Whispers of Metal: The Forge of the One Mage

"What the hell just happened?" was all I could say in response to the situation.

A blinding light emanated from one of my pockets, pulling me out of my initial shock only to throw me into an even more bewildering state.

The small hourglass I had taken from the temple as a keepsake was glowing with an eerily beautiful light that was slowly dimming as the sand inside it fell.

I was so entranced by the increasingly complex thoughts I was having about this small hourglass that I paid no attention to what was happening around me.

I was abruptly snapped out of my mind by the deafening sound of metal clashing against metal. My gaze quickly darted toward the source of the noise. What I saw was the trailer crashed into the entrance of the car wash, with both the attendant and the driver wearing expressions of worry on their faces, likely at the thought of losing their jobs.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm my growing unease and the words that were about to leave my mouth.

"Did I just time travel?" I said, unsure whether it was a statement or a question that had escaped my lips.

I decided to ignore all the truly questionable implications of time travel, even if it was only for a few hours.

I wasn't supposed to be here, in this moment in time, so it seemed best to leave before something happened. I thought to myself as a thin layer of cold sweat formed on my forehead.

"Alright, I'm leaving," I said as I held the small, seemingly harmless clock—which was a damn time machine.

As I was about to leave, a rather selfish and incredibly irresponsible thought surfaced in my mind. "Why not stop the vehicle from crashing?" I told myself in a tempting voice.

"No! Messing with time is dangerous. I don't know what kind of things might happen, or if I'll just make everything worse," I scolded myself for entertaining such thoughts in a situation like this.

But, like a slithering serpent, another thought crept in. "But if we stop it, Dad will be able to perform at the concert with us," said a melodious voice.

"No, no, changing time is dangerous," I told myself, and as if to contradict myself, another thought arose. "But think about it—we could prevent Dad's car wash from being damaged. They could keep their jobs. Wouldn't that be helping them?" I reasoned, while the clock in my hand began to glow once more with that supernatural light.

I didn't even have time to say anything before the light enveloped everything, and a sense of discordance with reality completely overwhelmed my senses.

I slowly opened my eyes to see the same scene as before. The trailer hadn't yet crashed. I debated internally whether to let things happen as they were supposed to or not.

But that annoying little voice refuted me again. "We're already here—why not just fix this?" I sighed and made a decision.

With some nervousness, I spoke. "H-hey! The trailer is too big to fit!" My voice seemed to alert the attendant and the driver. The trailer screeched to a halt, almost grazing the car wash, but nothing happened.

I sighed in relief, and the attendant seemed to approach to thank me. A teenage girl, one or two years older than me, quite short, with very pink skin and brown hair, came over.

"Thanks for that," she said, realizing that if I hadn't stopped them, they most likely would have lost their jobs.

"You're we—" my voice was interrupted by the sound of metal and concrete colliding violently in all directions, followed by a momentary watery noise.

On instinct, I tried to pull the girl away. I froze on the spot, seeing only a mass of bloody flesh crushed under metal and fire.

"No, no, no! I didn't want this! This wasn't supposed to happen!" I screamed as tears streamed down my face. I tried to wipe them away, but the blood on my hands only made everything worse.

"I only made this situation worse!" my own voice berated me. "I'm such a useless idiot!" I yelled. "I wish I'd never tried this!" Then the light burst forth again with a faint static hum.

I opened my eyes, fearing what I would see. But the fire didn't flood my vision, nor did the characteristic smell of blood reach my nose. Instead, I saw another me a few meters away, about to yell at that poor girl.

I acted faster than I thought possible in this situation, grabbing my past self and covering her mouth as best as I could. I felt resistance from her, then astonishment.

"Me?!" she shouted in surprise and fear at my appearance.

"You have to let everything stay the same!" I told her through sobs as the sound of shattering glass reared its ugly head. 

I looked at my bloodied hand. What I found were shards of glass and sand soaked in my blood. 

My other self seemed surprised, but I couldn't care less. Everything around me lost its color, shape, or anything remotely real.

The last thing I experienced was the sight of her characteristic silver flame consuming everything. I felt its touch one last time before I no longer felt anything—only the endless darkness of time.