previous part: https://jordynsaelor.com/2026/05/21/outlast-what-lasts-forever/
table of contents: https://jordynsaelor.com/cant-catch-me-now/
***
In the rains, what do dracans do?
They open their mouths
and drink.
no one would die
no one would die
if the moon
were watching,
no one would cry
if the lakes turned dry,
so how could I have hope
when I had water in my eyes;
I walked
through the town of dracans
and padded through desolate silence
with fires still burning
but no one in sight–
surely they hadn’t all died
surely they all
went somewhere safe
so I walked
to the lake
through the garden of trees
who feasted on the same things
as what burned the dracans’ town
and found a few standing by the waters
planning which trees
to cut
to rebuild
and I couldn’t
talk about
rebuilding
when
no one would’ve died
if the sea came crawling
so I dove into the water
and asked
where the blue-green shroud came from
how I used it
to fight back
how I
did the portal thing through the water again
to find the raiders,
what magic
did I use
to beat them–
but no sea deity
spoke to me
and the moon
sure didn’t either
so I went to shore
with the dracans
and they asked me
if I was okay.
“Uh, no,” I said, “none
of this is okay!”
And they blinked big gray eyes at me
and said,
“Little adventurer,
our dead fly with the moon now–
they’re okay.”
I
didn’t believe them;
how could I,
why would I?
So I roared,
“Do you mean to say
the spirits of the dead
are the haze that fills the sky each night?
And those raiders
used their spirits
to kill us?”
“No,” a dracan said,
name of Gorflee. “Why
would the crystal haze be made of spirits?”
“Where does it come from though?” I shouted, flinging water from my arms. “How
do we use it against them?”
The dracans all shrugged. “Where does the sun come from? Or the rocks?
Maybe the dust comes from the stars up there, or from the air condensing on layers of itself–
who cares where it comes from?
It feeds the garden,
and lures the fish.
Little adventurer,
we don’t need to use it against them.
They’ve fled
and they will probably never come back.”
But oh
they came back
before the first cabin
was built
and fewer dracans
returned to the lake this time
so I went diving to the water
and tried to will myself
through the portal
to the mountain of rain
to ask for magic
to destroy the raiders
but no,
nothing,
and the dracans onshore
decided
to up and leave
across the rocky waste
to find a new lake
instead of fighting
when they could fly
further than those raiders could run
and I said no
you can do what you want,
leave your moon garden
and find a new one,
but Runabon
and Runaround
and Pobbee
and the other dracans
won’t be there
and I can’t pretend to be happy
or worry it won’t happen again
so I
am going to find a way to defeat those raiders.
And they said,
“Little adventurer,
revenge won’t make you happy.”
And I said,
“I know. But it will keep you safe;
I would give you the maps I started to make
of the wastes
but those burned too
and if you know the healing runes
you’ll be fine
and if anyone wants to come with me to help
you’re welcome to–”
“Little adventurer,” Ebolf said, “it’s not your job
to keep us safe,
but if you can’t come with us
in peace
I hope you can
go out to find it–
that is what your kind does,
right?
Goes on adventures?
So go,
find a new journey,
and may the moon
watch over you.”
I doubted
the moon would do any such thing
but I nodded
and we did a sappy group hug thing
with their wings
and my puny arms
and said goodbye
and they again
said I could come with them
but I said no,
and that felt right;
Adventurer
by his own words
on his own again
for a little while
and they took flight
under the sun
and I liked to imagine
they wept tears
over their town,
tears that let their friends’ spirits
sink into the sea
who knew everything about their moon
and could take them to it,
even if their moon
had turned away
from protecting them.
***
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Jordyn Saelor 