Page 45 of Escaping my Dragon

“What the ever-loving fuck?” Question and shocked reply all in one.

“The creature from our dream.” Velma offered a soft and quavering explanation.

I wanted to laugh and ask her how hard she hit her head, only… I feared she spoke the truth. For I had heard that voice before. Heard it when I was alone outside, carried on the wind. Usually, however, it demanded I free it.

“Okay, that’s impossible,” Joslyn squeaked. “More like someone hacked the headsets. Right, Captain?”

I wanted to agree. I really did, but… “I don’t know what that was, but I doubt it came from the equipment.”

“It’s the thing stuck in that ice cave,” Vernon stated.

“Yup,” Velma affirmed. “And here’s the even wilder part, it claims it’s an alien who’s been around for millions of years.”

I snorted. “That’s impossible.”

“I’m aware it sounds crazy,” Velma replied in a weary tone.

“What happened to you down in that hole?” Joslyn’s query.

As I flew us away from the shaking mountain, Velma related not just the moment she’d spent conversing with the being, but the previous dreams she’d experienced, along with what this supposed alien being said the night before when she got lost outside.

The entire thing sounded like a fantastical tale. An alien, millions of years old, who’d caused the ice age, eaten dinosaurs, went through sleeping and pillaging cycles, now planned to go on another feeding frenzy, oh, and use Velma’s eggs to make babies.

Joslyn snickered at that part. “Why would it choose your dusty eggs?”

“Hey!” Velma protested. “I am not that old.”

Agreed. At thirty-five, she was just right for me.

“Just saying. Why you? Why not me, or that cutie who works in the galley?”

“You’re asking me to figure out how some psycho alien came to that decision?” Velma huffed in annoyance.

“Why did it wake up, anyhow?” Vernon queried, changing the subject. “And how long before it goes to sleep again?”

As they argued about the voice—and supposed alien being—I navigated us over the fracturing mountain, heading for safety. Although, would anywhere be safe if any part of Velma’s story was true?

An alien that hit the Earth hard enough during its arrival it started the ice age that killed dinosaurs. A being that used to feed on dinosaurs. A thing that had been sleeping but, now that it had woken, hungered for flesh.

I couldn’t help but recall the conversation we’d had about the eye she’d seen in her dream. An eye she claimed had to be ten feet or more wide, leading her to do the math on the size of such a creature. A mile or more long. Sounded impossible, but if accurate, no wonder it mocked the military jets. They’d be like mosquitos in comparison. But the fact it also didn’t seem bothered by nukes? That terrified the most.

“This thing claims it learned about humanity’s advancements by listening?” Vernon sounded skeptical. “Listening to what? Antarctica ain’t a hotbed for news and information.”

“I didn’t say it made sense. The whole thing is insane. Maybe we’re being pranked,” Velma suggested.

“Pretty fucking elaborate prank, don’t you think?” Joslyn countered. “I mean, exploding volcanoes, including three that should have never erupted. People’s dreams being manipulated. A voice that we shouldn’t have been able to hear, yet it was as if they spoke to our brains.”

“Maybe I’m dreaming then,” Velma countered.

“Aren’t you the one always saying there has to be a logical explanation?”

“I’d welcome a rational alternative.”

Only, no one had anything to offer.

Velma ended up coming into the cockpit and collapsing in the copilot seat. I glanced at her. “Rough day?” My poor attempt at humor.

Her wan smile squeezed my heart. “Just a bit. Thanks for coming back for me.”