Introductory Notes: Tyr is the MC, so don’t be confused.Thoughts are represented by italics. Dialogue is contained within “ ”. Second part coming tomorrow, which is personally my favorite.

Cover photo is not mine! See link. http://thedurrrrian.deviantart.com/art/Horsie-of-War-487388062

Enjoy!

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Chapter 1 - The Awakening Pt. 1

Alexis gazed out the window of her first floor classroom, drowning out the extraordinarily boring voice of her history teacher with a bout of daydreaming. How the subject could be so soul draining always eluded her, but it did provide for some interesting imagination fodder. In various lessons, she would imagine herself in the midst of wars or struggles, leading revolutions, and fighting for the rights of the oppressed. Today, embarrassingly enough, it was a titillating encounter between herself and a war hero recently returned from the front. Sighing, she broke the reverie and tried to force her attention back to the front of the room.

I really need to stop reading those old historical fictions.

Glancing to her left, she saw the ever-present trio of slutitude, otherwise known by polite company as Britney, Jasmine, and Rachel. How the boys could allow themselves to drool over such...what even are they?...ah, she’d recently read a good word for them. Harlots. Yep, that sounds poetically correct. She had more colorful language that alluded to the amount of certain liquids these girls could skillfully guzzle or their unrivaled juggling capabilities, but she preferred to keep her thoughts as far away from them as possible, regardless of the sheer joy describing them could produce in her soul.

While she was lost in thought, Britney, who sat closest to Alexis turned and saw her looking in their direction. Smirking, the girl leaned in and whispered quietly, “Jealous of what you see?”

Seriously? Does this girl have a brain the size of a pea?

Alexis dropped her beautiful jade eyes into a deadpan and stared back, quietly saying, “Oh no, I was actually wondering what your current record was. Is it over twenty now?”

Britney looked confused and slightly tilted her head before whispering back, “What record?”

A malevolent grin surfaced on Alexis' face and she said, "Oh, you know..." Her hand curled up and she started pumping the air. The look on the teenage girl’s face was priceless. To be fair, this girl deserved all of the hell she was getting from her. Their past was a long and complicated one, but, suffice it to say that Britney had back-stabbed Alexis not once but twice in middle school - a fact that she could never forgive. Not to mention, she just gave all young women a bad name.

Suddenly a droopy voice rang out from the front of the room. “Girls, can you save your gossiping for after class, please?”

Alexis straightened up and smiled apologetically to her teacher. “Sorry Mr. Colson!” The rest of the period, she could feel this dark storm brewing to her left, but she never spared a glance, which she was sure would only serve to infuriate the blonde bimbo even more. Just as she was beginning to formulate a path of escape to avoid the headache of dealing with Britney and her pus-, ah, possy, a large rumbling started to come from under her feet. Several students looked around in alarm and the teacher tried to calm everyone down while directing them to get under desks.

Alexis was a bit smarter than the average so she immediately knew something was wrong. An earthquake in this portion of the United States was unheard of. Maybe if they were in California where a large number of geological issues were present she could rationalize it, but they were in South Carolina. Sweeping her eyes to the window, she checked for a mushroom cloud. Energy-wise, a nuclear weapon was the next likely culprit, but no matter the direction she looked, she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

The earth’s groaning didn’t cease and continually intensified until almost all of the things that were stored up high in the room came clattering to the floor below. Several girls were crying at this point and Alexis herself was starting to feel an indescribable sensation of fear that she’d never known. Was she going to die in this God-forsaken school, squashed into a meat paste that would be identifiable only by DNA? A terrified girl named Lucy came sprinting past her desk obviously trying to desperately get out of the building.

Alexis had spent most of her life with this group of people to the point that almost all of them were counted among friends. So when she saw Lucy come rushing past in such a dangerous situation, she tried to grab Lucy’s hand, but only struck air. A moment later, Alexis could only watch helplessly as a large Greek replica stone head fell off a ledge and crashed onto Lucy’s head. Like an animated ragdoll who just had its plug pulled, Lucy collapsed onto the tiled floor and moved no more. From Alexis’ position, she could see a large indentation in the top-right side of her friend’s skull highlighted by an increasing pool of crimson beneath her dark brown hair. Lucy...

