Adam Rose thought he was done killing. It had been years, and he had finally come to peace with putting that life behind him. Sure, he supposed he would kill again if he had to, but he never thought he would actually be put back in that position. Then again, he wasn’t sure exactly what it was that he had killed.
He sat on the cold stone, hands trembling in his lap with his heart beating furiously against his chest. He was only wearing his bright orange swim trunks of all things, shirt and shoeless in this gloomy and grime covered city. The faint blue of the odd rippling dome above him reflected on the gray stone around him. It shimmered in dull waves, almost as if water passed over it and reflected down on his surroundings.
A pool of blood dribbled down the staircase to his right. The weird jackal like humanoid that had attacked him lay motionless there, the blood originating from its head where it had been caved in from a wild back handed swing from Adam. His ankle burned from where the beast’s claws had dug into him, causing him to trip.
It had been lucky he grabbed a free stone as he scrambled back. A piece of rubble from one of the crumbling statues of what looked like an ancient Greek soldier nearby. The creature had nearly eviscerated him with its razor-sharp claws, and he felt lucky it had only connected with his ankle. The creature had stood on two legs - nearly as tall as he was - with intelligent yellow eyes and thin muscular frame. A white cloth with golden borders covered its waist and wrapped over its back to fall over its shoulders in the front. Though it was now stained red.
He had been wandering aimlessly around the strange city, debating whether he was stuck in a dream or if his hallucinations had gotten that much worse. That’s when he heard a voice echoing from down an alleyway and called out for help. To say he was startled when bright yellow eyes glowed from the darkness followed by a jackal like humanoid standing on two legs would be an understatement. The creature had hissed and darted toward him - teeth bared with vicious looking canines. Adam ran, instinct for self-preservation well-honed through his time in the military far outweighing his curiosity of the creature.
“This has to be some sort of dream,” Adam huffed as he ran. The adrenaline rushing through him made him feel cold. “I’m at the hospital. Maybe some of the turtle’s ointment got on my hands and I’m having a bad reaction”
He paused and looked around. “Tim, if you gave me some of your hippy brownies again, I’m going to throw you in the channel as the tides going out,” he said aloud, praying he was sleep talking.
He had been told he did that often and this was clearly a dream. It was too physical for one of his hallucinations, too detailed. It was the only logical explanation of a creature that looked like Anubis from ancient Egypt attacking him in what looked like an underwater city… Right? But this didn’t feel like any dream he had ever been in before. He was too lucid. Too in control of his own thoughts. Not the random stream of memories that he so often woke with. Even more odd were those strange words that had appeared before him when he had woken up here.
You have been teleported to an area with sufficient Primordial Energy to sustain your body.
Adam leaned back and closed his eyes, resting his head against the stone. He made sure to keep far from the blood seeping from the weird creature. Even if this was a dream, he didn’t want to lay his head in a pool of blood. Heart hammering in his chest, Adam sucked in deep breaths trying his best to calm his racing mind. He had been here for at least eight hours, and even though he couldn’t see the sun, the area he was in was growing noticeably dimmer. If he didn’t find some help soon, he’d be wandering around in the dark.
The only sign of life he had seen this far had tried to kill him and his surroundings were like nowhere he had ever been before. The stone buildings seemed ancient, yet oddly well preserved. The buildings were ornamented with intricately carved columns and archways. The streets were clean and well paved, and the air felt cool, like he was in a cave, but there wasn’t the slightest hint of a breeze.
A deep growl pulled Adam from his thoughts, and he sat up, rubbing shaky hands against his eyes. Down the cobbled street stood what looked like an eight-foot crocodile. Only… it had humanlike legs. Its entire body was covered in green and white scales and Adam could even make out gold piercings in each of its nostrils. A white cloth with golden borders wrapped around its waists that hung to cover its groin to its mid-thigh. Its chest rippled with muscle he was sure normal crocodiles didn’t have. More striking were the eyes. Yellow eyes that showed the same spark of intelligence the jackal like humanoid had displayed. Its snout was long with wicked rows of sharp teeth and its hands ended in long sharp claws. Behind it, a tail flapped on the ground in a puddle, splashing the water with a loud smack.
“Huuuumanitass” The beast seemed to say. Its voice was distorted and gargled as it pushed the words through its teeth. As if it knew his language but found it hard to make his mouth move in an organized enough pattern to produce the words.
”Yup. Definitely a dream.” Adam said. Staring at the beast and then back at the jackal like creature he had killed. “Either that or Tim has really outdone himself with his home-grown concoctions this time.”
The beast dropped to all fours, arms and legs moving in a surprisingly fast crawl as its tail swayed from side to side behind it. It growled again, eating up the distance between them quicker than an Olympic sprinter. Adam could swear he felt the heat from its breath even from the few hundred feet between them.
Adam turned to run. Maybe he would wake up if he was eaten by this twisted crocodile, but who wanted to be eaten? Even in a dream that sounded painful. “Wake up. Wake up. WAKE UP.” He shouted as ran.
