1 The Power of Imagination

One breezy morning, New York awoke to cracked concrete and towering trees, their shadows splayed across every inch of the pavement. People rushed to turn on the news.

Places all over the world had suffered from the same twisted brown roots that tore through buildings, bridges, and homes. Attempts to cut them down were ineffectual due to their indestructible skin. How the unmoving trees came to be was a complete mystery. Many began to panic, and it didn't help that the next day unidentifiable monsters started appearing just as mysteriously as the trees had.

Powerful nations dispatched their armies to try and subdue these monsters, but that had only angered them. The terrifyingly huge monsters that stood anywhere from ten feet to twenty ripped through our defenses like paper. Nations eventually fell one by one, until the world was thrown into total anarchy.

Meanwhile, those who realized early on that our armies wouldn't stand a chance had already begun forming their own factions. Some of them went around rescuing those who had lost everything, and some simply took their loved ones and went off to find a way to survive on their own. The governments that we had trusted to protect us had failed, and so we decided to take things into our own hands.

The moment I glanced out my window that day and saw the towering trees, I was struck by a sudden headache. Ow… what was that? I blinked until the pain went away, and blankly stared at the dark canopy of leaves hovering above skyscrapers. My eyes felt as if they might pop out of their eye sockets, and I quickly dashed to my laptop. No way. There's no way. I opened up a document that I had titled "Beasts and Lords" and repeated the first line over and over in my head.

'One breezy morning, New York awoke to cracked concrete and towering trees...' I yanked my curtains away and took a step back to take in the view of the city. Trees. Towering trees…

I shuddered and felt the strange headache come back. But how? Could it be...?