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With his injury, Xavier was glued to his bed for the night. He could not move very much, even with his new cast, requiring his leg to be lifted at an angle at all times. The doctors predicted he would have been able to leave after a couple of days, once more tests were conducted. He thought of Eric, wondering how he was faring, as well as Julia, whom he had talked to the night before by phone. She was heading there as fast as she could, skipping work in order to visit him.

Doctors made a few routine checkups throughout the night, waking him up each time. Because of this, he was not able to get very much sleep, which would have been nice taking his prior day into account. At around ten in the morning, the only thing he could do was watch television, until a nurse entered the room.

"Mr. Gordon? You're wife is here."

Xavier stopped and watched her walk out of the room. He shut the television, setting the remote on the table beside him, as he watched his wife run into the room, studying his leg, and come up to him in order to embrace herself in her husband's arms. A few short moments later, she got back up and hit him alongside the head, eyes watering.

"Do you have any idea how worried I was when you left?! I thought you were going to get killed! Why did you have to do that?"

He grinned. "Hello to you too."

This prompted a smile from his wife, who embraced him once more, salty tears streaming down her face. When she regained her position, she wiped them away and sniffled. "Is he okay?"

"I'm not sure... Could you call a nurse in here?"

She nodded and went out the door of the room, requesting a nurse's assistance. Thinking it was somewhat important, she rushed to Xavier ready to face whatever he would need.

"Yes, Mr. Gordon?", she asked calmly.

"Is Eric doing fine?"

"I believe he was. He was discharged overnight, and taken away in handcuffs, I believe. Good riddance..." She paused for a moment as she looked out into the hallway, crossing her arms. "Did you need anything else?"

While Xavier did not appreciate her final remark, he shook it off and replied with a "no". The nurse walked out, leaving the couple alone once again. At the thought of Eric's incarceration, he lied back down, remorse once again filling his head.

Julia noticed this and tried to comfort him again. "He'll be fine, Xavier. You did what you could."

Xavier grinned. "I suppose."

...

With all of his new identity in his pocket, Eric ate a large lunch on the plane. He ordered the most meat available, trying to refill not only his stomach, but his methane reservoir as well, just in case. He had thought a lot about his future overnight, and he personally believed the life given to him was well worth taking. He planned to rent an apartment as soon as possible, grabbing a full time job as he enrolled for the next school year at a post-secondary institution. Generally speaking, Eric did not want to risk his life over a rumor, and knew he would have been better off living a normal life.

At around one o'clock in the afternoon, the plane began to descend after a long flight through the scenery of western and central Russia. Moscow did not lose very much of its population compared to other cities of its stature, dropping down 250,000 habitants over the period of the whole war. With stability continuing to be their main strength, Moscow surpassed São Paulo as world's largest city proper, going from 7th to 6th in 2024.

When the plane landed, Eric was surprised over the amount of area the Sheremetyevo International Airport covered. The flight attendant alerted him of their arrival, which led Eric to get up and step toward the exit of the plane, walking down the stairway to the gravel-based runway, where a man in a black suit accompanied him inside the airport. Eric gave his passport when requested, sighing when the man gave the "okay" to go. Left alone to fend for himself, he took a deep breath, smiled, and made his way out of the airport doors into his new country.

The area outside of the airport was packed with people and cabs, with over ten payphones along the walls, all requiring a wait in line for. Eric was not quite sure what he should have done next; rent a cab, find a temporary apartment for rent by phone, or roam around to get used to the city, just to name a few. He figured a home would probably have been one of the most important necessities to consider, so he took an English newspaper from a stand inside, and looked through the advertisement section, searching an apartment or small home to rent. When he found one, he went in line for the payphone, ready to dial the phone number.

While waiting in line, he noticed a few people in their alternate forms, roaming around as if nothing else mattered. This reminded Eric of the banishment of his dragon form, which he knew he would deeply miss for the remainder of his life. As the line moved along, he made out every TFR passing by, seeing over 15 in a matter of minutes, leading him to wonder whether TFRs actually made up 16%, which was the number officially recognized by the entire world.

