This is a record of a world that most would say never existed. Some may find my account to be fantastical or delusional, but I assure you that everything I am about to share is true. The events I will describe and the primal truths I will reveal may cause some to dismiss my words as mere fiction. While this universe has a myriad of truths and that dismissal may hold some merit, I encourage you to push past your disbelief and keep reading. My truth is not widely known, and as a reader, you have the opportunity to gain insight into this hidden reality.
I guess it all started on Planet Earth. In the United States of America, I, a high school senior by the name of Paxton Summers, was running around the desert just outside my hometown in New Mexico. I was looking for an albino coyote that had been sighted in the area in the hope that I could get a picture of it. While the sight of such a rare beast would be a reward for anyone, the reason I was out in the middle of the night was that I hoped that I could give the picture of it to my sister. For some reason she had this infatuation with these mangy canines that for the life of me I can’t understand. That being said I was really trying to make this birthday special because after our mom's death I haven't seen my sister in over a year.
Our mom was, in a word, irresponsible. This had led to a pregnancy early in life with the father not being part of the equation. This and several other bad life choices had led my mom to a life of roaming around the country with her ‘little burden’, which was of course me. Yeah, I generally raised myself. There were a few years of steady life when my mom married my sister's father, but ultimately he only lasted a few years before filing for a divorce. Mom took the divorce hard and if she had been irresponsible before, now she was outright neglectful. So it was up to me to raise my little sister. And then the incident happened. I’m still trying my best to forget the events of that fateful night. Even thinking about it has caused me panic attacks. (My psychiatrist said that I should face my traumas head on, but I still think that she could easily beat any of her patients in a craziness contest.) Still at the end of the day, Mom had died that night. I really didn’t get along very well with my mother, but her death led to the separation of me and my sister. She went to live with her father, who now had a new family who happily accepted her. I went to live with my uncle. My uncle isn’t a bad guy and really was quite scraping to the teenager that was thrust upon him, but he is a man with a very busy schedule and little time for me. That being said I guess it would have been pretty strange for him to have been super involved with me. I’m really not sure if I would have liked it, I’ve always sort of been a loner, if not by choice than certainly by circumstance. My only regret at the time was that I couldn't see more of my sister since she lived on the other side of the country. She was coming to visit me and my uncle over spring break and would show up the next day. So I really wanted to make that meeting special, thus my running around the desert like an idiot at night looking for that mysterious creature.
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On that quest I pondered my sister's love of the coyotes and I honestly thought it was odd. The canines were quite unfriendly and are typically seen as vermin. They were like scrawny evil versions of dogs, but for whatever reason, his sister loved them. It was quite irrational, and it still blows my mind. Yet I have my own dragon obsession, so I’m in no place to judge.
I’d been out in the desert for a few hours at that point and I was starting to think that I would never find that white beast. Then out of nowhere I saw it, like a streak of living moonlight in the distance. Right when I was about to start following, I saw another man chasing the beast. It’s dark so I couldn’t make out most of the man's features, but just this guy’s outline was making me uneasy. Now I was stuck in a bit of a dilemma. While it certainly isn’t illegal to kill coyotes, albinos are special. With that in mind, there's no telling what this coyote had done to the man personally since coyotes are notorious for such crimes as chicken slaughtering. Still I couldn’t get the image of the creature running through the night out of my head and I had a strange feeling that the world would be poorer without this majestic beast living in it. Then of course there was my sister to consider, it would be hard to look her in the face the next day if I let one of her favorite animals die.
With my mind made up, I ran after the hunter and his prey until I found a cave. This cave wasn’t particularly big, but from prior trips to the desert I knew it didn’t have an exit. It's a natural choke point. I could hear canine noises of pain coming from the cave which reminded me of the incident. I felt a surge of adrenaline flowing through me as I ran in the small cave. I saw the ‘hunter’ laughing to himself as he kicked at the prone body of the coyote. This was the first good look I got at the ‘hunter’ and when I did I was immediately sent into a spiral of internal despair. The ‘hunter’ was built like a Mr. Universe contestant with strange tattoos running all over his body. He was also well over seven feet tall. While I like to think no one would ever call me short or scrawny, this guy looked like he could rip me apart with a single hand. Lucky for me, I had the advantage that countless assassins over the years had used to kill much stronger foes. That advantage was surprise.
Not giving myself the time to really consider my actions, I leaped on the giant’s back. Caught completely by surprise the ‘hunter’ pitched forward and almost fell on his face. Unfortunately for me, the giant on his way down was able to steady himself and reached back with one hand, throwing me like the insignificant pest that I was, to his feet next to the coyote.
“A mere human boy seeks a fight with me,” the man chuckled to himself. I on the other hand elected to say nothing as I rose to my feet with determination to stop this abuser of both man and beast. Just as I looked up after standing, the only thing I could see was the giant’s catcher's mitt sized hand slammed into my face. That could have gone better, was my final thought before the world went black with the last thing I saw being the albino coyote's eyes that seemed to be glowing.