Convergent Realms

IX

The encounter with the man seemed like a dream to Sandra. For all she knew, it could've been. The man left soon after, as they had trouble keeping up a good conversation. Sandra sat on the ledge for a while, still thinking the thoughts of life, but eventually, the sky became orange, and the sun began to fall, so she decided to head back home.

The next day, when she woke up, no one was in the house. This was only odd because usually Oliver or her mom would be fumbling around the pantry or sleeping. She had no idea what tme it was, but it felt like she'd been asleep for too long, almost like she was missing out on something. She dressed quickly before stepping outside.

Her breath was misty with the chill of the morning. As soon as she looked around at the usually bustling town, she realized what was different. Everyone was crowded in at the center of the city, presumably awaiting some sort of news. Sandra ran to find her family, and it was not long before she was slipping through the crowd searching.

She was nimble (and energetic) enough that she could easily flow through groups of people with ease without them even feeling a thing. All she saw were strangers' red faces, all staring at one man. She looked over to him, and realize he was addressing the whole crowd. She was so busy trying to find her parents that she neglected to see what this was all about. She studied the man for a moment, almost cautiously, as if he bore bad news.

He wore a dark suit, and coupled with a large, sleek hat, he looked like a wealthy lord. His skin wasn't very pale, but not red with the chill of the morning either. He spoke with a small smile, which made him seem more inviting to the crowd. Sandra wasn't able to tell what color his eyes were as they glinted too much, but she thought she could spot a bronze-ish color. As he gave his news, he spoke with a low undertone, but it seemed joyful.

"A new member of the Council has been chosen," he declared first.

"Of course, as always, they wont be revealed. But what I can tell you is that we have discussed a grand celebration with the other kingdoms, and the humans have agreed to host it. So, without further ado, I will give you a sneak-peek of what we are calling The Red Festival!"

When he had finished talking, he slipped into the crowd. Opposite to where he'd exited sight, the crowd parted to reveal three men making their way to the center. When they did, they seemed to be arranging themselves for some sort of show. Then, the magic began. Real magic, and powerful bursts of it too.

The first one to cast a spell was the man on the left. He whipped his hands extravagantly to show what he was doing, and when he was finished, flames seemed to sprout from his hands. The crowd watched as the flames grew larger and shaped themselves as a mystical dragon. When the dragon was nearly the size of the three men combined, and the man on the left was still holding it with one hand, he flicked his wrist, and the entire crowd watched as the dragon leaped into the sky, and sailed away, inhaling air and exhaling pure fire.

Sandra got it now. She was afraid the dragon would do some real damage, but these people must be illusionist mages. Nothing they could do would hurt anyone around them, at least not physically. Now she watched playfully, knowing everyone was safe.

A round of applause and cheers followed the stunt, then once the crowd calmed down, the man on the right began to cast his spell. He didn't whip his hands around, but instead cut them through parts of the air, like breaking the chains of solidarity to let magic enter the world. It was extremely clear when he was done as they had all been teleported to a battlefield. It was a grim place, with an orange sun filling the sky, and the ground being made completely of sand. Then, Sandra saw them. Leagues upon leagues of dead bodies. But they were standing, and living and breathing too. Right as Sandra realized what was about to happen, the undead quickly and efficiently surrounded the crowd. Children screamed, as well as many adults, and most of the crowd cowered in fear.

But not Sandra, because she saw something else. The man on the right began to glow, and he levited several inches off of the ground. He tilted his head to the sky, opened his mouth, and out came dozens upon dozens of spirits, all slipping out into the atmosphere, then back on the ground, sprinkled in between the people in the crowd. They all wore heavy armor, carried weapons made completely of bone, and prepared to fight. Then they did. The undead on the outside rushed into the crowd, and the spirits of the inside attacked them. None of them came close to physically touching someone from the crowd, and all in all, the fight was over in less than ten minutes.

Then it was back to the same old scenery, and one by one, everyone in the crowd began to look around again. Then someone clapped. And another person cheered. Within ten seconds, the entire crowd was going insane for the man, and he welcomed it with a small smile. Sandra anonymously returned the smile, having not cowered at all during the event.

The man in the middle stared at the floor for a moment before looking up at the crowd. He winked to Sandra herself before taking the hands of the people on his left and right sides. Together they chanted, which Sandra supposed was part of the act, but then them, and everything around the center of town was shrouded in darkness.

Sanrda couldn't even think for a moment, but then the curtain of darkness came down, and the men used magic to give her a purpose. Suddenly she was on a grassy knoll, standing with dozens of other soldiers, all ready and rearing to attack. Abover her stood a dragon. Not an illusion, not a trick, a real, living, breathing dragon. She knew it had to die. So did all of her companions.

They rushed the dragon, and the beast swept many of them away with a flap of it's wing. It opened it's mouth and burned four or five people to a crisp instantly. Sandra just so happened to be in sight of it's tail, and she leaped at it, latching onto the beast itself. She could feel her power. She was strong, with a sword in one hand, and covered in metal plates of armor. She climbed up the tail until she was on top of the beast, which took a large amount of time, considering how big the thing was, and cut at it's back. She yelled and screamed in horror as she got a perfect view of the dragon decimating the rest of the knights and toasting people to ashes.

All she could do was bury her sword as far in as it would go into the dragon's back, take it out, and repeat. The beast didn't even bleed. The only reason that Sandra was still holding on to the beasts back was that whenever it swerved she could stab it for steadiness. After Sandra stabbed it upwards of sixty times, the dragon didn't even flinch. That's when she knew she had to go for the throat, somewhat literally. By now, everyone else in the army was dead, and the dragon seemed to be searching for it's last victim. Sandra crawled her way to the head of the dragon, and buried her sword in it.

The dragon felt as if a toothpick had fell on his head the wrong way, but that was enough to alert it of her location. It attempted to fling her off gently, then, when she proved to be too smart for that, it jerked it's head one way, then the other, and Sandra went flying, along with her sword. The dragon methodically turned to see Sandra's body. Her sword's hilt was buried deep in the ground, and Sandra had fell on the blade while landing. It smirked, tilted it's head upwards, and covered the world in fire.