The Adventure Begins

Tony fell into the world of dreams and found himself sitting at the table with his parents. They were all eating peacefully at their respective places and Tony was in his usual seat as well. Naturally, Tony’s mother had to raise the questions at the dining table because she hated the silence of a serene supper.

            “So, how was your day, honey?” She asked to Tony’s father.

He answered with the usual talk of a full-time worker at a grocery store; the adult stuff that children didn’t pay attention to.

            “And you, Jimmy?”

            He talked about his aced exams again.  Like Tony, he had the controversial gift of making trouble, never listening to the teacher, but still getting good grades in any school work he did. It was the perfect offence against teachers who enjoyed fluking troublesome kids.

“And you?”

            “Umm… same as usual.”  Tony answered, like every other time his mother asked the question.

            “Tony?” His mother said a little louder with a frown.

            “Yeah.”

            “Where are you?” She almost screamed, looking everywhere, starting to agitate.

“Hey, I’m here.” Questions and doubts started to rise in the boy’s mind.

“Tony! TONY!” She kept screaming, while tears went out of her eyes. She stood up and looked hurriedly in every dimension so fast that Tony thought her neck would snap. Frightened and confused from the scene, he kept screaming, “Stop mom! I’m here mom, stop!” but she would ignore him and just look right through him as if he didn’t exist. Both Jimmy and Tony’s father rose up from the table too, and they all started running, looking horrified, towards the living room, which was behind Tony’s seat at the dinner table. Tony turned around in time to see Jimmy and his father jump through the living room’s windows, making an exaggeratedly loud sound of glass shattering. He felt vibration under his feet, so he turned back his attention to the dining table. His mother wasn’t there. He was about to stand up and go look for her, but the dining room’s windows to the left all broke at once and doused him with shattered glass. Still seated at the table, he saw the giant dragon with the metal mask enter its head through the hole where the windows had been a moment ago. It snapped its jaw at the table, leaving three quarters of the table remaining with the obvious teeth marks, just like a half-bitten microwaved chocolate chip cookie. The dragon spat out a huge roar that made the whole house tremble, and Tony blew off with the wind so far and fast, that he was suddenly in outer space among the stars, and seconds later, things faded into a familiar black emptiness.

“You always get this close to dying,” Narcolia said, stepping out of the darkness. “You oughtta thank god for waking up your powers at the right moment.”

“What? You’re here again? Is it gonna be every time I sleep?” Tony conveyed, even though he was glad he was here. He had a lot more questions than last time.

“Well, where else do you want me to go? I don’t know how to find my way outta this jungle either. I’m sticking with you until you find yourself a way out of here. I’m sure that will happen with the spitfire’s aid.”

“He wants to eat me.”

“Don’t be a wuss, come on. I’ve known spitfires for a very long time, and they’re harmless. Nice bunch of people. But I’m surprised one actually managed to get all the way here… are there any more survivors from that explosion? Hmm… mystery.”

“He got here because of the--“

“Yeah, yeah, I know, I know everything you know, remember that.” He said with a wink, which quite deranged the boy. ”I’m quite relieved. I don’t know if you could’ve made it without the little guy! But that boy he talked about, I’m as lost as you are on this one. You’ll just have to wake up and see for yourself, I suppose.” Narcolia’s silhouette slowly started to fade out.

“Already? Wait, I’ve just fallen asleep! You gotta explain some things to me! Will I ever make it home?”

“In the world of dreams, time can fly by pretty fast, my boy. Minutes in a dream could be hours in real life. So...see you tomorrow, if there is a tomorrow. Mwa, ha,ha! Just kidding, son.”

Tony opened his eyes, to find himself on the rocky summit of the cliff.  The sun was as bright as ever, and it was quite warm and comfortable up there. He got up from the pile of branches he was lying on, and looked around. The summit was only made out of rock and spots of unevenly laid out patches of grass. There were two tents on the left edge, and two small, wooden sheds at the other end of the summit. Beside the wooden sheds lay a pile of scrap metal and what seemed to be parts of a spaceship. There was a pile of cut wood and a little shelter behind a tent which held Cloudfire and Pascal’s tools, clothes, utensils, ropes, and knives. There was a big tent in the middle which served as a kitchen and a living room. The whole summit was about the size of a typical Basket-Ball field. Tony took a little tour in what he would probably have to consider his new home for a while. An ultimate question then popped up in his mind: How do I get back down? I don’t have to, right?

