Broken Wings

Dead Man

I closed my eyes and braced for an extremely painful death. Time seemed to slow down for me; I had plenty of time to feel the heat on my face as the flames approached. I couldn't help but think how in the end, all of my struggles the past couple of days had been for nothing. I might as well have just burned in my plane's explosion. Then something incredible happened: the heat blasting me dissipated. Shocked beyond belief, I opened my eyes.

The dragon was still standing right there a few feet away, staring at me and growling softly. I risked taking my eyes off it to steal a quick look around and spotted a scorched patch of earth about six feet across a little way off to my right. And there in the center... Wait. That burning bit of slag... Had that been my gun?! I looked back at the dragon again, incredulous. It disarmed me and destroyed my weapon?! What the hell is going on here?! And now it was looking at me with what I could only interpret as a smug expression. My lips curled into a snarl at that, and I gripped my knife tighter, silently daring the creature to come closer so I could slash that stupid look off its face. But instead, it simply laid down where it was, folded its wings back against its sides with a surprisingly deliberate air to its actions, and regarded me with bright, intelligent eyes.

I was beyond confused. Why doesn't it just finish me off? It has to know it's got me. There's no way it's that worried about getting hurt by this knife. I considered trying to crawl away but gave up on that idea right away. I was far too slow to get away, and it would also mean turning my back to this beast.

I tried to think of something, anything to get out of this situation, hardly noticing those black spots from a few moments ago starting to creep back into my vision. I realized how tired I was and started to relax a bit- Wait, that's it! Another surge of adrenaline coursed through me as I realized the dragon's plan! It knew I was badly injured; that would be obvious to any predator. And if it was smart enough to destroy my gun then maybe it was smart enough to know time was on its side in this contest. My body didn't have the energy to sustain these bursts of panic. The beast was just waiting for me to pass out or expire so it could take me with no fight at all!

I gritted my teeth and fought against the blackness swirling at the edges of my vision. I bit my tongue, pressed against my hurt ribs, and intentionally moved my busted ankle, but I couldn't get my body to produce another jolt of adrenaline to keep me conscious. I was just too tired. Not even the knowledge that blacking out meant death could stave off unconsciousness anymore. My arm dropped, and the knife rolled out of my hand. The dragon calmly stood up at the motion, then I lost track of it as my head drooped to rest on the ground, and it became impossible to focus my eyes. Just before I fell all the way out, I reflected that I'd fought as hard as I possibly could have against this. Even though no one would ever know, I found some small satisfaction that I was going down fighting. Then...

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

...Cold... Dark... Aches everywhere... Alive?

I thought so. My mind felt sluggish, but I did my best to assess my state. I was breathing steadily, I felt something firm under me, my injuries still hurt, and I was still so tired. Ghosts don't feel tired, do they? Or breathe. Wouldn't know; never been dead before. I think I'm... probably alive. Just mostly asleep. Bad dream. Shadow monsters and dragons. Crazy. Enough problems without getting scared of fairytales.

"Ugh... Where am I?" I muttered. I forced my eyes open and discovered that wherever I was, it was pitch black all around. Still night. And I still couldn't remember when and where I'd stopped to sleep. The last things I remembered were scenes from my latest nightmare. The image of that dragon simply refused to leave my mind. A pit started to form in my gut. It was a very vivid dream, more detailed and coherent than any dream I could remember having. Unless... unless it wasn't a dream at all. I swallowed fearfully and held my breath, listening. Then from somewhere very close, something very large let out a quiet snore.