Chapter Text
Rose stretched her legs, rising from her thinly padded cot. The wind outside was strong, indicating her ride must have remained nearby. Despite the temperature of the night, a Phoenix must have been lurking nearby, as the temperature was incredibly high, and a blinding miniature sun was outside the far window of her hideout. She hummed, pleased. She would have to ask if it desired anything as thanks.
The invasion had been swift and brutal. Earth's natives had been… Inadequate to face their newfound foes. Armed with impressive weapons, space travel, and nocturnal tendencies, it was looking like they'd be overwhelmed and captured - or slaughtered - within days. Until the monsters arrived.
The humans were untouched in their restraints, carted between captors like cattle. But every battleground featured multicolor, almost paint-like spatters of blood, marking where a pack of hellhounds had torn through them like so much paper. Written messages and notifications arrived in the beaks of Rain Birds, followed by the very storms the beasts heralded. Rose had even had the pleasure of seeing a Sasquatch rip apart the cages containing her friend through the lens of a brave soul armed with a video camera.
Truly, these alien invaders had been more than equipped to attack humans. They had believed themselves nigh untouchable up until the mythical became the real. And now, Rose was putting her faith in the Mankayia who had picked her up from the wyvern that had been so kind as to take her to the south, toward her friend.
She offered the Phoenix her gratitude, relieved when the bird bowed its head at her before flying away. It only asked that she remain with her Mankayia, safe and protected as thanks. After all, should she fall, it would have spent its night defending her when it hadn't needed to. Phoenix were vain and preferred that they be regarded with awe and reverence, and this one certainly was no different.
Rumor online was that there was a man capable of fighting back against the brightly horned invaders, and rumor lined up an awful lot with what Dave had told her about his brother. And if Dave was still around, that meant the two of them could get to John and maybe see if Jade's hellish island had weathered the invasion reasonably. If luck held, Jade's island may even wind up being a pseudo-safe haven where they could bunker down and wait out the rest of the invasion.
Of course, Rose had to speculate that if the mythlogical were now the logical, perhaps the gods were also real. This would surely be an issue once the Earth was free from its would-be conquerors. Of course, that was a matter for later.
Her Mankayia tore through the prairie of Oklahoma, leaping off of hills and running through valleys as it honed in on the general area of Dallas. She wasn't one hundred percent certain where they were, what with how the invasion had destroyed several notable landmark cities, but she knew that they were getting close, even as her ride took a northerly turn to avoid a small camp of invaders.
Funny that she still did not know the name of the species that was razing her native planet. Despite her best information gathering attempts, the internet had been closely monitored by invaders marked in gold, and so she had been unable to peruse nearly as much as she would have liked in the beginning. Now, towards what she had considered the end until the mythical beasts arose, the internet was hardly considered a priority. Transmissions were brief under the assumption that the gold-marked were still watching communications and largely consisted of important news, missing cities, and liberated regions of the world.
Greece and the Scandinavians had fared remarkably well. Europe, though large, was also well off for itself, defended by ferocious wyrms and dragons and even Jormungandr. When the Asiatic countries also broke free, no one was surprised. The Inuit and Russians almost hadn't needed their monsters, given that they were so sun scorched at this time of year that the aliens - who had quickly been discovered as weak to the sun - were unable to draw near. They would need their creatures if this seige lasted until wintertime, though. The eternal nights would certainly be their downfall.
Rose was knocked out of her thoughts by a snort that sounded as much like a snort as it did wind blowing through a door. A road sign had been left untouched, announcing Dallas to be 400 miles away. By her calculations, that should be a four hour ride. The Mankayia shifted eagerly as she wound her fingers back through its mane that felt like a warm summer's wind carrying rain. It danced in place before bounding in the direction of the sign at full speed.
The Mankayia dropped her off on the outskirts of the Dallas Fort Worth region, reared, and vanished into the clouds above. By Rose's understanding of the creatures, she should be seeing her next guide shortly, unless she was intended to navigate the city alone. She certainly wasn't expecting the emaciated, hairless canid that skulked out of the shadows of the wreckage that made up the outer limits of the suburbs. Its mouth dripped with browns and olive green blood - it must have arrived from a feast of intruders to escort her.
It tilted its head, bared its large fangs in greeting, and turned, looking over its shoulder once to indicate she should follow before trotting into the ruins. As she followed, the city went from "absolutely uninhabitable" to "freshly evacuated", even though several of the houses showed recent signs of life. She assumed that the inhabitants were doing what they could to stay inside, quiet, and impossible for the invaders to locate. She was proven right when she saw a face watching her from a window. Given that the occupant wasn't Dave, she didn't particularly need to worry about who they were.
The main goal was to get to Dave. Tomorrow, if at all possible. The canine guided her to an emptied out shed, lying in front as soon as she moved inside. The message was clear. It would protect her for the night. Tomorrow, she would be on her own. Tomorrow, she would be with Dave.
Her sleep was light, but she slept, which was the second most important part. The most important part was that she woke up. She dug through her backpack for the last of her food - some stringy jerky from a random gas station. The Mankayia had moved enough of the debris of it for her to spot the bag and recover it for herself.
The canine sat quietly, turning down a scrap of the jerky when she offered it. She had presumed it wouldn't want any, but offering was the correct thing to do in such circumstances.
Dave's apartment - and several others - loomed on the horizon, blotting the rising sun. The hairless canine began moving as soon as Rose stood up, leading her toward the skyscrapers that made up the skyline. It was silent, padding impossibly quietly even over broken glass that Rose had to dodge. It guided her through roads, past blockades set up by survivors and invaders alike, through alleys and even buildings that had been blasted open by impressively powerful weaponry.
Rose had heard that the aliens were struggling now that the humans had breathing room and corpses to scavenge. Their technology, though controlled largely by the gold-marked (and presumably gold-blooded, if the olive green marked corpse she passed was any indicator), was being recreated and refitted for human use. She would have to see if Dave had any more information than she did. He, at least, had not spent the last few days travelling and avoiding any signs of life just in case they were the aliens.
She braced herself as she got closer and closer to the apartment, trying to preemptively guess his response and how the entire conversation might go. She had to be ready, had to convince him to find John and Jade with her. She had to be able to predict every line of the dialogue and steer the conversation in her favor.
Which was why when Dave dropped off of a nearby rooftop and told her "Rose, I know you just got here, but we need to go find John and Jade" that her mind briefly bluescreened.