AN: Sorry for the short chapter, but the next one was longer than anticipated, so I wanted to keep that one chapter. Thanks for reading this far.
After falling from the sky, Carn and his dragon come in contact with the surface of the planet, something he hasn't experienced for years. Will he and his friend be able to return to the skies or stay landlocked?
Chapter 10: Land
Carn picked up his head and looked around groggily. He lay on a beach, very white with small waves lapping around his feet. He tried to stand but his entire body ached and he fell face-first onto the sand. He rolled over and stared up into the air. He could only see clouds. He wished he knew what had happened to his comrades and more importantly, his dragon.
He finally sat up and evaluated the beach. It was long and stretched out into a crescent sandbar. Behind the sand was a rocky embankment. On top of those were trees that he had never seen before, but considering he hadn't been on the ground in years, he didn't try to guess. The air was slightly warm, but not tropical as he had expected.
Looking himself over, he saw that his clothes were slightly tattered and his boots were scraped in several places. Somehow his sword was still at his side, as were his dueling dirks. The bow was long gone, as were the arrows. Looking at his boot, he found a small hole that was bleeding. He looked it over more closely and found one of the arrows that had broken off behind the head. He wrapped a piece of his shirt around the wound and stood up unsteadily.
The sun was from the east and he determined that is was mid-morning. The sun hung over the land, falling through the leaves of the trees. Not wanting to be imprisoned in the trees, he made his way along the beach.
As he rounded the bend in the beach, he finally saw his dragon, stretched out on the sand like a beached whale. He hobbled over and patted the massive head. The dragon looked over at him and rumbled a note of happiness. Carn sat down and ran his hand over the muzzle. The dragon was in the same shape he was, and that was bad. They couldn't fly any time soon, and he hoped the others would come looking for them.
The dragon stiffened and Carn turned, sword in hand. The trees blew in the breeze. Carn relaxed, he must be jumpy on land, it was all in their heads.
Carn sat by the fire that was nested in a hole in the sand. He had made a makeshift camp, no more than a fire and sort of nest for dragon and rider. His dragon had rolled over and was watching him pick at the bones of a small bird, all he could catch for dinner. His condition hadn't improved much, he was sore all over. He realized that he must have fallen over one hundred feet into the ocean and only his armor or dragon had saved his life.
He heard the noise twice that day, a light rustling in the woods along the shore, but when he looked, nothing was there. He heard the noise again and this time threw one of the dirks into the forest out of frustration.
He had turned back to the fire, when all of the sudden, the dagger was thrown from the tree line and landed in the sand inches from his hand. He dived and rolled over to the protective bulk of his dragon. He peered into the trees again, but nothing appeared.