He looked over his shoulder and saw the beast catching up to him, the heat on his neck growing in intensity with every passing second. It jumped at him when it was still thirty feet away, tail swinging forward over its head in a wild arc. Adam heard it whistle as it rushed through the air. The tail slammed into the ground only a few feet from Adam, a veritable shockwave erupted from the impact as the beast somersaulted over it and rolled to stand on its feet.
A wave of pressure shot from the spot of impact – rushing toward Adam like the burst of air from a bomb going off. He had been unfortunate to feel it enough during his time in the Navy to be intimately familiar with the jarring sensation.
“Ohh shi…” his breath was knocked out of him as the wave of force threw him in the air, his body slamming against a stone wall of a building that was a good fifteen feet from where he was before. His vision went white as he slumped to the ground, pain erupting in the back of his head from where it connected with the wall. The all-consuming feeling of nausea settled over him as the world spun. He shook his head and took deep breaths, doing his best to ease the feeling.
Damn but if that didn’t hurt. Adam never remembered feeling pain in his dreams. And why hadn’t he woken up yet? You’d think being slammed into the wall from the concussive force of a crocodile tail would do the trick. But here he was, groaning in pain and blind. Still suffering in this cruel nightmare of death and violence. And the only thoughts he could bring himself to think was why he hadn’t thought to put on something other than his orange swim trunks.
Adam felt hot air blow over his face, a rancid smell of spoiled meat filled his nostrils as something rough squeezed over his already bleeding ankle. Sharp pain pierced his leg as it felt like knives were being shoved into his skin. He felt stone moving beneath him. Adam reached for what was dragging him with his free hand, flinching when his hand encountered what felt like the shingles of a roof. Overlapping scales with a sandpaper texture.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“What… what are you doing to me? I…” Adam blinked his eyes repeatedly trying to get them to work. His vision came back slowly, and he looked up with blurry vision. Piercing yellow eyes looked down on him with pure malice.
“Let me -” Adam was cut off as the beast brought his tail down hard on his head. The rough scales ripping at his face and slamming his head into the ground again. This time he was knocked unconscious.
***
(Eight Hours Earlier)
Adam startled awake, shooting up with his hands in front of his face as he prepared for the wave of ice to hit him. His chest heaved as he sucked in deep breaths. The thunderous voice still echoed in his head that had shook him to his bones. The titanic figure that called for him while fighting off the grey wolf. He had never seen them together, even in his dreams. They had always appeared separately, each terrifying in their own way.
When the hallucinations first began a few years back, the figures had only appeared in his peripheral vision or as distant voice or snarl. Then the strange figures had invaded his dreams so that even his sleep wasn’t a safe place any longer. They had only worsened overtime. His mandated therapist had said it was how his mind processed the trauma he had witnessed. She promised they would subside on their own, if he gave his mind time to heal. Adam had stopped going to her when the hallucinations forced him to retire from the SEALs.
He kept his eyes squeezed shut until nothing but the gentle ocean breeze of an early summer morning brushed his face. The hammock on the deck of his Grady White swayed with the soft winds. The booming voice of the titanic figure replaced by the sound of seagulls chirping overhead. He let out a deep breath, soaking in the warm ocean air. The smell of salt pulling him back to the present. This had been far better for him than therapy ever was.
After his time in the SEALs, he had taken his earnings and bough a boat. He had always loved the water, and marine biology was his first love. Moving to the keys seemed like a good start. Besides, he could sleep on the reef on calm nights and not waste the gas getting back to shore. That, and when no one was around to bother him, he could largely ignore the voices in his head.
He stretched his arms above him, a smile spreading across his face as his bare feet landed on the soft rubber he had put over the old cracking plexiglass. “It’s going to be a great day.” Adam said aloud. He spent most of his time alone and had gotten in the habit of talking to himself aloud. It was good for a person to hear the sound of a voice, even if it was your own - or so he had read once. He didn’t count the growls of the wolf or the distant booms of the titanic figure.
He moseyed over to the cabin where his coffee machine sat already brewing a pot. While it finished, he rummaged through his scuba gear that had occupied his bed from the night before. They were releasing Bertha back into the wild today. He had spent the last year with the old leatherback in the turtle hospital after he found her out on the reef one day, and she was finally ready to be set free. He wouldn’t miss it for the world.
“Deadgummit.” Adam murmured as he rubbed the back of his head. The regulator on his scuba gear had cracked. Still, he could always ask Tim to bring him out another one this afternoon. In the meantime, he would just free dive the reef. It was only about twenty-five feet deep here. Not enough that he couldn’t gather some good data on a single breath hold. Still, it was another problem that needed addressing.
