Shattered Stars

The Beginning

Acknowledge, an uncertain voice echoed from the void.

What? I responded.

Connor, you must listen very carefully, the voice said with an urgent tone. Your life will depend on how well you carry out the following instructions. This is not a threat, I am helping you escape. There is not—

Escape from what? How do you know my name?

Do not interrupt. There is not much time left to inform you before you awake. At the end of the corridor, you must jump as hard and as fast as you can. I am confident you will survive if you are successful.

Okay...

Do not hesitate. Good luck.

I gasped awake in a room small enough to trigger a feeling of claustrophobia. I scrambled to get to my feet but fell back to the floor. My body felt incredibly distorted and awkward. A blurry white mass occupied the bottom corners of my vision, and it didn't disappear when I blinked. A clawed hand covered in white scales reached up to touch my muzzle. My hand.

I jerked my head back. What the hell?

My legs wobbled as I rose slowly to my feet again. It wasn't as though I was heavy. In fact, I was light as a feather, but only the balls of my feet touched the floor.

I looked down. My body was entirely covered in white scales. I now had a long, flexible tail extending from the bottom of my torso. I looked behind me, my neck twisting around far more than I should've been able to. In place of my shoulder blades sat two leathery wings. A silver mane ran from the top of my head down my back to the tip of my tail.

I'm a dragon? I mused with a smirk. Perhaps this was a dream? My latest memory flashed behind my eyes. Someone had broken into my house and tranquilized my family. This was no dream.

My head bumped the ceiling as I attempted to stand at full height. My long, animal-like ears twitched. A hiss of air rushed behind me. I whirled around and found a long corridor stretching out from the room. It ended at a blue wall.

I took a few tentative steps forward, paying close attention to my balance, and poked my head out of the room. The adjacent hallway was empty. I started on my way toward the blue wall, my claws clicking on the floor as I walked. The place was eerily empty, like a futuristic ghost town. There were no signs of aliens yet, but I figured that would change soon, one way or another.

As I neared the end of the hall, the blue wall became more defined. White, wispy streaks decorated the blue texture. It was almost as if...

I sped up my pace. That was no wall, but a window displaying a low orbit view of a planet. I skidded to a stop when I reached the window. It was about fifty feet wide, allowing a fantastic view of the Pacific Ocean. The shadow of night had just fallen upon the west coast of the United States, giving life to the network of city lights.

A low-pitch humming began to emanate from somewhere in the massive ship. As it got louder and higher-pitched, the floor began to vibrate.

I paced around in the hallway, dread rising into my chest. The voice had wanted me to escape, but could I really trust it? I had to either jump, or experience what these aliens had in store for me. For all I knew, this ship was about to explode.

I must be insane. I took my deepest breath, clamped my mouth shut, and put both hands over my nostrils to prevent air from escaping in space. Three, two, one...

I jumped to the wall that I planned to launch from, lining up my body parallel to the floor and letting my momentum put me into a horizontal crouch.