Seconds past as nothing seemingly made another noise. It seemed as though time itself had frozen. "Who's there?" I whispered faintly, my body stiffly frozen, cringing only slightly. No one heard, or even seem to exist in that matter, except for that being behind that dasted back wall of the cave, I had a feeling that he did, I-I just knew he had. Something felt wrong.
There was another knock.
My nose twitched. Why the hell was I whispering? It felt as if I had to when I opened my mouth once more, as if something was forcing me back. I closed my mouth, feeling as if I was even able to break past the barrier, that there was still yet another force threatening to strip off the loudness of my voice to a mere whisper like a knife, even if I was to scream at the top of my lungs.
Groot groaned, rubbing his head as he sat up in the rubble alongside Drax, only seconds behind. Moments passed as Groot looked to make sure that his tattooed colleague was fine, till Drax started waving his hand irritably , assuring Groot that he was indeed alright. With only slight fuzzy numbness in his head left, Groot turned, scanning the area for me. He had to make sure, he needed to know that his little buddy was alright. "I am Groot?"
I never heard him.
A sliver of seemly string of ice coldness suddenly flung it's self across my spine, making me cringe more. Something was definitely off, as if something as powerful and old as the galaxy and the cosmos itself had broken, a small yet powerful tear that was rippling throughout space. But in the form of knocking?
Groot turned, seeing me. "I am Groot?"
My body suddenly slowly started to untense, the force and feeling of something huge was holding me frozen both straight and pressing down on the ground, as if I was a toy to a humongous toddler who was playing with me tightly, was now slowly backing down. My shoulders relaxed as the feeling of the ripple died down. I turned to see Groot sitting there. "I am Groot?"
"Yeah yeah, I'm fine, you bud?" I started towards him.
"I am Groot."
I smiled, now besides him. "Good."
The girl and her squirrel ferret creature slowed to a stop behind a now standing up and dusting off Quill. "Hi there."
"Aaahh!" Quill jumped and tumbled forward. The squirrel creature chirped as we all turned to look at the them.
"Oh sorry," the girl said, pushing out her hands slightly. "Didn't mean to frighten."
Quill stood up, dusting himself off once more. "It's alright. Just wasn't expecting... that." The girl nodded before looking past him at us.
"You all alright?"
A chorus of "Yes," and one "I am Groot," answered her.
The girl smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry about that," she motioned over at rubble that was our ship's wings and bottom. "It was the forensic force field up there," she said, glancing up at the sky, which twinkled slightly at the mention of the force field. "It protects the special inhabits here from would be killers and poachers. It's been here for millions of years, keeping this dragon sanctuary and it's inhabits separate from the galaxy itself."
She glanced up again. "It hardly lets anyone in," she whispered.
We all blinked at her staring blankly. "Dragon sanctuary?"
The girl nodded. I looked down at her leather looking gloves and leg warmers now looking more coarse and scaly than before. "As in real, live dragons?" Quill asked, suddenly looking down at the squirrel ferret creature and smiling more and more like as if he had won forty-thousand units. The creature chirped.
"Yep."
"As in real life, fire breathing, scaly, mythological , and fairy tale dragons?"
The girl's expression turned into a confused one. "What's a fairy tale?"
Quill grinned. "Aw man, this is going to be so flarking amazing! I've always wanted to meet a real, live fire breathing dragon."
"Great," I mumbled. "While Quill gets happily burned to a crisp by a 'real, live dragon' we're going to be stuck on this krutacking planet, with no parts!"
"Don't worry," the girl said unexpectedly. I jumped.
"Huh?" Didn't realize anyone could hear, other than Groot.
"Your ship isn't that bad, Bubda can probably fix it."
We all blinked blankly again. "Bubda?"
The girl nodded. "Yeah. I'll take you to him." A second past as the girl suddenly jumped, realization upon her face, the beaming smile never leaving her face. "Oh wait, I haven't introduced myself yet! Sorry, we don't often get many visitors." I looked over at our crushed rubble parts of our ship.
