Chapter 5

The burning sand killed all the people that hadn’t been crushed from the flying parts of the now destroyed airplane that the dragon blasted everywhere when it emerged. John was about to die, but strangely enough, he didn't feel scared, he felt curious. By the looks of it, so did the dragon. It was like they were the same. It looked down at him extending its extremely long neck. The more it observed John, the more he felt comfortable.

He finally had the chance to observe its features. It had a big stomach that was a tainted yellow, two big back legs that it was "sitting" on instead of all four legs. Its front legs were in the air and clearly had helped in the pushing of the sand. Gigantic wings were spread out as far and wide as they could go. They looked leathery and strong but they also looked like they could be ripped apart with the slightest pull. Veins were spread out to every endpoint of the wings which also contained a claw. A tail a mile long stretched out though the sand behind, the end disappearing because it wasn't completely out of the sand. Everywhere but the stomach, pads of the feet, and the wings, there were green scales.

Its face was the face of a monster; it had horns sticking out of the topsides of its head. It had a flat snout twice as long as John with nostrils on each end. They had stings coming out of them; John guessed it was for show. A mouth, gaping with teeth as sharp as knifes, was the bottom part of the snout. A tongue that looked like a moving fork slithered out of the mouth to taste the air. It had a mane that went everywhere around the top of the neck near its head. But its eyes, its eyes weren't like what he had read about them. They were nice and sweet, not piercing, killing red.

It moved its head closer to John until it was two feet away. A wave of ghastly aroma was cast over him. The smell of thousands of dead corpse was in his nose and lungs. He figured since he was going to die, he should at least brave the sight. As he looked down its gigantic mouth, he saw a small cylinder under its tongue that was held in place by skin. John then realized that it was where the smell was coming from.

His eyes were wide open and he could feel the ground, but he didn't feel like he was in his own body. Everything went hazy, he was sleepy, and yet wide awake. His entire consciousness was focused on one thing, but he didn't know what it was.

He saw the earth as it was when it was forming, when it was made of lava. Just a bunch of volcanoes and rivers of lava flowing everywhere. Nothing looked too interesting but something did catch John's "eye". A shadow, a shadow just like the one he saw at the park, the shadow of a dragon. It was flying high in the sky, thousands of miles up. John looked up and saw it disappear into the distance. All looked happy with the creature. John thought that the dragon must be able to walk, and therefore, have a better life than John. He was jealous he had to admit, but he, for a second, felt like the thing wasn't a man-eating killer beast. It was harmless, just living life.

SWISH, a huge wing blew right next to him, making his fairly long brown hair slap his face. The huge wind had come from behind. John quickly turned his head to see what the wind was. Nothing was behind him, but when he faced forward, he just caught another dragon flying, or gliding, extremely fast five feet from the ground.

Just then John went around and around until everything was black. He looked down at his feet; he was no longer standing on solid ground. Wait! He was standing, with his own two legs. He started to cry; for once he was normal, besides the fact that he was seeing the earth before it was formed.

The image was back. It looked like a different place than before. But then again everything looked the same. Out to his west, there was something moving, something was on top of another. The same two dragons that he saw in the last setting were right there. The one on top ripped its head up. Blood splattered everywhere as a piece of skin from the dragon on the bottom was thrown into the air, still attached to the teeth of the second dragon.

Why? John thought.

Because that is the only food that we had replied another voice from everywhere John could see.

What was that?! John yelled from inside his head since no one could answer him in this wasteland.

My name is Lenrog, and I have shown you our past.

Our?

The dragon race.

So you are dragons?

Yes.

What do you want from me?

It's not that we want anything from you; your emotion has driven us toward you.

What do you mean? Why am I here then? What was that vision or whatever about? And how did you fix my legs?

We must start at the beginning. . . Another scene was placed in front of John. It was that same volcanic earth as before. Dragons were everywhere in the sky. They were doing air patterns that John never thought were possible. One was flying to the east, or what looked like the east, John couldn't tell, then twisted its body into a backwards C. Turning it at light speed to the west. It was beautiful.

