Invasion

"Happy Birthday, Ryong," my sister says as we're walking home from school.

"Thank you, Jisu, see how cute you are when you're nice to your big brother?" Teasing her with words that I know she'll snap back at.

"You're only older by two years, and we go to the same school, so turning seventeen is nothing special."

She's usually worse than this, but I guess since today is my birthday, there's an exception.

Anyways, that's right, I'm turning seventeen today. My family and I live in Gwangju, South Korea, we are a family of five, but my older brother Myung, is currently doing his military service, so it has been the four of us for a year now.

As we are nearing our house, Jisu stopped and turned in front of me with her hands out, "Wait, put this on."

She took a piece of cloth from her pockets,

"What is it?"

"Dummy, what does it look like? It's a blindfold tie it around your head or whatever. "

I did as instructed, "Ok, now what?"

"Wait here, just stay put," she said excitedly as she ran off, I heard the door to our house open, and Jisu shouted,

"He's here everyone come out now!"

I waited a little more before people who I assumed to be my family surrounded me, "Ok he's ready," someone lifted off the blindfold, I thought it would be my mother or father to remove it but to my surprise it was actually my older brother, Myung, infront of me wearing his military uniform.

"Myung, you're back!" I shouted excitedly.

It's been a year since Myung went off to do his military service, he's been a big influence in my life, from the music I like, the clothes I wear, the way I talk, all of these things I've taken after Myung, and so I admire him alot.

I have a rare hair and eye color, my eyes are blue, and my hair is white, even though both my parents and siblings have brown eyes and hair. Sometimes I was teased at school for how weird of a combo it was, but Myung would argue that it was cool and that I looked like a character from a fantasy novel, so I grew to like it and accepted it as part of myself.

"Ryong, my man!" he said as we embraced each other, I noticed that he's gotten taller, and I could feel how much more muscular he's gotten through his uniform. After our warm greeting, we went inside, and I followed him to the living room where we talked until dinner was ready, about his time in the military and my time back at home.

**

During the middle of dinner, a rumbling started to fill the whole house. At first, it started out light, but when it didn't stop for a whole minute. We all collectively started to get nervous.

Myung was the first to get up, "That's not an earthquake or a train," he said, his voice filled with concern. Everyone else, including myself, got up from the dinner table and started to search the house for whatever was causing this, but soon the house started to shake as it got worse, it was obvious now that it wasn't coming from inside the house, so I opened the front door and stepped outside.

"Ryong, it might actually be an earthquake, so don't go outside!"

My dad shouted from inside the house, but it was too late, as I was already outside, and soon everyone followed to try and stop me from going further. But we all became frozen as we collectively noticed that the sky wasn't dark like it should be, instead up in the sky was the sun, but at the same time it wasn't, because the sun shouldn't be up at night, and this close and visible at that.

'Could it be possible that the sun is falling into the earth?' That thought started a cold sweat down my neck. If that's the case, does that mean we're going to die? The only words I could muster out loud in that moment were,

"Is that.. the sun?"

My father responded in a frightened tone that I had never heard him in, "No, look closely it's smaller, more sphere like, and spinning."

As we all stared, things started to pour out of it, at first I couldn't tell what it was because it was so high up in the sky that I had to squint to make it out.

I quickly noticed that whatever it was, it was flying, it was alive, and it was massive. Those simple truths were enough to fill me with more panic, I looked around, and we were all seemingly paralyzed with immense confusion and fear.

As more of these things started to fly out of the sphere I was able to make out their appearances, I studied their features intensely, the most obvious and easiest to make out was their wings, massive wings that look almost similar to a bat, but much wider and larger, almost all of them were the color red. Covered in reptile like scales and feathers as well. As if they had come straight out of a book or any piece of fiction that has ever depicted these creatures, what I was most definitely looking at were dragons.

**

"Everyone inside!" My dad shouted as he motioned for us to go in, "Go arm yourselves with the baseball bats stored in the closets!"

