What was only ten seconds lasted too long, and all the same it passed by too hastily. All of the time in the world could not amount to this point,
The right man in the wrong place with unexpected allies to die with.
A military tactician and great leader, hiding under a roaring inferno using a tent he set ablaze and using it defensively in a nearly fatal move.
A matron of the draconic, normally with tranquility superseding outside pressure was unsure of their fate, limping and afraid of what was to come with each thud of her currently unusable leg.
A kinsman, his equally stoic appearance falling apart as members around them began to disappear to these invisible creatures.
What first began as a callout to find sanctuary for them all to quietly hide, was now an orchestra of wails and the gnashing of teeth for their finest hour. It was not an easy choice, but a choice was made. Survival took precedence for sure.
As his hands pounded onto the ground, each seismic crash into the earth brought forward an unending wrathful strength to be gained and as well giving life to an old voice in his head. Contradicting the cold realities and piercing guffaw of instinct taking over, a previously missing and soothing voice was accompanied by a man of the past by their bed in front of himself.
For now, there was no clicker crisis in this home he returned to. It was a warm autumn night, dimly lit by a nearly burnt-out candle as he looked around himself. Stepping forward, these old smells of spices and old rags, the furniture he saw and recognized filled the man's senses while the birds were beginning to silence their chiming and chirping outside for their bedtime. The Ailor was by the bedside of an old woman, hardly holding onto her last strings of life that she had technically lost years ago. It was his mother, and with eyelids drooping she looked to him with a smile that warmed his heart and caused him to break a small smile of his own.
The large man knelt downwards, holding her hand gingerly as he struggled to begin to find his words. He knew she was not real, for the harsh reality was that he was never there when she passed. As the walls slowly cracked and shook from the real Url boomed around them the war of reality versus his mind, he ignored it just for the few fleeting moments he was holding onto.
Had it really been five years since he missed this moment? No, that doesn't matter. She is here; speak to her. This is your only chance.
As his hoarse voice began to crawl from his throat, he was silenced by her eyes looking into his, her scratchy voice managing words that would stay with him forever.
"I forgive you Quin, but there is still a chance to change-- to be a protector."
CRACK!
The roof was then violently ripped off by a gale wind as the darkness began to crawl reality into where they were as the birds of the outside had silenced, the small only light they had snuffed out and suffocated by the coming air. Yet, he ignored it.
The only reply he could muster was the tears that began to fall from his face, holding her hand closer to himself now held by both of his as her force of life began to fade. As he closed his eyes, he placed his head onto the blanket she had to keep herself warm for these last few seconds. But now, the bed was empty as another wall ripped and flew into the sky above to the winds that now began to affect him, leaning his body to fight the wind only for everything to suddenly pause in place as a new reality was set in of who he was.
He was back to the moment they all expected to die, screams and clicking resounding around them.
As the now hulking Archon of Quin turned his head to his left to a new objective, the alien figure could hear almost nothing outside of a torrential pouring of reality's rain and wind that howled and cut into his brain. Another voice; however, remained above the other deafening sounds despite not having a louder volume at all. It was Gwenyth, a once breaking stoicism of someone feeling helpless turned into someone who wanted to fight for even just a few extra moments to live as she stood tall. As the gale winds drowned everything else aside from her words, her words roared into the sky and around himself as she spoke what seemed to the Archon an undeniable truth.
"Today is not the day we die. Archon, come to me for defense. We will buy all the time we need."
((Yes I got approval from @MantaRey.))
((@Ryria for the "Moment in Time" Competition))
((Based on an IC experience, light effect and additions inbetween.))
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