Tom began hitting his torch until it worked again and shone back on the creature. It immediately backed away from the light as if it was afraid of it. Tom kept on having a light for the creature, and it flew off.

Tom gave a sigh of relief once it was gone; he then made his way back to the cliff and began climbing. However, his pickaxe struck a loose piece of rock he soon found himself falling right down into the fissure. Then suddenly, something grabbed his legs; he looked up and saw the creature from earlier had grabbed him.

It then tossed into the air, grabbed him with its two front claws, and began carrying him back up. Tom didn't know which was worse, hovering several thousand feet in the air or being carried by a giant unknown creature with razor-sharp teeth and claws.

Then got worse as the creature began flying straight towards the tunnel in the face of the cliff. They flew around the carven until, finally, the creature dropped him down.

Tom quickly grabbed his torch and shone it at the creature, which then quickly shielded its eyes with its wings and growled at him irritably.

"Whoa, okay, hey, hey, hey! Stop! Stop!" said Tom quickly.

The creature then lowered its wings and began circling around him curiously.

"You're all right, you're all right," Tom showed it.

However, it continued to growled angrily at the light.

"I'm not going to hurt you, just don't hurt me," said Tom shining his torch on his hand to prove that it was harmless. "Okay?"

The creature didn't look convincing and continued to growl at him, but Tom lowered the light onto the ground in front of it. It then placed its front floor into the light, and Tom shone the torch on its entire body.

"What are you?" Tom asked, both amazed and terrified. "Where did you come from? Why am I asking questions?"

The creature then made its way towards him and began sniffing.

"Okay, okay, you just stay right there, all right?" said Tom calmly. "And I'm going to look for a way out of here."

Tom then turned around and began looking for an exit, but the creature continued to follow him. He continued to look around the carven; he had seen many caves before the non-quite like this.

"This place is incredible," he said.

The creature continued to sniff him and then licked its lips.

Tom then found an opening in the ceiling, and there were rock formations he could climb to get to it.

"Well, okay, I'm just see myself out," said Tom.

Then suddenly, the creature pounced on him. At first, he thought the creature was about to eat him, but instead, he grabbed his back. Tom shone his torch acted and discovered that it was playing with his water container.

"Hey! Hey, that's my stuff!" Tom protested.

The creature continued to play with the water container until it rolled out of its floor and rolled all the way to Tom. He then went down to pick it up and saw the creature running straight towards him.

"No, no, no, no!" Tom yelled quickly, holding the container up. "Here, take it! It's yours! It's yours!"

The creature then skidded to a stop and sniffed the container.

"You want some water? Is that it?" Tom asked.

Tom placed it down and opened the lid causing the water to flush out. The creature sniffed the water to see if it was dangerous and then looked up at him happily. Tom then pulled out his phone, and he was tempted to take a picture of the creature but decided against it.

"I don't think anyone should know about you right now," said Tom.

The creature then made its way back towards his backpack and began fumbling around with it. It then grabbed it with its mouth and scampered off with it.

"Hey!" Tom yelled, chasing after it.

They ran around the entire cavern, and the creature showed no intention of giving him back his backpack.

"No, no, no!" Tom yelled.

Tom followed the creature and saw it was trying to undo the zip. He then carefully and slowly approached from behind, but then it turned around with a packet of crisps in its mouth, and Tom could only nervously chuckle.

"Wait!" Tom yelled.

Too late, the creature ate the bag whole and then sneezed, covering Tom with flakes of loops. He groaned as he brushed away the flakes from his face, and the creature then tossed his bag into his face, which was now empty.

He then looked at the creature looking at him and then to the back, indicating that he wanted more of the loops.

"Sorry, it's all the loops I've got," said Tom as he fumbled around with his back. "Wait, you're hungry. Okay, yeah, I can bring you back something to eat."

Tom then strapped his bag onto his back and began to walk away.

He then began to climb out of the cave, but the creature grabbed him, carrying him away.

