Humans are very clever and stupid creatures. Capable of understanding a great many small things and comprehending the wider ramifications of them. But when it comes to a problem on a massive scale, something tends to break down for their thought process - as though their monkey brains were just not made for that kind of thinking. If it is not something that they can see in the immediate area, it becomes more of an existential problem than a practical one in terms of how it is dealt with.

When a tornado rolls through a small town, the people in its path often think about their immediate family and their own safety rather than the wide reaching consequences of the tornado itself. The homes destroyed. The utilities - water, electricity, communications. The disruptions to food lines, fuel, and medical supplies. All these things tend to be a "distant" concern when a human isn't paying attention. Their inability to conceptualize peril on that scale easily blinds them to the true level of danger they are in and often do not prepare enough for what is to come.

What's more, all humans - with no exceptions - are fantastic liars. They may never tell a lie to any of their kin, being truthful and just in all their dealing - but they absolutely love to tell and repeat lies to themselves. And in situations where they have trouble conceptualizing the scale of something, they tell themselves lies near ceaselessly.

The reason I bring this up, is that while the violet black dragon had encompassed the whole horizon when it crashed into the earth with its teeth, very few of the humans on the highway had actually registered what had happened. Even the ones that were closest to the points of impact - where that wall of purple and black flesh and drove into the earth and split the road off from the world outside - were unsure what had blotted out the sky and rent the ground. Many of them had not been paying attention and thus assumed that the sky was blotted out by some solar event and the wall of taut flesh was actually something jutting up out of the ground. Even those who saw the teeth descend in full, chose to lie to themselves and believe that it was some kind of load dropped from an large carrier forced off by the storm - a ridiculous lie that only a human could fashion. Some even went through a sort of lie of omission to themselves, simply refusing to acknowledge what they knew had just happened. The only ones that didn't lie to themselves in this instance, though they would lie (and had lied) many times before their deaths, were the people that had already accepted they were powerless in this situation and had resolved take the coming crisis on the chin.

Outside of a handful of people on either end of the highway that have yet to be introduced in this story, the only people that had fully come to grips in the short period of time with their situation in an honest manner were Andrew, the pelican man, Michael, the bullish cop, and the young woman with the large bag. All others were living in some degree of self deception that even the earth shaking shout had not knocked them out of. "After shock from the earthquake" some conceived, "the roar of a freakishly forceful wind" many rationalized to themselves, "Could have been anything" ignored others in perhaps the biggest lie of the evening.

Now, when an existential problem that you have lied about to yourself, however brief a time, shifts to an immediate threat that you cannot ignore, nasty things tend to happen to the mind. In this way, the constellation jellyfish had done a marvelous job of linking the immediate threat of being carried off by strange monsters with the existential threat the violet black dragon represented to the very existence of mankind. With the undulating flesh of the dragon illuminated by the green glow they provided and visible even through the glowing translucency of the jellyfish, it was exactly the kind of thing that would force even the most deluded human to face the truth of their predicament and the scale of it with all the messy consequences that come with a mind violently trying to reject the truth.

While they were all within view of eachother, they were also divided, restrained, and powerless in the clutches of the constellation jellyfish. And the effect on many of them, particularly the ones who were totally isolated either in the grasp of the jellyfish or imprisoned in their cars with no moral support was terrifying to say the least. And that brings us back to what Andrew and Michael were experiencing at this moment.

Green light flooded the car's cabin, giving the passengers a sickly pallor reflecting that of the transparent thrall of the wretched manowars outside. They twisted. They squirmed. Dull thumps of heavy tendrils rolled across the hood of the car as a thick mass of translucent flesh could be heard wrapping itself over the roof of the car and under its carriage. Outside, the violet-black horizon was still visible, if horribly obscured by the semi-translucent bodies. As though the he and the dozens of cars that were being carried outside were suspended in an ocean of green slime.

At first, Andrew and had been afraid that this was finally it - that all those innocent people scooped up by those constellation jellyfish had met their end. Eaten, dissolved, and digested. But after the shock and the screams of Chay and her children in the back seat, Andrew had cleared his vision and calmed his mind enough to get a handle on the truth. As just outside the window, he could still see Bessie the cow plainly.

The black cow looked unmistakably hysterical, her body was stiff and seizing with strange starts - but she still gave out distraught moos constantly. For awhile, Andrew was worried that the creatures were venomous and had injected her with a neurotoxin to prevent her from struggling as it - or they - tried to eat her. But as the haphazard mass of eclectic materials were carried higher, or at least what felt like higher, Barlow noted that the cow had stopped seizing and while still alert was now twisting its head around curiously as if it was too tired to fight and was now just taking in this bizarre event.

