The bright light blinded him and his ears were ringing from the booming noise. The mech seemed to fall a short distance and turn which knocked him off his feet again. He felt disoriented and groaned, feeling something digging into his back. He rubbed his eyes and pulled himself back to his feet. After a minute or so the bright spots in his eyes disappeared and the ringing in his ears started going away. “What the hell was that.” Gavin muttered to himself trying to pull himself together. Then he happened to glance out the cockpit canopy and his mind went blank. The mech was partly on its side now and he could see they were not in a pasture anymore. It looked like a desert wasteland with sand and barren rocks.
On top of that there appeared to be something going on in the distance that he was having trouble wrapping his head around. Two fantasy armies were battling each other. There were armored soldiers that looked similar to knights, strange beasts, soldiers flying giant winged creatures, and even what appeared to be mages firing spells at each other. Stone creatures that might be golems were being destroyed by what looked like magical cannons. A wooden flying airship was circling the battle, firing magical blasts while fending off flying creatures that looked like dragons.
Gavin closed his eyes and shook his head, refusing to accept what he was seeing, and hoping it was a dream. He opened his eyes slowly but the fantasy battle remained. Even worse, the mechs arrival had been noticed and portions of both armies were heading his way. The beeping noise in the cockpit was gone and a new piece of hardware was smoking which couldn’t be good news. The girl was his only hope since he had no idea how anything worked. If they could get the mech working they might be able to escape or at least fight back. Gavin didn’t know which army might be good or bad and didn’t want to find out. “Hey, wake up! You have to get us out of here! Come on, wake up already!” Gavin exclaimed, gently shaking the girl.
He finally got a response as she started moaning. “That’s it, come on! We are in serious trouble here!” Gavin shouted. She woke with a start and looked around frantically. She said something he couldn’t understand and looked back at the dead pilot. She looked to be in shock so he grabbed her by the shoulder and pointed out the cockpit window. “We have to get out of here!” He yelled, trying to snap her out of it. Her eyes got big as she noticed Gavin and then the armies.
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She pushed him away, then got busy at the controls. She was still speaking but Gavin had never heard the language before so had no idea what she was saying. Whatever she was doing was working as lights started coming back on in the cockpit. He held on as the mech slowly started moving and managed to stand up. When it was upright, she got out of the seat and checked on the dead pilot. She frowned and closed his dull eyes. Gavin kept his eyes on the approaching armies. The first to arrive was a soldier riding on the back of a dragon or maybe it was a wyvern or drake. It did seem a little small to be an actual dragon. It circled the mech a couple times but seemed confused and let out a roar. Gavin could hear it even inside the cockpit and turned to see what the girl was doing.
She was crouched down, digging around inside a compartment, then turned to face him with something in her hand. He was about to say something when she quickly put what she was holding against his neck. He felt a sharp pain and jerked backward in surprise, holding a hand to his neck. “What was that? What the hell are you doing?” He exclaimed while feeling a warm sensation start at his neck and then spread to the rest of his body.
The girl ignored him and got back to work. She unbuckled the dead pilot and dragged him out of the seat, laying him on the floor. Gavin was surprised at how easily she handled the body considering her small frame. She then pulled a panel loose from the wall and started fiddling with the contents. When he started to say something else she glared at him and gestured for him to get in the seat of the dead pilot. He didn’t know what else to do so complied. He was starting to feel tingly all over as he sat down. Gavin’s mind was racing over the possibilities of what she had done to him and none of them were good.
He hoped it was just some kind of tranquilizer to keep him quiet. Looking outside again, he saw the dragon rider was fighting with two other flying creatures that had riders. These looked like they might be griffins. The dragon spewed fire while the griffins dodged and their riders shot colorful magic back. “What kind of world is this?” Chuck asked, not expecting an answer. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out this wasn’t earth. The twin greenish moons in the sky above the battlefield was another good clue.