The Arrival

The team traveled west for about a half hour, giving Cammie time to have a decent nap before they pulled into another motel. After checking in and getting room keys, the team headed out again, following some activity that was tracking northeast. The activity turned out to spawn nothing, and by sunset, the team had been on the road for quite a while, and everyone was dragging their heels. They all stumbled off the trucks when it was time for dinner. Cammie only sat at the table for a short amount of time before getting a takeout box for her leftovers and excusing herself to the trailer so she could feed Mercury. Wes and Lupe came by shortly after to see the baby dragon and ask more questions, one of which referred to her injured hand.

"Did he do that?" Lupe asked, looking a bit shocked.

"Unfortunately," Cammie responded. Mercury ducked his head guiltily. "I think someone has a little separation anxiety problem."

"Geez, that must have hurt," Wes added, seeing the bruising on the skin that was visible around the bandages and tape.

"Yes, but it's healing now... and I'm sure Mercury won't be doing anything like that again any time soon, am I right?"

*Yes,* Mercury said meekly for all to hear.

After dinner, everyone got back in the trucks, and they headed back to the motel. Kitty and Cammie were again sharing a room, and they made their way there like two desert wanderers in search of water. Once they were inside, Cammie put her shoes by the air duct and changed into suitable sleeping clothes before climbing into the bed nearest the door. This time, she and Kitty had separate beds at least. Mercury was already curled up near the pillow, and he snuggled a bit closer to her when she was settled in. Outside, rain was pattering against the window, marking the oncoming storms. Cammie and Mercury dropped almost immediately to sleep, exhausted from the long day of traveling.

Several miles northwest of where Cammie and Mercury lay asleep, the weather was more severe. A tornado was ripping its way across the plains, flinging dirt and debris from its path. It crashed through several miles of fencing on its approach toward a farm in the distance. The farm was abandoned, one of many such structures. The large, broken down house was placed next to several rotting barns. No livestock or produce remained in the area, which was lucky considering that the entire place was about to be affected by a natural disaster. The tornado loomed closer as lightning crackled and struck several locations on the farmland. The rain drove harder, some of it actually freezing into hailstones that bounced off and into the weakened wood structures.

Some yards from the decrepit farmhouse, there was a brief flash of light, but it was not lightning. Through the rain, two figures became evident, slowly fading into being, crumpled on the ground. One appeared to be a man, but the other was more bulky and shone brightly with reflections of the storm's lightning. They struggled to get up in the sharp wind gusts and stinging rain.

*I hate phasing into worlds with no portals,* the larger form said in a deep but feminine voice. She was a Clarus Dragon, a large adult with sparkling feathered wings and two hind legs. There was a leather pack on her back, but that was her only adornment. Her deep lavender eyes took in their surroundings, and her brow furrowed at the darkness and the harsh weather.

"Sorry, Char, but most versions of Earth don't have any portals on them yet," the man apologized. He was dressed in a long, dark traveling cloak, with the hood pulled up and hiding his face. His hands, the only skin protruding from the guise, were strong and only slightly weathered. A pack was slung over his back as well. He turned to look around; his hood hid a frown as he realized they had stumbled into a thunderstorm. The winds were picking up, and he could feel small hailstones striking his shoulders and arms.

As of yet, the two travelers hadn't noticed the tornado, which was hidden in the dark and only visible when lightning flashed behind it. They were beginning to notice its roar, however, as well as the occasional crashes as fencing and objects were torn from the ground and tossed outwards from the funnel cloud.

*Jason, what is that noise? I don't like the feel of this place...* the Clarus observed, shaking her head to clear her ears. Something was very wrong, and an odd sense of confusion had come over her.

The gentleman too was feeling the effects of the rapid pressure drop that precedes a tornado. He wavered dizzily and took a step to steady himself. There was a roaring in his ears, but he realized that he was not imagining it; it was not a result of their recent journey. It was growing louder. Lightning flashed, followed almost immediately by a crash of thunder, and in that brief instant, both he and his dragon companion saw the dark shape looming in the night.

Confusion was quickly replaced by fear as the man recognized something he had never seen, of which he had only heard stories. "God, it's a tornado! Char, we've got to find shelter! Quickly!"

He immediately began running toward the old barn, the nearest visible structure; the dragon traveled quickly behind him in a combination of leaps and flight, fighting the powerful winds. They fought their way through the barricaded doors by ripping the nailed boards from the decayed opening and crawled into the darkness of the barn. Wind whistled and howled through the spaces where boards had broken or rotted away. The area was lit up when the Clarus Dragon began glowing; a pale blue aura matching the lightning outside coated her skin, causing the smooth, glassy surface to swim with brilliant reflections. The pair searched for a place to hide.

Please, let there be a cellar in this barn, the man silently pleaded, moving rapidly around the barn in search of a door or opening. He did not find one.

"Damn..." he growled, picking out the strongest looking corner of the barn and moving toward it. He crouched down, with his back to the walls. The roar outside was deafening by this point. The female dragon's eyes were wide with confusion and fear as she followed and huddled over her human bondmate.

Char, we've no choice by to stay low and pray, the man projected as the sounds of crashing and breaking could be heard mixing into the tornado's roar. It had reached the farmhouse beyond, and the entire roof of the house had given way to its fury, as well as a section of one of the walls. If the man and dragon had made their way to the house, they would have found a basement in which to take refuge, but they unfortunately had not. The funnel approached the barn, causing the occupants to flatten themselves into the corner as much as possible, the dragon partially covering the man with her body.

