This chapter has been proof-read by: AnthonyL

First published on my wordpress: Here

Still ahead of schedule. ;)

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Seeing my baby hatch so early was a surprise. I was excited to see what my little friend would look like, but was also worried since I was hoping it wouldn’t hatch until I made it back home to safety. We were in the middle of a dangerous jungle at night, in a tight room dug in a tree.

A bit grossed out by the fact that I was soaking in egg fluids, I used my knife and dug a drainage hole for the fluid to leak out. The egg was mostly intact excepted a small hole from which the liquid had came out. I was expecting the dragon to burst out like ‘Tadaaa baby dragon!’ but in reality, it took almost 3 hours before the little thing finally managed to come out.

I would have helped him to break the shell, but I had heard somewhere that creatures coming from eggs were building their strength from hatching and shouldn’t be assisted. Unsure if it was an urban legend or not, I chose not to take any risk and silently observe the process.

What came out was the most creepily adorable thing in the world. The creature was no bigger than a cat and belonged to a dragon species I had never encountered before. This little dragon was looking exactly the way a dragon should look. The head, body, colours and everything was exactly what you would expect a dragon to be like.

The little creature had fiery red eyes, its body was entirely covered in black scales but had long, blood red, spiky armour plates in certain areas like over its spine, head and neck area. Its body seemed perfect in every way and its belly also seemed properly protected. The most striking details about its appearance were its beautiful red wings and horns. This little dragon could have rivalled in beauty with the most beautiful exotic birds from earth.

Seeing how colourful the little thing was, I instinctively assumed that it was a male based on my knowledge of birds. When it came to birds, female usually had camouflage coloured feathers while the males had brightly coloured ones to seduce the females. Dragons were not birds, but I assumed it would be the same for them.

Holding the little creature all curled up in my arms, I began to wonder what to do next. It was probably hungry, but all the dragons I had seen so far were devoid of nipples. Most reptiles from earth were ready to hunt and eat meat as soon as they hatched, so I hoped it was the same for dragons. “Tomorrow, daddy will kill something tasty for you little one.”

After calling him ‘little one’, I realized I needed to think of a name for him. Finding and giving names was something I was terrible at. A few years back, I had a parrot that I had named ‘MrHankey’ because he kept shitting on my shoulders, a cat named ‘MissKamikaze’ because she kept jumping from high places and seemed to constantly flirt with death, and also a dog names ‘Humpy,’ for self-explanatory reasons.

This time though, I was looking for a name worthy of a dragon and wanted to do it right. I would usually have googled what was the best name for dragons, but could now only rely on my brain. While careful not to wake my baby up, I began to inspect my equipment in hope of finding a source of inspiration somewhere.

Then, a stroke of genius. The knife on my belt was the perfect inspiration for the most bad-ass name a dragon could get. Rambo, was now selected to be his name. I was still wet and gooey from the birth juices, but ignored all that and tried to sleep a bit more while cuddling with Rambo.

Only a few hours later, I was woken up by Rambo who had begun to explore our little nest and wouldn’t stay in place. “Yawnn, good morning Rambo.” The little creature stared into my eyes and rapidly bobbed his head up and down while looking very excited. He bunny hopped back to me and rubbed his head against mine in an unmistakable show of affection.

This little thing was so adorable, I was totally melting while looking at him. Sure, he looked like he could bite off your fingers at any given time, but he was also incredibly cute at the same time. The little creature was intensely observing every move I made, staring, sniffing and poking his head everywhere. Seeing him sniffing me like that made me feel a bit awkward. Truth was, I hadn’t shaved or washed since being abducted by the king dragon and smelled like a mix between a public toilet and a locker room.

I kicked the piece of wood covering the exit hole and observed Rambo’s reaction. Opening the hole leading out of our woodpecker’s hole gave Rambo his first sight of daylight, which seemed to scare him a little at first. Rapidly regaining composure, he then poked his head out of the hole and had a look around. He then turned back toward me and furiously bobbed his head up and down. I was guessing this gesture meant that he was happy and excited.

