Bruce Jayasinghe

The Vale of Strangeness

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. For a long time, the rolling green fells of the mountain reach lay dormant, serene. Its fertile ground home to many a farm and grange. For the people of the valley, it was a simple place, quiet and secluded; perhaps it is the nature of the Outside to appear where it is least expected. On such an occasion, when the membrane between worlds becomes so thin as to grow translucent before dissolving completely, from some strange hinterland the noumenal fingers of an unseen hand may reach into the realms of the mundane. And so, on one quiet late spring eve, such a thing did occur in the dark blue skies above our quiet mountain valley.