A few whimpers could just barely be heard nearby at the sight, but no one dared to risk the same fate by trying to go check on her. Alexis could only offer up a silent prayer for her friend and vow to go to her when this was over. For several minutes the rumbling only continued until it finally reached an apex and she heard an ungodly loud cracking sound come from the outside. Turning her fiery red head towards the noise, she saw a sight she’d never forget for the rest of her life.

An impossibly large circular structure came bursting out of the ground about 5 miles from their school. That’s the only reason she knew how large it was comparatively. The mountain that the thing had come up beside was just over 5 miles away. Dirt, rocks, and clay could be seen sheeting off of the structure as it grew taller and taller. The sides of the now tower-like object were rotating savagely like a drill bit and Alexis could see large mounds of earth on all edges of the hole at its base. Eventually, the tower stopped its furious charge upwards and the loud rumbling ceased.

For the span of a few breaths all of the students simply stared out of the window at the impossible view before them, slack jawed. Alexis’ eyes refused to register the reality before her. What the hell is that?! Her eyes darted back and forth. By the moment, she felt a primal instinct roaring louder and louder from within her body. The shouting translated into one singular urge - flee!

She scooted out from underneath her desk and elbowed past some of the people who were absentmindedly drifting towards the windows to look at the spectacle. She headed for the door to try and beat the inevitable rush once everyone came to their senses. Humanity was like this after all. They refused to believe something until it was too late and Alexis believed from the bottom of her quivering heart that this was such an occasion. Reaching the door, she gripped the handle and started turning it only to be stopped by another echoing boom. Trembling violently, she forced herself to look back towards the circular black tower that loomed to a height equivalent to the 5,000 ft. mountain next to it.

Large doors at the base of the black monstrosity could be seen sliding to the side. To be visible from here, Alexis could only guess that the doors themselves were larger than any of the largest buildings in her entire city. Bizarrely enough, another set of doors that formed a row towards the top of the tower were opening as well. The sizes of these abyss-like openings were terrifying enough, but Alexis realized another thing that was fundamental about doors - they allowed for passage between rooms or places. So what was going to come through doors of such size?

A huge shockwave emanated from the tower as its epicenter and Alexis watched as it swept up and over everything in its path in a few seconds. Surprisingly enough, nothing moved though when met with the visible force. From her curiosity fueled forays on the internet, she’d learned from Wikipedia that shock waves were the result of kinetic forces propagating through a medium faster than the speed of sound. Usually, that would mean trees being blasted over, or at least some type of reaction, but this wave caused no damage that she could see. That is, until it reached the school. The lights, which had been flickering since the quaking, died off as soon as the wave swept over the school. In addition to that, Alexis felt slightly suffocated, like a blanket had been pulled over her entire body. She could still move like before, but it felt...strange... and alien.

Not allowing her to dwell on the new sensation, a roar sounded across the valley. From the top centered opening, a shadowy red figure appeared perching on the ledge of the doorway. Horns adorned a reptilian head and wings stretched experimentally while a large scaled tail whipped from side to side. Fire erupted from its gullet in a torrent that arced hundreds of feet across the sky until it met the air current that drifted over the mountaintop. Sending another triumphant roar out into the valley, the dragon, for this was truly the legendary creature popularized in modern culture, leaped from the ledge it was resting on and soared towards the school.

Smaller, more numerous roars came from the base of the tower and a steady rumbling started to reverberate across the floor once again. Many started shouting and screams of terror could be heard across the entire building. Several yelled “ another earthquake!” but Alexis could only silently shake her head. How could she tell them what she was assuming the shaking represented? After reading so many war novels of various ages, she knew that large enough armies could literally move the earth with their marching. Whatever else was coming from that thing, she had absolutely no desire to meet.

Cranking hard on the door handle still in her hand, she burst into the hall and met a stream of traffic heading towards the doors. She joined the throng and was swept along until everyone was outside and splitting in various directions. She started to go towards the parking lot with her keys in hand, but she soon stopped in her tracks. Lots of kids were already there and not a single car had moved. Eyes darting all over the place, she quickly got the gist - none of the cars were working anymore. That confirmed her suspicion about the wave that they’d all experienced.