"Not again!" Tom screamed.

The creature flew him back outside and, once there, flew straight up into the sky. It then unleashed a powerful surge of electricity that shut down all the electrical systems within the research station.

"There goes the power again," Linda sighed as she looked at Philip. "Chief, still no idea what's causing this?"

Philip then made his way over to her station.

At the same time, the creature was now flying straight back down towards the research station and dropped Tom off at the platform, with his hair sticking out on end due to the electrical surge.

Tom sighed in relief and looked back at the creature, which dove down into the fissure. Following it, he went over the safety tape that blocked off the demolished part of the station and watched as it flew back into the smoke.

"Whoa," Tom gasped.

Tom then began making his way off the landing pad but then ran straight into Philip.

"Out for a late-night stroll, Tom?" he asked.

Tom gave a nervous smile, knowing he was in big trouble. "Yes."

Philip then escorted him back to his dome and knocked on the door, which was answered by his mother.

"Mom, it's not what it looks like," Tom assured her.

"I found him running around near the fissure," Philip explained.

"Okay, is exactly what it looks like," Tom admitted.

Olivia merely narrowed her eyes, not looking amused.

When he got back into the dome, she quickly scolded him.

"I don't even know what to say to you right now," she said, crossing her arms. "I guess your new gritty hairstyle is part of this rebellious phase you're going through?"

Tom had no idea what she was talking about, and he looked at his reflection in the window.

"I thought I was clear when I said stay near the dome," she said.

"You were, but I—"

"Wasn't I clear when I said stay away from the fissure?"

"Yes, but there's-there's a—"

"I don't care what there is, Tom! Your life is worth more than a cheap reckless thrill!" She then placed a hand on and when she had a migraine. "Maybe this will get through; if you fall into that fissure, you will be gone forever, and I don't know what I do without you."

"I'm sorry," said Tom honestly.

"From this moment forward, when you're not in school, you will be here. On weekends, you will be here. If it's a holiday, you will be here. Understood?"

"Got it," said Tom quietly.

"Good, and if you go in a hundred yards from that bottomless pit. So help me, Tom, I will stick you in Icarus jail!"

"Icarus has a jail?" Tom blinked.

"Chief Baker will build me one, and don't think I want to ask and don't think he won't do it."

Tom nodded, grabbed his bag and made his way to his room.

Once there, he dumped his bag on his bed and sat on it, but then he noticed the water container he left behind on the windowsill. He then saw lining shooting out from the sky, and his mind turned to the creature he encountered.

He then closed the window, not knowing the creature was looking down a nearby hill.

Tom ended up sleeping at his desk until his mother burst into his room.

"Tom! Wake up!" she said. "It's the first day of school."

Tom rolled over and ended up falling onto the floor, which woke him up.

"At least you already dressed; a benefit was sleeping in your clothes and apparently on your desk."

Tom sat up and accidentally hit the back of his head on his desk.

"Ow!" he groaned.

"They always said waiting to his teen," Olivia sighed, shaking her head. "I never listened."

Tom then fell back onto the floor, trying to get five more minutes of sleep.

He soon made his way to the Visitor Centre for school, but he spent most of the day looking down into the fissure. Jun was playing with her tarot cards, and James was reading a comic book while D'Angelo stood next to them.

"My dad said that kid is trouble with a capital T," said D'Angelo.

"Who Kullersen?" said Jun.

"He went back out to the fissure last night," said D'Angelo. "Yeah, that platform isn't even finished yet. If he took a bad step, he would have to grow himself some winds, real fast."

"I admit he's adventurous; maybe you should try to know him before passing judgement," James suggested looking up from his comic.

"On his first day here, he broke every single rule," D'Angelo pointed out.

"Nine of swords," said Jun as she got to her feet and placed the card in his jacket pocket. "It made you worry too much, chill."

"Chill? I am totally chill," said D'Angelo as she made her way to Tom. "Don't I look chill?"

