8FOLD: Red Hart # 5, "The King of Dragons"

[Tom Russell]

  EIGHTFOLD PROUDLY PRESENTS MR. TOM RUSSELL'S
               HISTORY OF THE

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 ##         [8F-128] ACT FIVE [PW-06]
               The King of Dragons


               ~-<>-~

THE ARGUMENT.
In time before time, the Dragon-King Narok, working at the behest of
the Never-Lord, killed all the ancient gods save Red Hart, who
defeated and imprisoned Narok. In 2013, Sedenion, still unaware that
he is himself the Never-Lord, frees the Dragon-King, believing that in
doing so he will cause the universe to rally behind Red Hart's efforts
to halt the cosmic god-flood. While Earth's costumed heroes attempt to
solve the problem of the approaching death-moon Awides and the
god-sea, Red Hart flies into space to battle the dragon once more.

               ~-<>-~

Dramatis Personae.

SEDENION, god of sixteenth-dimensional algebra,
     secretly the dread NEVER-LORD

     Allies of the Never-Lord:
The SHADES, mindless slaves to the Never-Lord
NAROK, the King of Dragons, Destroyer of Heavens

MATT SHARP, a soldier, human host to the Red Hart
RED HART, the Prince of All Forests

     Allies of Red Hart:
JULIE ANN JUSTICE, leader of the Seven Wonders
BLUE BOXER, leader of the Daylighters
VANESSA MORRISON, ex-patriot of Earth, now stranded
An elderly SCHOLAR of some acclaim

               ~-<>-~

SCENE I. Within the Dark Sleep.
[Enter SEDENION.]

SEDENION
My Shades-- his Shades-- the Shades I've nimbly plucked
>From evil's heart, and by my cunning made
The slaves of Light, and in mine pocket tucked--
As planned by antlers did disperse and fade.
The nephew's woke by great Sedenion,
And found some allies brave to save us all.
But yet I feel my work is not yet done,
And more than Shades at my command and call!
Yes, all the Never-Lord's dark minions, mine!
But how? The uncle's gone, by nephew slain!
His citadel, his Shades, his Dragon's shrine,
Should be no more. And yet his toys remain.
Such powers would corrupt a lesser heart.
But mine alone will bend them to my art!

[Enter the SHADES.]

SEDENION
You shadows were of paltry use 'gainst Light.
Red Hart shall have a harder time 'gainst Night.

FIRST SHADE
You speak of Narok, Lord?

SEDENION
                            Yes! Break his chains!
We'll soon cut short the time my nephew reigns!

[Exeunt the SHADES.]

SEDENION
With dragon free, all life shall join his cause.
And yet, tis strange: this action gives me pause.

[Exit SEDENION.]


SCENE II. The Lighthouse.
[Enter JULIE ANN JUSTICE, escorting BLUE BOXER and a SCHOLAR.]

JULIE ANN
... And I may have accidentally compromised your secret identity with
a civilian. Sorry.

BLUE BOXER
It happens. ...A lot. I'm kinda used to it by now. Frankly, I'm
surprised it didn't come out with Snowden with all the rest of you.

JULIE ANN
So where are we at?

BLUE BOXER
Do you want the TL, DR, or do you want the version that makes me sound
busy and impressive?

JULIE ANN
TL, DR.

BLUE BOXER
Spoil-sport. We don't know exactly what the moon is, how it works, or
where it is, but we're working on that. We don't know what the
god-in-the-box is or what it can do, but we're working on that. Red
Hart, Never-Lord, god-flood, we don't really understand any of that
but...

JULIE ANN
You're working on that?

BLUE BOXER
Yeppers. I'd like to try to get some more information from Red Hart.

JULIE ANN
I should warn you, he can be a little hard to parse.

BLUE BOXER
That's why I brought along an interpreter.

JULIE ANN
Here comes our man now. Sans antlers.

[Enter MATT SHARP.]

JULIE ANN
Good afternoon, Mr. Sharp. This is Blue Boxer and...

BLUE BOXER
Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor for the Humanities at Yale
University. We were hoping we could talk to your, uh, alter-ego.