As the tornado hit the structure, the wall exploded, taking the brunt of the funnel's wrath. As the support was knocked out from one side of the roof and loft, there was a horrible creaking as the entire top of the barn started collapsing inward. Some portions of the roof were ripped away and thrown by the storm, but most of the mass fell into the structure. The man and dragon had time to hear the wood and debris falling from above, and the female stretched her wings around her friend and pressed close, trying to shield him as the sections of wood came down. Much of the loft fell away from the corner, but some boards cracked and landed on top of the couple. A large chunk hit the female dragon on the back, badly bruising one of her shoulders. The man was mostly saved, but disastrously, one board slipped down and landed on his head and neck, dealing a damaging blow, even though he had wisely sheltered his head under his arms.

*Jason!* the dragon cried in alarm across their telepathic connection, but his mind had gone dark in a bright flash of pain.

The tornado was not a particularly strong one, and it passed without further incident, traveling on to tear more earth until, its energy spent, it would dissipate. After the roar had died down, the dragon flinched and tried to move. Her left wing was pinned under the fallen loft, and she growled and cried out as she worked it free.

*Jason! Are you all right?* she urged, knowing that her bondmate had been rendered unconscious by the blow but hoping he would revive. She stood, pushing the boards upwards and getting her weight off him. He remained motionless. *Jason!* she repeated, leaning to nudge his arms from his head and using her head to roll his torso so she could inspect him. A cold dagger of fear pierced her chest when she saw the blood trickling from his nose; it looked broken. He was still, alive, however, and that was something for which to be thankful. She nuzzled his chin one last time, but he would not awaken tonight. The rain was starting to trickle down through the debris and soak his cloak. Shivering, she leaned back over him and spread her wings as an umbrella. She snarled as pain shot through her injured shoulder, and she was forced to draw that wing into her side and seek to cover the man with her other wing.

The rain continued to fall through the night, stopping only shortly before dawn. The dragon bore the cold and water bravely, her eyes constantly drifting shut and then snapping back open to check on the man. He did not move, even when the pale light of dawn began to spread across the farm. Shortly thereafter, she left him to find a more suitable spot. The old farmhouse, although damaged, still had one room completely intact, with a ceiling and four walls. She returned and commenced to drag the man from the ruined barn, through the mud and toward the safety of the main building. A stranger in a strange, new world, she had no choice but to hope he recovered.

Cammie was awakened very early, by Mercury bouncing on her side, creating a painful sensation each time he sprung onto her ribs. She moaned and rolled over, pushing him back down to the bed.

"Wha's wrong? Whatis it?" she groused, her eyes squinted in pain at being so suddenly asked to operate. She was getting a feeling of fear and anxiety from Mercury.

*Hurt! They hurt!* he projected desperately, causing her to pop open her eyes and sit up suddenly.

"What hurts? Where? What happened? Are you all right?" she demanded, reaching down to feel over the hatchling. He must have fallen while she was sleeping... or, worse, she had rolled onto him in the night!

*No, they... They hurt,* he insisted, eyes wide and pleading.

"Who hurts? Did you have a nightmare?" Cammie interrogated, realizing that Mercury wasn't injured. He seemed fine, if a little scared.

*They... person and dragon... hurt! Storm! We go! We go!* he exploded, losing patience with her sluggish emergence from sleep.

"Whoa, hold it. It's the middle of the night; we aren't going anywhere. Now, calm down and explain to me exactly what's wrong. Maybe you just had a bad dream..."

Mercury's eyes crumpled down in anger, and he released an angry squeal. Kitty muttered sleepily from the other bed and rolled over.

"What's wrong? Did George call?" she asked weakly.

"No, sorry, Kitty. Mercury had a nightmare," Cammie assured her. She picked up Mercury and headed for the bathroom, not wanting to disturb their roommate anymore. Mercury writhed all the way there and glared at her when she put him down on the toilet seat and turned to close the door.

*Not dream! Man and dragon hurt! We go!* he yelled into her head, making her wince at the sudden sound and anger.

"And how do you know this?" she challenged, still convinced that the little dragon had suffered from a nightmare.

*I seed it," Mercury told her, exasperated.

"You saw it. And how do you know it wasn't a dream? People have bad dreams all the time..."

*Not a dream! Not a dream! Man and dragon come. Man and dragon hurt by storm. In trouble. Need us go! Need us help!*

"They need us to go and help them," Cammie corrected, not able to stand the butchered sentences much longer.

Mercury let out a furious wail. Whatever he had seen in his dream, it was obviously disturbing him, and he wouldn't be satisfied until Cammie had done something to fix it.

"Mercury, I'd love to help, but how do you suggest we do that? We have no transportation, we have no idea where they are, and we're supposed to be helping George and the team, not to mention those marbles we're supposed to be after." Cammie rationalized to the hatchling.

*No more George. No more team. We go!* he clamored, not giving an inch.

"The team was fine until about ten minutes ago!" Cammie protested, immediately wondering what George would say if she flaked out on him.

*Change! Things change! Man and dragon change things!* Mercury put forth relentlessly.

The more he argues, the better his English gets, Cammie thought wryly, sighing. Obviously, something big had happened, and the Clarus hatchling hadn't led her astray yet.

"Okay, listen. As soon as it is morning, I will tell George that I have to check something out. We will find a car or something and go try to find this man and this dragon. If we find them, then you're right, and we'll try to help them. If they do not exist, you were wrong, and we catch up with the team and keep looking for these marbles so we can get out of here. Deal?"

Mercury lowered his brow and scowled at her. *Not wrong,* he snarled.

"Deal?" Cammie repeated, crossing her arms in a finalizing manner.

*Deal.*