The faintest crack whispered through the air. Justin ceased the swing of his pick ax and listened to the dead silence that filled the mine for a few short moments. Then the earth itself seemed to shake with a thunderous roar, sending Justin sprawling onto the floor of the mine. All around him, the rocks seemed to crack and crumble, tumbling down around him, trapping him in the darkness. Images of his life paraded through his mind before he slipped into unconsciousness.
When Justin awoke, he had no idea if he had been out for minutes, hours or even days. His body ached and his lungs seemed full of dust. A coughing fit shook him for several minutes as he tried to expel the dry grit that prevented him from breathing easily. Once that passed, he felt around in the darkness for his pack. Hunger rumbled in his stomach, yet his hand reached first for the canteen. Droplets trickled down his chin as he gulped water in hopes of quenching his thirst. He thought about why he was there, in the mines. It had been a quest. Now he wondered if the quest had been a mistake after all.
~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
JC sat on the beach, looking up at the stars and the moon. When a shooting star crossed the sky, he focused on it, closing his eyes tightly as he made his wish. He sat for hours, staring into the sky and listening to the waves wash across the shore. Digging his toes into the wet sand brought a pleasant smile to his face. His mother had told him it was truly the simple things in life that brought joy to one’s heart. And joy was one of those things that no amount of riches could truly buy.
Over his lifetime, JC had accumulated a comfortable amount of wealth, but true happiness seemed to elude him, no matter how hard he searched, until it finally occurred to him that he wasn’t sure exactly what he was searching for. That was what had brought him to the beach to ponder. He spent a long time on the beach searching for his answers. Hours soon stretched into days until he decided he was on a quest. Or if he wasn’t on a quest, that maybe he should be.
~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
Justin found that he could barely move. The food he had brought had lasted, but only for a few days. His salvation was an air shaft. Fortune had trapped him below the ground, but had supplied him with a fresh air supply. He also found that when it rained, some water found its way to him through cracks and crevices in the rock. It wasn’t much, but he used his shirt to soak up as much as he could, trying to wipe his face and hands, and he drank what he could. There was much, but when the rain fell in heavy sheets outside, it gave him enough to quench his thirst for a short while.
There wasn’t much he could do. Most of his time was spent thinking about his past and wondering about his future, or if he was even destined to have much of a future. He wished he could see the stars above, then laughed because he was still wishing, even without seeing a star. Then he figured that the stars were always out there, somewhere. So he closed his eyes and wished with all his strength. From time to time, he took up his pick ax and struck the rocks around him, unsure if he truly believed anyone would ever hear his strikes, or if he was only doing something to remind himself that he was still amongst the living.
~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
JC awoke in the middle of the night, scratching his belly. Cool breezes swirled around him, drifting through the night air. As he yawned and stretched, his eyes closed, he thought he heard a peculiar ping. Holding his breath, he listened and heard the sound again. It came again and again, every few moments. JC focused on the sound and followed its direction.
Eventually, he was led to a mountain range not far from the ocean. He searched through the jagged crags, following the sound, wondering if it was leading him on the quest he so desired: the search for true love and happiness.
As he closed in on the sound, he realized there had been a collapse. Somewhere inside the rubble, someone was trapped, still alive. JC did his best to get as close to the sound as he could, then he began pushing away fallen rocks. It took him over a day before he dug through enough of the cave in to get to an opening.
“Hello?” he called, pressing an eye to the small hole. “Anyone there?”
Justin blinked his eyes and focused on the voice, wondering if he was hearing things, or if he was actually being rescued. “Yes! Yes!” he called as loudly as he could. “I am here! I am here! Please help me.”
“I will,” promised JC. “I will get you out, but it will take time. Are you injured?”
“I ache, all over, but I don’t think I’m badly hurt.”
“Are you hungry? Thirsty?”
“Yes. I’ve been trapped for days. I don’t know. I don’t know how long.”
“Hold on, I’ll get you some provisions. It will help, while I’m digging through to you.”
“Okay,” Justin agreed.
After the quick conversation, Justin drifted into sleep as JC left to gather food and water. When he returned, he shoved what he had found through the small hole. He thought about Justin, who he was, what he looked like. He wondered why they had been brought together in this manner. Then he went back to work in his attempt to free his new friend.
~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
Justin slept fitfully, his mind creating an image of JC and their life together once JC had freed him from the mine. He smiled as he dreamt. When he awoke, the pair passed the time chatting while JC continued his steady work of removing the fallen rock, tossing them aside, then moving them further away as the pile built up. Before they ever met face to face, they each had an image of the other. From their conversations, they found they had much in common and felt more like old friends than two who had just met through odd circumstances.
