The Temeraire's
Memories
by Thomas Dutton
Finally out on the open water, with my friends and this grotty
tug boat. I remember the battle...it must be twenty... or forty
years ago... I remember my gold gleaming light, and my shining
decks and sails... Now tattered and rotted. I remember my cannons
firing and booming out...now rusted and unkempt. Once a Queen...now
an invalid...tattered, old and wise... Wise of the world...from
the deep dark forests...to the wide blue oceans. This must be
it... I have had a good life, I have survived a great war and
peril... Defeated my enemies... And came close to my friends.
I am proud of myself... Heroic! Victorious! Fearless! .... But
I am afraid...afraid of one thing...my death. I am going to
be ripped apart right down to every metal support or wooden
plank...each part shall be used again and again...my soul being
shattered and remade, shattered and remade. But I'm useless
now. I can't even move by my own power anymore... I have to
be pulled around everywhere by a tug boat! Hmmmm... I can see
a city...this must mean I'm very close...to...death.
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