I didn’t really know why I did it; I saw the explosion and for some odd reason my first thought was to go and investigate. It wasn’t to run and hide like the mass of people I was pushing through. They were like a massive sea of people, pushing and shoving, trying to save their own skin.

One of the people running past bumped into me and fell over, she was a short woman with brown hair and glasses. She got up and dusted herself off.“Are you alright?” I asked, hoping she wouldn’t be too mad with me.“Ohh, yes, I’m so sorry, I’m just very late for work” she mumbled, her voice very hushed as though people yelled at her a lot. “Oh no, it’s all my fault, sorry for stopping you” I really was sorry for stopping her, I hoped she wouldn’t get yelled at for being late. “By the way, the road ahead where you are going is blocked off” I still didn’t really have an answer for why I was doing it so I just shrugged and said “Oh, I’m just heading over to the gardens” I waved goodbye and bolted, hoping to avoid any further questions.

There was another explosion of light and the ground shook even harder. I could tell I was getting closer to the source. I increased my speed as I approached the roadblock. Out of nowhere a cop appeared and blocked my path, but I didn’t slow down. I leapt up and vaulted of the man’s shoulders, easily clearing the barricade. As I continued down the street I heard the officers behind me shouting, but they were clearly to afraid to follow after me. This was probably a bad idea, but I just continued on. I tried to find some way to get up higher, but the buildings around were much too old and crumbly. I figured if I tried to climb them I’d slip and fall, so I searched for a fire escape. It took some time, as most of the buildings were either falling apart or just not up to code, but I finally found one.

I quickly scaled the ladder and got to the top of the building, gaining a new perspective of the land. This section of the city was similar to the one I usually stayed in, but it was in an even worse state. On top of all the crumbling buildings, there were plenty that were more like piles of bricks than buildings and even some that had sunk into the ground. As another thunderous boom sounded I thought to myself, Why am I not running? Whatever it is that’s creating these explosions will probably kill me too. And though I wasn’t really looking for a response, Sylak responded, Well, my little kitten, it’s because you’re just so curious. And you know what they say after all, CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT! This rattled me a little because he was right; god, that was a horrible feeling. I ignored it and just kept going, quickly hopping between rooftops. After landing on top of a pretty stable building there was a massive explosion right in the front of the building. It shook the building and knocked me over, scraping my knee. I then realized that my ears felt a bit cold, and I reached up to my head and found that they had come loose and were being proudly displayed atop my head. They were still a bit sore from the night before, and since there was nobody around I decided to just leave them out; there was no point in wasting time.

As I walked over to the site of the explosion, I saw that a large chunk of the building was missing, revealing the inside. The interiors of the complex looked as bad as the outside; walls were falling apart and there was plenty of exposed wiring, which was clearly not the safest place. Billowing up from the inside was a strange black fire that clearly hadn’t been there before the explosion. This fire is quite pretty, I’m sure you could roast some killer marshmallows over that Sylak said, clearly having something far more sinister in mind than s'mores. I ignored the comment, but then I examined the fire further and found something quite peculiar about it. I jumped down through the hole into the room, the boards groaning under my weight. I walked up to the fire to get a closer look. As I suspected, the fire looked like it was shifting around, not just like normal fire, but the color of the fire kept shifting in each different part. It was exactly like the clothes of the man in black from the dream of the previous night. Maybe they were connected somehow, or maybe I was hallucinating. I slowly inched my hand towards the fire, and it was as though I could feel Sylak’s anticipation at what would happen.

To my surprise, instead of jumping across my arm and engulfing my arm in flames, the fire parted around my arm as though it were making sure it didn’t burn me. I turned my hand over and moved it around, watching as the fire adjusted to the contour of my body. The spectacle was quite amusing to watch, as it was also quite fun to do, watching as the flames danced around my body. Well, isn’t that disappointing… I was hoping it would burn you alive. The comment echoed through my mind. Why hadn’t it burned me, this may be fun, but it still didn’t make any sense.

All of the sudden, a deep pain surged through my eye, I quickly clutched the left side of my face. Unfortunately, this was not the right move as purple sparks jolted up my hand and repelled my touch. “What did you do?!” I angrily asked Sylak, the purple lightning being his trademark and there being no clear external force that could have caused it, other than the fire. Oh yes because everything is my fault, is it? Clearly agitated by the accusation. “Well who else has purple lightning that we know of?” I snapped back. He didn’t respond, so I just assumed he didn’t have a retort, it had to have been him.

