Dragon Claws

"They can't get me!" Said Johnson, rushing through the forest, his gun bouncing against he back.

"If I die this will be for nothing!" He told himself, looking back to see if they were still trailing him.

"Oh Go-" He started, but never finished because he had failed to notice a knotted root, tripping over it.

"My gun!" He shouted, it had came undone from its straps and slid onto the ground in front of him.

As he reached for it, there was an explosion. He had been blinded and he couldn't see his hands or his gun. As he lost consince, he notice that the reason he couldn't see his hands or his gun was simple: They hand been blown off in the explosion. With this last thought, he blacked out....

He was awakened by a small nudge on his shoulder. As he moved his arm to feel it, he remembered he didn't have hands anymore. He then retracted his arms and moved them infront of his face. Instead of hands, there was stubs were they used to be.

"Who did this?" He mumbled, still shocked that he had not bled out from blood loss.

"Panth-o did. He saw the crater and had seen you next to it. He instantly knew you were dieing and warned us." Said a old man, stand right beside a black Panther.

"Who are  you?" He asked the old Man kindly, not wanting to make him angry in case he was grouchy.

"I am simple known as the healer. You are lucky I know of modern medicene or you would of died!" The Old Man said with a chuckle.

"What about my pursuers? How do you kill them?" He asked, not forgetting that he was still a US solider.

"Ha ha ha! They had walked around the crater, thinking that you had simple avoided it and ended up setting off a second landmine. They weren't so fortune it as you." Said the 'Healer.'

"Come on, I have much to show you! Come on now! Get up!" He said as he extended his hand to help Johnson up.

"Where am I exactly?" He asked as he walked out of the structure he had awoken in, which turned out to be made of something bamboo-like.

He let out a small gasp as he took in the view in front of him. What he saw only made him open his mouth wider. There was a entire village in upper-most part of the trees, out of range of any ground predators and other humans.

"How is this even possible?" He said with his mouth still open with awe.

"Our people has lived in these trees for many generations, updating themselves with what ever tech they could find." Said the Healer, leaning on the guard-rail that prevented people from plummeting to their death.

"How did you carry me up here?" He said as he looked down, guessing he was over 200 feet above the ground.

"These trees are very strong and wide, we use some of them as staircases to reach our village."

"Why don't you use elevators, considering how advance you are." He said, thinking back on how people who had survived wars had to go to advanced hospitals to get their limbs amputated sometimes.

"There is more then one way to get everything done.." He said mysteriously, as he caught a glimsp of a strange tool the Healer was putting away.

"Does that include amputating my arms?" He asked, still mystified by the strange tool he had seen.

"Yes, it does!" He said, wapping him with the end of his cane. "Now follow, I have something very special to show you."

Not wanting to get warped again, He followed the Healer over a bridge and into a cave which had been concealed by the local plants.

"Here we have found a temple of some sort, with strange runes depicting dragons and humans" He said as he passed those very Runes.

As Johnson followed him, he heard a crunch as he stepped forward. He looked down and saw a cell phone.

Picking up the remains of the phone, he held it up to the Healer and asked him: "Since when do you guys have service out here?"

"We don't." The old man awnsered with a puzzled look on his face.

They continued walk, while Johnson analyzed the phone. With a sudden burst of light, the screen flickered to life. It screen showed a Apple with a bite in it.  Johnson mumbled to himself that Apple had released these not more then 10 years ago...

"When was the last time someone was in this cave?" He asked, his curiosity beginning to surface.

"Well, when I last knew, about 100 years ago."

Johnson then looked back at the screen, it had a picture of a dragon with a message under it.

It read: "Hi Corbyn, you're probably wondering why I'm sending you these messages. Well, the truth is, I've been turned into a dragon. And I knew you liked dragons so i knew you would also pester me to give you a ride. So I've sent you the coordinates of the cave and how my transformation went. Hope you enjoy your new pair of wings!"

With that last sentence, he closed the phone, knowing the fate of the two humans who had been here before him.

"Where are you taking me?" He asked, fearing the old man had turned the two boys into dragons.

"Don't worry. You are in no harm, I am simply 'Arming' you with something more useful then those two stubs you call arms!" Said the Old man, cackling at his own joke.

"Ha ha very funny." Replied Johnson, his voice oozing sarcaticness. "But seriously, what are you going to do with my 'Arms' that i can use?"

"Simple, I am going to connect gauntlets to your stubs. And with some modern tech mixed in, you'll be able to use them like regular hands."

"Oh good, for a second there, I thought you were going to put swords on my arms or something." He said, letting out a breath.

The old man abruptly stopped, causing Johnson to bump into him. Johnson then looked up, only to see a sky of strange crystals that looked oddly metallic.

"What are these?" He asked, trying to break off a piece, only to no avail.

"They have no official name, but I call it: Dragonium. I named it that because of the ruins in this cave." He said as he grabbed a large case, unlocking it with ease.

"Here try these on." He instructed Johnson, handing him a pair of jewel-incrusted gauntlets.

He looked at the old man with a stern face, but then both men broke into a fit of laughter. After the fit was over, the old man gestured to him and began attaching the gauntlets to his stubs.

"So how do i use these?" He said, not feeling any different.

"Well, I have to activate them first!" Exclaimed the old man, grabbing a strange tool and some wires.

"This is going to sting a bit while i burn these wires into both the gauntlet and your 'arms'."

Turns out, he was right. Johnson did feel a sharp sting when the gauntlets and the wires were infused into his skin.

"Try them now, they should work." Said the healer as he put down his strange tool.

Johnson tried flexing his new 'hands' and they worked pretty well.

"What can I do with these?" He asked, curious about the jewels on the gauntlets.

"Nothing besides letting you handle extremely hot things and hold things. Why are you asking? Replied that old man.

"Nothing, I was jut wondering." Johnson lied quickly.

Johnson then picked up the phone from earlier and scrolled through it. He then found where the kid had taken a drink by the picture sent by his friend. He said he would catch up to his friend after e looked at something. He walked over to the location  where both of the boys had gotten a drink of water from.

"So this is where the water was..." He mumbled to himself.

He wanted to take a drink, but didn't want to risk being turned into a dragon with another mind in his head. So he simply walked away and took a stroll over to the ruins near the fountain. He was trying to read some of the text when he head a tumbling of rocks, followed by a low grunt. He knew there wasn't any animal in  the cave, so he brought up his new attached arms and held them up as if he was in a boxing match. He looked around for any signs of life, but couldn't find any when out of the blue a figure pounced on him, cutting his eye with a claw-weapon.

He scream in pain, but when he finished the figure who had attacked him had fled.

"Why did that thing attack me?" He questioned himself. "more importantly, why did it only attack me once?"