Serephia: A Dragon's World

Alec began to awake slowly, almost tentatively, as if afraid to find out what had happened to him. There was a pounding throbbing in his head and his ears rang as if they were alarms. Where was he? What happened? He closed his eyes in concentration and rubbed at his temples, trying to remember the events that had led up to this.

Slowly, but surely, his memory began coming back to him. He remembered that he was on a ship. A decent sized craft, whose purpose was to discover life on other planets. There had been other crew members aboard with him, all of them having been trained in the art of space travel and zero gravity. Whereas he hadn't. Simply put, he had been lucky to even be there. He had been a civilian, a mere commonfolk at that, one of millions upon millions who had entered their name into the raffle to become the civilian chosen to embark on the journey to discover sentient life. He never even fathomed that it would be his name that would be pulled.

What had actually happened was still a bit distant to him, something about the ship malfunctioning as they passed near the planet, about the airlocks and the ship imploding. He hardly had anytime to react as he was quickly pulled to, then shoved inside one of the escape pods. Had there been any other pods that had ejected in time? He couldn't remember seeing any, and it had been mere moments after he was ejected that the ship collapsed in on itself. He must've blacked out from entering the atmosphere of the planet, and now he found himself here. Which raised the question, where was here?

Opening his eyes again and seeing his eyes had adjusted to the dark, he studied his surroundings. The pod didn't seem to be in working condition. None of the lights were working, and pressing buttons only recieved empty results. It had done it's job well, which was keeping him intact, so he had that to thank. He waited for a few moments, trying to see if he could detect movement, in case the pod had landed in some vast, sprawling ocean, or was plummeting still towards the planet. Considering there was small glimmers of light seeping through the round, dirt covered window, neither seemed to be true.

Once he had his bearings, and knowing there was nothing more for him to do in the pod, Alec reached up, and pulled the handle. There was a loud hiss as the door swung open, letting warm, bright rays into his face fully and blinding him. There was another thing to be thankful for, a breathable environment. He didn't even consider the factor, even if he had been taught it briefly, so it was good his lungs weren't quite literally on fire right now.

He let his eyes adjust to the light around him before hoisting his body from the small shuttle. As he left the insides of the pod and tried to observe where he was at, he gasped. He knew from the start that he wouldn't recognize anything on whichever planet they had arrived on, however he never expected this. Everything around him was absolutely massive. It was a if he had shrunken down and was now looking at the world through smaller eyes.

The smallest of trees were taller and thicker than the greatest redwood, and the shrubs and bushes were so large, one could likely hide a house inside them. Strange things chirped and whistled, and made sounds he couldn't find a word to describe. Leaves were bigger than his entire head. He half expected to hear a 'Fe fie fo fum' off in the distance. Even the air smelled, and felt fresher and more pure. Though that wasn't hard to achieve by any means.

He could feel himself getting lightheaded, or overwhelmed, he wasn't entirely sure which, and he sat down next to the crashed pod. Despite just having come back to consciousness, he already felt tired. The upturned dirt from the crash wasn't the best place to sleep, but it was better than the cramped confines of the hunk of metal next to him. It was made for saving lives, not for comfort after all. He laid himself down and closed his eyes, wondering what would be in store for him on this strange, alien world. As the boy drifted to slumber, just past the massive forestry lay two beings, silently observing him and watching every move he made...