"The world ended within the slightest, smallest vibration as if it was held by a silk web and a powerful force broke the glue and string which held everything together." Lazarus didn't realize he was speaking aloud these words. It came out of him in a rush. Luckily, he was in his car eating his sandwich. The voice was coming from inside his head, making him see and say things.

"We need," he said, "to find the nexus, the beginning where the mage began his work."

Lazarus shook his head and he stopped taking. Clamping his mouth for fear of speaking again he touched his head, thinking that he felt feverish. He recalled a time when he was young and had the flu. His brother, Dustin, the comedian and tormentor, decided to play a trick on him. He strung several of his army toy men on the windowsill in his room. He lay in his bed staring at his toys. Lazarus, in his delirium, didn't see toy army men, but giant gargoyles flying from the burning, erupting sky to take him to Hades. He yelled and fell on the ground screaming about demons from the pit of hell ready to devour him.

He said to himself, "What is happening to me? I don't speak in riddles."

From his vantage point in his car, he could see the small, two story brick building where he worked and he thought he saw something odd and dark glinting from the many square windows on the first floor. Was it a trick of the light? He moved his head from side to side,when a syrupy thickness pervaded his sight. He saw an inky blackness with large round cylindrical structures hanging from the ceiling while people ran next to him. People he had a kinship with and history, but he had never seen them before. Yet there was a woman who looked familiar. Her face was determined.

"Where am I?" he said.

"Be quiet. The soldiers are close."

***

"What did you say?"

Lazarus was standing with his co-workers looking at a table with a birthday cake on it. Candles were lit on top of a chocolate cake.

"Nothing."

"You don't look good."

"Ok, everybody, we need to start singing for Lacy."

As they started to sing the first few bars of Happy Birthday, Lazarus felt odd, like a cold shower flowing over him. His eyes dimmed again and he didn't see an office where his co-workers sang a cheerful song for Lacy, but a bright light coming alive before his eyes. And he realized nothing would be the same again.

He was back in his office standing with his co-workers. He held a piece of cake up to his face. A fork was impaled into it. Lazarus wanted to laugh and then cry. He sensed the impending doom had started and he could not do anything about it.

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Somebody looked out the window and said, "What’s that?"

Lazarus suddenly grabbed the bracelet on his wrist. The stone was glowing an intense cool blue hue. He looked outside through the large windows. Against the horizon was a wall of water higher than the tallest buildings. A roar screamed through his brain and sent him reeling backwards. He dropped his plate and food.

The first echoes of people screaming filled the office. His back hit his cubicle and he laughed, a mirthless sound. Before the glass panes broke under the pressure of the giant wave and before the lady who had sat next to him for the last five years yelled a horrified screech, he felt an exhalation of sadness tinged with joy and he sensed something he would understand later as arcane power, surging in his blood.

The ground shook with the monstrous tidal wave encroaching upon his building and he understood why his mom named him Lazarus. He would be reborn in this new world. Lifting his hand, the light of his bracelet started to reform around him in a spherical barrier. The giant wave hit the windows, shattering glass, stone and cement. It was the giant hand of God pulverizing everything around him.

Lazarus was flung backwards in a cocoon of watery darkness and he knew the way had been opened and he was instrumental in opening the Bastions. Yet, he was not sure what he was thinking about. He started to speed as his force field hit the broken walls of his old building, his old life.

Broken bodies floated around him in a concert of dance, swimming along the ripples of the current of the tidal wave. He spun faster, traveling to a place he didn't know. He forgot his whole world had changed. A wonder bloomed in his mind. He could control this sphere. Lazarus held up his hand and ceased spinning and moving. The water receded almost as fast as it came and his mind and body sensed this tidal wave storm was more than water and millions of gallons of the deep blue sea. It was imbued with the power of the earth's lifeblood.

He was gently placed on a jagged piece of ground filled with the debris of buildings, cars, and people. The barrier around him disappeared and the stone in his bracelet stopped glowing. He heard people moaning and he realized he was not the only survivor. He ran to the man who was stretched out on the ground.

The man looked remarkably well, even though he had been caught in a tsunami. His eyes opened and glared at him.

"Hey," Lazarus said and kneeled close to him. He repeated, "Do you hear me? Are you hurt in any way?"

The man opened his mouth and said, "Grog, grog!"

"What is that you are saying?"

"Grog, grog!"

The man must be delirious, he thought, and placed his hand on the prone man's shoulder, but the man stared at him with hateful eyes. The stranger stood up and melted and shimmered. Lazarus shook his head and moved back a few paces. The stranger started to shake all over. Long brown hair sprung over the man's skin and large talons sprouted from his hands.

Lazarus stood mute and could not move. The transformation, as he thought of it, was almost complete. The man's face changed into a hideous mask of a wolf and bat. The eyes were the worst. They shone with intelligence and hatred. The creature saw him and started to move forward on all four legs, growling. Lazarus looked for any weapon or stick to defend himself with, but all he saw was rocks and debris.

The monster was a mutation between a large gorilla and a canine. The creature started forward, sniffing the air, and its mouth salivated with wet slops of spray. And in one smooth motion it lifted its muzzle and howled toward the sky. The creature called Grog was answered by other Grogs far in the distance. It was a blood curling sound which caused Lazarus to fall backward, hitting his head on a jutting piece of concrete. His eyesight blurred and misted for several seconds. He saw the creature turn to the side and howl again. The call was answered and the Grog bounded away.