The Rogue Officer

[sovereign]

Austin noticed a small boy staring at him. He thought nothing of it at first, but something about the boy's eyes held his gaze. He realized that he had stopped moving, and before long it occurred to him that he was unable to pry his eyes from looking into those of the boy. His vision dulled as though he was falling asleep, leaving nothing but those eyes- nothing in him so much as tried to resist.



Darkness. A beast slumbered, and he was walking around it. He did not bother to conceal his presence, he was aware that the beast was there, and yet he acted as though he was not- but as the beast slept, a smaller creature separated itself from the beast and began to claw toward Austin, as though trying to swim through thick oil. The beast batted an eye, and began lazily pawing at the smaller creature. Then, as though crashing through glass, the smaller creature fell toward Austin, awakening the great beast from whence it had come. The small creature appeared to beg and plead, but there was no one to help it- and soon enough, the beast had awoken fully into a mighty dragon, shining throughout the darkness with terrible grace.

There were others, then, who heard it roar- some of them felt very familiar, and some as though family- though their faces were veiled. Behind them stood a flag, perched atop a small hill. It was battered and torn, and hardly stood on its own- and the dragon turned toward it, bashing aside the small creature that had come from it. It drew it's head back and forward again, spreading from its mouth a great cone of flame. The fire reached the flag on the hill and scorched it, though it did not simply melt away.

A great light came from the sky, and a hooded figure descended in front of the men standing with Austin. It bowed, and in return all those gathered placed themselves in front of the oncoming inferno and kept it at bay. The figure then turned to Austin, and in his mind he heard the words:

when the time comes, join us, and embrace destiny

With that, the vision abruptly ended and Austin was in the hangar again. Wiping a small bit of drool from his chin, he looked around for the boy but could not find him.

"Right... that... was weird."

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