Shards: Intro- Part 1 (old)

Chapter Three: The Encounter

"Okay then."

Without another word, I lied down on the mattress, pulled the covers over, and fell right asleep.

..........

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"Gemini, GEMINI! Help me! I can't breathe!"

"Wha-Mum? Why? Where are we? Mum are you okay?"

There was nobody around. I could see a debris ridden street in front of me, and an alleyway behind me.
"MUM?" I yelled again.

"I'm here!" Came a muffled voice. There was a hand reaching out of one of the heaps of debris.
"Oh god! Mum!"

I ran over to the pile and tried to individually move the pieces of wood, brick, and metal by hand. The hand grabbed me and wouldn't stop fidgeting. "Mum, stop! You'll make it worse! Please stop!" I pleaded with a sore throat. Suddenly there was smoke everywhere. I never heard the voice anymore. I kept reaching for debris but the hand suddenly lightened its grip on my wrist, then went limp.

"Mum? MUM!! Don't do *cough* this!
Pl-plea-*cough*."
I lost my grip trying to shoo away the smoke. It burned my eyes and prevented my breathing. "No!"
I was blasted out of the inferno by an explosion. My body was blasted 20 feet away from the debris pile. When I looked up, the smoke parted to reveal a dead body, one that didn't belong to my mum, but my father.

"Kid, run!" A voice sounded behind me.  I was immensely confused and unsure where to go or what to do, so I ignored the voice. At the same time, a roaring blue beam passed over my head, and blasted a brick wall next to another alley. It came adjacent from my position on the street. Before I could react, a red beam from that direction hit me square in the chest, and everything went black.

"Hmm, so another comes."

I couldn't move anything, see anything, or do anything. I felt non-existential. It took time for me to realize I had just heard a voice. It was garbled, hard, and interested. In me.

"Is anyone there?" I asked nervously.
A small giggle resonated from all directions. It wasn't a friendly giggle at all.

"You are the second person I have conversed with in matter of what feels like hours. But you don't have a Shard, why is that?" The voice asked me.

I stayed silent.
"If this wasn't your astral form young man, I would be able to hear you shaking. Not out of utter fear, but confusion, and....loss."

"How do you know?" I seethed menacingly.

"You have a very loud mind young one. It reeks of knowledge, and reveals a simple truth: that you are very special."
I tried to cover my ears, but I couldn't touch anything.
"SHUT UP! You must be behind my dreams! Why do you cause me so much confusion and anger?" I wailed accusingly at the voice.

"You think me responsible?" The voice said patronizingly. "I have no reason to torment you, it appears we are...both very special."

"How do you know what my problems are?" I hissed.

Suddenly, there was fire all around me, a menacing rumble pierced my ears.
A large silhouette appeared above and around me. It had a dark red glow from the embers on the edges. A thick, horned tail surrounded me on all sides like the embers. The creature had a long neck. It's was sitting on its haunches, facing off to the side. It pointed a slit-shaped pupil at me from a lizard-shaped face.

If I had to guess, I'd say this thing was at least over 50 feet tall just sitting down. It had behemoth wings too: both unbelievably large, and spiked. They made a whooshing sound as they flapped above the creatures back. It wasn't a Wyvern. They had two legs and wings for arms. Now this....this thing had four legs. A Dragon.

It turned its head in my direction and and studied me. I realized I was suddenly in a physical form again.

"Who are you?" I whimpered.

"Your puny problems are irrelevant to me. I think you know very well who I am, young magus. Is this some ploy of Zeus, or of Kronos? Surely the Romans can't use the Nether realm to speak across dimensions."

"I don't understand." I backed away, trembling.

In a lightning fast movement, the Dragon's claw grabbed me tightly and bought me up to its enraged face.

"TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED YOU SNIVELING IMPOSTER!" He roared at me. I gasped for air as the claw tightened its grip around me. The talons dug into my skin like a knife in butter. One of my arms was caught in the clutch. I began slamming a fist on the pointer claw out of panic.

The Dragon snarled, and began opening his maw. Was he going to burn me to a crisp or consume me? I locked eyes with the monster. Its pupils were almost invisible, eyes burning with anger. The gaze gradually softened, reconsideration visible in the crimson irises. I could describe so many other things about the Dragon's appearance. But in the heat of the moment, all I could think about were those eyes.

The grip around my waist softened. With a growl, the Dragon threw me across the jagged hot surface. It wasn't a lethal or seriously damaging impact, but it wasn't gentle either.

"You're the second person I have come across in the nether." The voice repeated. "You must be a clairvoyant."
Still gasping, I couldn't bring myself to look up. When I did, I didn't see the Dragon. Instead, I saw a caped man. He had long jet black hair, a short beard, dark skin, crimson eyes, and an expression that resembled a hunter admiring its prey. He wore a champagne tunic and a black robe.

The most prominent feature of the man were the glowing red eyes and a similar glow on his throat.

As he walked toward me calmly, he spoke in the same voice of the Dragon.

"It seems to me that you aren't a liar, but I also wish for my arrival back to Atlantis to occur the way I see fit. In fact, forget everything you saw here. It's only a bad dream."

Something in those menacing eyes flashed as bright as the sun. I felt a split second of scalding heat before I lost consciousness........and felt nothing more.

AUTHOR'S UPDATE: Greetings fellow readers! (Yes I read my own stuff).

JUNE 10th: This chapter was shorter than usual, but extremely important!

I'm eager to hear your questions, thoughts, and theories about the story up to this point right here!

What do you think about the geography of Atlantis so far? Any questions about it?

Why is Gemini suddenly dreaming about warfare again? Did you read in between the lines to find out?

Who is that Dragon, and what was he talking about?