Mission: Magnum

   Heather watched as the Big Ben clock tower spun slowly forward one hour. She sat in a tree on a hill in London, swinging her legs to and fro, thinking about her life. This was often a thought topic for young Heather - how her mother and father passed away when she was young, and she was tossed aside by her cruel uncle, and how she'd been living as a thief, scrounging for scraps to survive since she was about ten years old. She'd always thought she would prefer a self-sustaining life rather than one at an orphanage, so she tried to keep her existence a secret.

    She laid down on a branch in the tree and tried to pull leaves around her, just in case someone came by and wondered why there was a fourteen-year-old girl sleeping high up in a plane tree. When she was satisfied with her hiding spot, she pulled her ratty old coat around her shoulders, closed her eyes and drifted off, softly sighing as she thought, I wish things could be different…

   She walked a couple miles north and found a beautiful forest with streams and flowers and trees, and it was hers! The flora and fauna danced around her and called her the queen. Everything the light touched was hers to rule, and she had friends and family there to support her all the while...

Heather woke with a start, disappointed that it was all a dream. But… was it? As she looked around, she didn't see the tree and the leaves wrapped around her like she'd expected. Instead, she saw that she was laying on the ground in a barren landscape stretching miles and miles every way she turned. She rubbed her eyes, bewildered. She looked at the stark orange and brown ground. Above her, she saw a beautiful, bright blue sky without a cloud to be seen. A blinding sun beat down, scorching the parched earth.

    Heather sat, puzzled, as fear and worry filled her gut. Suddenly, a little green dot appeared on the ground in front of her. Heather could've sworn it wasn't there a second ago. She got on her hands and knees and crouched down to get a closer look. Heather quickly understood. It was a plant! She could make out the stem and two little leaves on top. She glanced around to see all sorts of different types and sizes of plants sprouting.

    She stood, watching in amazement all the different plants growing at alarming rates of speed. She walked around, gaping open-mouthed at the different kinds of unfamiliar plants. Then she realized the forest was silent. No frogs, birds, bees, or insects croaking, singing, or buzzing. It was a queer feeling.

    She walked through the ever-growing forest, hoping to hear a frog’s croak or a birdsong, or maybe even a bumblebee. Then, relief flooded her body when she heard a quiet buzzing, bee-like noise, because the silence was making her nervous. The buzzing got louder and louder until it was more of a deep roar. Heather covered her ears and started running. Then, just when the roaring seemed that it couldn’t have gotten any louder, an enormous crash sounded, shaking the earth beneath her feet with such force that she was flung into a mucky pond. Covered in mud and algae, she stood and tried to wipe off most of the grime. Then she realized that the roaring had stopped. But a strange, metallic scent filled the air. Heather noticed a thick cloud of smoke collecting in the sky, about a third of a mile away from where she stood. Her instincts told her to retreat and not go anywhere near the crash, but her curiosity won over her fear.

    She walked toward the trail of smoke, trying to keep out of sight as much as possible in case it was dangerous, and she needed to get out of there. Several minutes passed as she crept closer and closer toward the smoke. Finally, she got into the range of sight, but Heather couldn’t figure out what she was looking at. It looked like a boulder, but boulders don’t usually fall from the sky. Though, to be fair, a whole forest didn’t appear in ten minutes normally either, so maybe falling rocks was a normal thing in this land.

    Heather climbed the nearest tree to get a better view at the enormous object in the earth. She spent several minutes looking at it through the leaves, trying to figure out what in the world it was. Eventually, she decided that it might be a comet. She was about to climb down from the branch when a KSH-KSSHHHH noise sounded from the rock, just like in the movies when a villain comes out of a big spaceship. Then it hit her; it was a spaceship! The large door on the side of the ship opened wide.  She flattened herself against the tree limb, not wanting to risk being seen.

    Heather expected to see an alien, or a monster stroll out of it wielding a club or an axe, but what she saw was very different. A man walked out, wearing a suit and tie, looking as though he was about to be interviewed for an important executive job position. He looked around for several minutes and seemed to be taking in the oxygen greedily.

    “Well!” He said in a deep, booming voice that made Heather jump. “This ought to be a wonderful place to live!” Then he sniffed the air and frowned. Out of his pocket he grabbed a strange device, shaped like a rectangle. A bright radar light shone from the top of it, scanning the forest. Heather tried to shrink into the landscape, regretting the fact that she hadn’t just simply listened to her instincts and walked away. The radar stopped showing its light and beeped. The man grunted in annoyance and walked briskly back inside his ship. Heather let out a relieved breath.  

