"The Title"

My bones feel papery-thin, brittle in the wind that sweeps over the plateau.

I take a step forward, joints creaking with heat, lack of sleep, and boredom. I wish I’d not taken the dog along. It wanted to snuggle with me in the sleeping bag, and kept biting fleas against my leg all night long. Now it trots along next to me, lightly panting, not aware of any distress it may have caused. I take off my hat to cool the sweat on my scalp, drink some water from the canteen and offer it to the dog, then keep going, bolstered by the resolve that this discomfort is temporary and infinitely worth the cost. The dog sniffs and leaps forward, and I follow it, plodding steadily forward into the heat lines of the bleached valley below. Somewhere in this desert lies the Book of Life…

I saw it in a vision, you see. At home, lazing in the backyard, drinking lemonade and devouring cookies and the latest Piers Anthony novel in the Xanth trilogy, a flash of a dragonfly wing sent my mind into a well of mirrors. My mind tumbled down until it reached a cavern deep in unknown mountains, on the edge of a vast desert. In the cavern sat a table. On the table lay a book, open to the last page, a quill resting in inkwell at its side. I drew closer to read what was in the book, but it was empty. Waiting. The dragonfly flew past, and the vision broke.  waiting for my signature…