For the second time in thirty years, the entire world has fallen asleep...
Thirty years after the Greymen caused the decimation of her people, high school drop out Rain Collins spends her days learning to pickpocket and hold her booze. Yet she long...
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I summoned my lion, whole once more, and climbed onto its back, using its limbs as footholds. It nudged me into a sitting position with the tip of its snout and, with both fists, I clutched its purple cape. Once I was settled, I dug my heels into its side. It lurched forward, uneasy at first, then burst into a graceful gallop, prancing around the stadium.
From my glorious golden perch, I watched the other students work. Kayle shifted endlessly from her usual form to that of a half-snake-half-human lump on the ground. It was grotesque. Billy feebly shot purple sparks from his hands. The small girl who had been shooting guns earlier was pulling banana-shaped mounds of metal from her hips. The vine-climber tugged on the side of a pillar, moving it millimeters at a time.
With perhaps more pride than I deserved to have, I smiled to myself. I would never have to spend so much time learning and practicing my skills. I could do virtually anything.
I jumped from my lion's back and rushed across the stadium, stopping momentarily at Kayle's side. I pulled all of my limbs inward and pictured scales and venom. I slithered a victory lap around her pathetic form, then rose up as myself again. As I ran past Billy, I made a fist and shot a bright, purple fork of lightning past his ear, then I turned swiftly and drew a revolver from my hip, pointed it at the cowgirl, and shouted, "Draw!"
She fumbled with a metal hunk for a moment before raising her hands in defeat. Finally, I sped toward the pillar that the vine-climber had been working on and, with a light, back-handed tap, toppled it to the ground.
Triumphant, I placed my hands on my hips and turned to view my fans. Several unimpressed faces glared back. A slow clap came from the back of the arena, obviously mocking my stunt.
"My daughter is a show-off," my father's voice came from the direction of the clapping. "Great."
Laughter that I didn't recognize came from the same direction. "Just like her dad," said the other.
Two men appeared out of the shadows. The first was my father, dressed in a matching mint green poncho and top hat. The second was a man that I did not know who wore a long, velvety green robe. He was slightly fat in his mid-section and had developed far past the point of balding and right on into bald. Wire-framed glasses magnified his small, grey eyes. If he wasn't walking upright, I may have mistaken this guy for a mole.
"Now's not the time for long lectures," my father said as he approached. "But let me just say, Rain, never do that again."
I stared down at my ballet slippers and frowned. I had just done something amazing. Why was everyone so sore about it?
"Well, sorry," I said in a mocking tone.
"What was that?" snapped the man I didn't recognize. His beady eyes were trained on my own. "Snark, my dear, will get you nowhere." He walked toward me as he spoke, taking a step with each word, finally bouncing his chest against mine at the last. I fell backward, he was surprisingly solid.
