"You're going to spook it."<br/><br/>"No, I'm not."<br/><br/>"Yes. You are."<br/><br/>The night falling over Yellowstone National Park began to grow colder as the last rays of sunset vanished behind the mountains. Jeff Wolf sat on a fallen tree, shivering in his light jacket as he kept his eyes on the monitors for the night vision cameras. His friend, Erica Vaughn was spread out on her stomach in the dirt and rocks, covered in scrapes, as she held a camera just inches above the ground.  She had the lens trained on a cluster of fallen rocks where the crew had heard the mewing of a Pika, a little rodent related to rabbits.<br/><br/>She caught sight of a Pika just moments before and shuffled closer to get a better shot. The Pika, nibbling on grass on it's rock perch froze. So did Erica. Jeff didn't even hear her breathe. Silently, Erica raised the camera and prayed for the Pika to act naturally. It did, by rushing down a crevice in the rocks.<br/><br/>"Ah! No! Come back you!" Erica said. Jeff guffawed from his table.<br/><br/>"I told you," he said. Erica stuck her tongue out at him.<br/><br/>"It's getting dark anyway," she said. "Let's meet up with the others."<br/><br/>The crew's campsite consisted of two representatives of National Geographic, four interns of which Erica was one, and two work hands of which Jeff was one. A fire was already burning bright and warm when they arrived. Jeff took Erica's camera bag and put the equipment in the weatherproofed tent.<br/><br/>"Did you see any Pika?" Sarah, one of the other interns asked.<br/><br/>"Yeah, but Jeff's negative attitude scared it off," Erica replied as she picked up a plate and served herself some rice and beans.<br/><br/>"It had nothing to do with the high zoom camera lens creeping towards it," Jeff replied as he opened a bottle of water.<br/><br/>"Naturally," Erica replied.<br/><br/>Robert Weston, one of the representatives chuckled. "Now that everyone's here, I wanted to tell you all that we'll be moving down to the grasslands tomorrow. We'll be filming and photographing the bison herds," excited chatter drowned him out and he held up a hand lazily. Since she started her internship Erica hadn't seen Robert get angry once. The voices calmed.<br/><br/>"Now, I'm pretty sure it goes without saying that we have to exercise caution. Bison are big and their faster than they look. I don't want to be scraping any intern pancakes off the dirt of Yellowstone. We will be filming from a good distance away. You are not to wander far from the vehicles unless myself or Patty is with you."<br/><br/>"I promise it'll be more fun than Rob makes it sound," Patty winked.<br/><br/>Night had fully settled by the time they finished dinner, and the interns were sitting around, flipping through the images of the wildlife they'd taken since the start of the trip. Erica smiled, feeling at peace listening to the laughter, the crackling fire, the soft whistling wind, and the very distant howl of the Yellowstone wolves. After awhile the chatter died as people went off to their tents to sleep. The fire began to die.<br/><br/>"Hey," Jeff whispered, his voice deep and piercing. Erica titled her head in his direction. "Wanna go for a walk?"<br/><br/>"Sure," She replied. She grabbed a flashlight, a two-way and a flare gun in case they somehow got lost. Jeff took the flare gun and the two-way. "Oh wait!" She also grabbed her personal camera.<br/><br/>"Is that really necessary?" Jeff asked. Erica punched his arm.<br/><br/>"The Pika might come back," she said.<br/><br/>They stayed along the path they walked earlier to see the Pika. The flashlight provided a small halo of white light by which they saw the path, but the moon, in its fullness, provided them with more than enough light to see.<br/><br/>"Two more days," Erica said after awhile. "I can't believe it's been a whole month already."<br/><br/>"I can," Jeff replied. "You reek."<br/><br/>"You're an ass," Erica retorted, but it was half-hearted. They walked in silence a little longer. "Where are you going to go next?"<br/><br/>"I don't know," Jeff replied. He put his hands behind his head. His hair was down to keep his neck warm. "Think I might head south. I've always wanted to see South America."<br/><br/>"That would be fun," Erica replied. She smiled. "I still have two years left of school, so if South America gets boring-" She stopped before she offered him her couch. She considered Jeff a friend, but she wasn't sure he was "come sleep on my couch" friendly.<br/><br/>"I'll be sure to pass through and say 'Wassup'," Jeff said, erasing the awkwardness. Erica exhaled the breath she'd been holding. They laughed to fill up the silence.<br/><br/>The dead silence.<br/><br/>Jeff grabbed Erica's wrist.<br/><br/>"Woah! What-"<br/><br/>"Shh!" He hissed. "Listen."<br/><br/>They stood silent a moment then Erica's breath quickened with panic.<br/><br/>"No birds. No sheep. No<span style="font-style: italic">insects</span>," her voice shook with barely controlled fear. Jeff held firm on her wrist to prevent her from bolting and getting hurt.<br/><br/>Branches snapped and bushes rustled. Whatever moved sounded big. And it was close.<br/><br/>"A bear, probably," Jeff whispered. Erica whimpered. He could hear her sobbing and he practically knew what she was thinking:<span style="font-style: italic">"We didn't bring the bear spray."</span><br/><br/>Please don't be a Grizzly, he thought. If it's a Grizzly we're as good as dead.<br/><br/>Vegetation rustled again, this time on the other of them. There were two. Erica pushed up against Jeff, clinging to him in desperation. He could feel his shirt soaking with her tears.<br/><br/>"I'm going to try and scare it off," Jeff whispered. "When I shoot the flare gun, take off up the path as fast as you can. Make as much noise as possible. I'll be right behind you." He felt her nod into his ribs. "On the count of three...One..."<br/><br/>The rustling around them grew closer.<br/><br/>"Two..."<br/><br/>Jeff could see a silhouette in the moonlight; hulking and dark. He readied the flare gun.<br/><br/>"Three!"<br/><br/>He pushed Erica away from him and flaming light erupted from the gun. The flare wailed as it soared into the bush and a massive bat-like wing swatted it away like a fly.<br/><br/>They forgot to scream. They forgot to run. As the massive shadow, two times the size of a horse emerged from the bushes, all Erica and Jeff could do was stand side by side and feel oh so very small.<br/><br/>"I told you you were going to spook them," said a voice. It was soft yet animalistic, sounding almost like growls and purs as opposed to actual words. Behind them a green beast the actual size of a horse trotted forward.<br/><br/>" 'Spooking', as you put it, was not my intention," the big one, black as a moonless night, replied.<br/><br/>Dragons. Two Dragons stood before them.