I exited the hole alone, sat on a big branch nearby and observed Rambo’s reaction. “Come here Rambo!” The newborn dragon bobbed his head up and down once more and vigorously jumped out of the hole with energy in his legs. After bunny hopping the last meter separating us, the little guy jumped into my arms, clung to my clothes and from then on refused to let go.

Trying to separate him from me only resulted in more rips on my now very tattered riot suit. This suit had protected me well so far but was now in need of retirement. I already had a new suit that I was working on back home and finishing it had suddenly become a priority.

I say ‘working on’ because I was actually making a better version of this suit that I was reinforcing with dragon skin. These suits were weak in the joints since Kevlar wasn’t flexible, but dragon skin was flexible and even more resistant than Kevlar. This version 2.0 of my police riot suit was going to be a fusion of the best earth and this alien world had to offer. (As far as I know.)

Giving up on trying to remove Rambo from my chest, I stood up and put my backpack on. With an incredible speed, Rambo then crawled up and over my shoulder before clinging on to the top of my bag. “You can stay on my bag but be careful not to put holes in it. This bag is water tight and very expensive!”

As I was saying this, I heard a rip* sound and saw Rambo vanishing inside the bag. “HA! For fuck sake…” Twisting my neck to look at the damage, I saw Rambo’s head poking out from the hole and looking over my left shoulder. This was scarier than you might think, having a baby dragon’s head right next to your face like that. He didn’t seemed aggressive so far, but what if he went nuts and decided to rip my left ear off?

“Guaaaaaa! Guaaaaaaaa! Kiupp Kiuppp!” My baby’s first words were those, said straight into my left ear which now ringed with an annoying buzzing sound. “Yes yes Rambo… I know you are happy. Let me decide which direction we will go today, then I’ll get you something to eat.”

As I was looking over the horizon, I was conflicted. I needed to go north, but a bit further south from my location was one of these red mist vortex I wanted to check out. Staring at the black smoke on the horizon gave me a lot of complicated feelings. I missed these people a lot, but we all wanted to go back home in the end.

Studying these red mist vortexes was the key to find our way back to earth, I was sure of it. “Guaa!” Trekking through this landscape was immensely difficult but I was almost back home finally. I was still vividly remembering day 4. That day, I had walked the entire day but had only gotten a few meters ahead.

The reason for that had been a ravine which was too wide to jump and too deep to climb. I had ended up following it and trying to find a place where it was narrower. That didn’t work so I then tried to build a bridge by felling large trees over it. The trees from this world being too weak, they all ended up snapping in half and falling down the ravine.

In the end, I used a tall tree and pole-jumped the ravine like a boss. With the days in this world being shorter and all that, I had ended up wasting the entire day just crossing this one single ravine. If I had a GPS, my path would have probably looked like a swirling snake.

Adding to that the hours spent in trees to avoid dangerous creatures, and there you had it. A distance that would normally take one day to walk on flat ground, had ended up taking me 5, and I was still not there yet. Finally judging it necessary, I decided to take the small detour and go check the vortex. With my decision taken, I took my radio and tried to make contact with the other survivors. “Hello? Here’s Nate.”

“Geeooo”… Had Rambo just tried to say hello after hearing me? I had owned a parrot before so I was already familiar with ‘talking’ animals. The secret was to constantly repeat the same words. “Hello?” I repeated. “Eeeooo” He instantly answered. Khukhukhu* this pet could end up being even more interesting than I thought.

“Static* Hello? Is everything alright? How far away are you now?” Asked Camille through the radio. “Eeeooo?” I was surprised that Emanuela still hadn’t tried to talk to me yet. Maybe Marc and her had became lovey-dovey again and she decided to keep her distance out of respect for Marc. If that was the case, and if Camille and Robert were also a thing, then I would be even more on the outside than I already was before. Being surrounded by couples was going to be super annoying, I could feel it.

“Yea I’m alright, but I wanted to inform you that I might take a small detour. It’s related to that method of going back to earth I mentioned the other day. ‘Eeeooo?’ Shhh!* Not now Rambo, I’m trying to talk.” Having probably a hundred questions in mind, Camille then replied.

