The Beginning

Chapter 12

When Riley wakes up, she's in a village similar to the one she was at last time. Carlos is beside her, looking around him. "Nice place they got here," he says.
Sam goes to him from the bushes. "It's very pretty," she agrees, looking at the plants.
Riley sees someone walk by her and touches their arm, only for her hand to pass through the arm. She yelps, leaping back.
"Oh, yeah," Jhaufyther says, amusement in his eyes. "You will walk AMONG them, but they can't see or hear you. That's what she meant by "'being put in their perspective.'"
"Thank you, Jhaufyther," Riley says, rolling her eyes.
He disappears in a haze of smoke. Riley walks up to a fire burning in the middle of what appears to be a garden.
The house is made of stone, and when Riley rubs her hand on it, the paint comes off onto her hand. "This isn't paint. It's some sort of powder," Carlos says, rubbing his hand on the wall.
Sam comes up behind him. "These ancient houses are really cool," she says.
A shrill alarm starts going off. Riley winces. "Does it have to be loud?"
Riley runs to the street and sees a gray-blue shape in the distance. The only thing that she can see is two glowing eyes filled with lightning, glaring at her, lightning flashing in them.
Carlos's eyes widen. "Is that-?"
"That's Jhaufyther," Sam says, her face pale.
Riley can hear a distant roar coming from the stormy shape. She sees a serpentine shape from behind the storm whip up and smash down into the sea, creating gigantic water spouts that are spinning around, getting closer and closer to the land. The skies become dark with gray clouds that hang over the village, bringing snow, sleet, hail, ash, and rain down all at once. Riley yelps when a ball of hail comes crashing down to the ground, inches away from her head. Sam comes over and grabs it. "This thing could have killed you!" she exclaims, bringing it over to Riley. Riley can see that they are the size of basketballs, and she reflects on how lucky she was to not get hit by one of them.
Sadly, not all of the villagers were lucky enough to survive the hail. Many villagers fall victim to the hail, their skulls making a hollow cracking sound as the hail hits their head. As the weather gets worse and worse, the ground starts to shake. It literally ripples like waves at the ocean as something underneath it begins to move. Cracks start appearing, and one appears under Sam's foot, causing her to fall down. She yelps and hangs on to the ledge, her fingers slowly slipping. Riley runs over and pulls Sam, her strength ebbing away as Sam slips more and more into the abyss. Just when she thinks she can't take it anymore, Carlos comes over and pulls Sam out of the hole. Sam rolls over and pants, her eyes wide. She sits up and looks at Riley and Carlos. "Thank you! I thought I was dead!" she says, standing up and hugging them both.
Riley smiles at her. "No problem. It's not your time to die yet."
Carlos nods. "We weren't gonna let you fall in. I just hope that we can't actually die in this vision."
The cracks begin to glow as lava starts rising up from the depths, and a brown wall of fur rises up from an enormous sinkhole. Its eyes are an intense forest green, and it's covered in plants, rocks, and miniature mountains. It roars something at the storm, slamming a giant tail down into the earth. Riley watches in horror as a dirt wave rolls over the ground, meeting with a tidal wave and spiraling into an earth-water tornado that starts demolishing everything in its path. At the same time, the cracks grew and grew until they formed another sinkhole near the first one. Lava erupts from the cracks, forming a glowing orange wall around the destroyed village. It's so loud that Riley has to shout for her friends to hear her.
"WHAT'S HAPPENING?" she yells, crawling toward Sam as the winds get stronger.
"I don't know!" Carlos shouts, grabbing on to her arm. "But there's something rising out of that other sinkhole."
Riley squints at the sinkhole. Something dark rises out of the sinkhole and grabs the rim, pulling itself up. It has dark gray fur, which is covered in volcanic ash, volcanoes, and rivulets of lava. Its eyes are glowing orange lava, and the pupils are magma that Riley can see flowing top to bottom.
It roars, and Catwings start swarming from everywhere, swooping down into the village and capturing any person that somehow managed to live.
Riley backs away and starts running, but a hole opens up below her, swallowing her into the Void. As darkness envelops Riley, she sees people falling to their deaths around, and she blacks out.
When she woke up, she sat on a pillow made out of moss. Vines crept around her legs and arms, and a curious yellow-and-blue beetle scuttled on her nose, its antennae tickling her cheek. She smacked it off and sat up, looking around her. There were crystals of all colors that were growing on the ceiling, and there were roots creeping in the dirt, multiplying like lightning. Riley got up and walked toward the center, where there was a balcony made out of dirt. Below her, creatures that became extinct roamed on the ground. She could see wooly mammoths grazing, and she could see dodos stumbling around. In the middle of the forest, Clauchice sat with a serene expression, her tail flicking from side to side.
A crystal butterfly flew up to Riley and perched on her shoulder. It carried a piece of paper in its proboscis. Riley gently unfurled it and grabbed the piece of paper. It was made out of a leaflike material, but it didn't flop over like regular paper. Instead, it stayed firm, so Riley could clearly read the message made out of clay on the paper.
