Magic: the Gathering - The Tale of Reiri

Danger: Deadened

I gazed across the summit - There was my town, sitting, burning, dying. It was chaos.
Across from me, sitting just above the town on a hill, was the largest thing I've ever seen. It was huge, but relatively thin, with huge, long tentacles replacing it's legs, and arms that were, like the other Eldrazi, split in the middle, branching off into two arms for each basin, but unlike the crawling, gnarled and unnatural arms I had seen in the other Eldrazi, these were thin and controlled.

I thought for a second, my mind racing, but hen came to the conclusion- I was a hook master, or at least an explorer- I would save as many of my kin as possible. I jumped down from the summit, and into the chaos. I landed in the roof of a house, but immediately felt something strange, as if I had jumped into a viscous liquid- the only I could move well were my arms and legs, but my toes - still in their boots - felt like they were enveloped in molasses. I tried to shoot my hook, but it was hard to do so, and the hook moved slower than usual, barely grabbing a ledge.

I looked towards the massive Eldrazi, and realized it was it- it was the Eldrazi that was causing this. There was a white aura around it, slowing and stopping warriors from fighting the hordes of spawn around it. They were getting run over, hordes of Eldrazi, beast like and rushing, killing hundreds of guards and helpers. I was startled, and almost strangled for air- this was my home, yet it wasn't to be soon.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and immediately swung around to the sight of Fulmore, a village elder and a good crafter. He spoke in a croaky, pressured voice, as if he had almost been strangled:

"Reiri, where were you? I thought, with your parents, you were dead. There were no signs in the stone or Hedrons that this would happen. I-" I interrupted, not wanting to speak of that, nor reflect on it.

"Who is alive?!" "From what I know, only around twenty, not including the guards and others who would gladly throw their life away." I hesitated, then asked him: "So... My pa-"

"Dead." My face turned to stone.

"How can we get out of here?"

"Another survivor has a boat, docked right over a hill just south of us. We should go there, try to escape."

  We got to the ground, trying to stick to the shadows. We could still hear the fighting, but it was getting strangely quiet, which was very bad for us. Through the way, we picked up other people who had been hiding, and soon we had 7 strong, all trying to escape this disaster.

   We could hear, only barely, the sounds of the last couple people dying in the distance, and we could see the remains of people trying to hide form the Eldrazi as we walked past. Stained ground, dust patches, and weapons were all that were left. I hate to say it, but the Eldrazi are good predators, and certainly do their work well.

  We stopped in the shadows of a burnt house at the base of the hill. As we looked for straggler Eldrazi following us, O spotted a glimpse of what was left of the rest of the town, the part I didn't pass, and my house, the one I had lived in for so long. It's once-lush garden had been crushed underfoot and reduces to dust, it's cobbles cracked, it's roof buckled. I felt anger build in my blood, boiling inside of me.

     I was angry at these Eldrazi, these abominations. Not sad, not mournful. These Eldrazi, that had no regard for life, yet also no rhyme to their destruction. They only killed, they never cultivated, they never saved. They were abominations that should be wiped out.

    We began our ascent, the hill sloping slowly, our group moving slowly, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. As I climbed, I noticed there was a straggler, someone that kept on falling behind. I slowed, more big down to him, and asked his name under my breath.

"Gild."

"Alright. Try to keep up- no one can fall behind. I think tha-" I was interrupted by a scrunching sound, a stick breaking, and now that the area was all but silent, it sounded like a gong against the landscape, reverberating through the valley that our town was positioned in. Everyone heard it, everyone knew what was coming.

"Run!". Those were words I could reason with.

We ran with no abandon, sprinting up the hill. I glanced back, seeing that the massive one was not coming, but instead I saw two dark masses in the sky, gliding towards us. They were long, and had more spiky heads than many others, with bones that looked darker and dirtier. I knew they were both stained with the the ashes of a thousand Kor, and would not let that happen to me.

We got to the crest of the hill just as they reached us, swooping down to take one of us. I heard someone yell duck, which I did, then moving myself down the hill, rolling down, gaining, and then heard a cracking sound, so I assumed one was not so lucky, and the stopped myself, grabbing onto a bush, looking at the others.

I could see two people at the top of the hill, either getting dragged in or consumed, and then four of us made it out, yet I couldn't see Fulmore, probably dead. As the things at the top of the hill were busy, I raced down to the bottom, meeting the rest of the group, then looked around me.

We didn't have much time, so I needed something. I saw the boat, but that wouldn't save us. I looked around some more, surveying the area, but then realized something: we could use the boat- the things at the top couldn't see us only if we were underwater. I told everyone to jump on the boat, launching it off of the dock, and then told everyone:

"Flip the boat!"

  I heaved to a side, along with others, and the boat turned, and then flipped, having our heads right underneath it. There was an air pocket, one to breath in, while we waited out the Eldrazi. I said to the others, my voice echoing, "I'll go up, peek." I held my breath and went out from under the boat, peeking though the water at the space above. I saw the Eldrazi, but it wasn't curious in the water, it was flying off. Our plan must've worked!

   I sank back down, relaying the information to the others, and then waited. We had to make sure the Eldrazi were gone. After 20 minutes, almost all the air in the boat was gone- the pocket was waning. After a couple of checks, we rose. As we splashed out, I hard several sighs of relief. We were free.

  "So... Where to go next?" Someone asked. After a conversation, the group decided on Seagate, a large outpost a day's travel away. Seagate was a fortress of allies, a force against the Eldrazi, and it seemed the only sensible thing to do.

  As we started our travel, I started to close my eyes, losing consciousness, until sleep took me.