After Charlie left the tunnel, he looked around. There was nothing but rock everywhere. He looked up at the sky. Clear blue, with just a spattering of clouds.
He listened again for any sounds and was relieved to hear birds chirping. And there was also another sound, like something flapping, but it sounded too big for a bird.
He climbed out of the rocky pit to get a better look, but he wished he hadn't. The situation he was in was already too strange, and what he saw flying towards him made it even stranger.
It was a dragon. As impossible as it seemed, that was what it was.
As it flew closer, it bellowed a roar that was so loud that Charlie had to cover his ears.
"There it is!" a man's voice yelled out. And then dozens of arrows flew through the air towards the great beast. The dragon seemed to notice them and hovered over one spot. It moved so fast and ferociously that the archers didn't have a chance. And just seconds after they shot their arrows, they were engulfed in a plume of fire.
"Oh my god," Charlie muttered.
He stood there watching as the charred archers writhed in pain. He didn't know what to do. This whole situation was insane. Dragons didn't really exist, yet he was seeing one right now. How could all this be happening?
Then, suddenly, his fixation on the mostly dead men was broken, when he heard the dragon roar once more. He looked at it and saw that it was looking directly at him.
He had been noticed.
