The wind howled over the gray aircraft carrier as large, black waves collided with the hull in liquid explosions. Jennifer Hawkins never liked the water. However, joining the air force had changed all that. She had been mostly in charge of doing petty air support missions in Europe prior to be shipped to Tehran. Her pilot, Sanders, was looking at the sea, his eyes as dark as the sea before them.
“Are you ready for this?” he asked.
Jen looked down at her yellow-red helmet and thought about it. Was she ready? She always looked forward to a battle, but that was when she was the top predator. The commander had sounded unnaturally grim when describing how their mission wouldn’t be as simple as it had appeared.
“I’m ready to rock.”
Her quiet voice was usually gentle, but in a battle it became deeper and more intimidating.
The jet was already on the runway, its hull as gray as the ominous clouds above. Her pilot took in a deep breath before strapping his helmet on and climbing up the ladder into the cockpit. Jen looked down and carefully lowered her helmet over her light brown hair. She adjusted the mask and climbed in.
After going through the standard pre-flight checks, she gripped her fingers and held her gut in place.
WHOOOSH!
The force of the plane being catapulted off the runway always gave her that fervor of energy. It intoxicated her essence and made Jen want to puke and laugh at the same time. The jet was now in the hands of her co-pilot. They were up against the surge of the ocean and flying with their wingman against the floating behemoth for a ship below.
“Shark 4-6, This is Birdie Watch Over?”
“We read you.” Her pilot said over the com chatter.
“Your destination is a couple miles south of here, be advised, hostile bogies have been detected.”
“Well take care of them.”
With a thrust of the engines, the plane made another dash of speed and headed towards the ominous, dark-grey storm clouds that hid their enemy.
“Crazy eh’ Hawkins?” Sanders contemplated.
“What is it now Sanders?” Hawkins droned.
“I’m just thinking,” Sanders began, “do you ever wonder what it would be like to fly?”
“Well your'e one of the many people who can say that they have flown,” Jen grunted.
“No I don’t mean planes Hawkins, I mean like a bird flying in the sky. To naturally fly. That would be the life for me.”
Hawkins sighed, which came out louder through her mask. Colonel Francis Sanders had always wanted to be a bird. There was a joke back at command that described a jogger’s encounter with him sitting in a tree. When asked if he was spying on his girlfriend, Sanders replied that he was watching birds. The jogger laughed and asked him not to lie when he asked her to come up with him. After some convincing the jogger joined the peculiar man and saw that his binoculars were pointed at a flock of geese flying in formation.
Hawkins always felt the joke was stupid, but even she had to agree that Sanders loved natural fliers too much.
“Shark 4-6, this is Shark 4-2 approaching your right, stand by, my co-pilot just said we may have run into some turbulence.”
The two jets dissolved into the growing storm, when suddenly the ship’s radar went off the charts.
“What’s going on Lieutenant!” the Commander barked as all the ship’s systems went offline.
The Lieutenant could only stare at the commander wide-eyed.
“Sir…this isn’t the enemy jamming…this is coming from the clouds.”
“Birdie Watch come in, this is Shark 4-6 over?”
Sanders continued to contact the ship, but neither the ship nor their wingman was responding.
Something weird is going on Hawkins thought. The enemy could have jammed them any second now, but this seemed odd. That and also that they should have past the storm 30 minutes ago.
The jet came out through the clouds and Joel Walders looked for his wingman.
“Shark 4-6, this is Shark 4-2 over?”
No response.
“I repeat this is Shark 4-2 over?”
The only chatter was now coming from the ship as panicked voices filled Joel’s ears.
“Shark 4-2 do you read me over?” It was coming from the command ship, though the voice seemed more on edge then usual.
“This is Shark 4-2, we read you.”
“Shark 4-2, be advised, we are experiencing slight problems, but cannot contact Shark 4-6 over?”
“Copy, I can’t get them either.”
“Well this storm will pass through soon, they couldn’t have gotten lost.”
“Sir that’s just it.”
Joel was now staring at his radar, his blood running cold.
“What is?”
“There isn’t a **** thing reading on the radar except you and me!”
The flash of lightning awoke a bitter memory in Hawkins’s mind. She was back home with her brother and they were watching a storm pass through the dark, forbidding forest of their home in South Dakota.
“You know lighting is dangerous Jenny,” her brother warned, “it can get you killed just like this.”
And he snapped his fingers in a single second.
“Can anyone read me? This is Shark 4-6!” Sanders was on the verge of pounding his controls.
“Is anyone fu---“
CRASH!!
A bright blue flash shook the plane and all lights went dim. For a moment, silence filled the jet until Sanders spoke up.
“Shoot! Mayday! Mayday! Oh for crying out loud, Hawkins, brace yourself. “
Son of a…was all Hawkins could think of as their once mighty aircraft plummet from the sky like a twig dropped by a bird.
The clouds began to fade.
No they began to brighten.
What? Hawkins pondered with a puzzled expression. Light began to pour out like a slow-moving explosion and before either pilot could utter another word, their aircraft was engulfed.
Chapter 2: Were Not in Iran anymore...
