I can still call you sister... I beg your forgiveness... I beg your forgiveness.... You saved my life... and I saw only fire, only evil, only your appearance and not your true self. You took pity on a piece of shit like me..and your punishment was just an illusion... You never actually hurt me...But I kicked you, hit you so hard..."

I felt like a breath on my head...and the huge dragon, for I was still in human, a little Hans.., the dragon turned his head sighing...

Darkia: "Don't ever do that again!!! You don't know how much it hurt!!!

Then the dragoness started to cry and curled up in a ball..

"Darkia? "

The dragoness was very sad, her rage and anger had collapsed...

"I am dreaming? So this is it... your kingdom! The kingdom of dreams??? I'm sorry I hurt you and insulted you..."

Darkia wiped her tears and pulled herself together. "You know... I didn't have to help you..."

I put my hand on her paw to comfort her a little...

"It was mother who asked you to eat me? That's why???"

She shook her head while crying.

Without knowing it, I had regained my dragon size...

I had a handkerchief and wiped her tears and caressed her long black neck.

Then, in one go I grabbed her neck between my paws and stuck my heart against hers.

"Sorry Darkia, and thank you. Mother is a devourer and cannot express her feelings as we do. I think she asked you to be friends..."

And I held her close to me... I also felt her heart beat...

But she slowly pushed me away...

"Hans... I am not the queen of darkness but the queen of nightmares!!!!!"

And suddenly everything exploded and I saw her jaws snap shut "GRAAAAAHHH" CLAP.

I was in my command center. and I had sweat beading on my scales...

I had just had a terrible nightmare....

Then, gasping for breath...I realized that Darkia could bite me and defeat me for good...

It reminded me of an old horror movie with a man who was horribly burned and had iron gloves finished with knives...

It was a nightmare too. But the worst part was that when his victims fell asleep, they landed in his dimension and any injury in the dream ended up with the same injury in the real world.

I wiped my sweat but it wasn't sweat... it was blood...

I had a few punctured spots on my skull from which a few drops of blood flowed...

It was Darkia's signature!!!! She could have maimed me... I underestimated her...

I was afraid for a moment.

Then I looked again in the dark corner....

"Darkia??? Are you there???"

But no answer....

I apologized..and she accepted my change of attitude but it was her right to sulk...I had slapped her anyway...

She was my sister and I had to do something and... I froze suddenly...

SHIT!!!! Kate...in a cage...the betrayal...the children calling.... They dream too.!!!!

I got on the floor, pleading in the corner... "Thank you Darkia.... again I was blind....

The children... did you know?? Did you put me in touch with them? "

They call for help...They call me!!! and I didn't see it coming...

"Thank you, my little queen!"

The black corner answered me .... "Only mother can call me that!...You, it's Majesty!"

"Yes..Majesty!"

Then, silence...

I was waiting

10 minutes...

an hour...

"Are you still mad at me?"

Darkia: "Yes!!!"

"Sorry..."

"Say... About the little ones, did you know?"

"It's from Kate's nightmares.. and her stupid friends.. By the way...there is an Ummite jubilee.. Your saucer buddy, he's coming here...the little ones are in his flying palace...and the other frozen humans are on Venus..including your human children..."

Everything went haywire in my head and I began to panic...

"How long, Darkia...sorry, Majesty..."

Considering how little I cared about this honorary title, it was getting ridiculous... She could feel it, and almost automatically "read" it in my mind.

Darkia: "And if I called you Idiot, by the way, it's not as bad as forgetting "Majesty".

Me: "Oh, come on, how old are you? Do you always look back on this crap?

Darkia: "And your sweat drops,... what do you do with them? "You are not afraid??? you are not terrified???

"Listen, Majesty Darkia or whatever you want...when I'm done...you can do whatever you want with me..."

Darkia lowered her head... "Poor bastard..." She felt sorry for me and could see that my soul was broken...broken...I had no pride or self-respect, and,...I didn't want anything...

She was sad for me... then she sighed..

"Hans...you know I'm a dragon/nightmare but when it's all over, I'll have something to ask you...but don't be a jerk...don't disappoint mother...and don't disappoint me either.."

Me: "Darkia... Thank you..."