When he reached the front of the line, he inserted an American dollar bill into the machine, which they accepted. With four credits available, Eric dialed the apartment's owner, while noticing more TFRs passing by. He was unsure whether he was going insane or not, but it was killing him. It took him a few seconds to notice he was on the line with the owner, who was repeatedly asking "Zdravstvujte?", or "Hello?" in Russian. Eric shook out of his daze and answered.

"Hello?"

"Zdravstvujte?"

"English?", Eric queried, wondering if he spoke the language.

"Of course.", he stated fluently, with a hint of his Russian accent.

"I saw your apartment in the newspaper, and I was just wondering how fast you would allow someone to move into your establishment in such short notice."

"Well, I have three rooms available at the moment, but I would only be able to officially accept you in after a few days and some paperwork. However, you can set up your things as soon as you want if you don't mind paying a small fee."

Eric continued to watch TFRs walk by, causing a three second delay in his answer. "Alright, that sounds, uhh, good. Do you mind if, if I come, right, uhh, right now?"

The man took a pause, trying to figure out what was wrong with his future resident. "Okay, well you could come by from six to seven tonight, and maybe we--"

Eric hung up, and almost cracked. He could not erase the thought of being confined to his human form for the rest of his life. He figured once he flew for the first time, he would never have been able to quit. Eric grabbed the phone book which laid on the metal stand and flipped through the English section, looking for anything related to tourism. Once he found one, he immediately picked up the phone, which had three more credits left, and dialed the number, which redirected him to an automated message. After a few moments, he was wired to a representative, who spoke first.

"Hello, Russian tourism center."

"Hello, where would Mount Gubit be located?"

"Mount Gubit is located a few kilometers east of Ryazan, which is south east from Moscow."

"Thank you, and what would be the best way to get there?"

The representative took a moment to think. "I believe a cab would be fine; however I personally would recommend MosCab for the low fares."

Eric was satisfied. "Thanks."

He hung up, searching once again through the phone book for MosCab. When he found it, he immediately dialed the number with his last two credits. An automated system took his call once again, asking for the preferred language and other things. Finally, he got a hold of a representative.

"MosCab, how can I help you?", he greeted, with a heavy Russian accent.

"Hello, would it be possible to send a cab to Sheremetyevo, please?"

"Is that for inside Moscow or elsewhere?"

"Elsewhere, please."

"Okay, I am dispatching someone right now. Thank you for choosing MosCab. Goodbye."

He hung up the phone, to the pleasure of the people waiting in line behind him. He knew he would never have been able to abandon his dragon form, knowing he would have suffered for the remainder of his life if he did. More TFRs walked by, further engraving the thoughts in his head. Fortunately, it only took the driver a few minutes to reach him, immediately beginning the drive to Mount Gubit.

Eric and the driver negotiated a fee of 75$ in order to drive him to the restricted mountain. The highways were traffic-filled in the first twenty kilometers; however it calmed as they drove further away from the capital of the vast country, toward Ryazan. Once they arrived, the driver exited into the city, where they transferred onto another route, heading to the east. A few minutes in, Eric could already see most of the mountain. It was large and wide, about 2000 feet high, with many summits. The top quarter was snow-covered, and clouds hovered closely over it. It was not until they had reached the boundaries set up by the Russian government when Eric noticed the massive amount of protection surrounding every entrance. Fences blocked off the whole area, guards were on constant alert, and each door required some sort of access card or key.

Around 150 feet from the nearest entrance, the driver was asked to stop. Eric paid him the required amount of money, before he drove off to leave him to fare for himself. He was not quite sure how he would have proceeded in attempting to get in, nor was he sure whether he should have used his dragon form or not. Things were very complicated. He started by walking around the area, around 20 meters away from the fence, in order to view the surrounding area. This took him around 15 minutes of walking, looking for some kind of flaw. He noticed the guards changed shifts every ten minute interval, presumably to have different scenery to look at in order to keep them entertained. This was one of the things Eric figured would work to his advantage. Another was that it was approaching night time, with their fatigue slowly impairing their work effort.

