Levels

Level 0

The time was ticking away and Dayl still hadn't moved an inch from the spot he got dropped of the ship. After another quick glance at his wrist, he started to walk in the direction that led to the middle of the huge level zero area. Green plants and big banana trees filled most of Dayls eyesight.

The first level had a different climate than at his home town. Here, hot beams of light filled the sticky air and made it harder for Dayl to breath. It was exactly like he had always imagined a rainforest would be.

First thing he had to do, was to find a high spot to get some overview of his new surroundings. Moving forward rather slow, because the hot sun was shining directly on his pale face, a big palm tree caught the attention of his eyes.

Walking through high plants and thick barriers of green leaves as big as himself, he managed to stand in front of the highest tree he could find. He took off his coat and wrapped it tight around the tree, both of his hands each one holding one of the coats sleeves. He pressed both of his feet against the massive palm tree and pushed himself to the opposite side catching the jump with the pressure of his coat against the tree.

Once he was at the top, he looked around and as he had already expected, he too was on a floating island and was placed near the middle of it. The whole area was some kind of tropic rainforest covered in green. To his great disadvantage there was nothing special to see, furthermore he was running out of time with every second he wasted, because he had already lost two more hours and time seemed to pass by ways faster than it usually did and perhaps that even was the case.

But just as he started to climb down, something greyish fell into his vision. He looked closer. It was smoke, raising high up in the air, about 200 yards away from his position.

The smoke reminded him of his cigarettes and suddenly triggered the urge to pull at one of them, feeling the smoke fill his lungs. But there was no time to think about such trivial things as smoking. "Perhaps Pete was right, those things are going to kill me some day" he said as he jumped of the last few inches of the tree.

His precious grey wool coat, got totally torn down at the process. But since the sun was burning down from above it didn't much matter.

"Someone has to be at the area where the smoke came from, someone must have lid a fire".

His mind kept rushing with thoughts and questions, as for why someone would light up a fire in the middle of the day and how it helped completing level zero even in the slightest.

But he kept moving in the direction he had seen the big clouds of smoke. With every step he took, his legs grew heavier and more and more felt like he was dragging them.

Finally he made it to the place where the smoke came from earlier. But to his big surprise there was no one there, just a big area of green grass in front of a huge cave that must have been at least a hundred feet high.

Dayl entered the cave with a certain amount of hesitation, caused by the reason of uncertainty what might await him enclosed by the darkness of the rock shelter. The light behind him grew weaker with ever inch he moved forward, until the darkness surrounded him completely.

"Hello ? Is someone in here ?" Dayl desperately shouted into the thrilling darkness.

Seconds went by as his eyes caught a glimpse of bright yellow and orange flames, vanishing as quickly as they appeared. A deafening growl hollowed through the cave triggered about twenty feet away.

He didn't know what caused the humiliating sound that tore his confidence into little pieces. The only thought that came to his mind was

"Run, just get the hell out of here!"

He stormed into the opposite direction as fast as his feet could take him, nearly tripping over his feet every few steps, followed by the frightening squeals behind him. The earth was shaking all over the place as he passed the entrance hole of the cave.

He stopped in the middle of the area in front of the cave and turned around like a tiger ready to face his deepest fears. Every part of his vision lightened up as a burst of bright hot flames shot out of the beast's mouth and missed Dayl by inches.

Closely he looked at the thing, analysing every part from its feet to the frightening huge horns growing from its forehead. Long spikes were trailing along its back right to the tip of the long tail dangling four feet in the air. Two huge wings were attached to the shielded body.

It was a dragon.

A big grey dragon, with scars all over it. Dayl stood there, a cold chill running down his spine, rooting his feet to the ground. In a moment of notice the dragon gave an agonizing roar. Dayl quivered, his whole body was shaking.

At the next glance at the dragon, something was oddly wrong. The end of its throat showed nothing but a neatly cut off head. A loud noise disturbed the sudden silence as the heavy mass of the dragons body clattered to the ground.

Dayl looked up and down, not knowing what had just happened. Someone stood beside the beasts sliced of head.

A young woman, not older than 23 maybe 24. She was wearing a modern white and grey tunic, with black military boots. Her short dark brown hair was tied up to a pony tail, her skin held in an olive brown color.

At the moment's notice, she turned her head toward Dayl and with a serious expression stared into his eyes.

Finally her countenance eased and a broad grin marked her face.

"Hey, I am Allessa. You can speak of luck that I saved your Ass, that thing would've killed you".

Dayls jaw dropped open. His expression was filled with total astonishment.