"RUN!"
It wasn't the most original plan, but when giant alien murder statues were chasing you through an ancient Egyptian city gone full sci-fi horror, originality took a back seat to survival. Ratatoskr squealed on my shoulder, the owl's wings beat steady beside me, and Eris… well, she was grinning like a lunatic.
"They're getting closer!" I shouted, looking over my shoulder at the thundering stone guardians tearing up the streets.
"Hold up—I got this!" Eris chirped, suddenly spinning on her heel mid-sprint.
"Eris, what are you—?"
Before I could finish, my body froze. Or rather… it wasn't mine anymore.
Oh no.
Possession wasn't a new trick. Eris had mentioned it before—how she could slip into my body to "boost" my abilities in emergencies. But this was no boost. This was Eris grabbing the controls and throwing me into the back seat of my own brain.
"Move aside, hero," she purred in my head. "I'm driving."
"WHAT?!" I screamed mentally as my body stopped dead in its tracks.
Eris stretched my arms, rolled my shoulders, and grinned—a grin that definitely wasn't mine. "Alright, statues! Let's play!"
Ratatoskr's tiny voice squeaked in panic. "Why is he SMILING like that?!"
The owl, unfazed, muttered, "She's taken over."
Before I could protest, Eris turned me—no, us—around to face the advancing statues.
"Now," she whispered with gleeful chaos, "let's make an exit."
In a flash, my entire body rippled… and shrank.
The world expanded around me. My perspective dropped sharply, and everything tilted until I landed on all fours.
What the hell?
"Oh-ho!" Ratatoskr said, his panic morphing into awe. "You turned into a… fox?"
A quick look confirmed it. My—Eris's—limbs were now sleek and furred, covered in chaotic swirls of black and red. My tail (TAIL?!) flicked behind me as I darted sideways with an impossible burst of speed. A sleek, fox-like body—something quick, agile, and insanely chaotic.
"Perfect, don't you think?" Eris said, her voice echoing through my head.
"No, I don't think!" I snapped mentally.
"Less whining, more running," she replied cheerfully.
Eris-the-fox bolted down side streets, twisting through alleyways with terrifying speed. The statues gave chase, their massive bodies crashing through walls and toppling columns, but they couldn't match the sheer chaos of Eris's movement. She zigzagged, doubled back, darted up walls, and even hopped between balconies like a manic parkour master.
Ratatoskr clung to my… fur? "This is both awesome and terrifying!"
The owl, flying overhead, kept pace effortlessly. "The city's edge is close. Head for the dunes."
"Way ahead of you!" Eris said through a literal fox-grin, leaping onto a ledge and springing over a collapsing archway. She dodged two energy beams that shot out of nowhere—the statues were upgrading to ranged attacks. Fantastic.
The statues' thunderous steps began to fade as we broke free of the city's limits, bounding out into the open desert.
We stopped only when the city had become a dark smudge on the horizon. Eris relinquished control, and in an instant, I was me again—sweaty, panting, and absolutely done.
I collapsed face-first into the sand. "Never… do that… again."
Eris stretched beside me, now back in her human form. "Oh, come on! That was fun! You were fast. Foxes suit you."
"You turned me into a fox," I growled into the sand. "And then joyrode my body!"
Ratatoskr snorted. "To be fair, she saved us. That was the most impressive getaway I've ever seen."
The owl landed gently nearby. "We are not yet safe. Look."
I pushed myself up, brushing sand out of my hair.
And froze.
The sky above was filled with massive plates — enormous, floating discs of alien metal. They hung silently in the air, rotating slowly, casting ominous shadows across the desert sands. Beams of light shot downward from their undersides, sweeping across the dunes in a slow, deliberate rhythm. A faint hum—mechanical, unnatural—buzzed in my ears.
"What the hell are those?" I asked, my voice hushed.
The owl's golden eyes narrowed. "Harvesters. They are extracting energy from this realm. This is the cause of the anomaly."
"They're… sucking the timeline dry?" Ratatoskr asked nervously.
"Yes," the owl said, its calm tone contrasting the growing dread in my chest.
Eris squinted up at the discs, her chaotic grin softening. "I don't like them. Too organized."
"Great, we agree on something," I muttered, watching the beams sweep closer. One passed near the dunes, leaving a strange ripple in the sand.
Then, from behind a nearby dune, a voice whispered.
"Hey! Over here!"
I jumped, spinning toward the sound. A group of cloaked figures appeared, waving us toward them. Their robes were rough and dust-covered, and they carried an assortment of spears and scavenged weapons.
"Who are they?" Ratatoskr asked.
"The resistance," the lead figure said, stepping forward. A woman, her face hidden beneath a hood, gestured urgently. "Hurry. The harvesters will find you."
"Resistance?" I echoed. "What, you guys fighting the flying saucers up there?"
"Not here," the woman said firmly. "Come with us."
I hesitated for half a second—but then I looked back at the city and the floating discs overhead. Whatever this was, I wasn't solving it alone.
"Alright," I said, grabbing my pack. "Lead the way."
As we followed the resistance over the dunes, I couldn't help but glance back at the sky. The plates loomed silently, the beams continuing their mechanical harvest. Each one sent a chill through me, like they were scraping at something fundamental in the air itself.
"Note to self," I muttered under my breath, "this timeline needs a hard reset."
To be continued…