Audino Agatha fell and spun in the air, out of her own control. She hit something hard, landed on her side. Given how long she fell for, it didn't hurt as much as she thought it would.
She got her bearings as she pushed herself up from the rough surface of a rock with banded dark brown and tan colors. She wiped off the grit on her hands on her hips.
When Agatha looked up, she didn't see anything. Nothing lied past the edge of the platform she ended up standing on. A pitch black void surrounded her on all sides. Still air fell as a flat curtain on her skin.
"After all this time."
A voice sounded from everywhere. Agatha couldn't tell which direction it was from.
A wind kicked up dust at her feet. Something flew underneath the platform. She crouched low to the ground and covered her face to guard against the whipping winds.
A huge creature rose. It swiveled in the sky, stopped, and outstretched layered, dark, razor sharp wings shaped like triangles. The dragon's shoulders were shaped like shields that led down an arm shaped like a V to five claws. They hung over two legs made out of muscle with the feet of a raptor. Its long neck led to an armored face.
Its open maw had dark tendrils between the top and bottom. It's body was hard to see because it was nearly as black as everything around it. None of its face was visible other than its open mouth.
"I'm glad one of you is finally here," it said as it's voice shivered. "Ah, but alas. You weren't the Pharaoh I was expecting."
Agatha brought her metal feet under herself. Her fight or flight response nailed her to the ground. She didn't have anywhere to run.
"Tell me your name," the dragon said.
She wasn't sure whether she should answer or not. The dragon swayed up and down in the air pointing its empty face at her.
"Agatha," she muttered.
"Oh. That's a nice name."
The dragon paused for a tense, harsh second.
"Oh, those scars. I must apologize. I was instructed to kill all of the Pharaohs, but it would seem you were fortunate. Or unfortunate. In truth, I am left unsure what to feel. Or perhaps only what to do."
"You caused that explosion…?" she asked.
"To say I caused it isn't the full truth. Although I suppose it is true. Oh." The dragon raised its head. "How simple. I could ask."
The dragon raised its arm and drew close. Agatha had nowhere to go when it brought it down. The ground vanished from under her.
Agatha woke up somewhere cool. A bright blue sky greeted her. It could have just been a dream.
When Agatha sat up from soft, dry grass, the dragon floated in front of her further back than before. Pure green and blue clashed on the horizon. It felt even emptier than before.
A Girafarig stood out against the horizon. When she came into Agatha's sight, she was close enough to make her jump and fall back thanks to her feet. She stood up a little further away while the Girafarig kept on a blank, relaxed frown.
"Where am I?" Agatha asked.
"What is this?" Girafarig asked, turning her head back.
"A survivor," the dragon said.
"A survivor?" she scoffed. "This doesn't matter."
When the Girafarig turned her eyes back towards Agatha, her face shifted. Agatha tried to hide her trembling lower lip and clenched fish, but couldn't. Girafarig sighed.
"Look," she said, "what's done is done, and necessary. Your family would have made a disaster."
Agatha didn't know what that was, but it didn't matter.
"It happened on purpose," she came to the realization aloud. "Why?"
"Should I finish?" the dragon asked.
"No," Girafarig said. "She's just a child, idiot… Take her back."
The dragon floated over the Audino like a ghost. It craned its head down. Agatha fell back.
"Your kind was not meant to face mine. One does not fill the void."
A wind brought Audino Agatha back to the real world. Her body snapped to sitting up on its own.
She was back on the grass in the woods. The sound of birds and a bug whizzing past a few paces away confirmed it. She stood up and looked around in a circle to see if anything changed, but nothing. Nature's groans and chirps filled the air instead of silence. Behind her, the machine cast cold shadows over her, inactive.
The whisper of the dirt on her hands from the rock platform remained. Agatha rubbed her fingers together.
It wasn't a dream. The ghost of the experience crawled up and down Agatha's spine.
Deep in her head, a random memory welled back up. She must've seen that pokemon before. It might've looked different, but the image itself drifted away in her mind. It was in a book she read. Most of her family had read it before.
It might've been popular. There could be a chance at a library or bookstore.
Agatha wanted to check, but she lost all her energy. Her adrenaline wore off the more she thought about it. She'd check out some places tomorrow after school.
School. Agatha forgot.
