When Destiny Burns, Ep. 1: A Halo and Inheritance Cycle Crossover

Chapter 3. 3 Patience

Find UNSC, dump dragon, overthrow pitiful empire. Those three things were on his list and he would do anything to reach his goals.

The soldier placed the dragon right back on his shoulder and resumed running, slipping into a lapse of action as his legs methodically thundered over the terrain. Despite having been moving nonstop since the touchdown near Uru'baen, roughly ten hours ago, he didn't feel remotely worn out. But while he ran across the dark, bumpy landscape, he noticed that the dragon gradually ceased activity, until it was silent altogether.

Even the irritating presence near his mind faded away after an hour of nonstop running. After he had crossed the remaining thirty kilometers between the city and the forest in little more than sixty-five minutes, he finally came to a halt at the edge of the forest.

He scanned the surrounding area with his assault rifle and then lowered it, slowly moving deeper into its dark bowels. The nagging mind of the dragon suddenly came crashing into his own mind with the force of a common fly and he ignored its pleads and attempts at communication. He knew that it was hungry, but it could sleep later.

After all, the dragon had hatched in the middle of the night. By that reasoning, it had only been awake for three hours.

The Spartan trotted a good hundred meters into the dark forest before he oriented towards the south again. Eventually, he spotted a dark shape moving through the wet leaves and he crouched down, observing the moving animal. His eyes had been augmented to such a degree that he could see almost perfectly in the dark. He spotted a green snake slithering away and slowly pulled out his black Titanium combat knife, poising it to throw.

The dragon cocked its heads sideways and the super-soldier flung his knife at the snake, spearing its head and pinning it to the ground.

The reptile was dead before it knew what had happened.

He reached out and retrieved his knife, sliding it back into its holster after wiping off the blood that had stained the blade. "Eat up," he told the dragon and then started eyeing his environment, searching for a tree large enough to support his weight. While he could easily last another three days and nights without sleep, he also knew that it was imperative to sleep when he could. If he forced himself to march through the night in order to reach the next town, he might run into a major fight.

Yes...it would be smart to take the moment and rest while he could. Traveling was something he could do virtually all the time in this world, while sleep would be a very rare occurrence.

It didn't take the Spartan very long to spot a tree of considerable height, holding branches thick enough to support him. While climbing the tree to see if it could really hold him and his weight, he kept a close eye on the telepathic dragon. It was very rare for such a being to have been evolved naturally...there was no such thing as telepathic. The only beings he knew of that were capable of speaking with their minds were...not here.

Not here and not anywhere.

The black reptile was an enigma he truly hoped had nothing to do with the incredible alien activity that the UNSC had been encountering lately. The Halos, the Ark and the Forerunners. Everything in the galaxy seemed to have been caused by the once-great civilization of the ancient aliens. But this world was ruled by humans, not by aliens. There had to be a simple explanation for all of this; a wicked rebel leader augmenting several civilians with some new drug. That had to be it. The dragon was simply a rare, native animal that had evolved to levels on-par with humans. It was intelligent and telepathic, but nothing else.

And as he watched it hungrily devour the snake that was easily as long as its own body, he felt a strange longing. A longing to be back in the world he knew...to be back in the fight, shooting aliens and Insurrectionists. He didn't belong in the world of civilians and he knew it.