Mythshaper

Gloomy darkness greeted my sight, as my eyes snapped open. My body was heavy, resting on something cold and hard. Groaning, I rolled to sit upright, feeling the pain raking through every fibre of my being.

I scanned my surroundings, searching for Mum—or anything to anchor me back to reality. My parents, who had been by my side during my awakening, were gone. This wasn’t even the familiar ground of our home. Instead, I found myself in the midst of some grand devastation.

The night was cold and desolate, and the air felt… heavy with a pungent, burning reek, the chthonic wind carrying it along. My disorientation didn't allow me to choose which one irked me more. But both put me on edge before I had even taken in my surroundings.

Is this a dream? I wasn’t sure if awakening could cause surreal dreams like this.

"Mum?" I called hopelessly.

Gusts of wind howled through the ruins as I forced myself to stand, feeling every twitch of my muscles. My body felt heavy, and I quickly realised why. A thick breastplate weighed on my chest, with other torn pieces of armour strapped to my arms and legs. But those alone weren’t the cause of such heaviness. It was my body.

I was tall. Staggeringly so—perhaps only a hair short of my father.

“What in the name of…?” I rubbed my face and found a thick, gruff beard, plastered with grime and some liquid I deemed to be frozen blood. My hair was cropped shorter, and more blood was matted there.

I am really dreaming, I confirmed, because nothing else could explain the absurdity I was facing.

Before me stretched a vast ruin of broken buildings. Shattered glass, concrete remnants, twisted metal, and jagged splinters littered the ground wherever my eyes wandered. Fires still flared in some areas, while in others, the flames had long since died out, leaving only the crusty stench of burning behind. The wind carried dust and ash—at least that was something familiar.

If this is just a dream, then I must have a damn good imagination.

The longer I stared at the devastation, the colder my insides grew. It would take an ashen storm of near-apocalyptic scale to cause destruction of this order.