Eric noticed a shack near the fence on the other side, probably to store equipment of some sort - he figured the back of it would have been his best hiding place until the guards' next shift ended. Slowly shifting his dragon wings, he ran quietly toward the fence, jumping and flapping his wings, in order to get sufficient air to leap over the fence without touching it. This worked quite well, as he landed, quickly shifting the extra appendages back to avoid detection. He looked around the sides, watching for any guard movement or other things which could have hindered his movements. Suddenly, things became much too dangerous for him when multiple guards approached the shed, heading inside one by one in order to drop off and pick up things.

Once the crowd left, Eric let out a silent sigh of relief. Curious whether he would have been standing behind a shack for much longer, he went over to the left side of the wooden wall in order to look toward the area. Guards were slowly making their way to their posts once again, and he knew this would be one of his only chances. But before he even managed to move toward a safe point north of his position, he felt a large strike at the back of his head, which knocked him out cold, falling to the ground.

...

Eric woke up very slowly, grabbing his head, trying to shake off the state of confusion he was in. Upon remembering what had happened, he wondered why he was not in chains, in handcuffs, or in both. Instead, he lay on a sofa, in an office, with a man in a suit behind a desk, watching him wake up. Eric awkwardly got up, glancing around the room, trying to figure out where he was. There was a large window behind the man; however, blinds were obstructing his view. The man spoke first, nudging his head to designate whom he was talking to.

"Hello Eric", he said with a grin.

Eric's eyes flinched. "Who are you, and how do you know my name?"

The man's smile enlarged as he chuckled. "How do I not know your name? You're the dragon, the one who shocked all of North America when you revealed your dragon form to the world, the one who caused panic across the world. Sit down."

Eric did as he was told. "So, I suppose this is about you catching me sneaking into your restricted base?"

"Partially. But don't worry, I'm not mad. Far from it."

Eric did not immediately understand the basis of his comment, so he allowed the man to continue. "You see Eric, when we found you wandering the restricted area of Mount Gubit," He formed a firm "O" with his thumb and index fingers "we were this_close to executing you on the spot, thinking you were some human or wandering TFR trying to penetrate our defenses for fun, like a juvenile delinquent. Luckily someone noticed who and what you actually were; _one of us."

Eric froze, eyes glued to the man, trying to figure out what he had said: "one of us". "Exc-excuse me?"

The man laughed and raised to his feet, walking toward Eric, all while shifting his hand in one with scales. He held it out to him, waiting for a handshake, which he gave, but was still dazed and tried to put the pieces together. The man spoke before Eric had the chance. "The name's Fernando, but you can just call me 'Chief'; that's what everyone here likes to call me."

Eric was still flabbergasted; a Portuguese dragon, in Russia. "Huh?", Eric questioned, demonstrating the amount of confusion bestowed upon him. "I... don't understand."

"Well then", Chief worded. "Come and take a look for yourself."

Without hesitation, Eric got up and followed Chief to the window of the room, searching for answers. There, the middle aged man flipped the switch controlling the automatic blinds, which revealed what was outside - a large, 250 square kilometer area, covered by grass and freshly built houses. There were hundreds of dragons flying around in the air, soaring over the place, free. There were some in their human forms, walking casually on artificially fabricated roads. At the far north end, there was a large waterfall which plummeted to the ground, crashing into a large river which split into two sections. It curved into a circle and rested at a pond in front of the building Eric was in. There seemed to be four sections; one on the far left, one in a middle island, and another at the far right. Each was separated from each other and from the one Eric was located on. There was everything he could find in an actual city; a park, a school, a market, commercial offices, even a town square. The edges of the town were made of solid rock from the mountain, which was stabilized by metal supports. Finally, huge lights beamed from the ceiling, which duplicated the effect of the sun. Eric almost fell at the sight of the aforementioned, which was almost too much for him to handle. It was everything he had ever dreamed of - and more.

He turned toward Chief, who smiled, and showed a face of surprise. "Oh! That's right, I forgot. 'Welcome to The Plateau', Eric."

He turned back around to face the so-called "Plateau", and sighed. "I'm finally home."