The light was pouring in through her eyes. Hawkins gave a groan and felt her face for her oxygen mask. Yet, she only felt what appeared to be reptile scales and a snout.

Wait a snout? Hawkins shot up and found herself in a picturesque scene. Large, purple mountains with neat snowcaps loomed over the horizon. Below, dotted a  forest of luscious, green trees that resembled oaks and maples. A sky-blue stream was curving around the meadow, its sound playing like a harmonious instrument to add to the beauty before it.

Hawkins looked around and saw that her aircraft was missing, as well as her co-pilot. She began to dash towards the stream to wash herself when she jumped back in fright. A strange, reptilian face had appeared in the reflection of the stream. Creeping closer, Hawkins gasped.

It was her reflection. Instead of her oval face, with her brown hair in a bun, she saw a gray head with a long snout, and small, sharp teeth jutting out of the edges. Her eyes were still their gray, stormy selves, but now they were ellipses instead of ovals. Gray, slate-like scales formed various patterns around her head and she saw that her hands had turned into four-digit claws like that of a desert lizard.

Turning around, she saw that a pair of bat-like wings were connected to her upper body, which was now a slender coil like a fattened boa. She was standing on all fours, her tail slithering side-to-side, the spade sniffing the ground for any signs of danger.

“Am I a…A BUCKING DRAGON!” Hawkins screamed, or roared.

She couldn’t believe it. She was stuck looking like this...dinosaur! Sure she had had her fair share of pretending to be the monster on Halloween and during plays. However, this was too much for her to take in.

The soft breeze animated the grass and invited her to take a nap. She found that it wasn’t too hard adjusting to this reptilian carapace. Apparently her brain must have already become accustomed to the lizard-like motions, although flying still seemed far-fetched.

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Sanders had been wandering the forests for at least an hour now. He had woken up on a tree branch to find himself feeling healthier then usual.

What the buck? Sanders scanned the area, looking for any signs of a parachute, his aircraft, or Hawkins.

Nothing. Only the trees and bushes stood in front of his eyes.

That was when he heard the sloshing of water from a creek. It led out of the forest and into a large plain. From his vantage point, he could see colorful flowers of dazzling purple, illuminating yellow, and sky-blue.

“This sure as Tartarus doesn’t look like Tehran at all!” he exclaimed. Tartarus...buck... he thought confusingly. He had meant to say another word, but these words seemed natural to him, as if he had always said it.

Come to think about it...what did I mean to say?

"Where am I?" he bellowed at the forest and mountains overhead.

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The sound made Hawkins’ head snapped up as fast as a speeding bullet.

“SANDERS?” she called out.

“Hawkins?” came a reply, echoing from somewhere in the forest.

“Where are you?”

“I’m in the forest heading for the stream up ahead.

“I’m already there!” she yelled in relief and joy.

Forgetting about her current form, Jennifer Hawkins dashed on all fours, her feet suddenly lifting in the air as her wings flapped like a sail on a windy day.

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Sanders darted off, forgetting about the situation at hand. He just needed to see his co-pilot, to make sure she wasn’t dead.

That was when he crashed into a gray blur. Both figures tumbled into the grass and slowly got up with a moan.

“Jeepers Hawkins, I thought…”

Sanders stood wide-eyed at what looked to him like a blend between a serpent, monitor lizard, and bat.

The creature looked at him just as puzzled and said in a tentative voice.

“Sanders?”

Hawkins? The reptile before him looked nothing like his partner, but it spoke with that sweet, gentle voice of hers. In one movement, he grabbed the lizard-like beast and pinned it to the ground.

“Who are you and what have you done with my co-pilot,” he growled menacingly.

San-Sanders,” the voice chocked, “I-I-I am…your…co-pilot. We…were going…on…an…airstrike over…over Tehran. I…I…was the one….who saved…your sorry butt back…at the mess hall.”

Only his co-pilot would ever bring that story up with those exact words. Sander’s let go of his grip and gave a sigh of relief.

“Thank gosh its you Hawkins. I was worried…” he looked at his hand. Yet, it wasn’t a hand, but a clawed talon, with tan feathers covering the ankle length.

“What the heck?” and with that, Sanders ran to the pond and shrieked like a girl who was having a spider land on her face.

A falcon’s grey head stared at him. It’s beak was jet-black and curved like some wicked sickle. His eyes were reduced to the piercing, obsidian eyes of a hunter. His feathers were delicately forming tiny, almost invisible, patterns around it. He turned his body to see contour feathers the shape of small daggers surround his now imposing chest. At the end, his hind legs were like that of a lion, with a whip-like tail while his frontal limbs were now claws that looked like they belonged to some ancient dinosaur.

“This…this…can’t be happening.”

“Sanders,” Hawkins slowly began, ”calm down. I know this seems weird and I had a similar reaction as well. Just take a deep breath…”

With a puff of his chest, the griffin sucked in the fresh air.

And let it out in a volley of inaudible and disturbing words.

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Princess Luna stirred in her sleep. She had had a horrible dream. She was in this metal bird and there were pillars of fire and the smell of death emitting from the controls of the odd machine.

She had felt something wrong before...but now she knew that something was wrong.

Something was very wrong.