The City of Chryselia

Chapter 3

Norman gasps for air, waking up on the cold, damp concrete. He sits up, throwing something black and furry off his chest. It bounces painfully off the ground and lands on its side, whimpering before getting up and limping under a dumpster. A tiny yet wide feline nose peeks out, sniffing the air and studying the surroundings with deep amber eyes. Its eyes lock onto Norman, and he can feel the emotion of fear coming through the creature’s eyes into himself. The creature's eyes flick to the top of the dumpster, then to the roofs of the buildings around them. It finally focuses on a spot behind Norman. Fear shoots through him again. He follows its eyes to the edge of the rooftop and sees a large red bird-like creature standing on the edge of the roof, gently cooing. Its wide spherical body is coated with bright red feathers and wings. It stares down at him with bright blue human eyes above a large, pointed yellow beak. It flicks its attention to one of the dumpsters and caws towards it curiously.

The sound of rustling erupts from inside the dumpster, and another of the large red chicken women creatures jumps out. The one behind him coos at it, and it responds with a deeper bass caw. It walks towards him on stumpy human legs that jut out of the large chicken-like body. The eyes of a woman's face pierce him from behind a razor-sharp, yellow beak where its nose and mouth should be. Its feathers flick back and forth as it cocks its bald head from side to side, studying him and creeping closer. Norman begins to back away, and it dives on him, pecking at his skin. He can feel its sharp beak rending small pieces of his flesh from his arms and torso.

Three more thump onto the ground next to it and begin to rip at his legs and shoulders. Norman kicks and screams, trying to push them off. What is going on? Why is this happening? Why is everything going so wrong? Why? WHY? WHY! Norman's emotions and pain flow through his entire body like a cyclone of static in his chest. He screams and feels all the energy shoot out of him in a wave. The bird things screech as they are thrown away. Two splat against a wall, leaving a slick trail of blood and feathers as their corpses slide down the rough brick onto the ground.

Norman sits back up, blood trickling into his left eye from one of the pecks that got his scalp. He watches as the two remaining bird creatures slowly recover and turn back towards him. They squawk and screech as they approach. The small black fuzzy mass shoots out from the dumpster, attaching itself to the closest creature. High-pitched chitters and growls are clouded by the screeching pain of the creature. The other takes the opportunity and pounces on Norman. BANG. A loud shot pierces the air, and the strange bird-lady falls limply through the air on top of Norman, knocking him over onto his back. BANG. A second shot rings out. Norman shoves the large human-faced chicken thing off of him and sees that the second one is dead. The small black creature jumps into Norman's chest and curls its head against him, purring.

It looks almost like a panther kitten, but it has the front legs reminiscent of a raven or predator bird with thick, long talons. Its back is muscular and equipped with two long, feathered wings. The short, thick black fur of the creature surrounds most of its body, besides a light mane of feathers around its neck and down its back to the wings. It tenses and jumps in front of Norman. Footsteps begin to approach, and Norman sees two figures, one taller, muscular, wearing a strange white wooden mask that covers two-thirds of their face, and a large cloak and hood covering the rest of their body. Norman watches as they holster a large handgun and begin to inspect the corpses of the chicken ladies.

The other figure is more rotund and wears an outfit made more for a hiker or park ranger. They have a large brimmed hat with a matching shirt and vest. A large utility belt hangs around tan cargo shorts that almost reach tall, bright yellow and brown striped socks that stick out of their boots. A thick wooden walking stick with a large yellow gem on the top of it glows slightly in their hands.

The small black kitten hisses threateningly as the hiker looking one approaches. "Whoa there, kitty. I ain't gonna hurt y'all.” She says with a thick southern drawl. “Are you both okay? Them harpies can be a nasty piece of work."

Stunned by the woman's kindness and the thickness of her southern drawl, it takes Norman a few moments to respond. "I'm fine. Harpies?"

"These damn chicken ladies," The cloaked person says in a gruff and impatient voice. "Can we wipe him and go? We missed the anomaly." He sounds like he’s close to Norman’s age.

"Well, he might know something, mister.” The woman puts her hands on her hips and stares at the cloaked figure with disappointment. “We really do need to work on your people skills, Quinton."

"Yeah, sure," The guy named Quinton says as he crouches and lays a hand on one of the harpies. His touch sets it ablaze with a deep gray flame that barely emits any light. The body of the creature sloughs into a black goo that burns and sizzles into steam.

The woman dressed as a ranger comes closer, and in the newly dim light of the burning harpy, Norman can see her kind yet curious eyes and a gentle smile. She has graying auburn red hair and bright blue eyes that complement her pale skin. "So, did you happen to see anything strange? Strands of weird lights? Other odd creatures or humans besides us?”

“What did he just do?” Norman stutters, pointing at the burning goo.

“Got rid of the corpses.” She answers calmly. Can’t let anyone just stumble into those. Now, can you please answer my question? Did you see anything like strands of lights or a big orb of energy?”