“Rambo?” Yea, that was to be expected. “Ho right, I made a friend…” I then mischievously said. I wanted to keep Rambo a surprise for now but enjoyed making her curious. “Wait, A FRIEND? Did you find more people???” She asked energetically with excitement in her voice. I was going to tell her no but then remembered this woman in the king dragon’s cave.

“Yes, and no… There’s no one with me right now, well at least no humans, but yes I found… humans, of some sort, I think… Anyway I need to go now so, don’t worry if I take a few more days before arriving. Bye bye.” Then I turned my radio off. “WHA-…” Khukhukhu, I would have loved to see her face right now.

Finally ready to leave, I climbed down the tree and headed south toward the red mist vortex. I tried as hard as I could to focus on my sensing ability, hoping to find a meal for Rambo. After having walked south for only 20 minutes, a small presence finally attracted my attention. I instantly stopped and crouched, then tried to be as stealthy as possible.

Probably sensing a change in my behaviour, Rambo went silent and seemed to pay more attention to what I was doing. After stalking my prey over a hundred metres, I finally managed to lay eyes on whatever was emitting the presence I had felt. It was some sort of tree dwelling jumping rat or something of that kind.

It was very rare to see anything looking like a mammal in this world but when you did, it was always some type of bottom feeder or inoffensive looking creatures. I laid flat on the ground and placed my sniper rifle in position, ready to fire. Wasting such a powerful bullet on such a small animal was a waste, but as a father, I needed to feed my child no matter what.

I aligned a shot and fired. BANG!* “GUAAaa!” scared by the loud noise, Rambo instantly disappeared inside my bag. “Don’t be scared, meal’s served Rambo.” I walked up to the carcass which had fallen from the tree, pulled Rambo out of my bag and placed him next to it. Rambo sniffed the carcass a bit, then nibbled on it.

Seemingly satisfied with the taste, the little dragon then bobbed his head up and down before digging in with all his might. It was amazing to watch such a young dragon tear apart a carcass like that. The tree rat seemed almost as big as him but he still managed to eat almost everything except the head.

Seeing my baby eat so healthily warmed my soul and gave me a sense relief. With that taken care of, I resumed my journey toward the vortex. I wasn’t far from it, but I knew very well that distance in this jungle meant nothing. In the end, it took me the entire day to reach the edge of the red vortex.

Rambo had been sleeping most of the way but during the times when he was awake, I had been surprised at how receptive he seemed to be. He would get angry and yap every-time we came across a creature but would instantly go silent if I took a stealthy posture. I was worried that he would hinder my journey but he was instead becoming the perfect partner, especially during the boring times.

After arriving near the vortex, Rambo began to act more agitated. Since night was fast approaching, I built my usual woodpecker shack and left Rambo and my backpack in it. “Stay Rambo, Stay!” I said before closing the hole and climbing down the tree. I stayed and observed for a minute to make sure he wouldn’t try to get out and didn’t hear or see him make any movement.

Assuming that dragon parents would normally leave them behind while going hunting, I also assumed that it should be in his instinct to lay low and wait for my return. The reason why I wasn’t taking him with me was simple. When in very high concentration, almost everything could become deadly. Even oxygen could become lethal if its purity was too high.

With that in mind, looking at the massive red vortex in front of me gave me the chills. The wall of red mist was so opaque that I could see only a few metres ahead. Seeing how opaque the vortex was, I knew the red mist density inside of it would be off the chart and that made me fear for Rambo’s safety.

I ran toward the vortex and rapidly entered it, hoping to be back to Rambo as fast as possible. As soon as I entered the vortex, my throat and lungs instantly began to burn as if I was breathing in fire or some toxic gas. Regretting not having brought my gas mask, I began to expel as much red mist as I could as a precaution against a potential case of red mist poisoning.

After walking around 50 metres inside the vortex, I began to feel like something was off. It was very silent, too silent in fact. There was absolutely no noise and no sign of life anywhere, not even insects. Not only that but as I went deeper in, I began to notice that the vegetation seemed to be dying. So too much red mist was lethal to plants as well apparently.

There was something else that attracted my attention. I could see a lot of red mist swirling around me in an unusual manner. Usually the red mist would clearly escape my body but for some reason, this time the red mist seemed to be attracted to me. As if attracted to a magnet, I thought that my body was absorbing it but that was wrong.