    Heather listened intently to the clanking around that seemed to be coming from the inside of the ship. She needed the perfect moment to slip down from the tree and run. She swung her leg over the branch to jump down when the man walked out again. She cursed and re-hid behind the leaves.

    She looked out to see what he was doing, and this time he was dragging a long chain behind him which was tethered to an enormous, creamy white creature with a long tail. The beast walked on all fours and had claws the length of a ruler. It had large gleaming white teeth and a red forked tongue. Long horns also stuck out of its skull, slightly curved outward. His large nostrils flared, smelling all the curious scents of the forest. It seemed to have saddlebags on its sides, despite the lack of a saddle. What surprised Heather the most, though, was its small, unnaturally bright purple eyes. They were so shockingly bright that Heather thought that they’d been tampered with forces other than nature.

    The man spoke softly in the creature’s ear, motioning toward the forest with his hands, and the creature seemed to nod. The man pulled the halter off and the creature shook his enormous body, relieved of the restraint. Then, the saddlebags seemed to spread wide, as Heather realized they weren’t saddlebags at all. They were wings. This mighty creature was a dragon! Heather’s mind spun like a pottery wheel. A dragon? They didn’t exist! This was crazy, and Heather was getting a little tired of crazy. The dragon stretched its neck above the treetops and roared an almighty roar that shook the sky. Heather jumped and she heard the tree branch crack. Dread flooded through her as she realized that the branch was about to break. She tried to crawl to the trunk, but she was too late. The limb cracked in half and sent Heather to the dirt below. It wasn’t a terrible fall, but it was horribly loud in the silent forest. She leaped to her feet, not wasting a second. She tore away from the tree, her heart pounding louder than her feet.

    She risked a glance behind her and saw both the dragon and the man looking in her direction. The man nodded at the dragon, and he spread his enormous wings. He took to the sky, spiraling and then diving toward the forest. Heather’s heart leaped to her mouth when she realized the dragon was coming for her. Running at top speed, she ducked under trees and jumped logs. She’d never ran so fast in her life, even when she was running from Mr. Broyles after he caught her stealing an apple from his apple tree. She longed for her life as a thief, preferring it much more to this one.

         She ran through a mucky spot, splashing mud all over herself. She continued to run and wiped the mud out of her eyes at the same time. She opened them, and she realized she was standing in the middle of a clearing. She spun around and tried to run back, and again she was filled with dread as an enormous, sun-blocking shadow passed over her. The dragon. Of course. Heather thought bitterly. Right when I get into view, he comes. As she sped up, she suddenly felt the wind currents change. Warm wind swirled all around her, and she made a desperate lunge for the safety of the trees. She dove straight into the bushes, hoping it was enough coverage to confuse her pursuer for a second. She jumped up to continue her run for her life when enormous talons circled her waist. She let loose a scream as she was lifted into the sky.

    The dragon’s wingbeats shook Heather’s whole body, making her feel sick to her stomach.

“Please!” She begged helplessly, unsure of whether or not the dragon could understand her. “Please put me on the ground!” He abruptly opened his talons and dropped her. She shrieked, her stomach dropping to her toes. She screamed again and twisted her body to look at the dragon. He was hovering above her, chuckling. Heather spun around again, looking at the ground that was approaching very quickly. She could even see her tiny shadow, growing bigger by the second. Then, the shadow of the dragon dove behind her, and once again it knocked her breath away when his talons grabbed her by the waist a second time.

    Heather struggled to breath in the tight grip of the dragon’s talons. She wiggled and twisted around to looked up at its terrifying yet magnificent face and focused on its glowing purple eyes. Suddenly, treetops came into Heathers peripheral vision and she realized they were landing. He thudded to the ground next to the spaceship, almost crushing Heathers delicate body in his gigantic talons.

    She sprang to her feet and tried to dart, but the dragon grabbed her shirt and pinned her to the ground. She struggled, fighting him with all her might. He laughed a deep, guttural chuckle at her measly efforts. Suddenly, strong hands grabbed her shoulders and yanked her to her feet. Her hands where tied behind her back so fast that she didn’t have enough time to fight back. She squirmed and wriggled with all her might and was relieved when the person’s grip loosened slightly.

“Feisty, are we?” said the man’s voice from before.

“Let me go!” Heather yelled.

“Where will you go? There is absolutely nowhere for you to go now, Heather,” He said calmly. She was stunned that he knew her name.

“Who are you and how in the world do you know who I am?!” She screamed in an alarmed tone, fighting and thrashing more violently.