Chay had calmed down and was distracting herself trying to be the best mother she could to her children, Michael still had his brave face on and had turned in his seat to assist - though Andrew had reason to believe he was making the same observations as himself, if a bit slower due to the distractions of familial responsibility. The little boy and girl, Andrew still hadn't gotten their names, were sharing a seat and had oversized boxing helmets on. Apparently Michael liked to do kickboxing on the weekends and one of the duffels in their van had some of the protective equipment inside. The boxing helmets were much too big, but it would hopefully be enough to keep the two children from hitting their heads together in the event of any jostling. The son's eyes shone out blankly with confusion while the daughter looked weepy with distress.

Ducking in his seat, Barlow looked up and outside, trying to see if he could find another case to prove his theory. The pelican man was a few yards out, his form was heavily distorted, but Barlow could clearly make out a twitching outstretched hand. At first Andrew thought whatever poison or paralytic they had used on him was still in effect, but then he noticed a metallic gleam just a couple feet in front of him - his revolver had been taken from him by the globs and they were now deliberately separating them! The implications of this spun in Andrew's mind as he watched the pelican man quickly retract his hand and after a brief rest dart it back out again.

"I don't think anyone has been eat-" Andrew stopped short, not wanting to frighten the children in the back seat "I don't think many have been seriously hurt yet - it seems... more like we are being restrained."

"Yeah, I noticed that too" rumbled Michael in a low breath, when he was comforting his children and wife his face had been a wide smile of earnest deception - turning to the windshield, his face had become grim and ponderous. "We really are food for something, aren't we? Like I saw those teeth, and heard the scream but..." Michael's voice trailed off.

"But it's too much" finished Andrew.

They were both on the same page. As horrible as the situation was it was clearly the truth.

Suddenly, Chay started crying and lashing out at the back of Michael's seat frantically - she wasn't saying anything, just hopelessly sobbing as she struck the seat with her hands and feet. Acting quickly in response as the children watched in shock at their mother's breakdown, Michael spun around, reached over the seat with both hands and gently caught Chay by the wrists. He deftly set both her wrists in his left hand and pinned them against the back of the seat as his right hand shot out to cradle her face while her feet kept kicking and trying fruitlessly to pull her arms away.

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"Honey, it's okay! It's okay!" Michael called as he stroked the side of her face, her bright eyes were puddles of moonlight and welled in distress. It was clear her mask was crumbling and all the panic from the last half hour was finally starting to win out over her naturally happy demeanor.

Michael leaned even further across the seat and planted a kiss on her lips. Chay resisted at first, but eventually kissed back. They broke apart and look at each other in silence as the world went mad outside.

Eventually the elder child, the daughter, broke the silence."Mommy, are you ok?" Her mother's outburst had had an unexpected effect and made the children focus on the personal troubles of their family rather than the monsters outside. And as everyone who remembers early childhood knows, a mother and father in distress is worse than the idea of the world ending.

Taking a deep breath and two long blinks as she daintily wiped tears from her face with her palm, Chay responded "I'm fine honey, I-" She hesitated, looking for a comforting lie "I'm just tired".

It was a weak lie, but one she had used on the kids during stressful days in the past - though admittedly, not nearly so stressful as this. All the same, it seemed to have the desired effect, as the kids stretched their tiny bodies across the seats to try to hold hands with their mother and father. The baby was tired and with droopy-eyes watched quietly.

While all this was going on, Andrews was taking in the pandemonium outside. The noise of the squelching creatures marched on, punctuated by various muffled noises he couldn't quite place. Some of the nearby cars were still visible and the occupants of many seemed to be panicking. As near as he could tell, it was such things as the occasional yell, someone hitting the thick glass, an engine revving violently trying to break free. Occasionally when he heard that last sound, a patch of the constellation jellies would briefly glow brighter in the distance and a horrible grinding sound, like the strain of metal being wrenched free, would cut through the ocean of slimy bodies. Struggling was putting a lot of these people in more danger than they would otherwise be in.

Andrew could see the two old ladies in the Pelican Man's truck from here - surprisingly, they seemed to be taking this rather well. Well, one of them was. The lady closest to the cabin door, a woman with oversized black shades and a bob of curly white hair was flashing a dentured smile from the window as she waved at Andrew. The woman next to her seemed to be frantically praying, crying, or both as she kept her hands clasped together and eyes shut tight.

Sadly, all the other cars Andrew could see were either raised far above himself or were too far down to get a clear view. So instead he focused on the creatures that were ferrying them to whatever destination had been chosen. While Andrew had mentally filed them away as "jellyfish" the truth was that they looked much closer to large single cell organisms with tendrils sprouting from a single oval body. The center of the body had a strand of lights, predominantly green, in its midst and the veins of light stretched from the center of the body and gradually grew dimmer as it tapered out. The body, while malleable and slimy, looked to be segmented with a translucent and ridged chitin. The effect was a tough rubbery look that clashed harshly with the ghostly - nearly invisible - clearness of the creature. But looking even closer, there was a small nucleoli that seemed to swim around in the being, seeming to respond to any sound or sudden force, moving away from it quickly. Given the complex look of the nucleoli - an orange ball with the soft thrum of blue on one side and a ting of some small greenish organ clinging to the ball - Andrew speculated that the tiny thing was somehow a form of sensory organ or even a kind of brain - possibly both.