The red mist wasn’t attracted to me but to my necklace. The gold my necklace was made of seemed to suck up red mist like a sponge and I could see the gold slowly turning reddish in colour. Curious to see how far this phenomenon could go, I climbed up a tree, dug a fist size hole, hid my necklace in it and closed back the hole while making sure to leave a small hole, for the red mist to seep in.

With that done, I ran back to the tree I had left Rambo in and found him asleep in my bag. I curled up around him and tried to get some sleep while hoping Rambo wouldn’t wake me up every few minutes. The next morning, I woke up early and left Rambo behind once more to go get my necklace back.

On my way I found a 5 foot long snake that I quickly killed with my machete and kept around my neck. This snake would be our breakfast for today. I entered the vortex, climbed the tree I had left my necklace at and pulled it out of the hole. My necklace had definitely changed appearance, and I was amazed to see how the gold had changed.

What was white chrome before was now entirely red, as if the gold itself had completely changed and become a totally new element. I didn’t know if it was doing something else other than simply making the gold harder, but I placed the necklace back around my neck anyway before running back to my baby for breakfast.

Turns out, snake meat is not the tastiest meat out there, but Rambo seemed to enjoy it a lot. I was craving some fruits or vegetables but eating unknown plants or fruits was a serious death wish in this alien world. The only safe meal I knew was meat, which made for a poor diet but I had a giant stock of vitamins and supplements back home to fix that issue.

I had kept my eyes peeled during my entire journey for traces of humans activity but hadn’t seen any so far. Since dragons could fly, who knew where he had went to to get that woman from back in the cave. They probably didn’t live anywhere near a king dragon’s nest after all, so I assumed they were living a good distance away from here.

If there were humanoids living around us, they would have most likely found us and our town a long time ago. If they lived nearby, they would have followed the smoke from our fires or heard all the noise we constantly made. I wasn’t sure if I should feel glad or disappointed by this realization.

I was curious to meet these ‘humans’, but knew they would most likely be hostile to us. Anyway, making this detour had been worth it. It may not have seemed like much, but I had learned many important things about these vortexes. If we wanted to live in one of them and wait to be teleported back, we needed to build a mobile shelter with an air purifier to survive.

The red mist density was just to high for any of us to live in over an extended period of time without overdosing. Not wanting to waste anymore time inside this ‘green hell’, I packed my stuff and hurried back toward town. I was finally doing good progress, but a new obstacle standing in my way forced me to make shelter even though there was still a few hours of daylight left.

This annoying obstacle was a swamp, or even worst, a mangrove forest. All I could see were short trees with exposed roots that swirled around in all directions. Then to make it worst, the entire area was completely inundated. Gauging the depth of the water with a stick, I knew that walking ahead would put me at least waist deep in murky brown water.

The water was so muddy that a 30 metres long crocodile could have been right in front of me without me knowing. From what I could see, there was no way around it and to be honest, I was getting tired of going around obstacles all the time. My plan was to build a raft and go across first thing tomorrow.

Using my climbing rope to tie large logs together, I also used wooden pegs to make sure everything would remain solidly in place. Ropes had a tendency to get loose in every survival show I had watched in the past. As I was building the raft, Rambo intensely observed my every move and even took the time to kill a big snake on his own.

What Rambo did next rendered me speechless. The little creature bunny hopped his way next to me while still holding the snake in his mouth. He chomped it in half, laid one of the pieces on my lap then went next to his. He then waited for me to grab my piece of it before beginning to eat his.

This display seemed to show that he had acknowledged me as the ‘alpha’, the leader he needed to obey. This little creature being only 2 days old was showing remarkable intelligence, which made me think that if dragons were being raised by humans, there was no limit to what they could become or accomplish.

Feeling proud in my baby boy, we ate the snake and went to sleep early. We woke up very early the next morning while only the red sun was out. A mangrove lit by a red sun was the spookiest thing one could witness in his life. It was still pretty dark but I wanted to make sure that everything was ready for us to leave as soon as the big sun got out.

