The Twenty-Four Hour Man (IP)

Clinging on desperately to life, you were the only thought in my mind; your voice telling me who I was, telling me my destiny.

So much has happened to me in this day; my life literally flashing before my eyes. Today I saw my first sunset and possibly my last. I am afraid but the sound of your voice comforts me, my Amoria.

They call me the day-long hero; the twenty-four hour man or, in their ancient tongue, Deronda. Some may see a glass half empty; some half full. I have little choice, for in my heart there is an hour-glass and its bottom half is swiftly filling full of sand.

This morning, as the sun rose, spilling over the peaks and troughs of the Atruvian hills, I was born.

Lightning struck an egg balanced,on its pointed end, upon the sacred altar; the egg cracked and I emerged into the temple of the Emerald Heart; surrounded by priests in azure robes who, lifting me from the altar, placed me beneath the Tree of Learning and fed me upon its golden apples.

After I had devoured 4 apples I could walk and talk in the sacred language of the priests; after I had devoured 8, I knew all the sacred arts of sword and staff and bow; after I had eaten 12, I knew the history of the great, high-walled, golden citadel of Attar which surrounded the temple and about the Dragon who endangered the survival of its people but, only when I ate the 13th apple did I feel a sharp, sudden pain strike my heart for then I learned of my abysmal fate, that I would only be allowed to live for one day.

More men in Azure robes then clothed me in Armour of shining Silvium and then the old High priest of the temple, a man named Mossum, led me into a vast room with high walls and an immense, painted ceiling depicting the Cosmos and its astrological significance. It was also full of Urns cast,like my armour, from Silvium, placed upon small marble pedestals and engraved with the names of all the Day-Long men who had been summoned and who had died before me.

“They too could only live for one day but they used what time they had to save our City from destruction”, the High-priest told me, “And they shall always be remembered by us, as shall you, if you fight and slay the Dragon”.

“Why should I waste my time, which is in such short supply, serving others and defeating some monster? Surely, if I have only one day to live then I should spend it in enjoyment and pleasure”, I said, without even thinking , as I gazed out of one of the large triangular portals that overlooked the bustling, labyrinthine streets of Attar.

“Each human life”, said the priest, laying a wrinkled old hand upon my shoulder, “Is a part of a greater life. Part of life itself. Individually, I may be nothing more than a speck of dust blowing through the void, but as a priest of the temple and as a citizen of Attar, I am part of the great monument of eternal life. A monument that, unlike the towering monuments of Kings, will never crumble or fall. You, too will be part of that monument, if you slay the dragon”.

But his words meant nothing to me for all I could hear, as he moved his lips, was the deafening ticking of a clock; the rumbling avalanche of sand rushing through an hourglass. I had no time to listen to old men’s speeches, not when every word was a second of my life gone. I wanted to live; to live fast and grab as much out of life as I could before my life came to an end.

Your voice Armoria, however, was different, seductive. Perhaps that was why your father, Mossum, chose you; to trick me and I was tricked; lured to your chambers where we hurriedly made love and I fell in love with you and then, after that brief experience which I take to be ecstacy, you told me that my child would grow inside of you.

“A normal child?”, I asked, “One that will live for more than a day?”.

“It may live a hundred years or more”, you replied, holding me to you, “But it will not live very long if the great City falls and I and all are devoured by the dragon”.

A child. Now, that was something real. Something worth dying for but, then, like an Earthquake cracking the sky open; the mighty Dragon roared and I learned the real meaning of fear.

If mountains could float upon the air they might look something close to the creature that I now saw approaching, through the window of your chamber, and its wide open mouth the kind of yawning chasm that men who climb mountains fall into; each of its eyes, of which it had many, was also vast and perfectly round like the rose window of a church lit by blazing torch light and when it breathed; solid city walls became flaming magma.

“Until now, I hadn’t even thought of it. But how am I supposed to fight that thing”, I asked you then.

You didn’t answer me except with a kiss and that was all I really needed, for then, some instinct took hold of me and, without any hesitation, I picked up my sword and leapt through the window and my Silvium armour which, for some reason only known to magic, is magnetically attracted to the hide of the dragon; pulled me towards it and, again following my instinct, I manouvered myself so that my golden blade collided with the beasts enormous heart.

For how many minutes I hung onto the hilt of that sword, I do not know but, though my spurs were dragged upon the clouds and my head reeled because of the thinness of the air, I held on and twisted its corkscrew blade deep into the heart; all the while hearing it beat like a pounding cannon
close to my ear and feeling the creatures scalding hot blood flow upon my face.

Then I heard the creature speak to me; not with that gaping mouth, but a voice echoing and booming like a wild hurricane within my mind, “The breath of a dragon makes a man immortal. I have the power to breathe that immortal life into you. You, who only live for a day, could live for Eternity but only, if you allow me to live shall I give that power to you”.

All I had to think of; to cling to in my mind was the face of you Amoria and so I did, I held on;
“There are things greater than one man’s life”, I said.

The beast then let out a flaming roar and, together, we plummeted through the air and all the while, I closed my eyes and thought of you for I was sure that I would die but then the creature plunged us both deep into the river that lies outside the City walls and my lungs filled with water as I screamed and, as the beast fell limp and heavy upon me, I realized that I was not dead.

“You will only die when it is your time to die”, said the old priest after they had dragged me from the water with my armour caked in river mud and slime, “For though you may only live for one day you are, for that one day, immortal”.

And now that the sky is darkening and my vision, as I gaze at your lustrous face, is growing dimmer; now that the full moon is rising and I imagine that I see Angels descending from it upon a spiralling stairway, I think that I do not mind dying at all; for I have lived and loved more than many do in a lifetime.