It felt like an eternity, but live was just boring and normal before.

It was an hot July day when I arrived in Limoges via SNCF. It was about noon, the skies were blue and the sun was burning down without remorse. I put my rucksack on my shoulder and checked my phone to find my way out of town to the east. My destination was Clermond-Ferrand and I was looking forward to leave town to enjoy the beauty of Cévennes for the next weeks.

I was planning to check for places to sleep over the day, but it was warm enough to sleep outside without an issue as it was warm and dry.

After passing Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat there were only small villages. I found nice restaurants from time to time which I used to enjoy the french cuisine. While some dishes were a bit daunting I generally enjoyed to eat something different once in a while.

When I was younger I was no fan of hiking at all. A few years ago I started to get a hang on it. While I had no problems being on my feet all day jogging or running were never a favorite of mine, since I was more on the heavy side. My hair had started to turn gray gradually in the last years, but trying something new was the most exciting thing in my life. While I hadn’t managed to get a degree at university in natural sciences, I kept being interested in how the world around me worked.

It was in the mid of the second week, I was in the midst of nowhere, when I noticed dark clouds gathering behind me. The wind freshened up quite a bit towards the clouds behind me, relieving me a bit from the moist hot weather.

More and more dark clouds massed up over the afternoon, and there were flashes of lightning visible against the dark clouds.

About four in the afternoon I reached a place with a good view of the vicinity. The track lead down into another valley. There was a mansion a bit down the valley to my right, behind a patch of forest. The area surrounding the mansion looked cultivated.

Hunkering down somewhere to wait out the thunderstorm seemed to be the best I could do at that point, so I turned towards the mansions at the next opportunity. I could hear occasional distant thunder now.

Quickly I followed the track down to the bottom of the valley. As I reached a road towards the mansion I left my planned path to get shelter from the storm. Staying outside in a thunderstorm was much too dangerous.

The thunders got louder as I hurried along the road and there were flashes of lightning in the distance. The time between the lightnings and the thunders shortened over the next half an hour.

Since I never was a good runner I kept walking as fast as I could. There would be enough time to rest while the thunderstorm was raging.

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I finally reached the edge of the forest as heavy rain started to set in.

The mansion was now only about half a kilometer away. The area was wide open which wasn’t exactly the best with an approaching in a thunderstorm. I started to jog the last leg to the mansion. Totally winded I reached the mansion’s door a few minutes later.

I was soaked to the skin. Fortunately it was summer and warm. The rain was cool though, which was actually refreshing. There was a small roof above the main door.

After a while I got back my winds. I was definitely too old for this, reaching the sixties next year. I tried to keep fit, but an office job wasn’t helpful to stay physically fit.

My t-shirt was completely soaked and my pants were dripping. A small puddle was forming at my feet. I started to search for a bell, but there was nothing like that as a far as I could see. There was a rapper at the door though. I knocked at the door and waited for a while.

It had gotten much darker and the thunderstorm was definitely closing in. It was nearly dark now, only the lightnings spent some flashes of light every few seconds. Probably nobody heard me! There was an illuminated window a few meters along the front wall. It was about two meters above the ground, but there a narrow ledge along the wall, about half a meter above the ground.

I put down my backpack and went over to the window in order to get the attention of the residents. As I was totally soaked already the downpour didn’t faze me at all. There was a small flower bed in front of the window, but I could easily step over it and stepped on the ledge and put my forearms on the window sill. Inside was a living room. A tall, sleek figure wearing a hooded cloak stood at the opposite wall. I yelled and knocked at the window.

As the figure turned around I saw an alien sleek reptile head with two short straight horns above the eyes. It had silvery scales and a long narrow snout. The creature opened it’s mouth which was filled with pointy white tooth. It’s unblinking amber eyes stared at me while it raised its arms.

“What the fuck?” For a long moment I stared at the creature in disbelieve.

As soon as got back my bearings I let go of the window sill and let myself down to the ground again. I dashed to the door and grabbed my backpack.

Where to go? Running out in the thunderstorm wasn’t an option. I had to find a place to hide! As I’d never heard of such a creature it was highly probable that I was in trouble by just stumbling over it because of the storm!

Unfortunately the heavy rain reduced visibility to a few meters. I followed the wall of the mansion away from the window.

A gust of wind buffeted me from behind causing me to stumble forward. I fell over something laying on the ground and face-planted into a flowerbed.

With a groan I scrambled back to my feet. The rain washed the mud out of my face within seconds. As soon as I could see again I tried to reach the corner of the mansion to get out of view from the door.

Then there was a greenish flash of light from behind.

My legs started wobbling and finally gave away under me. I fell down to my knees and then doubled over to the front, my face buried in wet grass.

I started to gasp for air as breathing started to get difficult. Desperately I tried to force myself up again, but my muscles failed me. Another flash of lightning washed over me directly followed by mighty crash of thunder.

A few moments later was pulled up by someone by my upper arm just beside my shoulder.

I tried to struggle, but my muscles refused to do anything. As my head hung down I couldn’t see who picket me up. My arms hung down like wet noodled.

I was dragged back towards the main door.

A few moments later all went black.