Hi, it read. This is going to be a long message, so sit down and get comfortable.
After settling herself on a mossy couch, Riley kept reading.
Welcome to my domain! Beautiful, isn't it? I made it myself when I was only five thousand years old. As you saw, it's made out of dirt, crystals, gems among other things. I can't talk right now because I'm resting, if you saw me lying there.
As for my tail flicking, there's ultrasonic music that's playing right now. The birds are wonderful singers and they are prettier than they seem, which is why I like them so much.
Once you and your friends explore this place-while there is music in the background- you will go back to the surface.
Trust me, there are a LOT of things to explore here. In fact, my domain is the third thing to have the most mysteries here. Obviously, in first place is Jhaufyther's palace, because what place is more mysterious than the sky?
Lhrioun's domain actually is more mysterious than mine. I mean, it is the UnderReality. So many stories are made about that place. I've only visited it a couple of times over the years. Jhaufyther's palace contains more mysteries than I can count. It's the sky, and there are so many theories about the sky that makes me feel a bit jealous, to be honest. My Earth never gets much attention, but oh well.
Thank you for reading this long letter. After you explored the place for a bit, let me know if you have any questions. I'll be happy to answer them. Bye!
The letter crumbled in Riley's hands and fell to the ground, dust making her nose itch. She got up and stretched. That letter was longer than she could have imagined. A rustling in the nearby bushes distracted her. She looked underneath it only to see two glowing eyes staring at her. She yelped as a tiny cat ran out from under the bush and sat there. Following it, Carlos walked out from the bush and smiled. "I found the little creature hiding under a tree. It was pretty easy to tame it, because you just have to place your hand in front of her nose," Carlos said, stroking the cat's head. It purred and sat down, a content look on its face.
Riley knelt down and put her hand in front of its nose. "She?"
Carlos nodded. "Yep, a female. She's expecting kittens, by the looks of her belly." Riley looked at the female's belly, and was pleased to see her belly to be definitely swollen.
Riley took a closer look at the female. She was a black tabby with white patches on her face, legs, and tail. She had large, round blue-gray eyes. Her tail was gray and brown, a combination that Riley had never seen before.
Sam came to her, her eyes sparkling. "I want to show you something."
Riley stood up. "Where have you been?"
"I've been exploring the place. There's so many interesting things that you need to see," she said matter of factly. She grabbed Riley's hand and led her to a cavern that was dimly lit by crystals. Letting go of Riley's hand, she went to a wall and pointed at it. "See what I mean?"
Riley walked toward the wall, and using the light from the crystals could see carvings that were etched into the stone. It showed what appeared to be space, and a dust storm that raged. "The pictures are moving," Carlos whispered.
The dust storm raged on until it slowly faded away. Two starry Catwings shot out of it, their size too great for Riley to understand. The next picture showed them flying swiftly down to a young Earth, their stars flying back to space and being replaced with flesh. Riley stepped back and gasped. As the crystals grew brighter and brighter, it showed a whole wall covered with carvings. One of the Triplets being born, to another one showing the Massacre.
"It's pretty, isn't it?" a voice interjected from behind them.
Riley turned around to see Raven standing there, a torch in her hands. She walked up to her and smiled. "I was so amazed when I saw it for the first time," Raven said, trailing her fingers across the wall.
The butterfly flew from Riley's shoulder and perched on a wall. Its wings gradually began to glow more and more until the light covered the entire cave. Its wings still glowing, it landed on Riley's shoulder, settling itself before folding its wings.
Raven laughed. "Looks like you have a little friend. That's an Amethyst butterfly. Once one lands on your shoulder, it will be your friend for life. It's also immortal."
A red butterfly flew from the top of the cavern, gracefully swooping down until it landed on Carlos's shoulder, its proboscis unfurled. Carlos put his hand on his shoulder and the butterfly climbed on top of it. Riley noticed that it was much bigger than hers. "Is that a male?"
Raven nodded. "A Ruby butterfly. It's a male one because it has darker red spots on his second wings."
A pure white butterfly climbed out of a crack and crawled onto Sam's shoulder, its wings lined with black. Raven smiled again. "A Scolecite butterfly. Not as rare as a Ruby one, but these are introverted butterflies. You're lucky that you have one as a pet."
The ground rumbled, causing pebbles to fall from the ceiling. Raven walked towards the exit. "It's time to go. We can explore more another time."
Riley followed her out into the open. It led to the camp where Riley was dumped a few months ago.
A large gray Catwing slithered by them. It regarded them, curiosity in its amber gaze. It flicked its tail and slithered out of the camp. Riley realized that this one was much larger than Lhrioun. "He looks so much like Lhrioun!" Riley said to Carlos, whose eyes were wide.
"I thought it was him at first, but then I realized how much bigger it is," he agreed.
Sam was about to say something when a roar shook the air. It was so loud that Riley covered her ears. A blue and white blur shot past her, his tail almost clipping her shoulder. Raven ran up to them, panting. "What's happening?" Riley asked, running up to her.
Raven closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Haphmoun is giving birth."