I double checked everything, especially the bindings and the long pole I was going to use to move the raft around. Once satisfied with my preparations, I killed a few creatures that seemed a bit too interested in us then waited for the big sun to come out.

While we were waiting, Rambo decided to do some exploring around the camp but remained under my constant supervision. He was still so small, I simply couldn’t stop worrying about him getting attacked by something. While Rambo was courageously winning a fight against a twig he had found on the ground, I noticed a big stone that didn’t look natural.

Curious, I walked up to it and began to circle around, looking at it from every angle. Noticing my sudden interest, Rambo tried to imitate me by also circling around it. The stone was covered in a thick layer of green moss which I curiously began to peel away. Once the moss was removed, what I saw made me go silent.

The big stone had carvings all over it, carvings that were most definitely man made. What was the most amazing about it was that I recognized the art style on this stone. After having watched so many documentaries, I immediately recognized the Mayan writing style. I couldn’t read it, but these hieroglyphs were no doubt something similar to it.

Had these been transported here a long time ago from Central America? Amazed, I took some pictures of it and went back to business. Rambo jumped into my bag as I pushed the raft into the water. I was feeling nervous about this little boat trip and couldn’t shake this ominous feeling in the back of mind.

I hated the fact that I couldn’t see what was under the water. Trying to reassure myself by focusing on my sensing ability, I pushed the boat forward over the muddy water. I kept swirling around the roots while always making sure to follow the direction given by my compass.

Everything was going perfectly fine until we arrived in a wider area. There, something began to constantly bang onto the pole each time I plunged it in the water which made me glad to have built a raft in the first place. Things were splashing all around us in the water, making it look like panic had caught a population of something living here.

I was scared, I had always been scared of things I didn’t know or couldn’t see. This was why I was totally terrified about the idea of being lost at sea. Even if this was far from being a sea, the unnerving feeling was the same. The feeling of not knowing what was right below my feet was the worst feeling I could imagine.

Wanting to get away from whatever was living there, I leaked red mist and powered away from there while being careful not to break the pole in the process. The vegetation was so dense that we could barely see the suns, making this place even more creepy. It was dark, damp and smelly from the dead leaves rotting underwater.

After a few more hours of zigzagging around roots and trees, Rambo and I finally reached an area that had a lot less trees growing everywhere but also had deeper water. While silently gliding over the water, something underwater suddenly reacted after being accidentally poked by my pole.

A giant bundle of roots started to move at the same time as if the trees themselves were alive when a giant snake looking thing emerged from the water. I quickly pushed the raft away from whatever this thing was and soon realized that it was not a snake. This giant creature which was at least as big as a common dragon was in fact something resembling a turtle.

A mutant alien monstrous turtle certainly, but the resemblance was undeniable. The creature had a very long neck and its entire body had what looked like roots growing out of it. As long as it didn’t move, there was no way to differentiate it from any other bundle of roots out there.

Worried that it could be aggressive, I grabbed my rifle and braced myself. Rambo was observing my every moves as he usually does and seemed very excited about the giant creature’s appearance. The mutant turtle trashed around for a while before rapidly swimming away from us like a startled fish.

Conflicted between relief and fright, I didn’t dare lower my guard until the creature was out of sight. Once I was certain to be out of danger, I took the pole and continued forward. Finally being able to see the sky, I then spotted the reassuring black smoke coming from town. By the looks of it, it seemed I would be able to get back home tonight or early tomorrow.

I was feeling butterflies of excitement in my stomach but remained cautious, I had yet to be out of this ‘green hell’ and knew dangers were still everywhere. I was trying to imagine how they would react after seeing Rambo, and how they would react to everything else I had learned this time. This misadventure had been a very good opportunity to gather information about this world.

I had discovered a potential way to get back on earth, that humans lived in this world and even discovered an artifact from Central America. With excitement in my heart, I continued to move forward and soon enough, the landscape changed once again. As I left the mangrove, I emerged into open water.

I was now being dragged away by the current of a very big and powerful river. Seeing rapids up ahead, I once again used red mist to power through, then jumped on the river bank to the other side. The raft continued with the current and went crashing against the rocks. I had once again made it in the nick of time.