"Yeah, we can tell."
Drax gave me a little shove, as if telling me to shut up. I looked up at him. "What?"
Not hearing my mutter, the girl plopped out a hand excitingly, beaming. "Hi, my name's Catherine, with a k. Katherine S. Knackgerain." The squirrel ferret creature chirped. Katherine bounced down, bending down to his level. "Oh and this is Gethrine." She petted him before looking back up at Quill.
"What does the S. stand for?" Quill asked.
"Stephanie."
Katherine bounced back up, plopping out her hand once more. "Welcome to the Wellsworth Dragon Sanctuary." Quill shook it.
She motioned to the brown brick trail that was heading north, beaming. "Come on, I'll show you the way."
We all glanced at each other before heading off to the trail. Katherine stayed back for a few seconds, as if lost in thought, before racing up to us. "But seriously, what's a fairy tale?"
...
"This is the only dragon sanctuary left in the whole galaxy," Katherine explained turning back to face us, smiling as something flew over our heads, us now walking up the side of a mountain.
I looked up in time to only see the huge green bottom side of the creature and it's humongous wings. I shuddered. Something felt unpleasantly familiar about it...
Katherine turned, starting up again. "I'm the caretaker here. Every dragon sanctuary had one, someone willing to take care of all the dragons here in the sanctuary. I got it from my mother, who was the one before me. It's a grand job here, don't get me wrong, but it sure does get rather lonely," she said, whispering the last bit more to herself than explaining to us. We heard it nevertheless.
Quilll looked troubled. "What happened to all the rest of the dragon sanctuaries?"
"They were destroyed."
"What happened?"
"Many of them were invaded, people coming in and leaving nothing but the dried very core of the planet left behind. It wasn't till they decided to make this last one, did they decide to place the forensic field, created by the very Gemsi themselves, here to protect and separate this sanctuary from the galaxy."
Something out in the corner of my eye started to lift itself upwards. I whirled around to see the bricks that we had been walking on five minutes ago were rising up in the air all by themselves, a gold cover wrapping around them them before starting to switch their places. Some landed, turning back to brown, as some now touching them rose. "The bricks, they're moving," I exclaimed stopped, everyone turning back to me.
"Oh yeah, they do that," Katherine said, starting her way besides me. She squat down, hands on her hips. "They say that the whole sanctuary is alive alongside with the dragons, enchanted. Every single inch. They do this continuously," she said, waving her hand through the switching process in the air. "Making this old walking on a puzzle statement come in. It changes so often, that a person, one like myself who has lived here for years, has never stepped on the same brick in the same location ever."
A brick with a name etched in rose, the name slowly rising off letter by letter in black ink, to leave a floating Alison Monroe above the moving bricks. It lowered down to another brick to, changing letter by letter as it lowered onto the brick, now reading: Christopher Macbeck.
"Oh, and they also do that. Those names are sacred, coming from the past caretakers of this sanctuary or even names from those themselves who are connected to galaxy and are destined to be placed along it's history, connected forevermore."
"Oh cool," Quill said. "Has by chance the name Guardians of the Galaxy ever shown up?" Katherine looked up at him, eyebrow raised.
"It has failed to yet, but what kind foolish, stupid name is that?"
Quill smiled nervously. "Oh nobody really. Just wondering."
We started to slowly walk past, Katherine still bending over the bricks. She narrowed her eyes at the upcoming name as it rose, appearing out of thin air. A brick rose up to have it etched in. "Ryan Quill/ Downstorm. Hmmm, what kind of name is that?" she whispered. Getting up, she raced to catch up.
...
Strangely as we made our way closer to the top of the mountain, I noticed that instead of a normal pointed mountain top, there was instead a medium size slab of land stretching out into the air. Getting there, I saw that the trail continuing on it came to a stop in the center, where it curled up like a snake. A small nice green hut with a brownish yellow roof was only a few yards behind. A few trees were spaced around the edges behind it.
