The Beautiful Legend of Sicily

"I heard you're different from everyone else?"

Tom did not know how many days had passed since he had left the Temple of Apollo. At first, he could still stand on the Dragon's back and judge day and night by observing that round ring of blue sky in the distance, but as he continued south, crossed the mountains, and lost his reference points, all that remained overhead was a gloomy sky shrouded in dark clouds, unable even to breed thunder and lightning. The pocket watch Nelson had left him was hidden against his chest, and he had completely lost his grasp of time.

Sitting on the heaving Dragon's back with his eyes closed to rest, he fended off the wizard beside him's attacks who knew how many times. Gradually, the wizard's attacks grew less frequent, and Tom did not know whether his own perception of time had gone wrong, or whether the man had already accepted that he could not harm him.

Threats and warnings accompanied the journey, but Tom, who had long since seen through the fact that the wizard had a mission to fulfill, had nothing to fear. Finally, when the Dragon swept over a beach, flew out above the sea, and charged toward a small island beyond the ocean, its mountains towering into the clouds, the wizard gave up attacking Tom entirely. Tom realized that the distant island seemed to be the end of this journey.

He could find no trace of this small island in his memory. Judging by its location, it seemed to be Sicily, south of the peninsula, but unlike the sunny, beautiful place in his impressions, the island before him was so bizarre and ferocious. The mountains on either side of the island stabbed straight into the clouds, guarding the slightly raised