Okay, other fans out there, PLEASE DON'T KILL ME FOR THIS! I've had all kinds of ideas for Rascal Flatts fanfics, but I never got to write one until now. I'll just warn you, I'm a Gary fan, so don't be surprised if there's not as much Jay and Joe as there is Gary. This is told from Gary's POV.

Rascal Flatts belong to their mommas and daddies. Their lyrics and music belong to them and Big Machine Records. However, this version of them is mine. Their personalities and behavior here are not in any way based on those of the actual Rascal Flatts, just the Rascal Flatts that exists in my D. L.-verse.

- 1. Nothing Like This -

This should have been just another concert for me. For all three of us, really. We should have been able to just go out, sing our songs, make some jokes, all the usual stuff. It should have gone without a hitch. But it didn't. This was the day everything changed. This was the day my world was turned upside down. Everything I had ever known was shattered by what I learned this day, and what Jay and Joe Don learned just days later. I've heard reporters say "Well, not every Rascal Flatts concert is perfect. They are only human." Guess what, reporters. You're wrong. Everyone who thinks we're human is wrong.

We're not human. Not anymore.

XxxxxxxxxxX

"Hey, Gary!" Jay called, "You comin' or what?" He stood at the back entrance of the covered stage. Riverbend never was one of my favorite venues. It was too cramped.

"You're one to talk." I said as I reached him. "It took Joe Don and a garden hose to get you out of bed today."

Jay scowled, "That better not be on YouTube."

I smirked, "It's not...yet."

"Is there ever a day you two don't argue?" Joe Don asked.

"Yeah. The day Jay becomes lead singer." I said. "And we all know that won't be happening any time soon."

"Hey, meatheads." Taylor Swift called as she came off stage, "You're up next. I'd get back there if I were you."

"And if Jay didn't eat beans." her guitarist added. Joe and I tried in vain to conceal our snickers. I don't know how, but Jay can work up some MAJORLY toxic "fumes" when he eats beans. Put that in the small space backstage, and someone would probably pass out. Someone meaning me.

"What! Hey, come back here you-"

"Come on, Jay." I grabbed his wrist and basically dragged him up the set of stairs to wait.

XxxxxxxxX

We were about halfway through the concert when it happened. We didn't hear the screaming until we finished the end of "Secret Smile" I could see people at the back of the amphitheatre screaming and running. The screaming spread forward until it reached us. Looking back, I realize I probably should have stayed on the stage, but at the time my curiosity got the better of me. I jumped down and pushed my way through the crowd toward the exits.

"Gary!" Joe Don called. I could hear Jay cursing as he and Joe tried to follow me. The crowd swept me out from under the covered theatre, where I froze and looked up. And that's when I saw it.

The creature was huge, its black batlike wings spread to either side. It had a long whiplike tail that lashe around behind it, and it had large blades on the end of its tail. Its feet were like a cross between paws and talons, with flat bottoms and long slender toes. Its long neck held up an enormous head with two long, swept back horns on top and two smaller ones on the back of each cheek. It had long white fangs and a mouth filled with more sharp teeth. It let out a deafening roar, and at the same time a jet of blue flame shot from its mouth.

It was a dragon. A very real, very alive dragon. And its blue snakelike eyes were locked onto a target. The thing it was hunting for. And what was this thing it was looking for?

Me.

The dragon angled its head straight toward me and dove. Now my legs decided to work again. I turned and ssprinted toward where I knew the entrance to the backstage area was.

I'm gonna make it! I'm gonna make it! I thought. I could see Jay and Joe Don ahead of me running in the same direction. I also saw the shadow fall over me. I ran as hard and fast as I could, but it wasn't enough to escape. I felt the talon wrap around my chest and torso, my arms and legs flailing about as I tried to get loose, even as I was lifted into the air.

"GARY!" Jay shouted as he and Joe Don saw me being carried off over their heads. Jay started to throw rocks at the beast, but Joe Don grabbed him by the wrist.

"Don't!" he said, "You might hurt Gary!"

"Gary's gonna be worse than hurt if we don't get him back-AAHH!" Jay plowed right into a chainlink fence, where he and Joe Don could only watch helplessly as the dragon soared over their heads, climbing higher into the sky.

"JAAAAYYYY! JOOOOE! HEEEELP ME!" I screamed. The dragon growled, as if warning me to shut up. It lifted its talon and held me closer to its chest as it flew higher. Now we were over the river and gaining speed. Already, I had lost sight of Jay and Joe Don, which had me all the more scared to death. I cried out louder and thrashed madly in he creature's grasp. I felt myself coming loose and thrashed harder, hoping it would lose me over the water, and I could swim back to Riverbend, or at least to that side of the river. The dragon must have grown tired of my struggling, because it turned its head and showed its teeth.

At that moment, I could have sworn I heard the dragon saying something under its breath. But before I could ask what it said, my entire body went numb, my head fell forward, and I blacked out.

XxxxxxxxxX

The first thing I heard was a soft sniffing sound as something hard and smooth brushed against my cheek. I could feel something warm and heavy on my chest, and the smell of pine was everywhere. I could hear various birds calling each other. I opened my eyes to see where I was. And basically had a mini heart attack.

Not three inches from my face, was the mouth of a dragon.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed and scrambled backwards away from it, shoving it off my chest. I heard it give a confused whimper as it just sat there. I turned back to face it, and felt my face turning red. It was only a baby dragon, not much bigger than a small dog.

"Oh, Khamûl, now you've gone and frightened the poor thing." A female voice, followed by the appearance of its owner, another larger dragon that ambled slowly over to where I was. She had to be an old dragon to be moving so slowly, and her once black scales had faded to brown with age.

"Um, excuse me," I said, making her look up, "but, uh, could you tell me...where am I?"

"I know not what your kind call these lands, but we know them as Khaládras."

"Khaládras." I repeated. She nodded.

"By the way, I am Maagnis. You've already met Khamûl." The baby perked up at the sound of his name.

"Um...I'm Gary. Gary LeVox." That wasn't my real last name, but it was the one I used most often.

"Gary LeVox." Maagnis repeated, appearing to size me up and think deeply about it. "It suits you." she said.

Before either of us could say any more, there was a loud crashing through the trees as another, larger dragon appeared. Khamûl yelped and jumped into my arms, hiding his face in my shirt. I looked down at the baby dragon, huddled against me as though I were its mother.

"Teek, you know better than to come running up like that. You scared the living daylights out of the poor baby." Teek ignored her words and eyed me before he spoke.

"I see the creature is awake. Good. Alloran has requested that you bring it to him immediately."

"He has a name, Teek." Maagnis glared at him before approaching me. She knelt down on her front legs in front of me.

"Get on." she commanded. Teek looked away, as if disgusted by my very existence.

"Filthy half-breed." he muttered under his breath. I clambered onto Maagnis' back and set Khamûl in my lap. I took hold of a spike on the back of her neck. She took off at a brisk run, Khamûl's little talons gripping my shoulders tightly. As we rean, I thought back to Teek's muttered words. Filthy half-breed. Who was he talking about? This Alloran guy? Maagnis? Khamûl? Could it be, possibly...

Me?

XxxxxxxxxxxX

Ha ha, left you at a cliffy, didn't I. I'm so evil.

Anyway, I decided to end this chapter her because too much happens in the next one, and it would make this one too long. This is probably going to mix a lot of fandoms together, so of course it's going to be AU, and probably pretty OOC too. So please click that little button down there that says "Review" and tell me what you think.