As I headed towards one of the closets upstairs, I noticed that Jisu was following closely behind.

"Go find something to protect yourself with," I told her, but she said that she was too scared to go alone, that sort of response would normally warrant me to tease her, but in this situation I was understanding, and l let her tag along. We all gathered in the living room with our bats.

"Dad, what are those?" Jisu asked in a quiet and frightened tone, and we all turned to look at my father, waiting for a response.

My father, Suho, has raised Jisu, Myung, and I. He is the man of our house, so we always looked to him for support in times that seemed uncertain. Deep down, I wanted him to say that it would be alright, or for him to give an explanation of what was happening as if he knew so that it would calm our nerves, or to simply dismiss what was happening as temporary, confirming that we would be safe. However, those were just faint glimmers of childish hope in a seemingly hopeless situation.

"Jisu, Ryong, and Myung, I don't know what those things are, nor do I know what's happening, to me they look like Dragons, or they could be aliens, I don't know, however what I do know is that outside is dangerous. That means we stay here together."

His words didn't sugarcoat our situation, but they didn't fill us with complete despair either, I remembered that my father was only human after all. We all nodded in a silent agreement as we awaited for whatever came next.

After a while, I heard the loud and terrifying roars of what I've decided to call "Dragons." Their roar was unlike any animal on earth. I looked out the window from where I was seated and spotted one of the dragons a couple of houses away, flapping its massive wings in place as it slowly descended on top of a roof.

Facing the opposite of our house, I could make out its face even though it was houses away. That was just proof of how massive it was. It was also red like the others that I saw. It opened its mouth wide, a white hot glow began to form in its mouth, then it shot out a massive, straight, stream of white fire, turning all the houses and the people in it to ash.

Jisu screamed from under the table. We all just witnessed what it did. As I looked further, I was able to see the tens, maybe even hundreds of dragons doing the same all over Gwangju. My mother, Iseul, closed the curtains to the window, and we continued to wait in fear.

As our situation would have it, it wasn't long before our house started to shake violently. Everyone started shouting, but my thoughts blocked out the sound. Is it a Dragon? Is it going to turn us to ash just like those other houses?

The roof to the house ripped open.

I looked up, and my heart dropped. A massive, black dragon was towering over us like a scene from a dinosaur movie. It was enough to make my knees shake, and I lost my balance. However, Myung helped me up.

This dragon wasn't like the others. Instead of red, it was black, the only black one I had seen up until now. Its eyes were black as well, except for its straight Iizard like pupils, which were red. The dragon used these eyes to trace each and every one of us slowly from head to toe. First, my father, then my mother, Myung, then Jisu, before getting to me.

It stopped on me for a little longer, it's gaze felt like I was being crushed under a massive wave from the ocean that I almost forgot to breathe while it was looking at me. In the back of my mind, I suspected that it was because of my abnormal hair and eye color that it chose to stare at me longer. However, that was the last thought on my mind as it began to open its mouth, like a deer stopped to look at the headlights of a car, we all became paralyzed with a deep, cold sense of death, but instead of blowing fire on us it began to speak, it's voice was booming in our ears and it was so loud that it created wind which blew away some of the furniture.

They can speak.

It wasn't any language that I've ever heard. After it finished speaking, it ascended from our house and let out a roar in the sky, as if signaling to the other dragons, then it flew away. I was immediately filled with a few seconds of relief. It was similar to if a car was just about to hit you while you were crossing the road before stopping just in time. However, our relief didn't last long as I felt gravity begin to pull at my body, and I started to float up. I could hear everyone shouting and screaming, Myung tried to grab all of our hands to stay together, but it was too late, because as soon as our bodies floated above the roof we were sent flying at unimaginable speeds towards the spinning sphere in the sky.

