What an odd and extraordinarily bizarre world inside the ancient wizard's mind I had entered. Here I will tell you what flummoxed me, and how it made me take another step towards both uncertainty and conviction.
I felt as if I were losing my own mind, and perhaps I was or did.
"Disruptor! Arrogant, insolent, supercilious agitator!" Koschei bellowed.
Time was running backward, then forward, then jumping to the future, and rewinding to the past. My image. My body. My vessel. My humanity was in question.
"A dragon, even! Insolent! Disgusting narcissistic creatures! In my world? In Buyan? My paradise? My paradise will be your culmination!"
What did his world look like?
It was like a park, a playground, a rich and vibrant outdoor paradise. A perfect breeze. Perfect sunshine, glowing purple. Perfect grass, shimmering orange in the sunlight. A perfect sky holding the perfect temperature glowing green with large, puffy silver clouds.
One tree.
