Why does my mom keep dragging me to the mall, Avery thought following her mother into yet another department store, its not like anyone cool would be here, who went to the mall anymore? Her mother rushed excitedly from shop to shop, exclaiming over all the inane things decorating the walls and displays.
She tried to drift away into the crowd, but her mother spotted her.
“Where you going Avery? Come see this dress, exactly your color. You would be adorable in this dress!”
Avery shuffled over, She hasn’t ever gotten her style right, the dress . Avery had bright red hair and an ungodly amount of freckles, the dress was bright pink with ruffles and half sleeves. Was this ever popular she thought as she tried to diplomatically tell her mother she wasn’t interested.
“You have to at least try the dress on,” her mother exclaimed, “This would be perfect for your job interview tomorrow.”
Why does my mom never listen, Avery thought, its useless.
There was no reasoning with her mother when they were shopping, she would have to try the dress on, buy the stupid thing, and when her mom wasn’t looking return it at the first opportunity.
How many dresses have I returned without my mom knowing? Fifty? Sixty. She had lost track after a while
“Trying this one on dear?” asked the girl manning the changing room. She stared at Avery sympathetically, Avery was a regular and the changing room girl knew Avery would be bringing this dress back in a few days.
“My mom wants me to try this monstrosity on, sorry for the inconvenience.”
“That’s all right, that one hasn’t moved in ages, gives us a reason to put something else in the display.”
Avery headed into the changing room, Locking the door behind her she took a deep breath and examined the dress again. Definitely not her color, or design for that matter.
The room shook, a shimmer appeared, at the door and moved towards her. She backed away from the shimmer, this wasn’t normal.
“Can someone help me?” she called out.
No one answered, the shimmer extended around the length of the room, soon she would be surrounded.
Best not to let that touch me, she thought, I don’t know what the shimmer is, or what it will do to me but I am not sticking around to find out.
She turned attacking the wall behind her. She kicked a hole in the base, and widened it with her hands. She made a space for her head to fit through and started crawling through. Shoving her shoulder
She was almost free when the shimmer touched her foot.
Everything changed instantly.
The sensation was like being torn in two. She was both roasting and freezing. Up and down kept flipping, she couldn’t tell where she was. Looking at her hand she watched her skin peel back, observed the working of her bones as she flexed her hand. Everything around her was shimmering intensely. Creatures moved around the outside of the shimmer, she had never seen anything like them but they didn’t appear to be anything she wanted to meet.
After a moment she landed with a crash back on the ground.
Where am I, she thought looking around. A three meter tall lizard with a beak ate fruit off of what appeared to beke a pine tree. Except since when did pine trees have fruit. The beaked lizard turned and examined her, she stood terror struck. This creature was massive. The creature made a loud rasping sound and turned back to its meal.
Avery felt her muscles unlocking, she sat down abruptly, panting for air.
She moved away from the grazing lizard, what was it?
Making her way through the woods she felt like there was something close by watching her, she turned quickly several times but couldn’t escape the feeling she was being followed.
Escaping the forest she came out onto an extensive plain, herds of creatures grazed in grass as tall as her waist. They lumbered around, making shrill noises at the sight of her, and returning to their grazing when she wasn’t a threat.
I should know what those are, Avery thought, but I cant remember. What are they?
A chittering sound behind her made her turn, there was something eyeing her from the brush. Something almost as tall as her, with scaly skin and lots of teeth. It lunged forward clawed hands scraping at her. She dodged left and right, got underneath its grip and sprinted for it. The tail whipped around, knocking her feet out from under her. She crashed to the ground and rolled away. It pursued her into the underbrush. She kicked and thrashed at the creature as it pushed its way through the dense underbrush.
A loud trumpeting sound startled the creature, she glanced up as something with three horns sticking off of its head slammed into the creature, sending it flying.
The three horned creature pursued the carnivore, stomping on it repeatedly as it tried to escape.
Avery did not wait to see who won, she raced into the forest and climbed up the nearest tree. Sitting up in the branches she observed the area, wondering what she should do next.
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Cadence 