Well the pain finally subsided and I looked up from the ground, everything looked very odd. Everything seemed to have a colorful outline around it and the fire had a shifting ball of grey in it’s center. It was all quite surreal, as though I had fallen into an abstract art piece expressing the inner color of an entire city. I looked out from the hole in the building to the rest of the city and saw a few other fires in the distance with the same strange swirling ball of grey. I decided I shouldn’t pay it much mind for now.

From a nearby alley, I heard faint whispers coming from some very squeaky companions. As I neared closer I could make out 4 distinct voices; The first was very assertive and strong, the second was quite meek and high, the third and fourth seemed to speak in unison but, were different enough to tell them apart. As I peered over the roof I saw a small pack of cats crowded together behind an empty dumpster. I hadn’t heard the beginning of the discussion but, it seemed as though they were arguing about whether to leave the city or not.

“There are explosions everywhere and buildings are coming down left and right, we have to leave while we can” the smallest cat squeaked. He was a frail stick of a cat, barely covering his skeletal frame was spiky ghost white fur. “Of course you would say that, you don’t know how to be a proper warrior and fight out the battle” This came from the larger cat, She was plump but, clearly quite agile, and was covered head to toe in jet black fur, except for a small spot on her back that was stained purple. The other two who had spoken in unison were merely sitting behind the other two nodding along and watching as the chaos ensued. One was dark grey and the other was very light grey. They seemed like perfect mirrors of one another but, yet seemed so in sync

I was so enthralled by the conversation that I didn’t notice that the floor was crumbling beneath me. I fell face first into the alley, right in the center of the feline argument. The larger cat hissed at me and I jumped back, hoping I wouldn’t anger the menacing ball of claws and fur in front of me. “What should we do to him boys?” The cat hissed, addressing the two kittens behind her. “Nothing, you should do nothing to me” I frantically stammered out, hoping to not insult the cat. She backed up, clearly baffled by the response. “You can understand us?” She said the look on her face growing more and more confused. I pointed to the furry green ears atop my head “Of course I can, but that’s not important right now”

The four cats reared back, going from confused to afraid, to astonished. “W-what do you want from us?” The frail white kitten said, shivering with each syllable. “I just have a few questions for you, nothing malicious or anything” I put my hands up in a peaceful manner hoping to avoid any conflict. “We don’t want or need to help you, you little brat” taunted the large black cat, finally regaining her composure. “There’s no need to be rude, I just want to know if you’ve seen what’s been creating all those explosion?” I pleaded with the cats. “Nothing at all. Nothing at all.” The two grey cats said in unison. “W-w-well, actually we did…” The kitten was cut off by a swipe of claws as the black cat struck the small kitten and bolted, the two grey cats following suit quickly behind.

I slowly walked over to the small white kitten sprawled across the alley. “Are you okay?” I said lifting him up carefully. “W-w-why yes, I’m alright, just a little scratch.” the kitten squeaked out, wincing from the pain of the scratch. I sat down cross legged in front of the cat, the gravel not feeling very comfortable, but I wanted to be respectful. “So, you said you did see something, what was it?” I inquired, hoping it could help me out somewhat.  “Well, I didn’t really see exactly what it was, but, all of the sudden there was this flash of black light and smoke and then a dark grey streaked ran right in front of here” he pointed the open end of the alley. “Did you see anything else?” I said scooting forward a bit. “No, s-s-sorry, that was all I saw.”

I jumped up to my feet, startling the kitten and causing him to jump back. “Well thanks for the…” I was interrupted by a flash of light and a loud BOOM! I quickly turned around and saw a cloud of smoke billowing up, not too far away. “Guess I should go investigate that, see ya later” I said, waving goodbye to the kitten and heading in the direction of the explosions.

As I was running away I noticed that my hands had a strange greenish glow to them, same as the rest of the buildings and such around me. I continued around a corner and saw another column of fire running up the side of a building, shifting and changing just like the other one.  I simply ran past without paying it much mind, it wasn’t what was important right now. I had to find the source of these explosions, I was more determined than ever now.

As I rounded another corner and was met with a long wide open street stretching far in front, there was a set of three black explosions barely a quarter mile down the road from where I was standing. I was closer than ever and I had to go see what it was that was doing this. Run Avien Run! I heard Sylak chastise me in tandem with my somewhat foolish and impulsive actions.

I had gotten much closer to the source of the explosions, as I could see an aura very similar to the one given off by the fire coming from behind a nearby building. However, there was something odd around it, three more auras, each of different color. One was red with flecks of grey in it, another was brown also flecked with grey, and the final was a bright yellow aura, reminiscent of an angel. The anticipation had been building me up for this moment and as I rounded the corner, there was a massive explosion right in front of me that threw me against a wall, knocking me unconscious.