Another dragon came down and pounced on the first one. It screamed as the larger second dragon's claws dug deep within the first one's scales. The second one hit right at the center on the spine. Its head and tail were thrown up and its center was pushed and pushed until it hit the ground. The force of the blow knocked the first one's head to the ground, breaking its neck bone. The bigger one extended its neck, opened its mouth, placed its teeth on the first one, gripped, and tore the meat clean of its body.

This is our life. Long ago, we used to thrive here; we were nurtured by the magma's warmth. We were made as predators, but had no food, except ourselves. The battle for survival soon was the only thing we cared about. We were powerful, but chose not to use it for good. Nothing was as it should have been. We got cocky, and we suffered. Our way of life was to grow-up, try and kill each other for food, and die either by being eaten, or dieing then being eaten.

Yet another setting was placed in front of John. We were on the brink of extinction. We didn't care about what was happening around us. This is where we went wrong.

The scene changed from the volcanic planet to a picture of an ocean. But it seemed familiar.

This is the same place you were looking at 5 seconds ago, only one year into the future. You might be familiar with the storm that cooled down the planet. Well, this is it. We can't survive in these conditions; it needs to be hot and dry.

That would explain why you're in Death Valley but how did you survive the storm.

You might recall that we were surrounded by volcanoes.

So?

So they're a straight shot to the earth's core.

And. . .

You’re really not that bright are you?

No I'm not. I was an athlete, but that all was ruined by Larry. Oh I hate him. I wish I could get a AA12 and blow him to bits. I want to destroy--

Stop! We are attracted through emotion.

So?

You moron, I am inside your mind, that means that your emotion becomes my emotion. We dragons are attracted by it because we don't have any. That is the one thing that makes us different.

That's not all.

Fine, but you hurt me when your emotion bursts out when we're connected. Anyway, the magma didn't hurt us, and for all of these years it's been too cold for us to emerge. But for some reason, we can now.

Global Warming!

What?

It's this thing where we have been heating up the earth. Maybe that's why you can live here now.

Possibly. You wanted to ask why are we here?

Yes but how did you know--

We are magical creatures. We are here to take our lives back. But there are buildings, and mountains, and other things that weren't here before.

You can't expect to leave the planet for billions of years and still think it's as you left it. Oh, another question, how can you speak English?

Once again we are magical creatures. Your last question was how I fixed your legs. I didn't, this is just your mind, and in your mind your body is whole.

Now that you've told me. What are you planning on doing with the earth?

Well we plan on destroying it.

What?!?!?!?!?! Why?

This is our land. We have a right to it.

This is our home. You can't just destroy it.

Silence, I was commanded to find you because you have been drawing a lot of attention with your emotion. I have said too much. All I was instructed to do was to calm you down in any means necessary so you won't interfere with our plans. Now, what will make you happy?

I don't want you to annihilate the earth for one.

Anything else that can be done?

John thought very hard how to convince the dragon not to desolate the earth. Then he thought about how his "mind" had given him his legs back. If this dragon could do that, then he would have his life back. But what about his parents? He couldn't be happy without them, and they were in the heart of Death Valley, they couldn't survive in this wasteland. This would be a waste if John didn't get his legs back and just kept trying to get what would never come.

I want to get my legs and my parents back. John almost forgot about the people from the plane. The people from the plane that you killed. And for all of us to be out of here.

Very well then.

All of the scenes that were being broadcast within John's mind disappeared and he was placed back in his own cruddy body in front of Lenrog. Lenrog's neck was moved in the direction of the sky and his wings, which had been closed during their discussion, opened wide and his feet were thrown up in the air. A giant roar came from his gaping jaw and echoed throughout the valley. The sand shook beneath John. Glitter appeared from no where, engulfing John's motionless legs and circling them over and over. As John looked around, glitter was going crazy everywhere. People were pulled out of the sand and wrecks by it then given life.

The glitter had finished John's legs, and for the first time in 25 months, John moved his legs.