A Dragon in the Southern Skies (Multiverse Contest)

A roaring could be heard across the South Carolina sky. It was not anything out of the ordinary. Just a pair of F-16C fighters doing a routine training flight. Just two modern warriors flying to keep their skills sharp. Unknow to the pilots however, their ordinary day would soon be turned upside down. Their radars began to show something just… appeared out of nowhere south of their position. The lead pilot soon radioed base.

“This is Gambler One to Shaw Air Force Base. Are you getting this reading too?” The radio soon crackled to life as the base responded.

“Shaw AFB to Gambler One. We can confirm. Orders are to go and investigate the bogy.”

“Roger Shaw. Gambler Two. We have our orders. Turn to intercept the bogy.”  The pair of pilots had no idea what they were about to get into.

South of their location, a strange portal had opened, bridging our world with one that was very different. One where incredible beast existed. Beast that were just as smart, if not smarter than humans. Thunderbirds, phoenixes, manticores, griffins. While all these species were incredible, the strongest of them were the dragons. And this is exactly what came through the portal. Well, a wyvern more specifically. One could tell by the lack of forelegs of flying being. This dragon, named Wake, was a bit odd looking too. His horns seemed to move freely, having lifted from their resting place on his neck, and his grey tones gave off a ghostly feel. For his world, he also quite small. On the ground, he stood at 20 feet tall and on only his hind legs, giving the wyvern a dinosaur-like appearance. He hovered there, looking around panicked. He then roared out in a touch of fear.

“Where am I? This isn’t Pyyria. Gah! Why does Kelarth do these things to me!?” A new sound then entered is ears. Even for a dragon Wake’s ears were sensitive, and right now they were picking up a distinct, constant roaring. He turned, not able to see what was producing the sound. He darted up higher into the sky, but still couldn’t tell what was making the sound. Was it some strange form of dragon, or possibly another kind of beast? He finally caught a glimpse as the roar the roar became louder. He then eyed the source of the odd calling. Two grey… things. They looked vaguely like birds, but they didn’t seem to be living. The things flew by faster than anything he’d ever seen. It was incredible! Aboard the fighters, Gamblers One and Two were just as awestruck as the wyvern.


“Gambler One! Am I seeing things?!” There was noticeable hesitation as the flight leader answered.

“I… I think so. Shaw. It a… a dragon.”

“A dragon!” The screaming on the other end of the radio was clear. “You’ve got to be kidding… Oh my word.” Everyone in the control room watched the screen as they showed the wyvern. The pilots looked out, not knowing what to do. Gambler One then call out to the base.

“Shaw, what are our orders?” The commanding officer thought a moment, but before he could say anything, the dragon shot off. He quickly yelled out to the pilots, sounding worried.

“Follow that creature! We can’t let it escape our sight, especially if it’s dangerous.”

“Sir,” Gambler One began with little confidence in the pilot’s voice. “That thing is fast, but our Vipers can’t fly that slow. We’ll stall out.”

As the pilot and commander discussed their plan, Wake could only think of getting away. Those steel birds were trouble, and he really didn’t need more trouble. The wyvern was going as fast as he could, only around 70 mph, and kept trying to escape. The roaring birds, however, kept flying over and circling the young dragon. It certainly terrified him. That when he got an idea. As he flew, three more wyverns appeared out of nowhere. Gambler Two stared out of the cockpit in awe before practically screaming into his microphone.

“What in blue blazes! There’s more of them!”

Every radar operator and officer at Shaw Air Force Base just looked confused. While the pilot reported more creatures showing up, nothing appeared on the radar. Looking back at the screens with the gun cameras, the men and women in the room were even more shocked to see that the wingman told the truth. The cameras picked up the three new dragons. The commander looked between the radar and the screen. Something did not add up. As he looked between the two, three of the dragons on the coming through the screen became less… real. He quickly called out to the pilots, a hint of fear coming through his hard voice.

“Three of them aren’t real! Focus on the one on your radar!” The pilots both looked out at the dragons as they split up, but the pilots could begin to see what their CO saw. They could not explain it, but they could see it. There was just something about the other three dragons that… that was not real. The pilots could tell the new wyverns were just illusions. Gambler One soon called over the radio in disbelief.

“How? How did it do that?”

“I don’t know, just remember that it can.” As the commander and Gambler One spoke, the wingman soon spoke up, interrupting his superiors.

“I think we may be scaring this thing,” the pilot said with a surprising calm. “It hasn’t tried to fight us. It’s just running. I mean, it seems to hate our Vipers, but it hasn’t even tried to attack us yet.” The commander thought about what the pilot’s words. It made sense. Most animals try to run if they can. Of course, he did not know just how intelligent this “animal” was. Or even that he was sapient.

Wake meanwhile continued looking around him in fear. The metal birds were still able to follow him, even after he used his illusions to try and trick the things into chasing his doubles. How could they have figured out those were fakes? Maybe these screaming birds were smarter than the wyvern originally thought. What did they want with him? Was he food to them? A threat? Where in the world was he even at? Was this some other world like Kelarth has? Whatever this was, Wake had to get away first, so he could think.

The small dragon turned his head to the birds, and his grey irises began to have flashes like heat lightning glow from them. Clouds began grow. Winds strengthened. The sky grew darker. Gamblers One and Two looked around in awe as the weather began to turn against them in an instant. The pilots quickly radioed Shaw ABF as they tried to understand what was happening around them.

“Shaw. What the heck is happening here?”

“Yeah. The weather’s changing faster than I’ve ever seen.” As Gambler Two finished his sentence, lightning began to strike around them. The frequency of these strikes kept increasing as more and more lightning emerged from the clouds. The winds continued to pick up, and Gambler One finally radioed the base again, realizing the dragon had slipped from sight.

“Shaw, there’s no way for us to keep tracking this thing and the weather’s getting to bad. Permission to break pursuit.” The commanding officer could not help but sigh as he heard those words. He was just as shocked as anyone that this storm had literally come out of nowhere. Gambler One was right though. They had lost the dragon in the storm, and it just seemed to be getting stronger. The commander finally went to the radio and spoke with a defeated tone.

“Permission granted but stay outside of the storm. He has to come out at some point.” The pilots were quick to break the chase, flying full speed to the closest edge. Wake meanwhile found a small clearing in some woods under his protective storm. He moved into the woods a short way, trying to keep himself hidden from anything above. Now he could think. It was clear that this place was not Pyyria. The wyvern had not seen any of the monsters he had grown to fear, or any dragons. Come to think of it, he had not, knowingly, seen any humans either. The only thing he had seen was those metal, screaming birds. Wake had to think of a way…. Then it hit him.

“The feather,” the wyvern excitedly screeches as he revealed it. With everything that had happened, the powerful artifact had completely slipped his mind. Wake remembered what Kelarth had told him about how the feather worked. Wake eyed the feather for a moment, holding it in one of his wing claws. He then closed his eyes, trying to think of Kelarth’s world. If he could just get back there, maybe he could jump from there back to Pyyria. Wake continued to focus as a glow covered both him and the golden feather, and he soon left the world he was in, appearing back in his god’s realm. The wyvern opened his eyes and finally let out a relieved breath. Now, how would he explain this one to Kelarth?