Turning her feet towards the only other option, she started running towards the road that heads towards the suburb where family lived. In a feat that she’d never been able to achieve in any of her cross country meets, Alexis traversed the 3 miles between the school and her house in only 19 minutes. Roars continued to echo across the valley and the constant shaking was hard to ignore.

During her run, she had seen the dragon sweep by overhead. And by God, was it big. Alexis wasn’t sure if it would be able to fit inside one of those large university football stadiums. This thing made Smaug look like a little bitch. Thankfully, it hadn’t bothered to do anything with a single girl running. She could only imagine that it had its eyes set on the larger concentration of people - the city proper. Her steps sped up until she finally found herself in front of her house.

Jumping up two steps at a time, she quickly ascended the short staircase to the porch that wrapped around their two story Victorian house. Bursting through the door, she found her mom tearfully trying to get the cellphone in her hand to connect to someone. Sprinting into the living room where her mom was huddled on the couch, Alexis tackled her mother into a fierce hug.

“Oh! Alexis, thank Go-” The pretty middle-aged brunette began to speak, but Alexis cut her off while tears of her own trailed down her cheeks.

“Mom, listen to me carefully. I know you’re scared, but I’ve witnessed what’s creating all of these roars and earthquakes.” Alexis’ eyes betrayed the steady voice that came out, and her mother must have noticed the difference from the norm because she calmed down and looked back at her intensely. “Monsters out of fiction are coming from the large tower visible above the treetops. I don’t know if you saw it, but a dragon just flew overhead.”

“A-a dragon! No, tha-that’s impossible!...”

Alexis separated from her mom and held tightly onto her shoulders, giving a shake to stop her from rambling. “Mom! I’m telling the truth! The initial earthquake came from the tower bursting from the ground, but the shaking that’s happening now, that’s...that’s an army. Or at least at least a group of something that’s large enough to cause the ground to shake. I’ve heard the racket they’re kicking up. Where are Dad and Mitch? I came as quick as I could, but it looks like all the cars and anything that runs on electricity doesn’t work anymore.”

Alexis already knew the most likely answer to the questions. Her father worked at a boiler manufacturing plant about twenty minutes away by car near town and her little brother went to an elementary school about fifteen minutes away by car...in the direction of the mountains. A dull light started shining from her mother’s eyes as she heard the question. Just like her daughter, all of the implications started falling into place. Lightly touching her now calm hands to her daughter’s shaking forearms, she looked up in a grimace.

“You know where.”

Moments passed as each gazed into the other’s face. Sighing heavily, Alexis’ mother spoke, “Alexis, I want you to go to your father.”

A wail crept up from Alexis’ throat. “Mom! What are you saying?”

“I’m saying...I’m going to go get your brother, but I want you to go join up with your father.”

“But, mom!-”

“Hush, child.” She lovingly wiped the tears from her daughter’s eyes. “I know your concerns and the reality of what I’m doing, but...I just can’t leave without my son.” Tears sprung once more to her own eyes as she said, “I have to try!”

“Then I’ll go with you!” Alexis looked at her mother terrified.

Shaking her head, her mother said, “I forbid it. You will live at all costs, you hear me? You get to your father, and if that becomes impossible, you survive as best as you can. I will do everything in my power to reunite with you once I have your brother. In a week’s time, meet us at Johnson’s Mill. If we don’t show up within two days or it becomes too dangerous, you must leave - no argument.”

Listening intently, Alexis buried her head back into her mother’s chest. She could feel the loving caress of her mother’s hands on her flaming red hair and it only reinforced the fact that she didn’t want to leave. How could she leave her mother to a fate that was almost guaranteed death, or worse? She felt herself being pulled from the embrace and she let out a tiny whimper as they once more separated.

Her mother looked at her lovingly. “Go, Alexis. Gather some food and water in your spare backpack before you go, but do it quickly. I’m going to do the same.”

Several quiet minutes passed as the two women gathered supplies to go in their opposite direction. Once done, a backpack laden Alexis said a tearful goodbye to her mother and started jogging in the direction of the boiler company.