Heron's Gate. The breeze blew softly across the land. The multitudes of various birds chirped and the trees hummed as their leaves swayed. The white blades of grass danced in the wind. The golden butterflies flittered about in a carefree manner, knowing there are no natural predators here. There was nothing to fear here. The bovids grazed. The deer and antelope played in the fields. The skies were clear and the light shone on everything. The lakes reflected the light playfully across the surface. Carp danced beneath the ripples, every so often breaching into the air. A golden gate inlayed with mother of pearl marked the entrance. The sandstone buildings were littered about like a small town. Each one vastly different in shape than the other. The land was white beyond white, even the grass. The flowers reflected the illumination that fell upon them. Everything was tended to by several races of people that wore simple clothing. It was truly a paradise in the middle of the universe.
Everything was quiet.
Without warning, a large explosion rocked Heron's Gate's main building. A large cloud of dust filled the entire building, billowing out of the large windows. From within a shadow stepped out of the main communal area. Their movements were slow and deliberate, swaying back and forth like the undulations of a snake. Behind them, six orbs of red glowing light were placed about the room, illuminating the room in the fog of dust. Anything in the room was hard to see, only shadows.
As the dust cleared, a form took shape in the light. A young woman with green-gold eyes of a python and deep verdant scales. Her hair fell long about her midback, colored a light greenish with blondish tinges. Her face was relatively flat with a smallish nose and a wide mouth with thin lips. Her scales fanned from the sides of her face and down her neck. She wore a long white robe of silk cinched about the waist with a belt also of silk. It flowed along her arms draping about in wide ripples. It ran down to her ankles. She paired it with open-toed sandals that made their way up her calf in a crisscrossing fashion. She walked with elegance as she observed her surroundings.
Disaster had struck. Everything around her was broken. The lecti were shattered and left in shards all over the floor. The walls and floors bore cracks running through them. The roof had holes in it. Tables and lamps were laying about, snapped and discarded. The communal room had definitely seen better days. Some of the damage looked ancient and the rest looked quite recent. The woman could tell just by the feel. The mana was thick in the air. She could taste it on her tongue.
She shook her head. "A'grappa, you really threw quite the tantrum, didn't you?" A mischievous smile slithered across her face. She searched for A'grappa's mana signature but found nothing. She immediately knew what that meant. "Don't worry, my dear brother. I shall avenge thee." The woman slithered out of the common room and made her way to the entrance of the main building that marked the center of Heron's Gate. As she made her way into the light of day, she took in the view of her surroundings. "Good to see not much has changed here." She said to herself. Her eyes scanned the land around her. The attendants hadn't noticed her, yet. That was plenty fine for her. "I wonder if we will all awaken in the same way that we were sealed." She pondered. "Either way, the multiverse will rue the day Marthukas returns. The end is almost here."