The Fiery Battle

Since I am not witnessing the situation through my own eyes, but with a video from the camera on the drone, I am having a hard time believing the scene is taking place for real in the distance beside me.

If someone were to tell me I am currently watching a high-budget movie, I would trust them undoubtedly.

I mean, ignoring the lush vegetation, there is a dragon, a wing flapping, ground shaking, fire breathing dragon here, and it's swinging its tail at a group of medieval-looking knights who are trying to retaliate with their crossbows.

"What are the chances…" I mutter to myself.

"The chances of what?" Cisca hears my words and asks.

"What are the chances that creatures from myths in our world happen to be real in this one?"

Cisca bobs her head and stays silent for a second.

"Have you heard of the Mandela Effect?" She asks.

"Somewhat, but I don't know how it has anything to do with what I am looking at right now," I say.

"It's basically an unproven phenomenon that suggests connections and interference can randomly occur between parallel universes," Cisca says, "It can alter people's memories and thoughts. My theory is that sometime in the past, one of such disruptions planted the idea of creatures like dragons in a person's head on Earth, leading them to create stories and myths."

"Hmm."

That sounds very plausible, but it doesn't make what I am seeing any more easily believable.

Cisca points at the screen and says, "Oh, look, the poor soldier is getting help."

I don't know why Cisca points at anything. On my side, it just looks like she is pointing at me, and it doesn't help me draw my attention to anywhere in particular, but this time, I notice what she is talking about.

One of the soldiers holding crossbows breaks off from his squad and runs through the burning bush to get to his injured comrade who is pinned under a fallen tree.

I still have another question that isn't answered. What was causing the lightning? There isn't rain or even a cloud anywhere around except for directly above the dragon. Where did even that come from? I figure Cisca probably won't know, either, so I won't bother asking her.

The soldier stops in front of his friend, whose entire lower body is crushed by a full-grown pine tree. A pool of blood is accumulating beside him, and he is writhing in agony.

"What is he trying to do?" Cisca asks, seemingly talking to herself, "There is no way he can pull his teammate out from under the tree."

I am also wondering about the same thing, but that's when the situation becomes even more puzzling.

Instead of trying to do anything, the soldier to his comrade's aid kneels down on two knees beside him and puts his crossbow on the ground. He locks his hands together in front of him and closes his eyes.

Is he… praying? Does he understand that there is no way to help his comrade, so he is there to send him a final prayer?

His lips move, but the drone is too far to capture what he says. Cisca and I watch in silent confusion at whatever is going on there.

Five seconds later, a white light glows from within his closed palms. When the light disappears soon after, the soldier stands up and reaches under the tree with his hands. Accompanied by an audible cry, he lifts the fifty-meter pine tree off the ground with nothing but his arms.

"What the fuck…" I mumble to myself.

The soldier pushes the tree forward and sends it flying into the nearby fiery field. His comrade is now free from the restriction, but his legs are still messed up, twisted and broken in many places.

"What just happened?" I say and throw my hands up in bewilderment.

"I… don't know," Cisca says.

The soldier walks around to the other side and grabs his comrade's broken legs. Followed by a scream of pain, he tugs and pulls his friend's legs straight, but they are still bleeding non-stop.

"Look," Cisca points, "He is doing it again."

He kneels down beside his still incapacitated and moaning comrade and prays a second time. This time, it lasts for much longer than five seconds. He stays still while the rest of the squad is moving to distract the furious dragon away.

About a minute later, the light glows again, with much higher intensity this time. The soldier unclasps his hands that are still illuminating and hovers them over his comrade's injured legs. The pool of blood stops increasing in size, and the just now almost legless knight stands up like nothing had just happened.

The magically healed soldier claps his friend on the back, and the two grab their crossbows and run to join the rest of their squad.

My brain is no longer functioning properly from what just took place.

"Is that… magic?" I ask.

Cisca chuckles and covers her mouth with her hand. "I am a scientist, so I have to tell you magic doesn't exist… but… this is…." She is speechless.

"You know what it reminds me of?" Cisca asks.

"What?"

"Miracles."

"From the Bible?"

"Yeah," she says, "It's like when Jesus Christ restored the vision of the blind man."

"You just said you are a scientist, Cisca. How do you even know this?" I ask.

"Well, I had to research religions when I was doing my Ph.D. in anthropology."

"Right. Of course. I forgot, but what is the difference between miracles and magic?"

"Not much."

"So can you explain this with science, please?" I ask.

Cisca shoves her open hands at the screen and says, "What do you think? No! The fundamental laws of physics can change when traveling between universes. In fact, there are some worlds where time flows backward. The existence of magic isn't too far-fetched compared to that, is it?"

"No, I guess not."

The recently rescued knight runs to the dragon, but instead of using his crossbow like the others, he kneels down as his friend did and clasps his hands together in prayer.

Ten seconds later, the same light glows and lightning strikes down from the cloud above directly onto the dragon. It growls after the thunder but doesn't look to be very hurt by it.

"At this point, I am not even surprised," Cisca says.

"Yeah…"

Even though the lightning didn't harm the dragon by much, it does look very irritated from the shock. It spins its head around to find where the strike came from, and it lands its eyes directly on the drone.

"Uh oh," Cisca says.

The dragon opens its mouth wide at the camera, and from the darkness within, a crimson flame surfaces, shooting straight out at the drone.