THE DELIVERER'S DESTINY

Chapter 6, Part 1 - Todd

The Hinterlands, Desmond, 10416 P.C.

In a breath, it seemed, Todd found himself on his chest, sprawled on sandy ground. He coughed, then coughed again, pushing himself to his elbows as he squinted around him. Confusion and disorientation plagued him when he found himself lying in the middle of a sandy desert. A gentle wind picked up the sand, dusting it here and there, and above it all the sun shone brightly, making the sand hard to look at. Todd rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, giving the sand another dazed look before rolling over and sitting up.

"What... in the...?" he breathed haltingly, looking around him. Was he dreaming? Scooping sand into his hand and letting it drift through his fingers, he ruled out that notion. It felt much too real. But then, how was it possible to be standing in his room one moment and in the middle of a desert the next? Why, the nearest desert was... well, far, far away, on the other side of Amissah in fact. There was no way he had travelled that far in such a short amount of time. It wasn't humanly possible.

Or maybe it hadn't been only a moment. Maybe he had only thought it had been. What if he had been knocked out, kidnapped and dumped here in the middle of nowhere? No, that'd be dumb, he decided as he pushed himself to his feet. Who would have gone through that much trouble just to leave him to die? They would have just killed him like they had killed Michael.

"Cathy?" The call was carried away in the wind, left unanswered. A spurt of anxiety shot through his chest as the weight of his situation began to arise. "Cathy!" Stumbling in a circle, he tried not to let the panic overtake him. The desert around him was vast, dotted with boulders and cacti. Off in the distance, he spotted for the first time what looked like a forest, signalling the end of the desert and, to him, shelter and safety. Without much thought, he started toward it. Above him, the sun blazed, and he felt the heat as real as life. There was no way this was a dream. But then how...?

A hissing sound froze him with one foot in the air. Looking down, he saw a viper just feet away, coiled in the barely existent shade of a rock and watching him with beady eyes. It hissed and started slithering toward him, faster than he knew possible, and with a choked noise of panic and surprise, he broke into a run. Trees provided shelter. He could climb them if he had to. Several more vipers revealed themselves and he pushed himself harder, wild-eyed and panicked.

A strange rustling noise, much like the flapping of wings, startled him. He ducked behind a boulder, gasping as he allowed himself a moment to catch his breath. He looked for the source of the noise, but there was no bird. In fact, not a bird graced the skies, not even around the trees. Even the vipers had disappeared. He couldn't see them anywhere. It was as if every living thing had abruptly fled.

Todd suddenly felt very exposed, very unsafe, and very, very scared. Dragging in a deep, shaky breath, he leaned back against the boulder, looking around it. Nothing was there, except—

He saw the long, thin black tail resting against the side of the boulder. He stopped breathing. At first, he thought it was a snake, but his eyes followed it, slowly, carefully, to the large, muscular, scaled body and folded up wings, the thickly-built legs and long neck, all the way to the two golden eyes.

Todd found himself staring up into the face of a dragon.

"Hello," it said in a low, grating voice, revealing what looked like hundreds of razor-sharp teeth.

"Hi," Todd replied without much thought, his voice many octaves higher than usual. Then, with all the bravery mustered within him, he turned and ran, screaming for his life.