1 - First Impact
The sharp shriek of a bird wrenched Will from his precious nap. He woke with a start and nearly fell off the branch he was lying on.
'That would have been a stupid way to die,' Will thought as he tried to calm his racing heart that felt like it was trying to escape the confines of his ribcage.
When he looked down through the tangled mess of branches, he could just barely see the forest floor. He knew it was far enough away that falling to it would hurt like hell. Whether or not he could get up afterwards was up for debate.
Not that he'd ever fallen before… if his mum asked.
He sidled along the branch, as slowly as he could be bothered moving and clambered down to the next one. Just as he spotted the best place to put his foot, he flinched back as a small lizard leapt out of a hole in the trunk and flew off the tree like it was being chased.
"Shit! What's with my luck today," he cursed. Gesturing rudely at the fleeing lizard.
After being startled a second time, he noticed the forest was particularly loud. It seemed that every single animal was doing something at the moment. Perhaps there was some sort of festival on, and he didn't get the memo.
This time, he picked his way slowly down the tree, careful not to step on any suicidal squirrels as he went.
'Hopefully, I managed to sleep through the party,' he thought to himself as he climbed. Will didn't like birthdays, his own anyway.
He finally managed to set his feet on the springy moss that lined the forest floor and took off towards the setting sun that barely managed to squeeze through the dense canopies above him.
While running, on more than one occasion he had to throw himself out of the way of a charging deer, their eyes were bloodshot and wide.
"What is going on today?" He muttered quietly; his voice drowned out by the rising cacophony of the wildlife.
Looking up at the sun, he judged that it should be about 6, which meant, although his birthday wasn't over, everyone should have given up and gone home by now. Besides, he didn't feel comfortable in the forest. The frenzied wildlife was putting him on edge.
As he was using the sun to navigate, he was possibly one of the first people to notice the black spot that flew across it. One at first, followed by two or three others every minute. Not only that, but the number also seemed to be growing.
Will wasn't one of those educated scions of noble clans or scholarly children that pursued bureaucratic excellence, so he didn't know that this was strange. He didn't know that this was bad.
His first thought was, 'Oh cool, a shooting star during the day,' and so of course, he paused to make a wish.
Clenching his grimy little fists together, he stared up at the scattered spots that passed periodically in front of the sun, he prayed his mother wasn't too angry. And also prayed for superpowers. But who doesn't? when no ones looking.
The most important of those prayers was, of course, his mother forgiving him for missing his own 15th birthday party. A big occasion in these parts of Abre.
At 15 you went from being a nuisance to a grown man. Will would be offered jobs by the grownups and whatever one he chose; he would do for the rest of his life.
Perhaps that's why he ran off to the forest that day. He never really wanted to be a carpenter or blacksmith. Working in the fields was boring and it would be embarrassing if he worked with his mother as a seamstress.
You could say that he tried to put off that decision for at least one extra day, but as fate would have it, Will would never get to make his choice.
He would never see his mother again either. Never get to see the way her eyes glittered when she laughed or how she cried more than he did when he was hurt.
For the reason why that is, we must turn our attention back up, to the black spots in the sky.
They're growing now, in both number and size. The shapes shifting and morphing as countless shadows streak across the waning sun. If you look closely, you might spot a bird with a million tail feathers. An elephant with two trunks. A man with no head.
A whole host of inhuman somethings passed by the sun and settled in the west, falling to the earth and sending shockwaves of both force and something else, more primal and ethereal, reverberating throughout the lands of Abre.
As Will reached the edge of the trees and stepped out into the clearing between the forest and the village, he looked up just in time to see the sun swallowed by an enormous scaled face that was falling right towards him.
Behind the flat nose and obsidian eyes came never-ending coils of scales that were a blue so deep they were almost black.
Will watched, transfixed in horror and awe as the snake from heaven hammered into the earth not even half a mile from where he was. His knees went weak as the shockwave almost knocked him over.
But with his survival came no sense of relief. A silent scream was etched onto his face as he stared dumbly at the heaping pile of snake that had just crushed everything and everyone he ever knew.
-
Will wasn't sure how long he sat there, staring blankly at the snake. It didn't move so neither did he. The sun rose and set again but apart from that, nothing changed.
At the end of the second day, when his stomach started eating itself alive, a small rat scurried past, presumably towards the smoking wreckage of his village.
His hand shot out, grabbing the thing's neck and snapping it with a simple squeeze. Not once did he look away from the snake.
Not as he skinned the rat. Not as he ate it raw. Not as the sun rose again on the third day.
Possessed by something he had never experienced before; he was determined not to move until the snake did. He was sure it was alive. He saw it breathe yesterday, only once but he didn't miss it.