MATT
Sorry to disappoint, sir. But I don't have any control over him. He
just seems to come out when he's needed, and I guess he's the judge of
that.

BLUE BOXER
Maybe try? Like you're meditating? Focus on what it felt like when he
took over. The physical sensations.

MATT
I'll give a shot.

[He closes his eyes, clinches his fists, and concentrates, straining.
Then he flatulates.]

MATT
I'm sorry.

JULIE ANN
I've suffered far worse. My husband is ninety percent gas most of the time.

MATT
I mean I'm sorry I let you folks down. I know this is awfully
important and that you're all counting on him. On me. I just feel so
small. You guys do this all the time. But for me, I'm just a normal
guy. This all just feels so... impossible and big.

BLUE BOXER
Your name is Matt?

MATT
Yes, sir.

BLUE BOXER
I know what you're feeling, Matt. I'm a normal guy. I mean, I'm a kind
of a genius, but normal.

JULIE ANN
Cough.

BLUE BOXER
I've felt it before. That everything was too big for one person. And
it was. It almost always is. But that's why there's not just one of
us. It's not just on you, or the space-god living inside of you, and
it's not just on me.

MATT
I know what you mean. I was in the army. I was part of my squad. Guess
the only difference is, there I had training, and I felt like I was
pulling my weight.

[Exeunt BLUE BOXER and MATT, still in conversation.]

JULIE ANN
So, Harold Bloom. "Invention of the Human." Big fan.

SCHOLAR
Thanks. I like your miniskirt.

JULIE ANN
... Thanks.

[Exeunt.]


SCENE III. The Lighthouse, infirmary.
[Enter VAN from the bathroom.]

VAN
Stuck on Earth, and an overactive bladder. Great. Bad enough my ship
was wrecked; maybe I could fix that. But they went and turned it into
some cosmic knick-knack leaking off his god-stuff. What am I going to
do with that? Nothing, that's what. It's not like I'm going to find
another one. Not on Earth: there's a reason I left and never looked
back. Finding a way off this planet, it's worse odds than winning the
lottery. Finding it a second time-- worse than winning it twice.

[Enter JULIE ANN JUSTICE.]

JULIE ANN
You prone to soliloquizing?

VAN
A little bit, sure. Spent most of my life making cargo runs in Deep
Space. Crew of one.

JULIE ANN
Sounds lonely.

VAN
Nah, I'm good company. Better than most people on this mudball.
Present company excluded, I'm sure.

JULIE ANN
Oh, I'm sure.

VAN
Maybe you can help me? Get back into space?

JULIE ANN
I'm not sure how long you've been gone, but interstellar travel's
still a ways away. Maybe give it ten or twenty years. Or centuries.
Not sure which.

VAN
Yeah, but you're super-people. You've got to have some way to get up
there when things go agley.

JULIE ANN
Usually whatever's going "agley" comes to us.

VAN
Convenient.

JULIE ANN
But you've been up there, huh? Met aliens, seen planets, stars...?
Must've been wonderful.

VAN
All that and a box of crackers, yeah. But it's not just that. On
Earth, it's like you're born in a box you never get out of. You get
born in a particular place and time, to particular people, who you
have to care about, because they're family. And they bring with them
all these obligations and circumstances. And wherever and whenever you
are, that determines who you're going to meet, maybe who you're going
to marry, what your life is going to be. No one ever starts clean. No
one ever really lives. You always have to play the hand you're dealt,
and when you're done, whatever you've done, it's dealt the hand for
the next generation. Space, it's like a big reshuffle. I could be
whoever I wanted to be, and that had jack-all with being born in
Aberdeen in 1975, with what my parents did.

JULIE ANN
Our records have it as '72.

VAN [Ignores her]
And you're right, maybe in ten or twenty years, maybe in our lifetime,
the whole human race will be able to get up and go there. And bring it
all up there with them. And then absolutely ruin it.

JULIE ANN
You must care something for the Earth, if you came back to warn us about Awides.

VAN
Tell yourself that, if you like.

JULIE ANN
You're recovering well. Get some rest. In a day or so you'll be free to go.

