[??? has completed designation: Earth, beginning phase 2...]

[Updating world parameters...]

The words resounded in the minds of everybody in the plane and beyond as though somebody were whispering in their ears. Of course, this made everybody in the plane look around frantically at those beside them.

However, sitting alone in my row I could tell it wasn't coming from somebody. The realization sent tingles down my spine.

"What the--?"

The words unwillingly escaped my lips, only to be interrupted by a huge bout of turbulence that sent the people into a panic.

People screamed and fled back to their seats, stumbling over one another frantically. However, the turbulence was not in and of itself the most fearsome part of the endeavor.

Rather, as my eyes drifted to the window next to me, I felt my blood chill.

Originating at some point beyond the horizon, the earth seemed to be... stretching, expanding. At breakneck pace, the ocean that had once churned far down beneath us was replaced by green plains. In an instant, the green was overcome by freezing ice, and tall peaks capped in snow and abnormally large evergreen trees appeared.

As the world continued to warp and stretch, the scenery changing, a bone-chilling roar could be heard.

WWWWWRRRRRAAAAAA

Though I couldn't see what it was that had made such a primal, predatory sound, I could instinctively tell it was something ancient and powerful. It wasn't just me that felt this primal fear, either, as those sitting down froze and those still in the aisle fled faster.

The plane continued to shake, and people pushed and shoved one another aside. The minds of those who had heard that roar were all the same: immersed in fear. However, one thought somehow pulled me out of my trance.

Alice

I snapped my head around, trying to undo my seatbelt and get up to help her. However, another bout of turbulence planted me in my seat.

Alice

Where was she? She had to be safe.

My eyes scanned the back as I frantically fought despite my body's desire to ignore my will. I could feel each passing second as though it were an eternity.

Please be alright, please...

I couldn't see her, couldn't help her. I begged for her to appear.

And then I saw her.

A small sliver of bright blonde in a sea of muted colors.

But as my eyes met her emerald ones, my stomach sank.

The message her eyes sent to me was clear and desperate: help. However, every time she tried to push forward the larger bodies of the adults would shove her back. It seemed like she might get trampled.

"STOP IT! LET HER THROUGH!"

Yanking on the seatbelt, I tried to reach towards her. However, once again the turbulence sent us reeling. Alice flew to the side, her head hitting against one of the nearby seats and causing a gash to appear on her head that dripped blood.

"LET HER THROUGH YOU BASTARDS!"

My voice was drowned out in the chaos, and I was overcome with a sense of helplessness.

Weak.

I was weak.

What can you do?

I couldn't do anything. Watching those people toss around my sister, one of the few people I actually cared about, my helplessness turned to rage. That rage, it began to turn into something... different in the core of my being.

However, before I could do anything else, something happened to the cabin. More specifically, it wasn't one thing. It was many things, all at once.

First was the monster outside of the plane. Though my mind was too unstable to register it in the moment, it had already begun to flash outside the plane as it circled it.

White scales along its titanic body, purple scales around its eyes. Its head alone was the size of the entire airplane, probably larger. Its wings shone in the sunlight as they flapped majestically.

For anybody who'd seen any fantasy media, its identity was obvious: a dragon.

It was beautiful and dangerous, and with a single flap of its wings it shot up from beneath the plane to above it. Its wings severed the plane in half cleanly, sending the rear half spiraling as the front half separated from it.

However, that wasn't the most horrifying part of what happened.

Like the monster had been opening a bag of chips, it lingered in the air as people were sucked helplessly outside of the plane. 

Then, with a single chomp, it cut all of their lives off in an instant.

However much hatred I'd felt for the people pushing my small, helpless sister, my seething rage became unfathomable as I watched her fly into the open sky.

I felt our eyes meet, her fear and desperation being communicated to me. However, the next instant those large, dark jaws closed around her.

In that instant, that large mouth with jagged teeth wasn't only the mouth of a monster, it was a looming black hole. It was like looking into a bottomless put of pure darkness, and the more I looked the deeper I fell into it.

Just like that, I'd lost my sister. I'd lost my father. I'd probably lose my life.

Why

That single thought repeated in my head.

WHY WHY WHY

Why me? Why now?

When it comes to dragons, a pinnacle monster surpassing humans in every way, they have a natural aura that scares off lesser creatures. Normally, it would be impossible for somebody to even think of going against one. However, right now, my mind couldn't even handle complete thoughts.

In spite of whatever part of my being was telling me to be afraid, I was overcome with a single, perhaps laughable desire.

Kill

I wanted to kill that overgrown lizard, to take from it what it had taken from me.

However, it was obvious that I wasn't even on its radar.

As it turned its eyes towards my half of the plane, opening its jaws once more, I steeled myself.

Would it be death? Something else?

No, that didn't feel quite right.

As I thought so, another bone-chilling roar sounded from behind me. It wasn't quite as loud or as terrifying, but it was undoubtedly another of the monster's kind.

A smaller dragon, regal and silver, charged forward, brushing the back of the plane to the side.

It impacted one of the tall, snowy mountains that had sprung up somehow, sending my head forward to smash into the back of the seat in front of me before bouncing back into my seat.

In the midst of my fading consciousness, seething rage, and overwhelming pain, I saw the two dragons, titanic and small, battling in the air.

My eyes closed as the silver dragon bit at the larger dragon's neck, piercing through its scales.

My forehead burned, and blood dripped into one of my eyes.

I couldn't think, but somehow I still knew.

After today, my world would never be the same.

Today was the beginning of a new era.