“There was a giant gem or something here just a few minutes ago.”

“Like a bright glowing orb?" The woman asks inquisitively.

"Yeah, what was it?"

"We call them anomalies. They are sudden appearances of wild and uncanny mag-"

"We are just going to wipe him when you are done. Why do you always explain it?" The gruff figure crouches near the wall and ignites the other two harpies.

“Well, I am a teacher.” The ranger lady says, shaking her head before continuing. "Ignore him, he's just jealous he didn't get to see it. Did anything else strange happen while you were near it? A weird energy or noises coming from it?"

"I didn't hear any noises," Norman hesitates, wondering if falling through that alien world was real, a dream, or his mind playing awful tricks on him.

"Go on, you won't sound crazy to me. I've seen and heard plenty." She says kindly.

"Well, I got close to it. It felt kind of warm, and it filled the air with a sort of static. I don't know why, but I fell. Something hit me in the back, I think. I closed my eyes, waiting to hit the concrete, but” He trails off, taking a deep breath. “When I could open my eyes, I was falling through the sky. It wasn't like our sky, though. There were strange clouds of gases and floating lakes of water. There were trees of all sorts of colors, and there was a pocket of air that made me choke and burn, and then I fell into a floating lake!” He spouts frantically. “I felt like I was going to drown until I fell through the bottom and got hit by something. I’m pretty sure it was that cat thing. When I could look down, I saw a big volcano and fell into weird magma."

"Lava. Magma is deep underground.” She corrects. “How was it weird?"

"It had the same strange glow the crystal thing had, but it didn’t feel like I thought lava would feel like. It felt like I was sinking through gelatine."

"Okay, and what happened next?"

"Well, I fell in, and it felt like my entire body was being turned into nothing, and then I blacked out and woke up here being attacked by the bird ladies."

"And the cute little creature guarding you?"

"I don't know. It was on me when I woke up."

"Alrighty then, is there anything else you need to tell us, or are you ready to go home?"

"I am very ready to go home."

"Alrighty, let's wipe you then."

"Wipe me? What do you mean?"

"Normal people aren't allowed to know about magic, so I'm going to have to erase your memory and take the cute little kitten." The small kitten hisses loudly and pounces into a fighting position as the woman gets closer and reaches for Norman. Her hand begins to glow with a light blue energy as it approaches Norman's face. He can feel the fear and anger like radiation coming from the small panther thing. It leaps out and claws at her leg before being lifted by the scruff of its neck by her. She places her hand on the top of its head, and it falls limp in her arms. Unsure and scared of what she is doing, he scrambles backwards, dodging her grasp as she begins to reach for him. "Now, young man, it's not a bad thing. It will be nice and quick. No pain at all."

Norman continues backwards, swerving away from her hand until he impacts something solid. Two strong hands grasp his shoulders, holding him in place. The woman gets closer, raising her hand level with Norman's face. He struggles against his captor, screaming, "Let me go! Don't!”

Norman feels a mixture of fear, hatred, anger, and many other emotions that don’t even feel like his own. “NO!" Norman screams, and the same wave of emotion and burning energy bursts out of him again, flinging the two away from him. He rushes to his feet and watches the larger man getting up from the wall. His hood and mask fallen away, Norman sees a streak of scales across the young man's cheek and dark skin surrounding a bright yellow feline eye. The man notices Norman staring at him and quickly turns his face in disgust and scrambles to find his coverings.

The back door of the police station bursts open, and the young deputy comes running out. He sees the woman on the ground and walks over to help her up. "What's going on here? Are you okay, ma'am? Is anyone hurt? We heard gunshots."

The woman smiles at him, taking his hand to get up, and her eyes glow with the same light blue before she says, "We’re fine. Thank you so much for all the help. You can go back in now." The man turns confused and blindly, as if in a daze, and turns around, walking right back inside. The ranger woman turns back to Norman and lets out a long breath of air. "Now you are one intriguing fella, you know that? I think you left a piece of your story out."

The accusatory tone in her voice pushes Norman the wrong way, and he just screams, "What the hell was that?”, while gesturing at the closed back door of the police station. “I don't know what's happening! Just yesterday, my uncle shot someone, and someone burned down our farm. Today, the police arrested him for murder, leaving me completely alone. And when I try to see him? He tells me there's nothing to do to free him. To not even try. And then I leave the station, and my goddamn truck won't start. I see some strange lights. Follow them, and now I'm here. Talking to two crazy people who just killed some chicken women that almost ripped me apart!" The woman raises her arm and points her blue glowing hand at Norman, but he is too wrapped up in his rant; he doesn't care. "You really think I have any idea on which part of my story to leave out!" Norman watches as her hand flashes with a deep blue light, and a strange, inescapable tiredness washes over his entire body. He collapses into solid sleep.