"You do realise the more you say it, the less likely you are," said James putting his comic book to one side and joining Jun.

D'Angelo looked at Alex, who had been spending the entire time on her laptop. "Why don't you talk?"

Jun and James joined Tom, who was busy drawing a picture of the creature he discovered last night.

"I thought we have an agreement Kullersen," said Jun as she sat down next to him. "You weren't going back to the fissure?"

"I seem to be hearing this a lot lately," said Tom.

"Well, maybe it's because people don't want you to fall to your death," James suggested.

"And I've been hearing that a lot as well."

"I did warn you," said Jun.

"No, you said you read my chart and saw something big was going to happen," Tom reminded her. "That's pretty vague."

"He does have a point; I mean, with a warning like that, just about anything could happen," said James.

"But did something big?" Jun asked, leaning towards Tom.

"Kinda, yeah, maybe," he said softly. "I don't know."

"Talk about vague," Jun smirked.

D'Angelo then sat next to Alex. "What do you think they're talking about over there?"

Alex didn't appear to have heard him and continued playing around with her laptop.

"If they're plotting something, my dad is going to bust them big time," said D'Angelo. "Am I right?"

Alex didn't respond in the slightest.

"I've got a real bad feeling about this."

Again she remained silent.

"Nothing?!" D'Angelo moaned and then leaned back, defeated. "Okay."

"Talk about a one-sided conversation," said James as he looked at the two of them.

Jun turned her attention back onto Tom. "I think you saw something down there."

"Shhh!" Tom whispered, not wanting the others to hear. "Okay, yes. Yes, I saw something."

He then showed a crudely drawn drawing of the creature he saw last night.

"A moth?" Jun frowned, not looking impressed. "Very funny."

"It's not a moth," said Tom and looked back at his drawing and frowned. "Is it?"

"You could never draw Kullersen," said Jun taking his notepad away from him. "Too busy breaking your crayons."

"It looks like a cat with very big ears," James frowned, looking at the drawing.

"It's a bat, maybe, or a pterodactyl," said Tom. "Some kind of flying dinosaur."

Jun's eyes then immediately lit up. "Wait, for real? It could be a dinosaur or a dragon."

"I thought you said it was a moth," said Tom.

"I still say the cat with very big ears," said James.

"Maybe a moth-like dragon with catlike features," said Jun taking Tom's pencil. "Round face… more legs… some fangs… needs better wings."

"I'm having flashbacks to kindergarten," said Tom. "Dragons aren't real, Jun."

"Dragon stories have been around for thousands of years in every country and culture," said Jun giving him back the notepad. "They have to come from somewhere. Dragons are real, I'm sure of it."

"If dragons were real, humanity would exterminate them," said Alex and everyone looked at her as this was the first time she spoke to them. "Dragons would be handed the ends of the earth, chased down and turned into boots, belts and burgers. Big business would exploit them, reducing them to a tiny column profit margins on an endless spreadsheet of doom. Let's face it real dragon would be a dead dragon."

Everyone gave her blank looks as she continued playing around with her laptop.

"I think I like it better when you didn't talk," said D'Angelo.

After school, Tom and James were returning home when Jun rushed over to them.

"Kullersen, wait up!" Jun yelled.

"Looks like she's not giving up on the whole dragons are a real thing," said James.

"Jun never gives up on anything," said Tom.

"So what are we going to do about your dragon?" Jun asked, looking at Tom.

"We're not doing anything," said Tom. "And it's not a dragon."

"Would you try and open your mind," said Jun. "There is a whole world out there that we don't understand."

"If dragons were real, we would have found proof of them by now," said James. "I mean, we were able to find fossilised remains of dinosaurs that existed millions of years ago, and no one has ever found one single dragon bone."

"Maybe they haven't don't realise what they've got," said Jun folding her arms.

Before they could argue any more, they heard thunder, despite the fact that there was no cloud in the sky.