He made his way to the back of his Grady and sat on the rear deck over where the ladder was supposed to be. It hadn’t been there when he bought the boat, so he put a cushion there. His feet dangled in the cool Atlantic water as he sipped his coffee. He was parked just off Sombrero Beach along the reef surrounded by crystal clear blue water. He stared down at the bottom like he did every morning and could just make out the first signs of life as the reef fish emerged from their homes amongst the coral.
Something flashed in the morning light on the seabed. A bright iridescent blue in a bed of white sand. Adam looked closer, putting his hands over his eyes to try and cover up the glare from the sun on the water around him. The ocean rippled slightly making it difficult to see exactly what the shine of blue was. He was sure it wasn’t there a minute ago.
Adam finished his coffee and ran back into the cabin to grab his mask, not wanting whatever it was to get caught in the current and drift into some lobster hole. He slipped on his bright orange swim trunks not bothering with his wet suit or flippers. This would be a quick in and out.
He took a deep breath and dove into the water, a smile spreading across his face as he jumped. This was the perfect way to start the day. As he hit the water, he quickly spotted the iridescent shimmer and swam toward it.
The small object seemed to glow. It was the purest blue he had ever seen – mesmerizing in its shifting hues that rippled beneath the water. He swam closer, growing more intrigued by the second. It looked like a hexagonal crystal that belonged in a royal treasury. Sharp edges cut in perfect symmetry made up the outside. The center seemed to hold a depth that defied its size. It was as if he was staring into the abyss of the ocean. Layers upon layers of shifting blue refracting on themselves against the outside light.
As he dove closer, he noticed the water growing warmer. That was odd… He made a mental note to take some water temperatures in the area. A lot of sea life could be affected by rapid increases in water temperature.
He dove further, the crystal just barely out of reach now but the water had grown exponentially warmer. He felt like he had jumped into a jacuzzi and not the cool Atlantic waters. He had the feeling that he should stop. Return to the surface to get some tools to take some readings, but he couldn’t. It was as if his body was forcing him toward the crystal. Urging him to keep going despite the growing heat.
Adam reached out, his fingertips brushing the edge of the mesmerizing crystal. Before he could grab it, his body stiffened as a searing pain shot through his hand and up his arm. He nearly blew out all his air as he pushed himself back putting some distance between himself and the crystal, vision flashing white for a second. Adam’s mind started to race. He felt his lungs burn with the urge for air as he just blew all of his out, but his body still wouldn’t listen. He was fixed in place, feet floating just a few inches off the ocean floor.
The crystal floated off the ocean bed and began to spin a few feet in front of his face. It turned faster and faster. A light sparked to life deep in the center of the seemingly endless chasm that the crystal held.
Adam tried to move. Tried to swim back to the surface. He felt as if the last dregs of oxygen in his lungs was being pulled from him as the crystal created a vortex with the force of its spin. His attempts were in vain as the crystal only pulled him closer with each passing second. The water bubbled around him, the heat growing further as blisters appeared on his skin.
The light within pulsed faster until it became a constant glow. Adam’s lungs burned, his vision flashing as the need for oxygen consumed every cell in his body, but he couldn’t pull himself from the rotating crystal. The iridescent blue he had seen from the surface was being burned into his eyes until all the sudden the crystal stopped rotating, a pulse shooting out of the center in all directions. The burning in Adams body had reached a crescendo. It felt like his very veins had been filled with fire and still, he could do nothing but watch the odd crystal before him.
It floated toward him as if of its own free will. The current had no effect on it. Adams mind had gone blank, the outside world forgotten along with the dire need for oxygen. He was consumed by the crystal approaching him until it was only a fingers breadth before him.
A moment of fear overtook him as he watched on with horror. A fear he hadn’t felt since being trapped behind enemy lines; certain he was going to die. He tried again to move. To do anything other than float helplessly, but it was in vain. The crystal pressed against his chest, the burning multiplying as the crystal seemed to fuse with his sternum – the odd blue light sunk into him and dispersed beneath his skin giving his normally golden tan color a glowing blue quality instead.
The blue light beneath his skin faded in slow pulses as he watched. He had no idea how long he was underwater, but the need to breath suddenly seemed a distant thought, replaced by an odd peace. The burning in his veins had turned to a comforting warmth, as if he was sitting by a fire in the winter. His skin had stopped blistering, even changing back to its normal smoothness.
His vision darkened until he could see nothing. He could feel nothing. It was as if he was floating in a sensory deprivation tank until suddenly…White writing appeared before his vision. He wasn’t sure if the text was real or if it was just in his mind. Either way, he was left even more confused. Had he died?
You have successfully absorbed the soul skill [Essence of a Primordial]
[Essence of a Primordial] Blessed by providence, or perhaps luck, you are the first of a new generation. Regardless of circumstance, you have formed a pure connection to the Primordial Energy that makes up the universe. Your pure access to energy ensures that it cannot be affected by those around you.
Your body has been infused with a small amount of Primordial Energy, however, the ambient energy in your area is insufficient. You will be transported to an area with sufficient Primordial Energy to sustain your growth.