“URRRRHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Richard couldn’t help but scream as he fell through the dark void. It didn’t help that he was confused as hell, never mind scared shitless. Just a few seconds ago, some kind of office worker fellow had done something to him that made him see floating panels and words. After that, he had been dropped by a trap door into this dark place. Richard didn’t know whether to curse how easily he had gone along with everything or shit himself in fear.

Just as he started thinking about dropping his pants, a bright light appeared underneath him. He stared at it with hope at first. Tears filled his eyes in relief. The closer he got to the light, the more he could make out. It looked like there was some kind of ground inside the circle of light. Around that time, he realized he was still speeding towards the light… and the ground. “Oh Shit!”

Flailing around, he finally tried to flap his arms like a bird, hoping he could fly or something. It was pretty pathetic, but then again, when you’re about to slam into something at a few dozen meters per second, you don’t really think about how dignified you look. Of course, nothing worked, and Richard plunged into the field of light screaming, “GWAHHHHHHH!”

Blinded momentarily by a sudden flash of light, he continued to flail around and scream. However, unlike in the void, Richard felt a large amount of air resistance as his body continued to fall. Blinking away tears, he forced his eyes open to see a blue sky around him and an expanse of dark brown ground far below him. It was breathtaking and terrifying at the same time, since he was afraid of heights to the point of even avoiding escalators at malls.

For a few seconds, Richard froze as he fell like a brick. He wondered if this was a sick joke or something: like the random location that the interviewer had talked about was a few hundred meters up in the sky. “No way… they couldn’t be that evil, could they?... Seriously! What the hell!”

As the ground got closer, he started seeing more details in the rocky, lifeless terrain below. It looked like one of those rocky deserts that usually had skulls of animals lying around as decorations. As terrified as he was, Richard sighed, muttering, “This sucks. A new life... sureeeee… I wonder if this’ll be record or something, dying within a few seconds of arriving here… wherever this hellhole is.” To say he wasn’t afraid of death would be incorrect. He was completely terrified as death zoomed towards him. However, by this time, he also was becoming numb to it all.

Plop!

Suddenly his body felt light as a feather, and his descent started slowing. His apathy turned into confusion as the ground stopped rushing up at him. Looking around, he couldn’t see any real difference from a few seconds ago. There was no huge bird trying to carry him away for its meal or some kind of special glowing field surrounding him. It was like one minute he was plunging to his heath, and the next, something decreased the speed he was falling to almost nothing.

Richard flailed around a bit more until he was falling while standing upright. “Okaayyyy... So what just happened?” At this point, he was less than a hundred meters away from the rocky terrain below. Indeed, he could make out the details of his presumed landing place. It was right next to a huge rock or butte, the size of medium sized building that stuck out like a sore thumb in the desert. He sighed in relief as he realized he wouldn’t be landing on the damn rock formation, especially since he couldn’t climb if his life depended on it.

That’s when the other shoe dropped. The rocky formation started trembling as Richard watched, with dirt and broken rocks falling off. Just as he was wondering what the hell was going on, reality took a turn for the worse. “Wha…?” His mouth dropped open in shock when large, leathery legs punched out from two sides of the huge rock creating a blasting noise, and the rock slowly rose up from off the ground. Just as he was starting to process the craziness that was unfolding, a loud growling sound filled the air.

GRUOOOHHHHHHH!

Following in its wake, the rumbling sound from the rock worsened until something pushed through the rock face. Calling it something was incorrect… way, way incorrect. The head that slowly extended out from the large rock was covered in a mix of rocky, leathery skin and looked like a cross between those of a crocodile’s and a turtle’s. Richard stared at the monstrous head in mute silence as it opened its jaws, roaring and showcasing rows of huge, blackened teeth. Two large, yellow eyes then opened, and the red irises in them focused on Richard, who was frozen in terror. By this time, Richard was about a dozen meters away from the ground and maybe 20 or so meters away from the large rock monster.