[Exit JULIE ANN.]

VAN
I'll go, but I sure as hell won't be free.

[A beat, then exit VAN, urgently, to the bathroom. Enter MATT SHARP,
in pain, followed by BLUE BOXER and the SCHOLAR. Re-enter JULIE ANN.]

JULIE ANN
What's going on?

BLUE BOXER
Came over him all of the sudden.

MATT
Feels like I'm about to throw up all my insides!

[BLUE BOXER knocks on the bathroom door.]

VAN [from within]
Occupied!

[MATT screams, is engulfed by cosmic light, and is transformed to RED HART.]

RED HART
I fear my host doth wear a little thin.
No man is meant to hold a god within.

SCHOLAR
That means--

BLUE BOXER
I think I got that much. Each time he transforms, it's going to take
more of a toll on Sharp.

JULIE ANN
Could it kill him?

BLUE BOXER
It could. We should get Fay to look at his biometrics.

RED HART
No time! The dragon's free! His chains undone!
The universe shall be engulfed in flames!
I feel and heed the cry of cosmic blood!
Before I go I'll seal the Earth from hate,
Then quick across all time and space my gait!

[Exit RED HART, leaping into the air and through the ceiling. The
others cover their head and jump away.]

JULIE ANN
Is he going to fight the death-moon?

BLUE BOXER
Mr. Bloom?

SCHOLAR
I don't think so. From the notes I've been given, Awides has never
been called a dragon, and the metaphor most consistently employed is
that he was awakened, not unchained. I think this is something else.

JULIE ANN
So, yet another thing that can end the universe just came out of the
woodwork. I'm surprised we've lasted this long.

[Exeunt.]


SCENE IV. Deep Space.
[Enter RED HART, bristling with cosmic power.]

RED HART
My antlers know the cosmic tides of space
As blades of grass know whispers of the wind.
And so I know the dragon's free, and here.
These borrowed mortal eyes cannot behold
His manacles, but eyeless eyes of gods
Can pierce the veils of infinity with ease.
I see thy fetters, Narok! Now appear!

[Previously invisible, NAROK appears, mammoth beyond comprehension.]

NAROK
You need not bellow, young fool forest prince.

RED HART
You call me young? A fool perhaps I am,
But young? I am before beginnings, King.

NAROK
And I, before "before". To me, e'en "gods"
Are but sweet infants, preening, meaningless.

RED HART
And yet to such a god you are enslaved.

NAROK
The Never-Lord was never lord of me,
and never made the Dragon-King a Shade.
My will remains my own, and never his.
I serve him freely, for my own purpose,
So far beyond your ken, oh tiny brain.
All brains are small, but motes and specks of dust,
Against mine: greater than a hundred suns,
In size and brilliance both, is Narok's mind.

RED HART
You are, indeed, my uncle's dreadest pet.

NAROK
And you, the least of thy thin pantheon.
And also last, if perfect memory serves.
For did I not destroy your brother-gods?
Did not I smash your heavens with my tail,
A tail so long that now tis tightly-wound,
Much like a spiral galaxy, or else
This small dark universe could not contain,
Nor bear behold, its sheer magnificence?
Did not great Narok break thy father's bones
With but a careless flick of my talon?
Did not an idle stifled sneeze suffice
To end the withered whore that gave you suck?
Forgive me please, young god, for I am old,
More than a thousand universes old.
Perhaps my memory falters now. Do tell.

RED HART
No, Dragon-King, all that did come to pass.
Besides my uncle, Red Hart is the last.
My mortal host has often heard it said
That grief will heal with Time. It may be true.
If so, a billion times fifteen small years
Is not yet Time enough to lessen mine,
For grief and rage are both beyond measure.
And yet, one thing I think you did forget,
One small but vital fact that did escape
E'en Narok's perfect, endless memory.

NAROK
                                      Oh?

RED HART
'Twas t' least and last that did the dragon smite.
I proved thy better then, and shall this night!

[Commences a battle of indescribable scope; exeunt in dazzling, blinding light.]


COPYRIGHT (C) 2014 TOM RUSSELL.