Upon reaching the slab, Katherine stopped, and motioned towards the hut with her outstretched hand. "And there it is, the Wellsworth Dragon Sanctuary Caretaker Quarters." Gethrine chirped happily before racing over to the hut. Katherine giggled before racing after him.
Reaching the hut, Gethrine stopped and turned to face us, wagging his tail like a happy dog.
Slowing down her gait as she reached the gait, Katherine chuckled before reaching for the doorknob. "Alright Gethrine, you can go in."
Opening the door, she turned and motioned us to come in.
Walking inside, even a person like me had to gasp...faintly. What looked like a small hut a real sad place, inferring that it apparently had to house two people, well one Katherine and some Bubda, and an apparent dragon squirrel ferret creature, now was huge inside, reminding me non fondly of those doctor offices Groot had taken, a.k.a forced, me to go to the first time my implants got infected after we met.
Two sets of small spiral stairs went upwards into the second floor, with two rooms to the right, one closed with a door that just brought the sense of pride and importance while the other was wide open. To the left, one large room was slightly seen, as well as the one last room slightly open right dab in the middle of the sets of stairs.
"Wow, talk about using your room wisely," I whispered, placing my paw upon a counter, using it as some sort of supporter as I pressed onward to the side of the door.
Through the room in the middle of the set of stairs a faint noise could be heard playing. "Joy to the world,all the boys and girls, Joy to the world, Joy to you and me..."
Quill grinned. "Is that...?"
Katherine grinned, and ran to open the door more slightly. "Yeah. Joy to the World by Three Dog Night." She went in and came out with a small, old radio fitting in the grasp of both her hands. "Due to the forensic force field up in the atmosphere, it messes with any signals, not letting them in. However one day, this manged to get in." She nodded to the beat of the song. She paused. "I wonder who moved it into this room," she muttered, clearly making it known that she knew due to the expression written on her face, before going back to nodding to the song. "You know I love the ladies,Love to have my fun,I'm a high night flier and a rainbow rider, A straight-shootin' son of a gun, What you say? I said a straight shootin' son of a gun."
"Yes, but sadly due to the force field up there again, the signals are trapped in here, repeating that song forevermore," a grumpy voice drawled. We looked to the right to see a giant dark green slug creature sliding his way up to us from the closed room, holding a book in his arm and making it look like you would have to fight him to the death to take it. Katherine stopped nodding to the song, looking up and seeing him. She smiled softly. "Oh come on Bubda, you have to admit it's better than having nothing."
Bubda adjusted his spectacles. "I can admit that I preferred the silence in my library beforehand more," he simply stated before walking past us and heading into the room to the left.
Katherine looked back at us and smiled sheepishly. "Ignore him, he doesn't like visitors. But that's Bubda, the Wellsworth Dragon Sanctuary's librarian. "
She glanced back at the room Bubda had just walked into. "Come on," she waved,"I bet you're starving."
...
Walking into the closet of a room, Katherine paused, waiting for all of us before opening the other door at the end of the room to reveal a small, yet nice dinning room. A nice glass dining table with a hint of fake gold filled up the middle of the room, several chairs surrounding it, two large brown display cases filled with nice plates, nice silverware, and small cook books. Bubda sat on one of the chairs as if waiting, a bored expression on his face.
Katherine motioned to the swinging doors. "Inside there is the kitchen. You're welcome to make anything you like."
We all started that way. Bubda looked up, looking noninterested, at me. "You might want to wait, small rodent. I have learned that once two or more people enter that room to cook for themselves, the longer it takes." My lips twitched into a snarl, however decided to sit down as said.
Not a word was passed between us as Groot passed me into the kitchen, and we waited as everyone else was in there. My stomach rumbled, making me look down at it. I was hungry, it still being early in the morning and not having ate breakfast yet. I silently growled, hoping one of them would hurry up.