The light was pouring in through her eyes. Hawkins gave a groan and felt her face for her oxygen mask. Yet, she only felt what appeared to be reptile scales and a snout.
Wait a snout? Hawkins shot up and found herself in a picturesque scene. Large, purple mountains with neat snowcaps loomed over the horizon. Below, dotted a forest of luscious, green trees that resembled oaks and maples. A sky-blue stream was curving around the meadow, its sound playing like a harmonious instrument to add to the beauty before it.
Hawkins looked around and saw that her aircraft was missing, as well as her co-pilot. She began to dash towards the stream to wash herself when she jumped back in fright. A strange, reptilian face had appeared in the reflection of the stream. Creeping closer, Hawkins gasped.
It was her reflection. Instead of her oval face, with her brown hair in a bun, she saw a gray head with a long snout, and small, sharp teeth jutting out of the edges. Her eyes were still their gray, stormy selves, but now they were ellipses instead of ovals. Gray, slate-like scales formed various patterns around her head and she saw that her hands had turned into four-digit claws like that of a desert lizard.
Turning around, she saw that a pair of bat-like wings were connected to her upper body, which was now a slender coil like a fattened boa. She was standing on all fours, her tail slithering side-to-side, the spade sniffing the ground for any signs of danger.
“Am I a…A BUCKING DRAGON!” Hawkins screamed, or roared.
She couldn’t believe it. She was stuck looking like this...dinosaur! Sure she had had her fair share of pretending to be the monster on Halloween and during plays. However, this was too much for her to take in.
The soft breeze animated the grass and invited her to take a nap. She found that it wasn’t too hard adjusting to this reptilian carapace. Apparently her brain must have already become accustomed to the lizard-like motions, although flying still seemed far-fetched.
Sanders had been wandering the forests for at least an hour now. He had woken up on a tree branch to find himself feeling healthier then usual.
What the buck? Sanders scanned the area, looking for any signs of a parachute, his aircraft, or Hawkins.
Nothing. Only the trees and bushes stood in front of his eyes.
That was when he heard the sloshing of water from a creek. It led out of the forest and into a large plain. From his vantage point, he could see colorful flowers of dazzling purple, illuminating yellow, and sky-blue.
“This sure as Tartarus doesn’t look like Tehran at all!” he exclaimed. Tartarus...buck... he thought confusingly. He had meant to say another word, but these words seemed natural to him, as if he had always said it.
Come to think about it...what did I mean to say?
"Where am I?" he bellowed at the forest and mountains overhead.
The sound made Hawkins’ head snapped up as fast as a speeding bullet.
“SANDERS?” she called out.
“Hawkins?” came a reply, echoing from somewhere in the forest.
“Where are you?”
“I’m in the forest heading for the stream up ahead.
“I’m already there!” she yelled in relief and joy.
Forgetting about her current form, Jennifer Hawkins dashed on all fours, her feet suddenly lifting in the air as her wings flapped like a sail on a windy day.
Sanders darted off, forgetting about the situation at hand. He just needed to see his co-pilot, to make sure she wasn’t dead.
That was when he crashed into a gray blur. Both figures tumbled into the grass and slowly got up with a moan.
“Jeepers Hawkins, I thought…”
Sanders stood wide-eyed at what looked to him like a blend between a serpent, monitor lizard, and bat.
The creature looked at him just as puzzled and said in a tentative voice.
“Sanders?”
Hawkins? The reptile before him looked nothing like his partner, but it spoke with that sweet, gentle voice of hers. In one movement, he grabbed the lizard-like beast and pinned it to the ground.
“Who are you and what have you done with my co-pilot,” he growled menacingly.
San-Sanders,” the voice chocked, “I-I-I am…your…co-pilot. We…were going…on…an…airstrike over…over Tehran. I…I…was the one….who saved…your sorry butt back…at the mess hall.”
Only his co-pilot would ever bring that story up with those exact words. Sander’s let go of his grip and gave a sigh of relief.
“Thank gosh its you Hawkins. I was worried…” he looked at his hand. Yet, it wasn’t a hand, but a clawed talon, with tan feathers covering the ankle length.
“What the heck?” and with that, Sanders ran to the pond and shrieked like a girl who was having a spider land on her face.
A falcon’s grey head stared at him. It’s beak was jet-black and curved like some wicked sickle. His eyes were reduced to the piercing, obsidian eyes of a hunter. His feathers were delicately forming tiny, almost invisible, patterns around it. He turned his body to see contour feathers the shape of small daggers surround his now imposing chest. At the end, his hind legs were like that of a lion, with a whip-like tail while his frontal limbs were now claws that looked like they belonged to some ancient dinosaur.
“This…this…can’t be happening.”
“Sanders,” Hawkins slowly began, ”calm down. I know this seems weird and I had a similar reaction as well. Just take a deep breath…”
With a puff of his chest, the griffin sucked in the fresh air.
And let it out in a volley of inaudible and disturbing words.
Princess Luna stirred in her sleep. She had had a horrible dream. She was in this metal bird and there were pillars of fire and the smell of death emitting from the controls of the odd machine.
She had felt something wrong before...but now she knew that something was wrong.
Something was very wrong.
