William had an interesting dream.
He saw himself floating amidst a sea of flames, dozens dying out every second.
William could not feel or hear anything, but he saw it.
It was unlike anything he had ever seen: golden, irrational, perhaps even divine. He only knew that it wasn't something the eyes of man should ever glance.
It swallowed the flames.
One by one.
Time was irrelevant. And yet…
It shouldn't have stopped. It couldn't have stopped. But it was stopped.
It was outraged.
It deciphered the root.
William felt a terrible gaze upon him.
***
With a dry gasp, William jerked upright in a cold sweat. A girl stood opposite the young teen, her fair pale skin and silky brown hair untouched by the heat of the room.
"William!" she yelled, shaking the boy.
Before any more words could be said, the girl rushed out of the small room—only the sound of short, light steps could be heard thereafter. The boy fought his urge to question the girl and followed after her.
A well-dressed man paced around the floor, mumbling in deep thought. A woman with a kindly aura shivered ever so slightly on the large living room couch. The girl spoke out, "Father, Mother, William is awake."
The man paused and faced the boy before moving his gaze to the girl. "Does he know?" he asked.
"No, he only just woke up," she answered.
William, although growing older, was still at the age of sixteen. Despite that, he had gone through countless situations, a trait of the modern world—however, even so, he could count on one hand the number of times he saw that expression.
It was a look of complete and utter confusion. It was when one encountered something that could not be explained by any form of logic. It was defeat in the face of the unknown.
Each of his family members harbored a similar expression, and it stressed William to no end.
Unable to wait for an explanation, he asked, "What? What don't I know?"
The father glanced at the nearest window. "Look," he said.
At first, William was confused. Their house had always had a terrible view, with the next-door apartment buildings blocking most of their windows. But looking outside, he quickly understood.
Glistening sand extended into the horizon, small hills spread around every odd place. It was a vast and barren desert, with not a single man-made structure in sight—other than their home.
William could feel a minor jolt in his heart, but he calmed down soon after. He already had a reasonable explanation in mind.
"Did you guys contact the government yet? It's probably a warp accident, so they should be on the issue right now, but we should sti—"
"Will…leave and look up," his younger sister interrupted.
After a short pause, William headed to the door, exiting the house.
"T-The sun…" he muttered.
A large red orb floated in the far distant space, a much smaller white orb orbiting at its side. A red giant, and a white dwarf. The sun was nowhere to be seen.
Only then did his family's behavior make sense to him. They had most likely followed his train of thought, realizing the truth the moment they gazed at the sky.
They were not on Earth. Of course, no real conclusion about the situation could be made—that much William knew.
The sun could have been replaced. The Earth could have been moved. An illusion could have been deployed. Nothing made sense, and yet everything was possible.
That was the reality of the situation.
The universe was incomprehensible after all, and he knew of the potential of technology—everyone did.
It was only a hundred years ago that warp travel was made possible, and only a couple of decades before that when Mars was completely colonized. That was why he could even come up with any reasonable explanation at all.
But even with all that development, and with all those accomplishments, nothing like this should have been possible.
Some mysteries are better left alone, and since aimlessly thinking about what caused this would benefit no one for the time being, this was one of them.
William returned to the living room, finding himself a spot on the couch.
"I assume communication doesn't work?" he asked.
His father nodded.
"We can breathe, and the sky is still blue. Nothing makes sense," his mother spoke.
William only just noticed that fact, that even though two differently colored stars replaced the sun—the lighting was entirely identical to that of Earth.
Silence took over the group. No one knew what to do, or what to say. Should they leave the house and see what's out there? Should they remain here until their supplies ran out?
More often than not, fate was the great decider.
And so the house shook.
Sudden yelps sounded out, William's sister nearly falling down. William ran to the window, witnessing something that would forever scar his mind.
The sky turned dark, a grand shadow overtaking the land. Dark tendrils rippled in the great winds—generated by the creature's grotesque wings. It was unlike anything he had ever seen, distinct from every animal and creature imaginable.
William felt a terrible gaze upon him.
The land was flattened.
***
With a dry gasp, William jerked upright in a cold sweat. Emily, his younger sister, stood next to him.
"William!" she yelled, leaving the room immediately after.
But William did not follow. He stared mindlessly at the opposing wall, trembling.
After some moments of struggled breaths, his trembling was reduced by a decent extent—and so he forced himself to head downstairs.
Hearing his footsteps, his father looked towards him in silence.
"Will, look outside," his sister said.
William faced the window.
Desert.
Confusion and fear overtook William's mind.
"What's happening?" he questioned.
His family was silent.
"We thought it could have been an accident, but…the sun," Emily voiced out.
His fear intensified.