Drax came out of the swinging doors, carrying a small bowl of red soup. He walked up to me to say," Young kilt."
Drax slowly then laid down his bowl in front of me before smiling and walking off into the kitchen again to get one of his own. I leaned over it, stunned.
An eyebrow raised, I sniffed it curiously before picking up a spoon and trying a sip. It was good. A second past before I started to scarf it down.
Peter and Katherine soon entered through the swinging doors, Bubda now getting up and going in to get something, sighing. Soon more were coming in and out getting something to eat or to add, me taking no notice of it.
Katherine pulled her fork out of her mouth and swallowed before pointing it at Peter slightly. "But what are you guys even doing here in the atmosphere?"
Peter swallowed his toast before reaching into his pants pocket and pulling out his boom box. "For this. We need one last Pandorian crystal, and we were told that this is the place to find it."
Katherine thought for a moment, her eyes catching Gamora now sitting besides Peter and Drax coming in. "Pandorian crystal..., Pandorian crystal, where have I heard that before..." Her eyes light up. "By any chance you mean a small bright crystal that is either purple or blue?"
Quill smiled. "Yeah."
"I know where that is! The Ravenquervons have it!"
Peter raised an eyebrow, confused. "The what?"
"The Ravenquervons, a type of bird dragons at the sheltered at the edge of the sanctuary. They're huge and walk on two legs, with the gigantic black form and red eyes of a raven itself. They have the crystal, been having it for many years in a some sort of a small shrine. I could take you guys to them if you want."
"That would be great, but them using it as something to worship and you being the caretaker, it sounds a little odd that you would help us," Quill said.
Katherine shrugged. "Oh the one reason they worship that crystal is because it's shiny!" she stated, saying the last word as perhaps an animated bird would on a TV show in Quill's opinion. "Besides, I've been wanting to get rid of that crystal for years, you haven't seen how they worship..." she looked slightly down, , her pupils in her eyes slightly getting smaller out of fear. "It ain't right," she whispered. Peter glanced over at us, us nodding in return. Hell, we'll get the get the crystal!
Peter looked back at Katherine. "Alright, we're in."
Katherine nodded. "However, I can't protect all of you. I'm protect by the fact that I am the caretaker here, the creatures here can't hurt me. However, anyone entering the sanctuary on my behalf or not, I have to let the creatures decide. Some may like you, and some may not. Many creatures here that are like the Ravenquervons aren't known for their likeness on humans, or anyone other than their kind. And they will not hesitate to rush up and kill, many placing them in the evil department, even my mother used to call them the black angles of the devil. So if you do all agree to this, know that I can't help you if they wish to kill you."
I grinned, patting one of my jumpsuit's pockets to feel my pocket dimension vial, full of every weapon in the known universe. Let those Ravenquervons come.
Peter nodded on our behalf. "We'll go."
Katherine nodded. "Alright." She turned to face Bubda. "And while we're gone, you can fix their ship, fine Bubda?"
Bubda's eyes narrowed even more, looking even more annoyed. "Fine. Just don't expect me to do everything correctly happily."
...
The sound of chirping soon got louder as we got closer. We were now walking down a trail to the Ravenquervons. Gethrine chirped again, louder. A chirp not to far away soon answered. "Dragons used to be here," Katherine explained. "However, one day a different creature called the gridlock arrived here."
I stopped. "Gridlock?"
Katherine turned back to face me. "Yeah. A giant green lizard looking creature, like a komodo d-"
"Yeah, I know what they are!" I snarled, waving my hand, brushing her away. I started up again. Gridlocks?
In my mind the scene played once more, that night I wasn't eaten by the gridlock due to me being too much of a freak. I could still feel his breath as he spoke with his hungry and raspy cruel voice as I cowered underneath him, stuck as his tongue touched me every time he opened his mouth. It had been a dark night in that ally, too dark for even him too see. It was just another night however in my life before I found Groot it seemed, me looking for anything, any food scrap I could eat. Suddenly something leaped upon me, hissing before licking me all over. I had squirmed mainly out of fear, too frozen in fear to really run away if I had the chance. For I could see his outline perfectly. His face moved closer and closer downwards towards me. A-and now he was going to eat me. "What's your name, freak?" he growled. I scanned my brain, saying the first word that came into mind. "R-rocket."