“Stop moving! I’ll let you go if you promise not to ru- “

“No!” Heather screamed again. “I won’t stop fighting! I will never-“ She stopped short and froze. A searing, cold pain shot up her arm. Her whole body felt like it was made of ice, and then she felt like she could sleep for a hundred years. The man leaned toward her and whispered in her ear, “I guess we will do this the hard way then.”

***

    Heather opened her eyes to a dark room with a fire built in the middle. She had a thin blanket over her and a rough, lumpy pillow under her head. At first, she had no idea what was happening, where she was, or what time it was. Then, all the horrible memories of the previous day flooded her mind. She glanced around, making sure nobody was in the room. She slowly got to her feet, trying to ignore the wave of dizziness that washed over her.

    Before she was completely standing, her arms jerked downward. She groggily looked down to see her hands handcuffed, with chains leading down to bolts in the floor. She tugged on them and grunted angrily when they stayed put. She flopped down into the blanket and scowled into the flames of the little campfire.

    “Ah! Finally, you’re awake!” the man’s voice boomed, making Heather jump. He laughed good naturedly. “You are quite the jittery little girl,” he said.

    “I’m not a little girl!” she retorted indignantly, which only made him laugh again.                         

“You’re, what, sixteen?” she asked loudly, for the first time noticing his age.

    “Actually, I’m eighteen, thank you very much,” he said in a teasing tone.

    “Why are you being so nice?” Heather asked, lowering her voice slightly. “I’m your prisoner! Aren’t you going to feed me to that dragon of yours?”

    “Are you complaining?” he asked, sitting down across from the fire.

    “No,” she answered after a moment, sitting down as well.

    “And you’re not my prisoner,” he explained.

    “Really?!” Heather asked incredulously. “Because shackles and chains sure make it seem that way!” The man held up his hands in surrender.

    “Do you want me to explain or are you just going to keep on ranting?”

    “I wasn’t ranting,” Heather muttered under her breath.

    “I just wanted to talk to you, but I can’t do that with you trying to run,” he said. “I’m on a mission to hunt down the Magnum-a ferocious and gruesome monster-so it doesn’t destroy the futur-“

    “So I’m supposed to believe that…what’s your name?” Heather interrupted.

    “Leo Wolfe,” he answered.

    “So I’m supposed to-"                      

    “Can you tell me yours? Or is it top secret?” he joked.

    “Heather,” she said curtly, looking down her nose at him. Then she continued talking. “So, I’m supposed to believe that dragons exist, there’s a monster terrorizing the future, and we are supposed to stop it? Just because a guy named Leo told me so - even after his dragon tried to kill me?” Heather asked, folding her arms and glaring across the fire.

     “It does sound crazy when you say it like that,” he mused, nodding.

     “It sounds crazy any way I say it! And we are in the future? Why am I not older or something?” Leo shrugged, then smiled.

    “She wasn’t trying to kill you, though,” he said.

"What?" Heather asked impatiently.

"The dragon," He answered calmly.

    “Wait, she? I thought it was a boy,” Heather said sheepishly.

    “Nope. Actually, the female dragons are a lot more interactive and their eyes change colors, which is how you can tell their gender.”

     “Well, she almost dropped me! And she sent me on a death chase through the forest!” Heather argued.

    “She’s just playful,” Leo argued back. Then he whistled loudly. Several silent seconds passed. Then the sound of wingbeats sounded outside the room and a thud signaled the landing of a huge beast. The white dragon walked into the room, ducking so she didn’t hit her head on the doorframe. Heather tensed, although she couldn’t really protect herself when she was in the chains. The dragon walked over to her master and Leo spoke softly to her again before she sauntered over to Heather and gracefully sat down next to her. She rested her head near Heather’s boot, as if to say she was sorry for scaring her half to death.

    “She’s beautiful!” Heather exclaimed, looking at the dragon’s eyes. They were soft and almond-shaped, but this time with a hazel-colored iris.

    “I did notice that her eyes were purple before,” Heather said, reaching to stroke the creature’s face. Her scales were soft to the touch, and she closed her eyes as if she liked it.

  “Wow,” Leo said. “She has had a hard time warming up to humans. She must really like you. Let’s just say she doesn’t really like me,” he said with a chuckle, showing Heather a long scar on his arm.

    “Good thing she likes you, Heather, because you’ll need her.”

    “What do you mean?” Heather asked, looking up at Leo.

    “Well, you have to help me hunt the Magnum You were chosen by the Elder Council to come to this year, 2075, to help me defeat him,” Leo explained. “That’s why you woke up here.”

    “Oh,” Heather whispered, everything seeming to fall into place, making sense now.

    “Get to know and trust her well. You will need to depend on each other for survival in the days to come.”

THE END