"Thunder?" Jun frowned. "There's not a cloud in the sky."

When she turned around, she found that Tom was gone, and James looked around, baffled.

"Since when has he been Batman?" James blinked.

Tom had made it to his dome and immediately raided the fridge.

"Okay, time to feed a giant flying cave creature," he said, grabbing a range of food.

He had just closed the fridge door with his foot when he spun around and nearly ran into his mother.

"Mom!" said Tom, surprised. "Hey, I thought you were at work?"

"I was; I forgot some spreadsheets," she said as she looked at her tablet and then noticed all the food he was carrying. "That's quite a lunch."

"Uh, yeah, right," said Tom awkwardly. "Well, you can never eat too many hamburgers."

"Guess not; I might be working late tonight," she said as she turned to leave.

"Hey, Mom, can I ask you something?" Tom asked, putting the food down.

Olivia turned back to look at him. "Sure, what's up?"

"What will happen if we actually discover something down in the fissure?" he asked as he sat down at the table.

"Like what a new mineral?"

"Yeah, a mineral, or plant, or a new animal, maybe."

"Discovering a new species, that would be incredible," she said, sitting down next to him.

"Yeah, we could study it, right? You and me figure out what it is and where it came from."

"Imagine the science."

"It would be awesome."

"The Rakke Corp would be very relieved too."

Tom immediately became crestfallen. "The Rakke Corp? What do you mean?"

"Well, they invested a billion dollars into this expedition. They're expecting us to find something pretty big; a new species would go a long way."

"So you're saying whatever we might find might end up as a profit margin on an endless Rakke Corp spreadsheet of doom."

"That's pretty dark, boyo."

"I thought we were here for science, not to help Rakke Corp make money," Tom muttered disappointingly.

"What's this really about?" Olivia asked curiously.

"Okay, listen, when I was…"

Olivia's phone then rang, and she answered. "This is Doctor Kullersen… Yes, May, I agree that earthquakes have become a problem. I'll be right there." She then made her way to the door and looked back at Tom. "Got to go, the Rakku Corp one update immediately."

She then left, closing the door behind her and leaving a disappointed Tom behind.

"Yeah, I bet they do," he muttered as he looked at the food and then put it in his back. "Okay, got the food. Now I just need to figure out where the cave to that creature is."

Tom made his way to the visitor centre and looked at all the maps of the area.

"Okay, maps," he said as he looked through them. "Map to the secret cave; where are you? Probably won't say map to the secret cave."

"Hi," said a voice behind him, making him jump.

"Where did you come from?" Tom asked.

"I was born in Tuscaloosa," she said literally.

Tom decided it was better to rephrase the question. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to notice that even with all these maps, you're still lost," she said.

"Oh yeah, right," said Tom. "I'm just checking out the caves in the area. You know, because I like caves."

"I like caves too… they're dark. But those maps are useless. When the fissure opened up, it shifted everything around. Might as well file them with a map of Pangea."

She then snorted at what Tom assumed to be a joke.

"I hadn't thought of that," he admitted and then walked away disappointed. "Thanks, Alex."

Alex face palmed herself. "I have the new maps."

Tom was in his tracks and looked at her.

"Drawn by the Rakku Corp's own seismic cartographer," she said, holding out her phone, which had pictures of the map of the fissure.

"Wait, how did you get those?" Tom stared.

"I didn't Cinnabot538 hacked them off the ICARIS server," she said as she operated the elevator door.

"Cinnabot538 might be able to send those maps to my phone?" Tom asked.

The elevator door opened, and she stepped inside. "I think Cinnabot538 can do anything she wants."

The elevator door then closed.

Tom exited the Visitor Centre a few moments later; Alex had sent him the updated maps. From the maps, he found a cave that was located on the outskirts of town.

Tom then began making his way to the cave, not knowing that he was being followed by both Jun. He then quickly hit behind a bush just as his mother, Philip and Clara appeared.