20 minutes had passed since they had been lifted off the ground and the family had finally slumped back in their seats exhausted. Andrew was the only one still looking around the vast sea of goo trying to come up with a solution. Michael on the other hand was rubbing his temples, likely running over the things that he knew for fact, only stopping to ask Andrew questions about what he had seen prior to the crash. Andrew, in turn, told him about the black dragons that looked like tornadoes - which was apparently one of the few details that had escaped his notice as he had been preoccupied talking to his wife while in the traffic jam.

After some more thought Michael finally shared his what was on his mind "So, let's lay this out straight: we know we are in the throat of a dragon the size of a small city. We know it is one of several, possibly many, that are currently tearing our world to bits. We know that the dragon and the jellyfish have killed few if anyone and seem more interested in restraining us when it could have killed us multiple times over. Does that add up to you?"

Andrew mulled it over - the conclusion he was leading to was an obvious one, if fantastic and horrifying.

"Something wants us alive and is using the dragon to transport us somewhere. " Andrew concluded.

An air of tension spread in the cab as the words left his mouth and was quickly broken as there was a sudden lurch and the translucent glow of the constellation jellyfish took on a new hue. The glow and the flesh of the jellyfish hadn't altered at all, rather - the view *behind* the jellyfish had. At first it looked like the green lit throat of the dragon's purple black flesh had fallen away to show a solid black canvas. But there was a flurry of motion among the jellyfish as they started shuffling their hostages around and bringing them level with eachother. Then, in a motion like a curtain being lifted, the jellyfish were no longer wrapped around the car, but had descended beneath it and were hoisting the car and the surrounding hostages bodily beneath the endless black above. Only to see specks of hope twinkle out from the black.

"Stars!" Breathed Andrew. The bed of organisms had somehow brought them back to the surface! How? Why?

With the jellies unwrapping themselves from around the car, Andrew felt brave enough to roll down his window and stick first his head and then his torso out to get a better look. There was an obvious glow from the jellies underneath, some mild jostling, and the threat of movement if he acted up - but it quickly subsided as he settled in place on the door.

Andrew's head had whipped behind him from his perch as the last of the constellation jellies fell into place to form the glowing bed - but what was curious was that the only sign of the dragon was a pitch black horizon of black fog and rows of large jagged rocks the size of buildings that they filtered through. Though Andrew quickly realized that those were not rocks at all! Looking up, he could see those same "rocks" rushing down as they had once before. A sound of rushing water filled the air and strong winds buffeted his face, threatening to tear him loose from his perch as the dragons jaws closed behind them, surging large waves of ocean water from the gaps.

Ocean? As Andrew's eyes adjusted to the glow contrasted with the unveiled sky, he scanned the horizon. Yes, most assuredly! The raft of jellies had been deposited into some large body of water that gingerly reflected the glow of the jellies - reflected in the water, the greenish glow seemed more teal and gentle.

Andrew watched with a stiffened spine as the Violet-Black Dragon turned in the water, like watching a glacier push through arctic waves. It's glowing white eye shined in the darkness as they pulled away - Andrew suppressing a shudder of fear as the eye sank beneath the waves and out of sight. The black fog vanishing shortly after.

"That's a sight" Murmured Michael, who had come out on his side to mirror Andrew.

But unlike Andrew, Michael wasn't looking at their own dragon or the jellies. Instead, he was gazing far in the distance where motes of light, like constellations closely packed together, could be seen on the black water where the glowing eyes of other dragons could be seen in the dark as they deposited rafts of their own. At this distance, even they great dragons were barely visible in the dark. But it was the sight of one or two, but scores. Scores of tiny rafts! Apparently they were not the only ones brought here - but what happened to Earth?

As if to answer his question, a light filled the heavens. Where nothing but stars had been there previously, a great orb suddenly and unexpectedly took up a massive swath of the sky. At first, Andrew thought he was looking at the moon, and in a way he was. But in terms of perception and actual size, it was far too large for that - more than four times the size of our moon. The blue oceans, the browns and greens peaking through white wisps of cloud. Even a small dot of white that faithfully acted as its satellite and companion. Earth had been delivered with them, a satellite to this new land! But how? How could a planet be moved across the sky intact?

As the Earth hung in the heavens, the universe saw fit to give that answer too, for a great eye (not unlike those of the dragons) slid out from behind the planet - only a fraction smaller than the globe itself and set into a great shadow that blotted out all the stars. The drone that Andrew had heard before had come back into his ears and a dread filled his heart - both the product of this titan's presence. And just as quickly as that great and horrible eye had come, it shrunk away - vanishing into the blackness.

With the sound of the of rushing water, running engines, and a steady wind in their ears. Andrew and Michael along with the party on the glowing raft were left basking in the glow of Earth in the darkness of a newly created world.