Roost of the Dragonfly

Morton's POV:

Morton awoke in his sleeping bag due to intense heat. Frantically he looked around, and then saw it: molten lava, spewing out of the wall! It was orange and fiery as it slithered towards Morton. He turned to Sr., who was sleeping next to him, and shook him awake. Sr. instantly saw the lava and grabbed his straw hat that was beside him before running out of the room, pulling Morton along. In seconds they burst from the doors of their shack and ran past the millet and cacti farms, out into the open. They turned back to see that more lava was creeping down the sides of the mountain, and it was also spewing out the sides as well.

"What the–" Sr. began to say, but then the ground shook tremendously. Sr. kept his balance, but Morton's legs were turned to jelly, and he fell. He had to grab a rock to pull himself back to a standing position, and even then, he and Sr, couldn't stand steadily.

Suddenly, the Mortons' farms caved in, and the ground shook once again! Dust spewed from the hole rock and grain and cacti collapsed. Sr. and Morton took several steps back but held their ground to see what would happen next. What did was worse—the lake poured down into the hole, and steam billowed out along with the dust. Then smoke came out as well until it was just an ugly, hot, deadly cloud of gasses.

Fear swept through the Mortons. Neither of them had ever seen something as horrifying as so much of their hard work being relentlessly swallowed up by the ground, and now, lava. The molten stuff began to come out from more parts of the mountain, and geysers of it and dirt and rock erupted from the nearby ground. More and more began to cave in, and then their shack burst into flames. Morton screamed and turned and ran, and Sr. followed. The ground shook with ever-growing intensity, and both Morton and Sr. struggled to keep on their feet.

Help help help stop the lava! What the heck is happening? What did we do to deserve this? Is it my fault? Stop it! screamed Morton's thoughts. They were nonsensical and terrified, just like him, and they wouldn't stop coming, just like the lava. Morton risked a backwards glance, and what he saw was even worse.

The Mortons' safest haven was gone. Almost all of the ground that they had just been on was gone. The hill they fought the giant black scorpion was half gone. The boulders were gone. Their belongings were gone. It had all collapsed into a giant pit twenty meters deep and thirty-five meters wide. The sides were all orange and brown rock, but the bottom was pure bubbling, hissing lava. Chunks of the land that had been over the pit still remained above the lava, but were sinking quickly. From where Morton was, looking over the edge of the pit, he could see a cave poking out near one of the corners of the pit. From it, little pill-like bugs with their bodies surrounded by transparent lava were peeking out. And then it came out.

Above the larvae-like creatures and out the cave it soared, a mess of green and black. Morton got an image of it in his head, and then turned and ran. He just kept running and running, almost catching up to Sr, panting and screaming, loudly or silently, whatever his vocal chords could muster. He heard more crumbling of more of the mesa being engulfed by the pit, but he also heard an intense buzzing noise. He took another glance back and then regretted it, for the flying beast was right behind him.

It was a large, green, scaled bug, bigger than Sr. (who stood at six feet), with heavy arms that dragged with glittering orangish-brown claws extending from it, like Morton's, but Morton's were white. The beast had a yellow underbelly, large fly-like eyes that looked similar to an onyx, and little legs curved back in front of the thing's tail. Spikes the color of the beast's claws ran down its head to its tail that dragged through the sand, leaving it to look like a snake had gone through. The beast also had a green mouth that looked like a vacuum and a mosquito's mouth had a child, and transparent wings like that of a housefly on its back. The combination of that, and the hot air it emitted which filled itself up like a hot air balloon, allowed it to stay in the air. Even though the Mortons did not know at the time, the beast was called…the Dragonfly.

The Dragonfly's hot breath cascaded over Morton, fueling his hope to outrun the beast, but he just couldn't. He was running faster than the day he had found that yellow gem in the tumbleweed, which was now a week ago. Luckily, he had it in his shell, so it was not lost in the fire, but that didn't mean it was truly safe.

A heavy arm swung over his head, one of the Dragonfly's, and it just barely missed his little hairs. The Dragonfly then swung with its other arm, and it crashed into Morton's shell, sending him flying to the ground. He tried to get up, and he was bleeding and coughing, but then an immense heat came over him, and he flopped onto his shell. There, the Dragonfly's eyes pierced his soul as it hovered over him, hungry.

