Niah and the Pheonix (Watty's 2024!)

Chapter XX: Niah

I run towards a tall fence, darkness slowly trying to consume me as I run. It's too tall for me to climb; I'm trapped.

I turn around to see the darkness coming towards come to a stop, almost as though it had a mind. I take a small step back, though it's as far as I can step back.

I look closer into the darkness, seeing a pair of light red eyes staring right at me.

"Who are you?" I ask it, scared.

It comes out of the darkness a little more, just enough to see it's face. It was nothing like I had imagined it to be like, though.

It had beautiful red scales, a hint of fire coming off of it. It's eyes which seemed like they could poke through your soul were actually quite nice. They reminded me of flowers.

It looked as though it was a dragon, though, so there was no point in hoping it would talk back. At least, so I thought.

"I am you, Niah," It spoke, shocking me, "as you are me. There is no escaping me, even if you think you can. I have already traced every possible outcome, and it all ends with the same thing."

I look at it, puzzled, "And what is that?"

It smirks evilly, sending shivers down my spine, "You die."

I back up, falling to the ground. The tall fence that stood there was gone, disappeared into thin air. I look back up at it, laughing at me. I couldn't tell what it was laughing about; me falling, or the fact that whatever she means by 'possible outcome' is my dying.

It jumps up in the air, it's large wings flapping, causing dirt to fill my eyes. My vision's now blurry, but I can still see 'it'  as clearly as before.

"Well, Niah, you now know that you are doomed! Hah, I've dreamed of this moment for over 300 years! Thank you, Niah, but there is no hope in going to the West; you're already too late."

******

I wake up, gasping for air and rubbing my eyes. Although it was a dream, the feeling of dirt lingered in my eyes.

I look around to make sure my vision's good. I look at the campfire to see it's now dimmed down to ashes. I grab a thing of twigs, throwing them on the fire.

"Niah, you good?" Yoshi asks me. 

I turn around, surprised to see he was awake at this hour. "Yeah, I'm fine."

He looks at me, sensing I was lying to put him at ease. I thought he was going to sit next to me or something, trying to help me feel better, but instead, he just shrugs his shoulders and lays back down.

"That's it?" I say, him turning to look at me confused, "No pep talk? No conversation to say 'it's okay? Or... anything?" 

He gets back up, chuckling softly. "Well, I wasn't going to try and dig deeper. You're the kind of person to keep everything to yourself, you know? I wasn't really sure if you wanted a 'pep talk'."

I grab my shoulder, realizing how silly I just sounded. Honestly, with the response I just gave him, I'm surprised he even responded.

We both stood their for a couple minutes, unsure what to say. We both kind of wanted to go to sleep, but he could see right through me. He could tell I wanted to talk to someone about this.

"I- I think..." I don't seem to be able to get any words out, "we're too late."

Yoshi looks at me puzzled. I would probably do the same thing, I mean, sense when do people wake up with news this big?