The Beginning

Epilogue

5 months later...

The night was cool and dark. The forest buzzed with the sounds of cicadas and other small creatures. A lizard scuttled over a log, using its long tongue to catch a fly that was zooming around.

A girl lied low under a bush, in hiding. She had committed a horrible act, and she tried to stop it before it was too late. She still remembers it taking over her, stabbing Riley in the neck and grinning in triumph as she took her last dying breaths. It let go of her just as Riley died. She let the tears fall down her cheeks, but she couldn't do anything anymore. She just hoped that Riley was enjoying the afterlife.

Two lights swept throughout the forest, and she had to carefully poke her head out to see what it was. A shadowy creature walked throughout the forest, its gaze flicking between the bushes. It growled to itself, then turned toward something that the girl didn't even see at first until it stepped out of the shadows. Glowing orange eyes pierced into hers, the creature much bigger than the first one. She knew these eyes all too well; these were the eyes that tortured her back at the camp, and she knew what they were doing.

During her time at the camp, she learned a few words in the Catwings' language. It was enough for her to understand, but there were a lot more words that she knew she would never learn.

"It's been a while since he left," the orange eyed male growled.

"It has," the female said. "She's absolutely (something that starts with a d? All she knew was that it didn't sound good) about what happened to (a name that starts with a t)."

"He kind of deserved it, though."

"He did, but I've never seen her that depressed."

Crystal frowned. Who were they talking about? For a second, she thought of Tommy and Marissa. Did something happen to them? She hoped that they were okay.

"Nothing here," the male called out.

Crystal glimpsed the female standing dangerously close to her. "Nothing here either."

"Maybe she's headed toward the desert."

Crystal shuddered. The fact that the Catwings knew where she was heading creeped her out. I'm still going to go there. I heard that the snacks there are really good.

The female turned toward her brother. "The desert."

"Sure. Ever since she killed her, she should be on the run," the male pointed out.

"Huh. I've never thought of that."

"Let's go alert (Sla- something. She's never heard that name before) about what we found out."

"Okay. What do we do next?"

"Just wait," the male said. "She might be in (another name Crystal doesn't know) territory. He might let us know."

The two of them slithered away, their footsteps receding. Crystal had to leave before any of them found her. She got up and crept out of the forest, heading toward the desert.

Something surrounded Riley's body. It was empty now, since her spirit floated up toward Jhaufyther's sky. A blue liquid dripped out of it, flowing towards the river. The river started to glow blue, the light reaching the sky. The rest of the blue liquid travelled toward the desert, making little rivulets in the sand. It flowed over the dunes at the speed of light, eventually reaching the ocean, where it pooled in the middle and floated down below the surface, triggering dormant underwater and regular volcanoes.

Meanwhile, up in space, an ancient power disturbed the millions upon millions of galaxies. A black hole formed, light years away from Earth. This unexpected change in the universe caused earthquakes so deadly they weren't on the magnitude scale. Lightning so dangerous struck down onto the ocean, making it unsafe for the villages to collect the water. On the Catwing island, ancient remnants and relics of the massacred village rose up. Contaminite swarmed out of the ground, heading towards the continents.

All of these unexplained signs travelled back to space, causing an ancient creature to wake up.