My life is over.
There really is no escape. No hope of redemption. This is all there is now.
As the fireball tears through the sky, and then through the field destroying everything in its path, my mind turns back to all the warnings I had. All the missed chances and spurned opportunities to choose something different. To not end up here.
Of course now it’s too late. As fire rains from the sky, and everything it touches is lost, there is little to be gained by dreaming of other choices. In a way, perhaps there were no other choices. Perhaps my fate led me to this. After all, I had faced so many dangers before and come away unscathed, I thought this would be the same; when I was told of the dangers, the risks… I just laughed them off. Surely I was more than a match for any challenge.
Well, I was wrong.
As I fire off a few ineffectual shots, the dragon merely smirks from his place in the sky. His victory was assured the moment I set out to face him, and he knows it. The rest was inevitable.
As I glance to my right, I see the dawn light and my heart sinks. The battle has gone on too long. I blink my eyes for what feels like the first time in weeks, and I take stock of my situation. My body screams for rest, my mind now barely functions at all. My mouth is dry, my throat parched, I can’t remember ever having eaten and yet somehow, impossibly, I carry on.
At first, I’m not sure what I’m seeing and then I doubt my own eyes. But it’s there. An opening. An impossible chance. I take careful aim, not rushed now, I know I’ll only get one shot. My concentration is total.
And just like that, I fire.
Instantly I know my aim is off. The shot ricochets at an angle I hadn’t planned. But then, like with so many shots before, chance intervenes. A lucky bounce, a well-placed peg, a fortunate glance… pegs light up like fireworks, each one seemingly urging my shot ever closer to that unreachable orange glow, hiding behind a once impenetrable wall of blue. The angles craze the mind. I’m shouting at the screen now. It bounces first one way and then another. Away from my goal, and then towards it. It comes close… time itself seems to stop.
The difference now is so small. The difference between success and failure. It all hinges on that orange glow… will it light? A narrow miss brings disappointment, but a hit? A hit brings the singing of angels, and the heavens themselves will open and every colour in creation will light the sky.
The match is over. The contest won. I must have sleep, and now at last I will have… after this next game.
The dragon’s victory is complete.
Most addictive game evar!
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