Henry parked his truck under the carport and carried the chainsaw and hatchet up to the front porch, before setting them down to unlock the door with free hands.

Phantom, the stray cat that had adopted him mrowwed and climbed up his pant leg. "Gimme a minute cat" he mumbled while fishing out his keys.

From his lawn, an orchestra of crickets and katydids warred their song against a choir of frogs from the brook that ran the greenbelt behind his backyard.

The half-moon smiled down on Henry as the door squeaked open and he carried the tools inside followed by the feline, he shut the door and flicked the lights marching on through the living room and into his workshop.

He set his tools down on the bench and set about retrieving his cleaning supplies.

He set the ring in a bath of white vinegar and started to methodically clean, oil, and sharpen the chainsaw. He rasped away with his file for ten minutes before he decided it was up to his standard, he retrieved the ring from its bath and gently toweled the flaking tarnish from the band. Slowly and surely the color of pure bronze began to peek through. Henry set it back in its bath and stepped away from the table, he meandered towards the kitchen, to get Phantom some food, and start a microwave dinner.

Looking through the glass and the metal mesh Henry listened to the microwave hum happily as it drank lightning and spat radiation. He thought back to the ring and the room he found it in.

He had puzzled over it for the whole drive home and had gotten no closer to a plausible theory to explain it away.

The room was half as large as Rachel's entire store and it had seemingly been fully stocked, but she claimed no memory of it. Hell, Henry might have waved it away as a strange dream if only that ring hadn't stuck around.

He was a little resentfull that he had been left the ring, he was set on giving his sister that illustrated dragon skeleton but instead he got a ring.

Henry didn't even like wearing rings, none of his family did.

He sighed then, Maybe I can get Rachel to spill tomorrow he thought.

The microwave's shrill proclamation of victory shook Henry from his thoughts. The rich creamy chicken and rice wafted a heavenly aroma through the room as he set it on the workbench to cool.

He took the band from its bath again, and using a finer towel this time polished away the last stains of the tarnish. He pulled the ring out from the folds of cloth and held it up to his desk lamp.

He stopped then staring dumbfounded at the band's bare form. Freed of its dull green mask the band had engravings of a troting dragon wrapped around the circumference of the ring, its tail coiled in a looping spiral around the round yellow gem.

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It belonged in there after all he thought turning it in the light, Phantom jumped on the table then and tried to lap at Henry's food but he pushed the cat away. Phantom fell off the table and complained from the floor, "I'm hungry, I'm starving!" Henry imagined from the tone.

It kinda reminds me of the One Ring, he thought, and a humerous thought came to him.

He turned quickly, holding the ring in both hands, "Look Phantom! I found the Precious!" He exlaimed to the unamused cat. "Some dirty hobbitses might steal it from me" he hissed, "But they can't finds my Precious and me if I wears it", he slipped it on chuckling, maybe Dorothy would like this after all, she loved those movies.

Suddenly a horrible nausea filled his gut, his head spun and he felt weightless as the world twisted, buckled, and folded around him and everything went black.

My head...

Why does it hurt?...

So tired...

Work can wait five more minutes...

Groggy and half asleep, Henry lay on his stomach atop a soft and fluffy matress, he tried to shift himself but the bed shredded where he grabbed it and bled the scents of new-mown hay and upturned earth.

What?...

The strong smell permiated Henry's perception and it slowly roused him to wakefulness. He groaned at the throbbing ache in his head and squeezed his eyes tightly shut. He rolled sideways and pushed an arm against the bedsheets to start what was looking to be a terrible morning. The sheet however was strangely clingy today, it woud not come off his arm. It clung tightly to his fingers and ran to his back, Henry whined out a slew of complaining curses as he feebly flailed the arm about, while the sheet clung to him.

Henry did this for about a minute before he had enough. I'm getting up and taking some goddamn ibuprofen you cotton demon, He growled and spread his hand with that infernal sheet sticking between his fingers, and threw it away as hard as he could. As he threw the covers he felt them catch the damp air, and with a leathery billowing noise Henry was suddenly launched and twisted away by the motion. THE FUCK?!, His eyes shot open as he rolled and flailed to correct the unexpected force. He came to a stop laying on his back, splayed across the ground and looking up at heavy dark clouds. Henry's head was still spinning from his tumble and he felt sick.

Did I go on a drunk adventure last night?, He watched the clouds churn high above. But how?, I don't even drink.

He tried to rub the weariness from his eyes but quickly recoiled when he almost stabbed himself.

He glared at the nails he had trimmed just the day before and his heart stopped.

Thats not mine... he thought looking at the emerald limb clad in scales and tipped with wicked claws, as it quickly turned lighter shade of green.

He brought up his other hand as his heartbeat drummed in his ears and sped up sharply.

"Fuck fuck fuck no FUCK shit this isn't real" he tried to sit up but couldn't bring his arms back far enough to support him. He fell and two long portrusions at the back of his head peirced the ground. What the fuck is on my head? I can't move right, why cant I move right? Where the fuck am I? Why are my hands like that? why does everything feel wrong?, He wrenched his head to free it and tried to push off the ground with his other arms. My other arms?, he puzzled and a sinking dread filled his stomach. Henry still felt something clinging on two of his limbs, so he slowly brought one of the anomalous limbs towards him. That feeling of dread grew as he felt the cool air air under its obscenely long fingers and through the material connecting them, and as a massive green wing entered his view a scream started simmering deep in His throat. He slowly looked to the rest of himself, with his neck spanning and bending farther than it ever had.

He saw a mass of green scales and clawed limbs spread out in a forest glade, its front legs folded agianst its belly and its back ones stretched out along with its tail, he saw its wings splayed off to the side and felt the grass they covered brush the membranes.

The kettle gathered steam.

He felt alien ears and swivel towards the sound of far away thunder, and twitch with the hushed sound of leaves and grass swaying in the growing wind.

He swept his vision across the dimly lit clearing and saw naught but an ancient and tall mixed forest surrounding him.

He took a sharp breath to calm himself only to be choked with dozens of unique scents as they fought for his attention.

Henry reached boiling then and a scream echoed through the forest startling many creatures, big and small, into a panicked flight, as he clumsily lept and thrashed about trying to flee his own skin.