The beast reared up, and Morton heard hissing from inside the Dragonfly, like that of a fire. Instinctively, Morton rolled back onto his stomach and pulled himself inside his shell. From his head-hole, he saw flames crash over him, and he closed his eyes and whimpered as his shell warmed up greatly. Morton, who was now a scared Koopa inside a scorched shell, began to be hit around by the Dragonfly. The beast hit Morton back and forth between its claws, like a cat toying with a dead mouse. Another torrent of flame blasted Morton's shell, and Morton only had thoughts like This is the end, or I'm gonna die right here, right now, and for once they wouldn't leave. He felt joggled and dizzy from being batted around so much, and then it…stopped?

The Dragonfly wrenched its claws around Morton's shell and hoisted him up into the air. The wind whistled in Morton's ears as he was carried higher up into the sky. He heard the faint cries of Sr. from far below, but they decreased in volume until they were gone. Morton had never been very high up, besides climbing that mountain to investigate that pool of lava, but now that mountain was crumbling into a pit and Morton was being lifted up by that lava's inhabitant.

Then the Dragonfly stopped in midair. Morton didn't dare look down from his head-hole, and that proved to be a good decision as the Dragonfly let go, and the wind whistled in his ears again. Morton's stomach dropped as he spiraled down towards the ground, spinning at sickening speeds. There was finally a THUD as Morton's shell hit the ground, and Morton bounced. If Morton's spiky side of his shell hadn't hit the ground, his soft underbelly would've, and that would've killed him. Morton hit the ground again, and he rolled in his shell like an uncontrolled bowling ball. He finally came to a stop, with his ears ringing, his shell aching, and his vision blurry. Dust surrounded him as his arms, legs, and head popped out from his shell, and he just laid there, not knowing what to do. He hurt badly, and his shell was blackened, and some of his shell spikes had bits broken off. He sat up and called for Sr., desperate for help.

He spotted his father in the distance, who was in his shell, spinning away from Morton. The Dragonfly descended from the sky, and since the dust was still over Morton, it didn't see him and instead saw Sr. Mistaking the older Koopa for his son, the Dragonfly flew after him. Morton stopped shouting for his dad, and instead got up and ran. He didn't really know where to go, or why it mattered anymore, but he kept going, kept pushing. He threw one last glance behind him, at the lava and rubble where his safest home had been, and too Sr. being hunted by the Dragonfly. He made a quick prayer for his father to stay safe, and then he kept going, father out into the mesa, not looking back.

Morton staggered forward and fell to the ground. He tried to get up, but he couldn't. He was just too exhausted, too tired. He looked around him. Deep green grasses and ferns grew around him in the orange sand—a mesa prairie—but they were still. Everything was, except for Morton's heart and his pain. He sat up and shielded his eyes from the sun. He needed to eat and drink. He needed to rest. But it just wasn't safe.

He looked at his singed grass shirt before taking out his knife and setting it aside. He slid the yellow gem from his shell and fiddled with it. Amazingly, it was still intact, but it was laced with cracks and looked more dull in color. Morton put the gem back in his shell and took a deep breath. He traced his cuts with a claw, making sure to not press so hard they would bleed again, or bleed worse.

Morton scanned his surroundings again. There, in the distance, he spotted a small cactus all alone in the green grass. He picked up his knife and, slowly, made his way over to it. Once he got to it, he sliced a chunk of it off. Tediously, he cut off the cactus chunk's spines, and once finished, set it aside. Next, he cut up some grass and set it in a pile. He pulled over a little stone and scraped his knife across it until sparks flew. He angled the pebble downwards towards the grass and cut away from himself. Finally, the grass caught flame, and he watched it burn, poking at it with his knife to spread the flame around his pile. His eyes watered a bit from being next to the flame, and his mind thought of all of the lava and flame that had almost killed him and Sr., and the Dragonfly…

He impaled the cactus chunk with his knife and lifted it over the fire, letting it cook. He spun the knife with his claws like turning a spit, and soon the cactus seemed cooked enough to Morton, and so he ate it like a fruit kabob, for it was still attached to his knife. When Morton looked around him, he realized it was evening. I didn't think I had traveled for so long, he thought.

As the sky darkened, Morton found more grass and made more sparks to keep the growing fire aflame to keep him warm, and to cook the cacti that he was gathering. He sacrificed some bits of his grass shirt to the flame as well, but just the top—the bottom had his pockets. He also found more stones and arranged them around the fire to contain it.

Once the flame was well and roaring, Morton put his knife back in his pocket, and curled up into his shell. He felt the yellow gem pierce his back a bit, but he ignored it completely. He was just so tired, he desperately needed a rest. Morton didn't realize it, but within minutes, he was asleep, all alone for the first time in his life.

New references to games in this chapter:

21. The "little pill-like bugs with their bodies surrounded by transparent lava" are the Lavae from Don't Starve; The Dragonfly is also from that game