Shards: Intro- Part 1 (old)

Chapter Nine: Friendship Is Weakness

"There, young one. Your task is already half done. Now, all you have to do is reach out and grab my claw, and I will tell you everything."

I saw something similar to a human hand in front of me, but scaled, clawed, and faintly Crimson, not to mention looking small for its owner. I reached a warped, shadowy appendage of my own out to make contact. It was supposedly my left hand. On it, my Shard glowed a purplish red, and was pulsing faster the closer I got to the outstretched claw. The Crimson glow on the invisible forehead did the same. Whatever nanosecond marked our moment of contact, it all went away.

Everything up to this point had been going at the speed of light. I was back on the mountaintop, finding myself consciously aware everything that happened over the past several hours. What I did over the past several hours. Not what that thing controlling me did, what I let it do.

It felt like I swallowed a stone. I had attacked the high proctor and several professors back in Hyperborea, I put a claw in the belly of the man who changed my entire life for the better when he could've just let me walk away without a Shard. Worst of all, I did it for a monster and his empty promises, all the while—letting myself do it, and sometimes without question. What have I done?

A massive explosion took place in front of me; at the center of the crater. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw what looked like lightning bolts at the source of the disruption. I blocked the debris with my arm, nearly getting knocked over by the shock wave from the blast. After several seconds, the sounds of settling dirt stopped, and I looked down into the crater. There was no one there.

Paige.

I jumped in surprise. That was my Shard's voice!

You must leave now. I Can't-The Morro-.

The Shard on my finger flickered in and out like a light bulb, and the voice went with it. I began sobbing quietly. "No pl....ease, help me. Tell me what to do *gasp* Please." As I pleaded, the light went dark. I tried Morphing into Roc form, but it wasn't working. There was nothing to do but pace back and forth around the crater in a mental fit of all kinds. Then something caught my eye: Humans across the crater from me, with parked vehicles not far away.

Outsider Humans.

"Run!" I shouted to them. "Leave! It's not safe for you here!" I waved my arms as if shooing them away. They had mixed reactions. Some of them looked at me in confusion, some went off the mountain straightaway (probably because of the explosion), and one outsider that looked like some sort of official approached me in a quickened pace. He wore a red coat, which was inflated by layers underneath. It reminded me of how cold it was up here. I only got goosebumps and clutched myself after I realized the temperature. I had to be reminded in order to feel cold; considering my mental priorities were a bit occupied at the moment.

I backed away from the man a little bit, never thinking in my life that I would be interacting with an Outsider. I doubt that he knew I was from Atlantis, or that I had anything to do with the small eruption, I've never heard of any Mystic Worlder ever being in the outside world at all in recent times.

The official yelled at me in a strange language, his tone of voice indicated that he was giving me instructions. As he approached, he began yelling louder as if I was in the middle of breaking some rule. I just gave him a confused look and kept backing away. He shook his head multiple times and waved a hand towards the people. Was he motioning for me to run away? That it wasn't safe? I don't know!