In a curious region of the sky, there is a place that has never been discovered by human eyes. In this wondrous space, stars twinkle more brightly, and the moon sings soft lullabies. Here, you can find the land of dreams—the magical Dreamland. Every night, a rainbow bridge stretches from Dreamland over the sleeping Earth, allowing children to enter as they close their eyes and drift into slumber.
However, one little creature dwelling in this enchanting land felt a deep longing for companionship. Drago, the dreaming dragon, had a heart more luminous than all the stars in the heavens. Every time a child dreamt of him, he would wish with all his might, “Oh, if only I could visit them for a little while!”
Drago was a magnificent golden dragon with a delightful countenance. His wings were painted with all the colors of the rainbow, and when he awoke each morning, his bright smile caused the Sun itself to blush. He filled the air with music when the gentle breezes rustled his shiny scales. Whenever Drago flew over the meadows of Dreamland, flowers would sway in rhythm as though trying to dance to the sweet melodies that flowed from his heart.
One night, as he sat gazing over the slumbering Earth, he cried aloud, “Rainbow Bridge, why do you lead the children only to Dreamland? I long so eternally to visit them and know their little, laughing faces.” Drago’s voice was almost drowned by the melodious chimes of the silvery bells floating down from fairy towers high above him. With deep sorrow, he turned his back on the Earth.
As he did so, a silvery streak shot across the vast sky, leaving behind a magnificent wake of sparkling light. It was the Fairy Queen speeding on her way to make her midnight visit to Dreamland.
“Oh, my royal sister,” Drago exclaimed, kneeling upon the ground. “Pray do not forget your humble brother when you return to the fairy world. Oh, for one fleeting moment, I long to visit the Earth and meet the dear children whilst they dream of me.”
“Rise, my good Drago,” the Fairy Queen said, “and dry your tears. You shall realize your fondest wish. I will give you a sprinkle of imagination, which will enable you to flit into the dreams of those children who think often of you. So farewell for the time, and remember that all this wondrous world of dreams exists because of imagination.”
With a wave of her wand, Drago’s heart was put in touch with seeds of fanciful leaves that drift on the wings of the wind to touch children’s hearts. Then the Queen of the Fairies sped on her way, while Drago plucked an odorous flower that grew at his feet and set out to seek for the first dreaming child he could find.
As he flew towards the Earth, a sudden change came over his surroundings. The flowers and the trees that he loved so much began to grow dim, while clouds as black as coal enveloped him. Before he knew it, the sensitive Dragon was far away from the beautiful meadows of Dreamland. He battled on with all his strength against the fierce winds, beating his mighty wings that dazzled in the dark night.
“Goodbye, Dreamland,” he sobbed as a heavy shower of rain drummed against his back. “Goodbye forever.”
“Oh, dear! dear!” Drago cried round his friend’s neck. “What does all this mean? Is it a dream or a cruel reality? Will the Fairy Queen come and rescue me?”
“Reality, my friend, nothing but reality,” the boy replied asleep. “But if you really wish to return,” he asked, “why don’t you approach the silvery stars above and ask them to sprinkle their light along your way back to this Earth? They’ll be glad to help you.”
Drago thanked the child and remembered how some stars laughed and played with him on balmy summer nights when he danced face to face with them in the starlit vault of heaven.
“Hear me, my little radiant stars,” begged Drago, rising out into the ocean blue. “The Fairy Queen has covered my heart with imagination to enable me to visit dreaming children on this Earth. I was weak in the race against a mighty storm and fell into street gutters several miles away from here.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the kind little stars sprinkled their soft, silvery beams all around, and soon after, Drago stood once more safe in the midst of his beloved Dreamland.
“Ah, I feel so light as I sink down into soft slumber,” whispered the boy. Then with his arms clasped round the only neck of his loving dragon, he floated off into that interior land of the calm sea of dreams.
Now, it is in this place of dreams where the hearts twine together as flowers twine round a wedding ring that children and their dreams feel and learn each other’s powers and claims. Existence has but a magic veil between that little child firm sleeping in that lonely room where the rain is beating and the soft arms folded round his faithful, dreaming companion. The two beings and their thoughts are realizing every hour of their existence that wondrous phrase, “We are one.” Little by little they are getting to touch and know each other’s being and existence, not in dreams alone, but in thoughts and feelings wide awake.
So here, during the night that they are together, the believing child and the joyous dragon fly straight to that curious place in the skies where every wish of every dream becomes fulfilled. And this wonderful yearning according to a child’s merit and thought is never denied by the objects or personalities of the dream, flower, or world faded into view far away over the heavens.
So the Egypt of the dreaming child appears in haste while Drago shows him this and shows him that. The child stays here and there according to the newness of ancient places in accordance with the friendliness of forms of friendly appearances. Then they soar away where hid both in form and appearance stands that haphazard condemned to utter “ever youth” along the earthly shores.
Till daylight spread over calm, sleeping realities to wake them from the tranquillity of enchanted existence and joined feeling of a child’s and his dream’s memory. So the child awakened:
“Dear, dear Drago, what have you been doing these hours? Where are the delightful places and people I have dreamt of, who have been in the happiest moods, and now gone beyond the shores of time? Sleep always looking human and pleasant, dear Drago, in the mellifluous, heavenly tenderness of children’s hearts.”
Drago only smiled with a kindly, longing half-sad smile and rustled the soft hair round the child’s forehead like a warm, sultry breeze. Through a silent agreement both parties fully understand that no living being like themselves can ever master the existence of Soul and Wings—the one makes individuals hearts known to each other, and the other makes each spirit as light and short of dimensional space as possible. The enchanted still thoughts and prattling minds of all children’s souls and dragons are imbued with an Element of Spirit blossoming in a blossoming way.
Many awake full from their joy, and others have changed into happy extremes of wit; some small rainbows are captured in threads of their dreams to glitter, yearly renewed, on the bright edges of passing Sails of Dreams—and the children wonder where they came from. There is only one flower-marked Letter of Everlasting Gladness contained in this stained glass window of DOUBTLESS FLIGHT.