Dragon Island Read Free Page B

food for several more days. But if I don’t find water soon, I’m going to die.
    I remove several leather straps from the samurai’s armor and weave them into a makeshift harness. This I attach to the sword’s scabbard at its apex and base. I slide the harness over my head, draping it across my torso so that the sword rides at an angle across my back. The fit is snug, surprisingly comfortable even, and I nod at my good work.
    I walk toward the cave’s mouth, ducking so that I can negotiate the dip in the ceiling. Once there, I turn and give the cave that saved my life one last glance, my gaze moving from the dead warrior to the walls and back again. Then I turn and peer outside the cave, scanning my immediate vicinity.
    The forest outside has been trampled to the ground. Great, broken trees lay on their sides, leaning over into crater-sized footprints left behind in the wake of the eye’s owner.
    Whatever this thing is, the world I know has never seen anything like it.
    I blink, hoping the scene outside will go away.
    It doesn’t.
    I take a deep breath and step outside the cave, expecting to hear the earth-shattering roar that I’m sure will haunt my dreams for the rest of my life.
    I hear nothing but the rise and fall of cicada song and the occasional chirp of a bird.
    I take another step.
    Still nothing.
    I breathe a less than easy sigh of relief, and walk out into the unknown.

Chapter 4
     
    The multiverse, or meta-universe, is a hypothetical collective of infinite possible universes that exist alongside one another and comprise all of space and time. Many scientists theorize that, under certain circumstances, such as the existence of a gravitational anomaly (see wormhole. 5.A.), matter and energy may traverse the barriers existing between universes and cross over from one plane of reality into an entirely new realm of existence...
     
    —Excerpt from The Multiverse: A Wonderwork! , by Daniel Sabella
     
    I walk in what I think is the beach’s direction, dreading what I know I will see there, but hoping there will be food and drink to be salvaged among the plane’s wreckage. I trek through the woods, an impossible mixture of equatorial jungle and redwood forest, swatting my way through swarms of gnats as the cicadas sing all around me.
    Why of all places did I have to crash-land in a place with a giant monster?
    At least it’s summer here—wherever here is. Otherwise, I could be tramping around out here freezing my butt off!
    When my watch tells me half an hour has passed and I’m still walking through forest with no beach in sight, I decide to head back to the cave and reorient myself. An hour passes with no sign of the cave or the cliff face housing it, and I’m forced to admit to myself I’m lost.
    I collapse onto the ground and being to cry. My stomach bellows in mockery and protest. When I can ignore its growls no longer, I get up and start walking, heedless of my direction. Under my present circumstances, one path is as good as the next.
    The dense growth of trees around me starts to peter out. I begin to see giant, prehistoric ferns sprouting from the carpet of vines and leaves blanketing the forest floor. Then I see a small, stagnant puddle of water in the earth.
    Water! My mind screams.
    Before I can think about what I’m doing, I rush forward and fall to my knees. I throw an arm out to either side of the water puddle and plunge my face into it. I take several large swallows before the taste registers. When it does, it’s brackish and foul.
    I jerk back my head and spew what is left in my mouth onto the ground. I cough as the rest tries to come up my throat.
    Disheartened, feeling as weak as the branch water I so desperately need, I slowly climb to my feet and continue walking. By the time evening arrives, I’m slogging knee-deep through open marshland, batting away Chihuahua-sized mosquitoes with the sword.
    No exaggeration.
    Small fish and who knows what else swimming beneath the water brush