07-20-2017, 04:08 PM
<center><link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cinzel" rel="stylesheet"><div style="width: 550px; background: url('https://www.transparenttextures.com/patterns/black-lozenge.png'); background-position: top; background-repeat: repeat; background-color: #999;box-shadow: 0px 0px 20px #000000;border-radius: 100px 100px 0px 0px;"><div style="width: 540px; background: url('http://i.imgur.com/3WK1P4f.png'); padding-top: 10px; background-position: top; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-color: #171717; box-shadow: 0px 0px 20px #000000;border-radius: 100px 100px 0px 0px;"><div style="font-family: 'Times', serif; color: #595959; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic;text-align: center;line-height: 10pt; margin-top: 350px; text-shadow:1px 1px 7px #000;">Through despair and hope, Through faith and love. Till we find our place, on the path unwinding. </div><div style="width:500px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; padding: 10px;font-family: Times;color: #999;font-size: 12px; line-height: 140%; text-align: justify;border-right: 2px solid #5e5e5e;border-left: 2px solid #5e5e5e;border-radius: 20px 20px 0px 0px;">
Once again, he is transported. For the second time the darkness pulls him, stretches him, tosses him to a new location. As he lands his shoulders heave and his stomach churns, but this time there is nothing in his belly. Tall and straight trees surround him, but they feel like a cage more than a shelter and he moves into the darkness towards a faint red glow..
The hills have eyes, hungry all seeing eyes.
He looks back over his shoulder but the darkness it complete, there is no turning back, the way is shut.
Round eyes pucker the hillside in front of him, much like the oozing sores which speckle his body. His beautiful body. The golden fur on his pelt is ragged and mottled by blisters from the poisonous vapors on the mountain. But the burning of his skin barely registers, it is dwarfed but the searing pain which tears his lungs with each breath he draws. He moves towards the hills, his back legs shifting from his feline form to the powerful haunches and hard hooves of a horse.
Each orb in its rocky socket watches him, simultaneously, they blink.
Then, one thousand stone lids lift to reveal their red irises. He evaluates them with the unnerving clarity of his enhanced vision. The red irises are all the same bloody shade of crimson, globular heavy red around the edges and burning hot red encircling the pupil. The pupils are endless wells, but inside each inky lens he can see the flickering of a small flame.
He groans.
This is a nightmare.
Zenith draws abreast with the first eye. It watches him coolly before the pupil contracts and it begins to shake. Like a disease the rattling spreads until the ten eyes nearest him are all quivering in their stone sockets. He moves faster, burning lungs be damned, he had to get past these hills.
What was to the north? Hyaline? The lake?
In this world there was probably a leviathan in the late.
He could worry about that later.
But he doesn't make it far before the first eye ruptures and spews liquid flames towards him. With a youl that causes one thousand stone lids to blink, he twists away from the burning fluid. Across his haunch a splash of fur is missing and his flesh steams in the darkness.
Unbidden, his vision shifts to thermal imaging. The hills are awash in blues and green speckled with red spots. The eyes are warm and alive, the give off a soft glow of heat. But there is not time to linger and observe - beside him another starts to quake and as it does it changes for red to orange to yellow and finally white hot. He doesn't stay close, he knows what happens next. He is running, twisting to avoid the eyes which grow hotter before they attack. He dodges and dances his way up the hillside, falling into a rhythm, discovering the pattern and turning the nightmare into a sort of morbid walts. It is a dance with major consequences for one misstep. His mind is focused and his fear fades into the background now that there are rules - a clear way to win and lose.
And then, the hills are behind him.
His own green eyes scan the new landscape, a hunter's eyes.
The lake of Hyaline is before him. The supernatural stillness no longer surprises him. He wants desperately to use this moment to relax and regain his strength, but he doesn't dare. He recovers as he walks, pulling air in gasps into his damaged lugs and making his way towards the lake.
Cats have nine lives, they had told him. Hopefully the were right.
</div><div style="font-family: 'Cinzel', serif; font-size: 30px; color: #999; line-height:30pt;margin-bottom: -8px; align:center; text-shadow: 1px 1px 20px #dfdfdf, 0px 0px 5px #2f2f2f; text-transform: uppercase;">ZENITH</div></center>
Once again, he is transported. For the second time the darkness pulls him, stretches him, tosses him to a new location. As he lands his shoulders heave and his stomach churns, but this time there is nothing in his belly. Tall and straight trees surround him, but they feel like a cage more than a shelter and he moves into the darkness towards a faint red glow..
The hills have eyes, hungry all seeing eyes.
He looks back over his shoulder but the darkness it complete, there is no turning back, the way is shut.
Round eyes pucker the hillside in front of him, much like the oozing sores which speckle his body. His beautiful body. The golden fur on his pelt is ragged and mottled by blisters from the poisonous vapors on the mountain. But the burning of his skin barely registers, it is dwarfed but the searing pain which tears his lungs with each breath he draws. He moves towards the hills, his back legs shifting from his feline form to the powerful haunches and hard hooves of a horse.
Each orb in its rocky socket watches him, simultaneously, they blink.
Then, one thousand stone lids lift to reveal their red irises. He evaluates them with the unnerving clarity of his enhanced vision. The red irises are all the same bloody shade of crimson, globular heavy red around the edges and burning hot red encircling the pupil. The pupils are endless wells, but inside each inky lens he can see the flickering of a small flame.
He groans.
This is a nightmare.
Zenith draws abreast with the first eye. It watches him coolly before the pupil contracts and it begins to shake. Like a disease the rattling spreads until the ten eyes nearest him are all quivering in their stone sockets. He moves faster, burning lungs be damned, he had to get past these hills.
What was to the north? Hyaline? The lake?
In this world there was probably a leviathan in the late.
He could worry about that later.
But he doesn't make it far before the first eye ruptures and spews liquid flames towards him. With a youl that causes one thousand stone lids to blink, he twists away from the burning fluid. Across his haunch a splash of fur is missing and his flesh steams in the darkness.
Unbidden, his vision shifts to thermal imaging. The hills are awash in blues and green speckled with red spots. The eyes are warm and alive, the give off a soft glow of heat. But there is not time to linger and observe - beside him another starts to quake and as it does it changes for red to orange to yellow and finally white hot. He doesn't stay close, he knows what happens next. He is running, twisting to avoid the eyes which grow hotter before they attack. He dodges and dances his way up the hillside, falling into a rhythm, discovering the pattern and turning the nightmare into a sort of morbid walts. It is a dance with major consequences for one misstep. His mind is focused and his fear fades into the background now that there are rules - a clear way to win and lose.
And then, the hills are behind him.
His own green eyes scan the new landscape, a hunter's eyes.
The lake of Hyaline is before him. The supernatural stillness no longer surprises him. He wants desperately to use this moment to relax and regain his strength, but he doesn't dare. He recovers as he walks, pulling air in gasps into his damaged lugs and making his way towards the lake.
Cats have nine lives, they had told him. Hopefully the were right.
</div><div style="font-family: 'Cinzel', serif; font-size: 30px; color: #999; line-height:30pt;margin-bottom: -8px; align:center; text-shadow: 1px 1px 20px #dfdfdf, 0px 0px 5px #2f2f2f; text-transform: uppercase;">ZENITH</div></center>