Dream's ̶W̶i̶s̶h̶ Curse

Breaking Time

P . . . po . . . power . . .

The flaming power pulsating all throughout Amber's body was overwhelming. She grit her teeth as another surge of power pumped through her. Her head felt as if it was being pounded in – and the rest of her body felt as if it was practically about to be torn apart. Something that had happened earlier triggered this . . . she was sure of it!

It was after she had pulled Angelina out of the marsh's water, then attackers– something sprouted from her back; was this supposed to happen?

Warped and distorted noises echoed harshly inside her head. Argh! If only she was able to focus, maybe she could figure out what's going on! Although that was going to be especially hard, with heat searing up somewhere on her physical body and generally just the inability to focus.

Trying to ignore the intense heat, Amber slowly began to see again. Before the next wave, she should be able to do something – anything – to help her situation. A certain girl dressed in blue lay on a black-purple cushion, staring at her in shock. Ah, that must be . . . Amber's right hand moved to her back and found a surprisingly cool, smooth, silk-like . . . wings?

What? Amber gaped. Thoughts flickered around inside her head; is this the phoenix? How did this happen? Was the power pulsing through her supposed to support the growth of wings?! Am I really the phoenix?

Another wave of heat swallowed her up, but she didn't care. Was she really to be afraid of? She shook her head violently. No. She should just concentrate on getting out of her current state. As she gazed forward, her vision cleared the slightest bit and she could see normally again. Yes, her eyesight wasn't the best – but who cared right now?

Her gaze landed on the spinning red gem floating between the two split part of the tablet. An idea.

She spun around to face Angelina. "Angelina! Try stopping time again!"

"Okay!" called back Angelina, readying her staff once more. "Just– gah!"

The alien had shifted back into its standard form, letting the time mistress fall to the ground. Was it even trying to help? The time mistress groaned and stumbled back up. But by then, the fidgety alien zoomed over directly between the sapphire of Angelina's staff and the red one. Right, apparently it was trying to help. An electrostatic force began to spark from the centre of its blackness, and it seemed to tell the girls– now!

Angelina immediately activated her main power with a swish of her staff, which she stabbed the ground with. Clang . . . A blinding white light shot from the sapphire again and began to envelop the area. Amber's senses tingled as she felt another wave of heat coming. She grinned. That would soon come to an end, because–

Amber covered her eyes with her arms to shield her from the blinding light. She watched from the corners of her eyesight as the light faded into a simple, motionless expanse. She let her arms droop and allowed the same surroundings come into focus. The feeling of immense power had stopped completely. Which meant now they could come up with a plan.

"So–" began Amber, though she was soon interrupted by what she saw. Well, wasn't that awkward. As Amber walked around the huge figure facing right at her, she couldn't help but feel sorry for it. It was the dragonfly. You know, that really big, blue one that tried to attack them first. Angelina, on the other side of the dragonfly, prodded it with her hand.

"Huh," she stated. It seemed even harder than diamond - and the strange thing was, there was no sound. No hollow echo, or knock on wood or squelchy skin. Just plain ol' texture.

As to why it was so close, though, probably was because the dragonfly began to attack again, except Angelina had stopped the time. Which was why it was so close to them. And the tortoise? Don't even get started. It had barely moved a metre across the marsh's water. And she had thought that a bigger tortoise would move at least a little bit faster than a normal one.