"Your boy has a hard time following the rules Dr Kullersen," said Philip.

"Look, this is a new situation for Tom, it's going to take some time, but he is a good kid," said Olivia.

Tom smiled at his mom, but then the shape she began tugging at the pizza box he was holding.

"And begin a security around the station until I figure out what the heck is going on with these electrical systems and alarms going off," said Philip.

"You don't think Tom has anything to do with it?" Olivia questioned.

"I didn't say that; it just means more patrols which might help your boy stay on the right path," said Philip.

"Thomas aside, we're going to have to upgrade the security systems if this keeps happening," said Clara. "I'll see what I can do."

"Good, because as good as our people are, can't patrol town 24 hours a day without those security systems," said Philip as they walked away.

Once they walked past, Jun made her way over to the bush where Tom was hiding.

"Gotcha!" she yelled.

However, the only thing hiding behind the bush was a shaven sheep eating a slice of pizza.

"Huh?" Jun sighed.

Tom had managed to get away and was now on the edge of town. From there, he could see Chief Baker's team inserting motion sensors around the perimeter. He would interrupt you more security offers went by before dashing off into the woods.

Once he was in the woods, he began following the map until he found the mouth of the cave hiding amongst a bunch of rocks.

He then began to climb down and found himself in the cave he had been in last night.

"Hello!" he called. "I'm back!"

There was no response, but he still had a feeling that the creature was still hiding somewhere. He climbed way down and struck the wall with his pickaxe.

"Dinnertime! Come and get it!" he yelled.

At first, he for the creature wasn't coming or had moved on, but then he saw it diving down from the ceiling and pounced on him. Tom gave a small laugh while the creature merely growled at him, but Tom remained calm.

"I brought you some food," he said.

The creature then calmed down, clearly understanding him.

Tom then brought out the food he had acquired: a half-eaten pizza, a cheeseburger and some spaghetti coated in sauce. The creature sniffed at the pizza and immediately grounded disapprovingly.

"The only creature that doesn't like pizza," said Tom amazed.

The creature then tossed the pizza straight at him, along with the cheeseburger and a box of cereal, which hit him on the head.

"Hey!" Tom protested.

He then watched as the creature examined the spaghetti sauce and began to devour it.

"There you go," said Tom happily. "All right, now we're getting somewhere."

The creature devoured the entire contents of the spaghetti sauce but apparently disagreed with it.

"Or not," said Tom, soon realised for the creature was about to do. "Oh no."

The creature then threw up all over Tom, covering him in spaghetti sauce, and sadly, some of it landed in his mouth.

"Guess you're not a fan of spaghetti," Tom concluded.

Tom then tried presenting a number of other food he required, including some roasted stake, porridge and a jar of pickles. However, it knocked every single one of them out of his hand, and Tom was about to give up.

"What the heck do dragons eat?" he said frustratingly.

He then found on the ground a box and picked it up to examine it.

"There's these frozen fish nuggets," he said in disgust. "Nobody likes frozen fish nuggets."

There again, it was the only thing left, and he figured he didn't have anything to lose. So he dumped a bunch of fish nuggets on the ground. Almost instantly, the dragon got back up and then approached them curiously.

He sniffed one and then ate it. Tom watched, half expecting the dragon to throw up, but instead, it smiled, happy with its treat.

"All right… fish! Dragons like fish," said Tom, relieved that you found something the dragon liked.

The dragon then bent down and pushed one of the frozen nuggets towards him. He instantly realised that the dragon wanted him to have one of them.

"Oh no, I'm good, I'm good," he assured it.

The dragon growled at him angrily, shoving the nugget even closer to him.

"If fish nuggets were the last food on the planet, I would happily starve," Tom muttered.

However, he wanted to befriend the dragon and figured he had to play along. So he reluctantly bent down and grabbed the nugget.

"Okay, thanks," said Tom and attempted to put the nugget in his jacket pocket. "I think I'll see this one later."

