There was no doubt about it. He’d awoken a sleeping dragon, and he was about to die. All he could hope for was to put up a good enough showing that at least the dragon would remember him. So he came up from the roll, swinging his knife wildly. His instinctive dodge saved his life as the giant creature swung a claw at him, but it also sent him flying as he tripped in the dark. There were flashes of things as he tumbled. Massive claws, sharper than swords. Scales the size of his hand, either grey or green, he couldn’t tell in the dark. Huge teeth with saliva dripping down them. Horns that could easily gore a rhino. And…wings. Big wings. “Yeah…it just blinked,” he said in a monotone, having reached a state so far beyond fear as to transcend human existence. Waving the light around, he gasped in shock as something reflected the light. Something big, maybe the size of a dinner plate. It almost reminded him of an eye, like a cat’s, or maybe a lizard’s eye? But that was impossible. “At least it’s sturdy,” he said, grabbing the flashlight and turning it towards what he’d tripped over. “Huh?” It wasn’t there. But it had to be. There wasn’t even a rock that he could have tripped on. He kept walking through the cave as it opened up into a much larger chamber. He was doing pretty well, up until he tripped over a root or something and landed on his hands and knees, the light clattering to the floor. The caves were pretty dark, but he had a good flashlight. One of those big ones that would also serve as an emergency bludgeon should a mountain lion or something come at him. In hindsight, this might not have been the best idea, now that Drake was considering it. He then looked around and found an opening in the rock face. “Well, he was right about that, at least. But I’m sure there’s no monster here.” Still, he pulled out his knife, the one his uncle had gotten him after they’d gone to see that commando movie together. The one his mother had thrown a fit at, but had relented when Drake had begged, promising he’d be careful. Yeah, it wasn’t healthy, but it was on sale at Blockbuster, so, that’s what he got. That and a disposable camera to document everything. Which was what he did next, taking a few pictures of the view of the city from his vantage point. Of course, it wasn’t an easy task. But he wasn’t an all-state level athlete for nothing. Less than an hour later, he’d scaled the obstacle and was able to take a break. His arms were burning, but that was nothing that some beef jerky and a Surge couldn’t help. He tensed his muscles like a spring and unleashed all his strength in an explosive, powerful vault upward. As he shot off the ground, he reached up and… “Got you!” he roared in triumph as he grabbed the handhold. He then swung his other arm, gripping a second one, and from there, used his considerable upper body strength to pull himself to a point where his feet could make contact with some outward sloping rock that was a middling foothold at best.īut it was good enough. He’d studied the path for a while, and knew that all he had to do was get to this position to make it the rest of the way. They’d all laughed. But Drake would show them. He leapt straight up to the handhold that had been out of reach. It would only require him to make it up a little over six feet, and his best ever was a bit over seven, not too far from the national record. He could do this, uneven footing or no. “Or is our all-state track and field star scared to go look?” the boy had challenged.ĭrake’s jaw had clenched, and he didn’t need to look to know that his knuckles were white. “Careful,” another boy said mockingly. “You’ll wake up dragon boy or whatever he says.” The second was that he never backed down from a challenge. No matter how foolish, no matter how impossible, he would continue attacking it until either the obstacle broke or his body did. And while that was somewhat admirable when considering the normal, generally safe challenges most people faced in life, it was less of a great idea when it came to solo climbing a rock face late at night, no one knowing where he was at the time.īut his courage had been challenged. One of his classmates had been telling a story of a monster that lived within the local mountains. Of course, he’d mocked that tale, so the storyteller had dared him to go up there alone at night and take pictures of the cave near the peak to prove him incorrect. There were two things about the young man known as Drake McAdams that you learned about quickly when you got to know him. The first that his temper was best described as mercurial. He was not one to take a slight lying down. “You’ve awoken the sleeping dragon.” The young man stared up at the rock face that had frustrated his climb for the last half hour. He reached into his bag and dusted his hands with rosin, then smiled, his perfect teeth shining in the moonlight.
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