Inktober 2022
Oct. 9: Nest

Mike groaned as he woke up to a horrible headache and waves of pain all over his back. The feeling was made up of some soreness from sleeping over hard material and sharp twinges of pain as though his back had been torn open. His hands moved to rub at his temple, but he felt the thick leather of his biking gloves and his helmet. Opening his eyes, he saw that his face shield was cracked, a strange web pattern stringing across the glass. Through the tinted glass, Mike did realize however that his surroundings seemed to be glowing gold.

He slowly stirred, trying to move his body as more pain shot up his spine. He sat up on what he recognizes as one of those round mirrors in the intersections of underground parking lots and took off his helmet. Before him were scattered tons upon tons of gold and glittering objects, going from smartphones and pocket mirrors to things as large as a washing machine and an off-road vehicle. Everything was hoarded into a vaguely round shape, tracing the sides of the large circular cave Mike was in. It was a space with a single large opening at the top where light came in, thus making the objects shine.

As Mike looked around some more, he saw his motorcycle as well, the metal distorted in the middle as though it was crushed by something large. He had also realized that most things in this room were broken and showed similar crushing or even contorting marks on them, as seen on his bike but also the washing machine, which made a nearly hourglass-like shape like it was squeezed in the middle. His helmet in his lap had also sustained large damages, notably a huge dent near the top which correlated with the spot at the center of where his headache radiated.

Thinking about his wounds, Mike tried to turn around to see his back, wincing as he felt more pain with his movements. He reached back with his hand and tentatively dabbed at his jacket, retreating his arm back immediately as his glove touched something soft and his back burned. Bringing his hand before his face, he realized there was blood on his gloved fingers and also bloody traces on the mirror he had lied down on. He used the mirror to take a look at his back and gasped as he saw long open gashes that had cut cleanly through his jacket and into him, maybe made by large claws or talons.

Mike’s brain quickly wound back to what had happened before he had woken up or fallen asleep. Did he doze off on a ride and get into an accident? As the gears turned in his head, he managed to remember with some effort that he hadn’t fallen asleep, but was hit on the head by something large and hard which had made him pass out immediately. As he worked his way backwards in the timeline, he vaguely recalled seeing a large shadow on the road, covering him and his bike completely from above.

‘Was it a bird? No, it was too big for that. A plane? But the wings weren’t rigid lines.’

As Mike kept trying to recall more details, a loud noise of wings flapping followed by a loud thud from above him snapped him out of his mind. Looking up, he had found the culprit for his predicament.

Slowly entering the cavern was a dragon bigger than two buses one behind the other, slinking into the cavern with a shiny wheel cover in his mouth. The object was then dropped into the center of the nest with a loud clatter as the huge creature turned towards Mike, eyes glowing brighter than all the treasures it had hoarded.