The dragon immediately snarled, clearly not fooled.

Tom sighed, knowing there was no way out of it; he ate the nugget. He then smiled, not planning on swallowing the nugget and figured he could spit it back out when the dragon wasn't looking.

Sadly, the dragon again was not fooled and gestured for him to swallow it. Tom grimaced and then swallowed the nugget, immediately regretting it as it slid down his throat.

"Yum," he said, trying to smile.

The dragon then happily tossed another nugget in the air, ate it, and gave another to Tom.

"We're going to split this whole pile of nuggets, ain't we," said Tom.

The dragon then nodded.

Tom groaned.

Tom then joined the dragon in eating the nuggets until there was only one left.

He instantly fell to the ground clutching his stomach, feeling very sick and refusing to eat the last nugget the dragon tossed him. "Oh no, that's it. No, no more. I can't do it, not another nug."

The dragon then gave him a pleading roar.

"I just ate one," said Tom. "The last one is yours."

The dragon growled.

"All right, all right," Tom groaned. "Last one is mine; just give me a sec."

He picked up the last nugget and took a deep breath, and then ate it.

"We did it were done," said Tom relieved as the dragon sat down next to him and began to sleep.

Tom looked at the dragon with curiosity; he had never pictured a dragon could be this friendly, and he felt as if there was something drawing him to it. His hand began moving all by itself as he reached out to the dragon and placed his hand against its face.

The dragon's eyes immediately shot wide open, and they quickly jumped away from him, surprised. Tom then rose to his feet and outstretched his hand, placing it on its snout, sending a small surge of electricity that caused his head to stand on end.

Tom gave a small laugh, as did the dragon, who then used its wings to flatten his head back down.

"So, what would you want to do now?" Tom asked as he had the dragon's head.

Moments later, the dragon held him in its claws as they began flying around the fissure. Tom screamed excitedly as they dived down and flew through the smoke. From there, he saw that laver waterfalls poured into the fissure.

This only made Tom even more excited as they flew around, and then suddenly, shooting out in front of them, were a bunch of geysers. The dragon easily flew around before flying straight up and performing a U-turn.

"This is amazing!" Tom yelled excitedly.

Then suddenly, they heard rumbling, and rocks began to fall, nearly hitting them.

"Whoa, earthquake?" Tom gasped.

The dragon immediately flew upwards so they could get out of the fissure.

"Watch out!" Tom yelled as rocks continued to fall.

The dragon did its best to fly around the rocks, but there were just too many of them, and it accidentally released Tom to avoid one. It then quickly dived down after Tom, who was screaming his head off.

Tom had just entered the cloud of smoke when the dragon caught him on its back and flew out. When Tom opened his eyes, he found that he was riding on the dragon's back as they were flying back up.

"Did he do that on purpose?" Tom asked.

The dragon roared at him, telling him no.

As they continued to fly up, the dragon then unleashed a burst of lightning at demolished a falling rock in front of them.

"Blast those suckers, yeah!" Tom yelled excitedly. "Watch out!" Then they saw a huge rock heading straight towards them. "Get us out of here!"

The dragon stretched out its tail fin and quickly dived into a nearby cave just before the rock crashed on top of them.

Tom gave a sigh of relief as he picked himself up. "That was a big one."

Then he saw a light shining from a hole in the wall, and the dragon roared at him excitedly before dashing off to the wall. He then tried to dig at the wall as if trying to get the upper side; Tom went over to examine. He could definitely hear something on the other side. He then pulled out his pickaxe and struck the wall creating more holes for the light to shine through.

The dragon roared to tell him to get out of the way. He did just that. Then a blast of the wall with a bolt of lightning blasting it to pieces. Tom stared into the new carven, mesmerised as he could see giant crystal formations and hundreds of dragons flying around them; it was like looking into a new world.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Tom gasped.

The dragon merely purred, and Tom/him as they both smiled at the new world before them.