Confusion, fear of death, fear of my families death, and fear that this world will never be the same again began to overflow in my emotions. "Are we going to hit that sphere? Are we really going to die? I'm so high up right now that it's terrifying." My mind was racing, I felt like I was going to pass out, I looked and saw that everyone else was in the same position. We were all barreling towards this thing in the sky. My vision began to get dark, and deep down, I wanted to pass out because if I did, then I wouldn't have to face whatever would come next when I hit the sphere. Before letting go of my consciousness, I took a look below me, I was as high up in the sky as a plane, and it was here that I saw hundreds of dragons blowing their fire of death all over Gwangju. The city was almost gone. It looked like a massive black piece land with no buildings, just ash on the ground. After witnessing this, I let my consciousness fade.

**

"Ryong, Ryong! please wake up!" As if waking up from the worst nightmare of my life, I could feel Jisu shaking me awake, my vision started to clear, and the first thing I could feel was the cold metal floor. Jisu's eyes were pink from crying, and as I sat up, she began to sob in my chest. I looked around. We were in a massive metal cage, along with other people, but they were not just Korean. They were of all nationalities.

How did we get here? Did the sphere take us here? There were massive cages filled with people to both sides of us and behind us for as far as I could see. "Jisu, where are Mom, Dad, and Myung?" She sat up while sniffling and pointed towards the other end of the cage where my father and brother were. Their hands were clasped against the bars, and they were shouting to another cage to the other side of us. I got up and went towards them, Jisu followed. "Are you okay?!" Dad shouted to the other cage, I looked to who he was talking to, and it was my mother.

My heart sank as questions started to pour into my mind. "Why are we here? how are we here? what is going to happen to us?" I noticed that my mother seemed alright for now, which gave me relief. I noticed that there were no cages in front of our cage. Instead, all I could see were red dragons. They were not doing anything except for watching us and looking at each other. They weren't talking either, but it seemed like they were communicating somehow.

However, what really caught my attention was that there were human like beings mixed in with the dragons. Except they had red hair and horns, and then two long red lines or slits through their eyes that went from their forehead to chin. Their hands were also red and scaly with claws.

Those were Dragons, but they had transformed into humans. How? Did they copy our form to appear familiar? Or could they always do that?

Whatever, all I cared about right now is whatever is going to happen next, and if we're going to die or not. I noticed the black dragon from before. It was larger than the red dragons, and this time, there were three of them. They seemed to be the leaders or commanders in charge of the red dragons. One of the black dragons started to float, and it started spinning fast like a whirlpool getting smaller and smaller until it was just a small spinning orb, then the orb transformed into the human like version of the dragons.

Unlike the red ones, this black Dragon had black scales running up its arms and neck, as well as a red line going from its chin to its forehead, but then continuing up to its black horns. After it transformed, the other two followed. The absence of their massiveness opened up a view that their bodies were covering. Another cage, but this time massive with black metal like bars. Inside of the cage was a white Dragon. It was larger than even the black Dragons, I was sure of it.

In the back of my mind, I thought it was beautiful, but I quickly let the thought go because I know what these beings have done, they committed genocide on us for whatever reason, they aren't friendly beings, for all I know we could be livestock to them in a cage.

What did stand out to me about this white dragon other than its size and color, were it's eyes, they were a bright blue, similar to my white hair and blue eyes. It was also chained up.

Just when my nerves were beginning to calm down, one of the red human like dragons opened the cage next to us, the one with my mother in it. It took one person and then led him to one of the black dragons. The black dragon grabbed the man's throat, ripped it out, and then swallowed it.

Everyone screamed, including Jisu. Frozen in shock and fear, all I could do was try to comprehend the situation. Before long, the black dragon ascended up into the air above the cages and spoke. Its voice was as loud as an announcer in a stadium. This time, I could understand what it was saying.

"Silence"

Everyone stopped screaming and shouting.

"By eating that man's throat, I was able to conjure a spell to communicate in a language that you humans would universally understand. After a thousand years, we have finally gained access to the last Aldea. Why we have come is none of your concern. The only thing that you humans need to know is that all of you, along with your world, are going to perish."