The hour went by slowly for Dale. He idled his time away, fiddling with the settings on his camera or fighting off an angry mother sparrow that had decided he was too close to her nest for comfort. The creature that he was looking for however didn't show itself.

He ran his hand through his chocolate brown hair and checked his watch. Five past five. Five minutes until the hour was up. He let out a pent up sigh of frustration. He had hoped to catch the creature that day. With a shrug he began to carefully climb down the tree, much to the sparrow's relief.

A spontaneous gust of wind suddenly attacked the tree Dale was in. He gasped and slipped from his branch, but managed to catch himself before he fell. Pain laced up his arm and he winced, tears coming to his eyes. Hauling himself up onto the branch with a small sob he looked around, and nearly fell of the tree again in surprise.

There in the field, was the creature. Well at least he thought it was. It couldn't be anything else. It looked like a monster. Huge. Terrifying. With brown wings the size of the orange bus he rode in. A tail as thick a tree trunk and it's head was the size of a car. Along it's back was a pail red ridge, like dried blood, and it had a frill of fleshy 'horns' running along the back of its head and across the red ridge. The most surprising point however, was the person standing up from a saddle settled neatly in front of the monster's wings.

The person slid down the creature's neck and onto the ground with a thump. He gave it a pat on the neck, before sitting down on a nearby log. He pulled up a screen seemingly from his arm, causing Dale's to widen ever more, and began to sort through something.

From his vantage point he couldn't see what the man looked like, besides the fact he had brown hair and a bushy beared that reached down to his chest. He was wearing a jacket that looked to be made of leather and loose long pants that flapped around even in the slight breeze.

Hesitantly Dale took out his camera and pointed it towards the two beings. His finger hovered over the picture button, scared. He just needed one photo. With a click he snapped a photo of the scene before him. The click even seemed loud from the tree.

The creature's head cocked to the side, as if listening. It turned its head slowly, scanning the ground. Dale gulped and began to try and hurry down the tree as quickly as he could. The movement brought the creature's attention. Dale stopped as the creature's yellow, scalene eyes came into contact with his own. Both seemed to freeze. Dale in fear and the creature in shock. The creature's rider glanced at the creature, before he to turned to the tree that Dale was situated in.

That couple of seconds felt like hours for the young photographer. His heart hammered at his chest, begging for release, and his hands clutched harder at the branch he was hanging onto seemingly of its own accord. Then the creature moved.

Dale's frozen limbs moved with the monster's. He scrambled down the tree as fast as he could, not bothering with safety. On the last branch his foot slipped from its perch and the boy fell, landing on his stomach on the ground. He gasped as the air was knocked from his lungs, but was quickly on his feet again.

He sprinted down the overgrown path faster then he had ever run in his life. A whooshing sound behind him told him that the creature had once again taken to the air. How a bulk like that could lift itself he had no idea.

Somehow Dale's foot found its way into one of the many rabbit holes that lined the path and he fell flat on his face once again. Scrambling to his feet he began to run again. The creature came from the air with a roar, crashing through the canopy of trees lining the river and landing in front of the fearful kid with a large crack!

Dale pulled himself to a stop once more, only ten metres away from the creature.

'Quit running kid,' a deep booming voice sounded in his head, 'You won't escape me.'

Dale screamed and ran, flailing, in the other direction. The creature growled with annoyance, lifting its bulk into the air once more. Dale glanced furtively back, wondering if he could get under the creature's claws and escape home. The thought quickly left his head however. He didn't want to bring this thing back to the house. He would have to loose it somehow.

Now that his thoughts had taken a turn he began to relax slightly. He just needed to think. Think! His gaze turned towards river, and an idea came to his head. As soon as the opportunity came he jumped into the shallow water and huddled under one of the many logs that had fallen over the water. He made himself as small as possible, jamming himself between the ground and the log.

His heart was still hammering, but his mind was clear. He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down, and listened. The whooshing sound of the creatures wings passed over him slowly. He gulped and closed his eyes.

'Please don't find me. Please don't find me,' was the only though that flashed through his mind.