"Well Rocket, I'm going to let you live, you know why? Because you're a disgusting freak of nature and there isn't anyway I'm going to eat you." He raised up a claw and scratched me on the cheek. "I was planing to however a minute ago." He laughed as I squirmed, trying to break free. "Pathetic. Don't worry, I'm sure someone will be desperate enough to eat you soon, hungry enough to help you end your pathetic stupid life." After slamming my head into the ground once more, he got off me and left into the darkness.
"We let them in," Katherine said, me now slowing coming out of my thoughts. "But gridlocks, unlike dragons, don't age. It seemed fine at first, but over the age of time the dragons aged and died out with the gridlocks not. This is now truly a gridlock sanctuary."
I looked down once again at her leather looking gloves and leg warmers. Katherine noticed my glance. "Yes, this is dragon hide, but off of a dead one. I remember helping my mother gutting so many of them in those days, feeding them later to the gridlocks," she whispered, but we nevertheless heard once again. Katherine shot her head up, placing a widening smile on her face. "However, it isn't the complete end of the dragons. Back in the age where the larger ones were dying out, a few of the smaller ones breeded with other small creatures found in the sanctuary. " As we reach the top of a small hill, I saw that there was a huge group of squirrel ferret creatures just like Gethrine. They all chirped happily. Gethrine smiled it seemed, before racing down the hill, cuddling with one of the closest ones. "They've breeded with small animals like squirrels and ended up like this. Gethrine is one of the these, an apchoninon, coming from an apcoin dragon and a squirrel. They aren't truly dragons anymore however."
One squeaked, looking up at me before dropping the acorn he was holding, and rushing up to me. His eyes were wide, curious. He squeaked again. "Um, hi,"I said nervously. It's eyes widened more now, but with fear before squeaking once more, running away as far as he could. "Great," I thought. "Even in the world of fire breathing dragon squirrels, I was odd."
"Awwww, they're cute," Peter said, noticing some of the younger ones. He bent down, reaching out a hand. One hiccuped, flames shooting out. "Aaaaa!"
I chuckled. But I liked them.
Suddenly a loud crisp yell filled the air, making all of us jump and turn in the direction of the noise. Off in the distance, you could see the cave I had heard knocking from, and that was where it seemed to be coming from. The apchoninons that surrounded us, rushed behind us, cowering behind our legs.
"What was that?" Quill asked.
Katherine turned away from the cave, back to us. "It's the yell of the oldest gridlock known in the universe. He's dying."
Our eyes widened. "What? You said they don't age!"
"They don't," Katherine said worriedly. "He is the only one that does. The one from the beginning of time."
A loud caw filled the air. Katherine gasped and looked up. "It's the Ravenquervons!"
I looked up, my mouth opening. Though I would never admit to it, they were creepy.
Their bodies were huge, each wing about fifteen feet long, all covered in sharp black feathers, their eyes though far up could be seen easily, a sharp evil red. Their talons were huge, each one the size of one of Drax's largest swords, connecting to long legs as tall as Quill. I reached down into my jumpsuit pocket, ready to pull out a gun.
They circled around two more times before heading sharply down like an arrow. At me.
As I quickly pulled out my plasma blaster, one came extremely close, moving his talons to scope me up. A sudden shot pushed him to the side, dead. I looked over at Quill. "Eh, I have to thank him," I thought, right before another swooped down behind me, barely missing. But later.
Gamora and Drax swung their weapons while Peter and I shot. "How many of them are there?" Quill cried. "At first I only saw two!" True. Now in the place of two giant crow raven beasts were about thirty, if not forty.