Strangely, after eating the rat, he never got sick and even for the next three days after that, the wave of hunger never returned. So, he remained as he was. Sitting. Waiting.
On the dawn of the seventh day, Will's mind which had begun to fog over with exhaustion was shocked awake when the snake moved.
It didn't move much, just one eyelid. One glassy obsidian eye peered out from beneath the heaping pile of scales. It flickered, staring at the wrecked village and then at the boy a few hundred metres away.
The boy met its gaze. Cold Curiosity clashed with unbridled pain and confusion. The exchange was short, and Will was the first to look away.
When he looked at the snake he felt a piercing pain stab into his eyes, like nails were being driven into his iris'.
Even though he looked away, he could tell it was still looking at him. So, he did the only thing he could think of. Speak.
"W-Wh-Why?" He croaked. His throat was parched and raw from disuse.
The snake shifted its gaze to the village it was lying on and then back to Will. This time it seemed to be looking at him with a mix of pity and guilt.
"C-can you speak?" Will rasped.
The snake didn't open its mouth, but he heard a hissing, serpentine voice in the back of his head. "I Can."
Ignoring the impossibility of this, Will pressed on with his question, "Then… Why…?" He looked up at the snake dully.
After a moment of painful silence, it spoke. "I'm afraid I don't know, it was not intentional if that is what you are asking."
"So- So, they all died by chance? Just sheer bad luck?" Will asked dumbly.
"I suppose so," the serpent replied calmly.
Will looked down at his feet, he hadn't moved in days, and he couldn't feel them anymore. Every part of him was cold and now the hunger was hitting again.
"What? What d-do I do now?" He asked meekly.
The snake was quiet for a long time again and when it did eventually reply, it wasn't of much help. "Oh, Die I suspect."
"Die…" Will echoed quietly, turning the words over in his dry mouth. "But I don't want… to die," He finished, so quiet this time it was almost a whisper.
"I don't know that you'll have much choice. The first impact should hit this area very soon and when it does, I imagine I will be the only thing left." The snake said callously, shifting one poisonous green eye westward.
Will looked at the snake and then stiffly turned his head to the west where a huge dust cloud he hadn't noticed before now was soaring into the sky. Within the cloud, a vibrant mix of neon greens and blood reds flashed like lightning. Intertwining in a deadly tapestry made from the rainbow.
He could tell that the dust cloud was coming his way and it was coming fast. It should have reached Port-vale Harbour town already and that was only 50 miles away.
A hot panic rose up within him, sending precious adrenaline coursing through his veins. He just barely managed to crawl to his feet, teetering slightly as he stood there, swaying like a fallen leaf in the breeze.
The cloud was getting closer and closer, certain death marching towards him relentlessly. If what the snake said was true, there was nowhere to hide, it, would be the only thing left standing…
He turned to look at the heaping coils of the snake that were so extensive they could cover his whole town twice over. It was a few hundred metres away; his legs were weak, and the storm was closing fast.
Without time to ask for permission or think it over, he started stumbling towards the snake that was staring inquisitively from beneath its lazy eyelid at him, like he was some sort of circus act.
Each footstep felt uncertain, like this could be the one that failed, maybe this time he would stumble, or his legs would give out. Maybe he wouldn't be able to get back up, what if he twisted his ankle? He would be dead for sure.
His concentration reached an unprecedented level, even though he was walking through a flat field he paid more attention to each step than when he was climbing down a tree. He couldn't afford to mess up. He didn't have time.
The storm was almost here now, bearing down on him and he could just about make out the roar of the winds and the boom of multicoloured lightning.
Even then, he was going to make it, the snake was just a few tens of metres away. Its deep blue scales gleamed like jewels beneath the rainbow light. He was almost there, just a few more steps and… and…
Thump.
His foot hit a rock.
He stumbled, almost catching his balance. He was so close. He so nearly made it. The storm was all but upon him and he fell. Rolling to a stop within throwing distance of the snake.
It peered down at him through the veil of twisted scales, its obsidian eye's pitying and cold. "Please help me…" Will croaked between gasps of air.
This time, its reply was quick and simple. "Will our debt be cleared?" Its meaning was obvious, it had ruined everything Will had ever known.
He felt the boiling pain in his ankle and knew this was his only choice. He couldn't walk and crawling wouldn't get him there in time.
Gritting his teeth so hard they almost cracked, he nodded, "Yes. Our debt will be cleared," He hissed, more snakelike than the huge serpent in front of him.
"Good. I had hoped you'd say that." The snake hissed, the end of its tail flowing out and wrapping Will up, dragging him into the depths of its never-ending coils.
The last thing he remembered before passing out from exhaustion was the stifling wave of heat that washed over him when the storm hit.