The whooshing sound faded into the distance, and Dale let out a breath. He carefully crawled out of his hiding place, gazing up at the sky warily. He climbed back onto the path and began walking again, keeping his eyes glued on the sky. His hand clutched the silver cross that dangled in his shirt over his heart. It comforted him somewhat.

As the minutes ticked by he began to move slightly easier and faster, becoming more certain that he had lost the beast. As he spotted his house through the trees a relieved smile crossed his face. Home! He began to run, stumbling down the path.

His heart nearly stopped when a earthquaking roar shattered the air around him. He stumbled and fell again, turning his eyes to the sky, and screamed. The creature descended towards him, beating its heavy wings strongly, keeping it from crashing into the ground.

Dale grappled around and picked up a stick. The creature landed right in front of him, glaring down at him with an angry flare in its eye. Dale stabbed that stick at the monster, catching it in the nose. It growled and shook its head. Dale crawled out from underneath it and got up, running towards the house again.

There was a clacking sound behind him. His foot caught in another rabbit hole causing him to fall once again, spraining his ankle. A fall that saved his life. Fire roared over him, burning his back and causing his eyes to sting at the heat. The fire quickly caught among the ferns in front of him.

Sobbing Dale forced himself to his feet once more. He jumped painfully into the water, crying out as the cold water splashed onto his burnt back. He looked back over his shoulder towards the creature, tears in his eyes. It glared back at him with little or no remorse, before leaping into the groove of the river.

Dale gripped the stick he had tightly in his hands, holding it out in front of him like a sword, for what good it would do. He raised his arms with a cry and brought it down on the monster's nose. The stick snapped in half and the creature snorted, shaking its head.

It didn't occur to him until then that the beast only had two legs. For front limbs it had two weirdly sized arms that it used to lean on. They looked ridiculously small on the giant creature.

It roared at him and bumped him with its head, causing him to fall backwards into the water. His back stung at the contact and he whimpered slightly. The water was an icy cold, causing the burns to sting like a thousand pine needles had been stabbed into his back. Embarrassing tears trickled down his face, making a river of their own. He didn't want to die like this.

Holding up his hand to the creature he begged, "Please. Please. Don't eat me. I'll... I'll do anything."

It didn't occur to him that he was talking to a beast, but it seemed to understand. Tilting its head it studied the whimpering, pleading boy. His shirt was ripped and dirtied. His grip was loose against the snapped sorry excuse for a twig. It tilted its head, before suddenly launching forward.

The creature caught his shirt in its jaws. Dale screamed again as it launched itself into the air, flapping its wings hard to fight gravity. Dale beat his fist against it's nose, causing it nothing but slight annoyance. It snorted, sending a wave of decaying breath into Dale's face. He coughed, gagging.

The creature was high in the air now, Dale still struggling helplessly against the creature. He looked down at the broken stick that he had somehow managed to hang on to. The creature's eye followed his gaze and seemed to realise what he was thinking. It snorted with anger.

It was to late however, and Dale brought the stick up, stabbing it into the eye of the creature. It cried out, letting him go, and he fell. The air rushed past him with a vengeance. Dale wondered if it was trying to keep him in the air. The fall felt strange. The pain in his back was making him feel dizzy. The world was spinning. The stick wasn't in his hand any more. The sun was shining. Was it always that bright?

Then he hit the ground. It didn't hurt surprisingly, but he thought he heard a crack, and his right shoulder felt strange. He let loose a small laugh at the feeling. It tickled him. Bright colours were flashing through his vision and he briefly wondered what would happen once he was in heaven. He decided the first question he would ask would be about that creature.

The ground rumbled and a voice yelled. He groaned. All he wanted was quite. To enjoy the strange colours and the tickling feeling in his shoulder. His back didn't even hurt anymore, much to his relief. Something touched him, and the ground started moving. No... wait. He was moving.

The ground turned to a swirl of brown and red and became much harder. He groaned. The ground was soft, but something dug into his funny feeling shoulder. It didn't feel so ticklish any more.

As the pain began to make its way into Dale's consciousness he realised that he wouldn't die today. The thought made him glad, but also hurt him. Why didn't he die? The cold feeling of the cross suddenly became relevant on his breast. Maybe it wasn't his day today? With that thought his vision flickered to black, like a light had been turned off, and he fell to sleep.