"The creature…what happened to it?" he asked.
As though confusion were a plague, it spread through the house. Each word and line of thought only added more.
"What creature?" his mother asked.
Silence returned to the house, and so it remained for a period of time.
The house shook, and a shadow covered the land. A sudden pressure overtook William, as though a monarch's gaze upon an ant.
The ground was flattened.
***
William was lost. Time and time and time again—failure. Nothing would work, only death awaited.
He ran. He hid. He yelled. It was all for nothing. There was no escaping the creature.
But something changed with each cycle, a feeling grew stronger. It was…comforting. It was everywhere, as natural as the air itself. William felt it every time he died. He felt it grow closer to him, more intimate—more numerous.
He didn't know what it was, only that it was his to control. After hundreds of failures, with more deaths than he could count—he began to experiment.
He first willed it to move. It took several tries, and many more cycles, but eventually, it listened.
Then, he tried to change it. Again, after some tries—notably less than before, it worked.
Experiment after experiment, he glanced into its intricacies. It changed with his desire, following his imagination.
There seemed to be no limitation as to what it could and couldn't do, other than generate more of itself.
Sometimes, he willed it to be ice or rock—and so it was. Others, he willed it to be alive, but that didn't work—though he felt that it could with sufficient understanding and effort.
With each cycle, and every use of the 'energy,' he found that the amount he could control increased, along with his efficiency. But no matter what he tried, the abomination was too powerful.
Then, an idea came to him. If it were too strong, then he could always just run away. And so that's what he did.
He imagined his speed being enhanced, but the 'energy' ran out before anything could happen.
He then refined the idea, instead imagining his and his family's 'bodies' being strengthened, rather than a loose concept such as speed. It worked, however only for a short while.
A realization came upon him. Warp tech had long since been developed back on Earth, and as an aspiring engineer, he knew a thing or two about how Warp Gates functioned.
Hope returned to William's eyes, a plan manifested soon after.
Without explanation, William gathered his family together—and he attempted it.
'Surely it exists here as well…' he thought, an image of an endless sea of darkness entering his head.
The energy moved, and light was warped. Without a second's hesitation, William pushed his family in—their grouped formation helping in doing so.
He could feel the energy seeping away, the strengthening effect on his arms already gone, and the spatial bridge barely holding on.
Jumping in, he focused his mind on guiding their bodies through the sea. After crossing a short distance, very little energy was left—and so he opened an exit and pushed everyone out.
Sharp breaths resounded, with William collapsing on the poking fur of the ground.
'Grass?'
A plain of greenery with occasional hills extended for miles, ending at an encompassing forest.
A strange grin found itself on William's face, before unexpected tears formed under his tired eyes.
He had escaped. He didn't know how long he had tried, only that him succeeding was enough to shatter his self-control.
By now, his family's strange looks were a familiar sight—but even so, he knew he had to satiate their confusion.
And so he explained, from the energy to the creature. His explanation wasn't at all enough to get everyone to understand, but that was only natural as for them it had only been a few minutes since they arrived.
What his family didn't know, however, was that he twisted most of the facts. He hadn't told them of his ability, nor any of the details surrounding it.
He found another way to explain his actions whilst omitting it, such as stating that he could 'feel' the energy, as well as the beast on its way. He helped them get a feel of the energy as well, and after they did, they believed him. Of course, they couldn't use it yet—not even close, but they could still feel it.
He explained that he acted on instinct, recalling the warp gates back home and imagining their mechanism with the energy—effectively utilizing it to get them out of the potential harm.
They were still baffled at how he knew so much and were still skeptical as to his 'instincts,' but they trusted that it was for the best; he was family after all.
"I realize all of this is…strange. But it's happening regardless, and we need to adapt if we want to live," he said.
"It's alright. We trust you," Emily reassured.
Their father, James Hunter, smiled before looking at his surroundings.
"If there was danger back there, then there could be some here as well. We should act soon," he commented, facing William.
"William, are you alright?" his mother said, noticing his wiped tears.
"I'm fine, Mom. Just a bit tired after that stunt," William responded.
"Dad's right. We have to move," he continued, looking towards him. "And if we were brought here, odds are others were too. If not, who knows, maybe this planet has other intelligent races, like elves and dwarfs—seeing as to how the 'energy' is pretty much magic," William joked, though not dismissing the possibility.
With the family's mood lightened, they surveyed the area carefully as a group—looking for any sign of intelligent life.
Eventually, after nearly an hour of wandering and even entering the forest—they found something.
Smoke a few miles away, barely noticeable through the strangely tall trees. William led his family through the woods, explaining some more on how he used the energy along the way—hoping they too would progress in that field.
After half an hour of a light jog, they made it.
It was a village.