Fluorescent bones

“There weren't always dragons in the Valley. Thousands of years ago, maybe ten thousands, but there were times before these creatures barged into our world and turned it upside down. I prefer to believe that those times were quieter, more peaceful, perhaps even happier… Well, I am considered particularly naive and air-headed, so don’t listen to me. But why not ? Is it better to be zombified by fake glitter of these so-called dragon descendants ?! For no-one-truly-knows how many years dragons occupied our land and had been in power ever since, with rare occasions of short attempts for elected leaders. Oh no, on the surface everyone can try and be a country's leader, but in reality only descendants can actually become one. Wait, wait, you sound like a conspiracy again, let's slow down and get back to where we started today. “

Neynissako woke up at 7.07 am as she always does. She enjoyed her routine breakfast, 2 eggs, sunny side up and a single whole wheat bagel with a touch of butter. It didn’t take long to get ready for work.

Neynissako or simply Nissa fed her small cute cat, grabbed an umbrella and left her house. She was wearing a blue t-shirt and white-ish skirt just a little below the knees. Nothing is truly white when you’re not well off. Her knees were scratched so it was vital to cover them up. She frequently found some minor injuries on her body and she could not recall how she got them. She was pretty much oblivious to her own clumsiness. So it was impossible for her new shiny turquoise sneakers to survive today with no spots. Thankfully, these kinds of things never made her sad.

Recently Nissa was hired as a waitress in a new funky cafe. Her work would not start until 11 am, but she particularly enjoyed walking to the city, that’s why she wakes up pretty early. She occupied a tiny apartment in a distant shabby area of the Valley, also known as Greenpearl city. But she would always find a job somewhere deep in the city center, so that she could enjoy the walk, even when it may be up to 2 hours of walking. She enjoys walking this much because it’s her own time without other people. She can almost be alone.

As always, Nissa was walking along the river Perl. The big river would basically cut the city in half. The deeper in the continent it goes the wider it gets. And the city of Greenpearl is built specifically on the most narrow part of this magnificent river. The narrowest part is literally the city center. Thus walking along the river shore to the east will always lead to the center of the Pearl, as people say. In the rays of early summer sun the river was shimmering like golden jewelries. Nissa was enamored by it.

On her way she would pass from the poorest areas to the richest. Well, richest to a degree, since the richest of all are forbidden for casual walking. In her home district you could rarely see any transportation, since it’s not something poor people can afford. But as she would go closer to the central area, different s-tronic cars and public trains would densify. S-tronic stands for senergy animatronics, senergy is a type of energy that is used for all of the animatronics and latest progressive machines, like phones. Most people still believe that it’s some kind of magical gift received from old dragons. There are two huge senergy dispersing towers on top of twin mountains that surround the city. They were built hundreds of years ago, but real animatronics progress didn’t happen until about 200 years ago. Though people still insist on believing that old dragons were basically gods and worship them. Nissa felt pity for those people, since any educated person knew that senergy particles are everywhere. Dragons didn’t bring them, they just found a way to attract them, accumulate and then disperse.

More than often Nissa could lose herself in these thoughts about the ways of the world. In these times she had to physically stop herself from going any deeper in the swirl, as she called it. She had a unique brain but a broken one. Same happened just now.

She stopped herself right before the tiny bridge at the very beginning of her journey, rubbed her ears a couple of times, repeated her every step up to this moment to return to reality and took a deep breath. She is back on the route.

Nissa liked this part of the city, despite it being a poor area. it was a well constructed and once magnificent district: big highscarppers and towers along with layers of incredible marble stone buildings. Everything was built in exquisite architectural styles and decorated with unique old ornaments. It must have looked fantastic like a thousand years ago. This forgotten style of building now is considered ancient and basically comes from pre-dragons times. You gotta give it some big credit since these buildings survived over thousands of years and are still livable, sort of. After the last war this area suffered the most and since there were no architects who practiced this architectural science anymore the district was abandoned and then reinhabited only in the electricity revolution times. Nissa always felt deeply connected to these ruins covered in grass and flowers. Honestly, this district was so huge that it could almost be called a small town on its own. But it was simply called Ruins. Most of the other areas of Greenpearl were as big in size as Ruins, which made Greenpearl the biggest megapolis on the continent.

After Nissa crossed the bridge, she had to cross the road and walk away from the river bank for some time. She was calmly stepping on thick road stones tightly stitched together. Just looking at them she vividly imagined majestic people of old empires walking these streets just like her at this moment. These people wouldn’t be like her, these are extinct nations, wise, beautiful magical beings. Or so she imagined them. Dragons destroyed them. And the closer she got to the city center, the more she saw a pattern of dragon culture influence getting stronger. She could see it in the buildings, in the roads and bridges, and she could definitely see it in the people. By the time she crossed her second district she could return to the riverside. The only thing that did not change from area to area - was clear water of the river. In a close proximity to the fourth district final before center, Nissa would always put on black sunglasses. She despised looking in people's eyes but didn’t want to keep her eyes on her feet while walking. The fourth area is higher middle class. It was called Blossom, for its density of young scholars. They arrived here from all over the country to study in guilds and universities, located on every street in Blossom district.

Nissa was sliding between people trying her best to avoid any unnecessary contact. Busy and serious, happy and carefree, gloomy and sad - all sorts of students were flowing through the streets as if it was a carnival. Once, a while ago Nissa was part of this flow. When she was 13 she was considered one of the most prominent scholars of the decade. But perhaps she was too smart for her own good, her brain cracked and with it she lost everything she had. When she thinks about those times, she feels okay with it. Nissa accepted this fall, though deep down she believed those times were the only time she was happiest in her life. So every now and then she would feel nostalgia. But then she would look in someone’s eyes and this feeling evaporated. Each and one of them is either dragon blood or wants to be one.

“Well, this is the world, could I do anything about it ? Maybe stop right here and start screaming out loud: the dragons are occupiers! They want power and power only. They enslaved us and want to keep it that way. They built a whole cult around their divinity, their mysteriousness and their wisness. But are they? Are they wise, or mysterious ? Are they gods ?! No, no and no. Wake up, stop following them! They poison us! But no, no, no one will listen. No one wants to put the dots together that if you cannot be a part of the system they created you are thrown into a dumpster and there is no way out. It is not life itself terrible, but those who create rules for it. Instead of learning rules of our natural world, we follow whatever dragons say long enough that it became tradition. Isn’t it ridiculous? Ughh … not again. Slow down, Ney, we need some air!”

Nissa was feeling stiff in the midst of the big nosy avenue so she turned to the first small street she could find. The girl stood next to a brick wall in a tiny dark alley. She closed her eyes for a moment to slow her thoughts down. She made couple of deep breaths and finally caught a moment of calmness. No sounds were coming from the big avenue around the corner, no unwanted thoughts were flowing through her head. She slowly opened her amber eyes and to her surprise she saw a big white door. She looked back to confirm if that was ame alley she just entered. There was nothing out of ordinary behind her and she thought alley was completly dark when she just turned here. But now she could clearly see a big and tal white door carved with incredible ornaments. The door was brightly illuminated by couple of sunrays, that broke through the darkness of the street. Nissa was naturally curiouse to come closer. The material of the door didn't look like wood, no it was something else. She drawn to come closer and touch it. She came closer and felt and unbearable desire to pen the door. But the moment she touched the it the whole reality around her just snapped. Poof! She was standing in front of her work cafe, holding the door handle completely frozen. What and how did it just happen ?