“You sleep a lot. Do all humans sleep that much?”

Tony turned around to see Cloudfire sitting on the edge of the cliff, gazing at the cloud-filled sky. “I dunno. My mom also says I sleep a lot.”

“Maybe it’s a nemusian trait too.”

“Why would you think that?”

“Pascal sleeps as much as you do.”

“And that Pascal, is he coming back soon?

 Cloudfire had been studying the humans for ten years, absenting himself from the island for some days to peek out in other lands, getting his hands on any source of culture he could see, like a magazine or a book. Not only did he feel the need to do so, since he was now a civilian of Earth, but he knew that Pascal would have to fly off on his own wings one day. He took it as his responsibility to teach Pascal on how to be not only a nemusian, but also an earthling. Cloudfire knew how to speak English ever since he was a child. No matter what planet it was, English was almost always the international language. Ever since he arrived on Earth, the continent he routinely explored was mainly English, so it was very beneficial for him. He had taught Pascal all he knew about Nemus and Earth, because he would need this knowledge one day. Pascal was like a son to him. He was the only thing he had left.

“Where is he now?” Tony asked.

“Probably out to get some food and provisions. He’s also looking for some accessories to rebuild his little shelter again. The storm from five days ago had completely destroyed it. Storms around here are pretty violent. There’s no shop around here, you have to gather your own stuff. We’re living the sedentary way here, my friend.”

“Wow, he’s doing this all by himself…”

 “I trained him to be a hero, you know. And his Birth Powers help a lot too.”

“How many powers does he have?”

“I don’t know. I don’t count such things. But he does have a few.”

“So he has more powers than me?”

“There are a lot of unfilled blanks, you see.”

 Tony sat on the edge beside Cloudfire, a little nervous, and also careful not to look down or suddenly lose balance, fall, and die. Among all the scariest things in Tony’s life, height was one of the worst.

“There’s supposed to be only one nemusian alive capable of multiple powers. That was Sir Nemacris. But you’re both here, both here with multiple powers. You claim being Narcolia’s son while I had always thought Pascal was his son. If that is true, and it looks like it is, then who is Pascal? Where does he come from? He’s definitely a nemusian, so why was he on U-Mos? He hasn’t returned for quite a while, actually. It’s been three days…” The dragon sighed. “He’s probably gone on one of those ‘adventures’.”

 “What kind of adventures?”

“He just goes out to explore. Sometimes even on other continents. You know, he’s lonely. I warn him about what he can and can’t do. If he ever gets caught flying… I don’t know what kind of trouble he could get into. Just talking to other people could be dangerous, and the fact itself that he could get lost and not find the way back…I hate it when he leaves like that without telling me.”

 They both gazed at the clouds, with worry in their eyes. Tony was wondering how long he would be stuck here, away from his parents, friends, and all he knew. He couldn’t wait to tell everything to Sidrik and his buddies. That was if he could ever see them again.

 Cloudfire was worried about Pascal. He had a slight idea of what he might have done.

“Cloudfire, do you know when I’ll be able to go back home?”

“There’s no point in bringing you back where you come from, Tony. I know you want to go home, but he’ll come back and get you. And next time you may not be this lucky.” Cloudfire replied. “We have to finish this here. You’ll have to stay here until you get used to your nemusian powers.”

“Why’s that? Why do you want me to kill the thing?” Tony asked, having chills to the thought of only having to approach the beast.

“Calm down. We have enough time on our hands for you to get used to this place. Our combined strength, including Pascal’s, will probably be enough to destroy him. The lizaard doesn’t even know that Pascal and I exist. He’s only here for you. The creature got sent here in this forest when the other lizaard, probably his boss, dropped you. He wants to hunt you down. Pascal can’t beat him alone, and I can’t either. And not only that, but you’re the one who brought him here. So it’s your responsibility.”

“What?”

“But us three together, we sure have a chance to finish him off. And you better be aware that this is probably not the last lizaard you’ll be seeing. Let’s just call this… an initiation for the years to come.”

“So you’re telling me there are more of those guys?”

Cloudfire stood up, sighed, and looked far ahead in the forest below. “Probably. Let’s just start by gathering breakfast. Pascal doesn’t seem like he’s arriving soon.”  The adventure was now just beginning. Not only did he have to find his way in this jungle, he had to live in it.