Since I stank so much, swimming would not have been so bad but I was more worried about Rambo than anything else. I highly doubted that dragons could swim. On the other side of that river was more jungle the like of which I was already growing accustomed to.

I was trying to walk as fast as I could, hoping to get to town before nightfall. The thought of spending another night in a tree was weighing heavily in my fatigued mind at this point. I was malnourished, exhausted and my body was sore from the journey. All the small cuts and bruises I had gotten during my time spent in the jungle didn’t seemed to heal properly.

Like the jungles on earth, these hot and humid environments made wounds very hard to heal. Even the smallest cut could get infected and turn into a serious health risk. The small cuts all over my body seemed swollen and yellow puss would come out if I pressed on them.

Luckily, I had antibiotics to take care of that problem but I was also worried about the bacteria and parasites that had possibly entered my body. Hurrying through the dense jungle, everything seemed to indicate that I would reach the town in time when something suddenly made me stop and crouch.

Thump* Thump* Thump* Thump* The loud footsteps of a very heavy creature were echoing through the forest and seemed to get closer to my location. Judging by how much the ground shook under its feet, this creature had to be among the biggest I had seen so far. Not exactly on Godzilla level, but damned near close to it.

I kept my eyes peeled, looking for the giant beast but in the end, I never managed to see it. It was amazing how well this jungle could conceal such monstrously big creatures. Determining that it was safe to move again, I continued to jog through the thick vegetation with Rambo sleeping soundly in my bag.

I ran, jumped and climbed everything in my way and finally emerged out of this ‘green hell’. In front of me was a sight that I thought I would never see again. Right in front of me was a giant McDonald’s sign which seemed to say ‘welcome home’. I was ecstatic and felt energy coming back to my body.

I was still quite a while away from the hospital but felt all my worries vanishing away. I entered the familiar restaurant and sat at a table that was free of any corpses. We hadn’t looted this place since all the food was rotten and nothing of value was to be found in here.

I had avoided smoking during my travel, afraid that it would give my position away to the surrounding creatures so I was really looking forward to a relaxing moment like this one. I lit one up and grabbed my radio. “Hello? Here’s Nate.” I was still more than a kilometres away from the hospital and didn’t feel like walking anymore, so my plan was to ask them to come pick me up here. “Eeeoooo!”

Having seemingly been woken up by his favourite word, Rambo got out of my bag and climbed on the table in front of me. He then looked around the restaurant while tilting his head sideways in a funny way. He was probably overwhelmed by the major changes in our surroundings. All he had seen so far had been jungle and swampy lands, so a human town was probably a shock to him.

“Hello Nate?” Once again, Camille was the one to pick up the radio. “Hey Cami, I’m finally back in town, mind coming to the McDonald’s to pick me up? ~Eeeoo! Eeeeeoooo! Eeoo! Eeoo!~” I asked with exhaustion clearly audible in my voice and Rambo’s rambling in the background. “YOU’RE HERE? WE’RE COMING RIGHT AWAY!!! WAIT FOR US!” She almost screamed through the radio before abruptly dropping out of the conversation.

Being barely able to keep my eyes open, I decided to walk around a bit, followed closely by Rambo. Around 15 minutes later, the familiar sound of a V8 engine grabbed my and Rambo’s attention. “Come Rambo, get in the bag for now. We’re going home.” Seemingly understanding what I wanted from him, the little creature jumped on me, climbed up and disappeared inside my bag.

The pick-up truck swerved around some parked cars and abruptly stopped in front of the restaurant. The truck had created a small dust cloud that was slowly settling down, eventually allowing me to see inside the vehicle. Seeing that Camille wasn’t there surprised me. Robert had apparently come alone to pick me up for some reason.

I grabbed my stuff and exited the restaurant as Robert ran up to me, his arms in the air showing how glad he was to see me back safe.”NATHAN!!!!! Hahahahaha I knew you would come back to us safely!” He screamed with visible joy on his face.

“Eeeeeoooooooo!!~~~” Popping his head over my shoulder, Rambo stared at Robert who stopped dead in his track after spotting him. His arms went limp on each side of his body and his face showed an expression that was clearly saying, ‘what absurdly outrageous thing did he do this time?’