I picked up my bag and turned off the lights; I almost walked into a table before my eyes adjusted. I looked around, hoping I wasn't forgetting anything in the room; the moonlight that was streaming into the room reflected off of the many metal counter tops and bounced back into my glasses. I squinted my eyes and noticed a strange shape on one of the tables in the room. As I walked closer I could make out the shape of keys, more specifically my car keys. I smacked my forehead, cursing myself for almost leaving these in the lab, again.

I picked up the keys, looping my finger through the ring and quickly gave the room another once over. I pushed open the heavy metal door and it opened with a groan. I walked outside and locked the door before I turned and walked down the tiled path. The noises that came from the nocturnal animals and the snores that came from the resting ones combined with the light sound of my footsteps making a peaceful walk to the parking lot.

I waved at one of the security guards I passed on my walk, I felt a small smile creep onto my face as I saw the man grin and wave back, his flashlight still in hand. The beam of light caught my eye and caused me to look up. I smiled as I gazed across the starry night sky, the full moon enveloping the zoo in a bright light. I stood still and watched a cloud drift across the night sky, tinting the stars a light grey. I must have stood there for the good side of ten minutes, just admiring the beauty of it all and enjoying the end of a rather stressful day at work.

As I looked back down and turned to walk towards the parking lot I saw something. Something black flashed across the sky and a wind blew in my face. I swiftly turned my head and stared at where I saw the object cross my line of vision. I couldn't see anything, everything looked as it had just a moment ago, the stars were twinkling and the moon was shining. I felt my brows furrow in confusion. It was probably just a glitch in the lights or a trick of the eye. I shook my head to try and ride my mind of the thought, and continued walking.

When the gate that blocked off the zoo from employee parking came into view I started trying to fish for my set of keys that would allow me to open the gate. When I couldn't feel them in my back pocket I started to worry, hoping I hadn't let them back in the lab. My worry turned to a dumbfounded state of mind when I saw the keys hanging from my name tag and I realized that I am an idiot. I rolled my eyes at myself and grabbed the key off of my security badge labeled, "Novak, Castiel J. ANIMAL BEHAVIORIST" in bold black font.

I unclipped my badge off of my shirt pocket as I stood in front of the gate. I quickly unlocked the gate and pushed it open, wincing at the irritating high pitched scream that the rusty hinges emitted. I opened the doors as much as I had to in order to try and lessen the torture the noise caused my ears. I squeezed through the iron gate, before taking back my key out of the slot. I quickly tried to force the door closed again, attempting to lessen the pain and avoid a headache. I failed.

The door suddenly got stuck in a pothole in the pavement and wouldn't budge, sending me flying against the gate, hitting my head and getting the wind taken from my lungs. I gasped for breath and glared at the gate, reminding myself that this is why I don't like being the last one to leave the zoo. I picked up the open door by a rusty bar and attempted to lift it out if the hole. My hand slipped and a piece of rust cut my hand across the palm. I hissed in pain and grabbed my hand. I could feel the blood dripping out of the open wound, I examined the injury and quickly decided that the best way to heal myself was to put my mouth over the bleeding slice across my palm.

I must've looked like an idiot standing there hunched over leaning on the gate with my hand in my mouth. I must've looked even more stupid when a security guard passed by shining her flashlight in my eyes. I froze and just stared back at her, waiting for her to either walk away and pretend she never saw me, or give me a weird look and walk away. She did the unexpected and walked towards me, "Hey hon," she said, voice laced heavily in a southern accent, "how bout you just head to your car and take care 'of that cut," she took another step forward and grabbed the gate with a hand that wasn't holding a flashlight, "I know this darn gate can be tricky, I'll close it up for ya."

I smiled at her a stumbled over my words a while before finally sputtering out a thank you before taking a step backwards. She flicked off her flashlight and set it on the ground, returning to hold the gate with both hands. My eyes quickly flashed across her name tag and read Ellen Harvelle. I smiled at her and turned to walk to my car.

I always parked towards the back of the parking lot, partly because it's good exercise and partly because I don't get up early enough to get the good spaces up front. The parking lot was almost empty except for a few cars parked here and there, probably the security guards. I strolled down the parking lot with my hand pressed up against my stomach. I heard a swish and felt a sharp blow. I stopped in my tracks thinking, 'What the hell was that?' Before I could bring myself to turn around I felt the ground quake, and I heard a loud noise, like something heavy had been falling and finally hit the ground.

I took in a deep and shaky breath trying to calm myself and turn around. I slowly turned around. It looked like a 3-D shadow; it was dark and huge. I suddenly couldn't move, I was frozen, it was like the only thing I could do was stare. Then it started moving. It looked as if it were turning around when a giant limb shot upward. The limb then spread out, it looked like a wing, a giant humongous wing, that had also been ripped.

I looked closer. I could make out that it was a living thing, possibly some type of unidentified animal, but it was definitely scared, and in a lot of pain. I felt sympathy shoot through my veins and I felt drawn to comfort the poor creature.

As I walked closer the creature started to come more into focus; it was definitely reptilian judging by the scales that lined its body. Its movements started becoming more human. I stopped, almost ten feet away from the creature and I could only make out its other, slightly more damaged, wing and an arm. Its arm had four sets of toes, each with a sharp black talon extruding from it. I felt a lump rising in my throat at the sight of the claws, this creature was becoming quite unpredictable and I didn't want to be here if it felt a need to use self defense.

I watched as it slowly raised its wing up above its head. It let out sound, it started as a rumble originating from the belly and then mixed with a high pitched whine that came from its throat, almost as if it were screaming. Its wing rose and hit a streetlamp, instantly shattering the glass and bending the metal back. It was a rather cool day outside and yet I found myself sweating.

I looked down from its raised wing and looked down towards its face. It had huge emerald green eyes and the pupil was huge, taking over most, covering most of the eye in a dark black leaving only a sliver of glowing green. Its eyes radiated its emotions, it was scared and hurting. I looked closer, examining the creatures face. It had a pointed snout and a round face, resembling a mix between a komodo dragon and an iguana.

I heard the glass shatter onto the round around me and flinched as a sharp wind swept over me. I winced as the creatures wing flew up above me, no doubt painful for the creature. I was curious as to why the winged creature, which I was trying not to call a dragon, had covered me from the glass. Millions of thoughts raced through my mind, I tried to process and analyze the situation, and the new discovery of a figgin dragon!

I looked towards the creatures tattered wing, which is painful to look at, then back at the dragon's eye. I stared, stunned, as the pupil became rounded, and the iris shrunk and became encircled by the milky white sclera, more simply put: the eye became human. I stumbled back, alarmed and intrigued. I felt a tug in my chest and worry erupted in me, concern for the creature and its safety completely replacing the concern for myself. I started walking back towards the creature before another strange sound came out of its mouth. The pitch ranged from high and low, changing repeatedly, and a low rumbling was making it hard to not cover my ears.

The screeching became louder and I looked down, squeezing my head between my hands to try and lessen the ache in my head. When I noticed that the sound had stopped I looked up to see something different than the strange sight that was originally taking over my peripheral vision, a man. my eyes almost bugged out of my head at the sight. The first thought in my head was I was going crazy but then my second thought was about the other man. He looked exhausted and in pain. I walked towards him and gripped is bare shoulder with his utter lack of clothing it was a mystery about how he hadn't froze yet. I was about to ask him if he was okay before I felt him shake in my hands and he started to fall. He fell forward onto me, almost crushing me and causing me to fall towards the pavement.