"I don't know!" Katherine cried, bending down as one struck at Gamora, who was right next to her. Gamora swung, cutting off his legs. "They tend to always multiply, always coming in great herds to help another."
I aimed at the Ravenquervon coming at me, creating a hole in his stomach, or at least where there was once a stomach. I grinned. "That's alright by me!"
Quill turned, startled to see two Ravenquervons coming from behind at me. "Rocket, behind you!" he cried, getting ready to aim. Another Ravenquervon swooped down at Quill, scratching Quill's arms with his talons slightly, making Quill drop his blaster.
"Rocket, behind you!" was all I heard and saw however. Turning around, I was just in time to see them in the faces as they lifted me upwards, one tearing away my plasma blaster from my grasp with a talon. "Aaaaaa!" I screamed.
A chorus of "Rocket!", one "I am Groot!" , and one "Young kilt!" rang out as they carried me away.
Drax started rushing forwards. "We have to stop them!"
Katherine rushed and slid to a stop before him. "Stop, can't you see? They're too far away! Besides, even if one of you can shoot that far, you might hit Rocket."
Drax calmed down a little bit, before pushing out one of his knifes at Katherine's throat. "We have to stop them."
"Whoa, whoa!" Quill cried, getting between the two. "Drax, she's right. For such large birds, they sure can fly fast." He whirled around at Katherine. "Is there anyway you could force them to give him back?"
Katherine shock her head. "No, I just have the protection over myself, I told you I can't force them to do anything if they wish to kill another. Unless,... we have to get that Pandorian crystal!"
"What, why is that at the top of your to do list now?" Quill said.
Drax made a confuse expression, before letting it turn into one made of anger. "Why are we making a list of to do, when we have to save the young kilt!"
Katherine pushed her hands out slightly. "Trust me. I told you they worship the darn thing, right? Well, we could sneak in there, steal it, and once you guys take a picture or something quickly, we use it to trade for Rocket."
"How do we know he won't be eaten by then?" Gamora asked.
"They don't eat till night, it's a weird thing yes, but they do it. We have until the sun goes down to get that crystal. Trust me. I know this doesn't sound like it, but this is the only way to rescue Rocket."
Drax slowly lowered his sword.
...
"Let me go, you oversized bastards!" I yelled as I struggled to get free. Finally getting a good hold of one of their wings, I scratched them. One howled with pain, dropping me as the other used one of their feet to hold onto me. Strangely never once did a talon press up against my arm it held. Swinging myself slightly, I manged to grab hold of it's leg with my free hand and scratched. Yelping, it dropped me.
"Oh crap, I didn't think this through!" I thought as I started to fall back to the ground.
A loud caw made me look up to see Ravenquervons going downwards at me. I struggled against them, trying to put a hand in my jumpsuit pocket at the same time, but to no prevail. They grab a strong hold of me, right before I hit the ground. I looked up from the ground to see that I was at the entrance of the cave.
One of the Ravenquervons cawed. A loud yell came streaming through the cave, blowing my fur back. I shut my eyes as some went into them. The Ravenquervons cowardly shivered before dropping me and flying off.
I coughed as air filled with dirt flew into my nose. I lifted my head off the ground as another yell was bellowed. Standing up, I rubbed the dirt out of my eyes.
I turned around, searching to see if I could perhaps see any of the Guardians. "Quill?" I yelled. "Gamora? Groot?" I sighed. "Drax?" Nobody.
I turned back around. "Who the hell was knocking earlier?" I whispered. It still felt as if some one was in there, in fact the feeling was now only growing stronger. Pulling out another weapon out of my pocket dimension vial, I started to walk in.
...
It was dark inside, with only a slight sliver of the light reaching the deepness of the cave I was now in. Slowly, not seeing anything in the dim light, I placed the gun upon my back. I turned as I suddenly heard something move on the large rock to my side, something like a claw scratching it. I turned around to my other side however as I heard the knock once more coming from inside the wall it seemed. One last time, I whispered,"Who's there?"