As the time marched on, they spoke more boldly, until they were making plans of a life together. JC felt sure in his heart that he had found the one he was looking for, the love of his life. He didn’t care what Justin looked like, he knew they belonged together and worked even harder to free him.
It was in the dark of night that JC finally had dug through enough rubble that he felt he could move Justin out. He called softly to his new friend, but heard no answer. After crawling through the opening, he felt around until he located Justin. He thought something seemed odd, but he picked up his new friend and pulled him back through the opening. Justin squirmed slightly and awoke.
“My pack. Can you grab my pack, please?”
JC pushed his way back into the cavern, this time the light from a few stars shone through the clouds, illuminating the cavern where Justin had been held captive. JC blinked his eyes.
“It’s full of diamonds,” he said, thinking aloud as he stared at the spectacle.
“My pack?”
“No. This place. This mine. The diamonds sparkle in the rock like stars in the night sky. They’re everywhere.”
“Then I hit the mother load.”
“Aye, if you were mining for diamonds.”
“What else?”
JC grabbed Justin’s pack as a cloud dampened the starlight and he backed from the cavern once again. After gathering up Justin, JC headed back to the comfort of his beach, where he curled up beside Justin and slept.
~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
Before opening his eyes, Justin reached out, feeling JC’s body beside his. His eyes opened widely when it felt wrong. Scales.
“JC!”
JC sleepily answered, stretching his body. “Yes?”
“You’re a dragon?”
“Yes.” Thinking the question an odd one, JC turned to face Justin and blinked his eyes. It was still dark out, yet he could see well enough that Justin was not a dragon at all. “You’re not a dragon.”
“No.”
“I thought you were a young dragon whose lair had collapsed.”
“I thought you were a miner, looking for diamonds.”
The pair sat on the beach in silence for a long time.
“I suppose I should say thank you, for saving me,” Justin ventured.
“It was nothing,” replied JC, sighing heavily.
“I was on a quest, searching for a mother load of diamonds in the mine. Everyone always said it was there, but no one had found it.”
“I was on a quest, too. A quest to find my true love and happiness.”
“With all the diamonds in the mine, I shall be wealthy for the rest of my days.”
“My mother always said that wealth can’t buy joy. I was seeking my joy.”
“I was seeking my fortune.”
“At least one of us has succeeded.”
JC wandered a short distance away and sat staring up at the stars and the moon. Eventually, Justin came over and looked up as well.
“Wow. Everything is so much brighter and more brilliant here. The sky is so full. It seems to go on forever and ever.”
“It does. It goes on and on.”
“All those stars look like diamonds, they way the sparkle. The night sky looks like the largest diamond mine ever. I wanted to thank you.”
“You already did.”
“No, more than that. Half of the mine is yours. We shall both be wealthy.”
“No thank you.”
“You don’t want it?”
“I have all the riches I could ever need. It does me no good. It is my heart that aches. Diamonds can’t cure that ache.”
“Look, up there,” Justin said as he pointed into the sky. “Those stars there, how they come together. It looks like a dragon. It looks like you. JC in the sky, with diamonds.”
JC stared hard, until he saw what Justin saw. “Look at those stars there. They look like you. Justin in the sky with JC and diamonds.”
“I think the stars tell us something. They tell us our future. We are meant to be friends, you and me, we are meant to share the diamonds. Do you believe that? That the stars tell us our future.”
“Of course. Everyone knows that when a dragon dies, they become a star in the night sky. We are looking at an eternity of my ancestors staring down on us.”
“”It sounds impossible, doesn’t it? A man and a dragon, together.”
“Stranger things have happened, I’m sure.”
“I’ve never felt for another, what I felt for you as you worked to free me. I feel a strong bond between us.”
“A connection.”
“The way our thoughts seem to travel in the same direction.”
“How we can finish each other’s thoughts.”
“It’s like we already know the other’s thoughts.”
“Before he speaks them aloud.” JC lifted his head and grinned. He did like Justin, more than a dragon should like a man.
“I think I fell in love with you, back in the mine, before I ever saw you,” disclosed Justin.
“Are you disappointed now?”
“I thought I was, at first, but now I think it was only surprise. I had pictured you as a man.”
“I had pictured you as a dragon.”
“Now, I’m beginning to realize something, something from my heart.”
JC nuzzled closer to Justin. “That it really doesn’t matter?”
Justin smiled and shook his head, lifting his hand to JC’s shoulder. “It doesn’t. It should, but it really doesn’t.”
The pair tilted their heads together as they stared up at the stars and the moon, each thinking about the lifetime they would spend together.