08-29-2017, 10:35 PM
There are nights where the dark seems heavier than usual. The stars aren't even pinpricks of light, the moon not even a wedge of silver, not a tear of light in the endless black. Instead there are clouds - but clouds never look like themselves at night. Never soft and white and fluffy. They are submissive to the dark, flowing together like a deep bruise of black and blue and purple. On nights like these the shadows bleed together too, lengthen and grow and take on a life all their own. A world that had seemed safe and familiar only hours ago could seem strange and unwelcoming, frightening.
This was one of those nights.
Ava blamed it on the wall. She did not need any magic of her own to know that it was dark and unnatural - it had risen up without warning, twisted a forest that had always been peaceful and quiet. But she did not understand where it came from or why it had come, why it seemed to stretch on as far as she had followed it. Didn't it have an end somewhere? It had to, otherwise that meant it went all the way around the kingdom and that would be so strange.
Unless-
Like a seed, the thought took root, planted itself in her mind until she was overcome with it, with a morbid curiosity that coaxed her further and further from the depths of her trees and out along the border. It was endless, immense and without weakness, impenetrable as far as she could tell. She followed it through the forest she knew well, and then into the open areas she knew less well, uneasy and wary where unwelcome eyes could see her moving through the night.
Something snaps to her left, the side opposite the barrier, and she turns abruptly to face it, beautiful face wild and weary, the bright turquoise framed by the black of her mane. The sound had come from somewhere in the forest, somewhere in those deep, moving shadows, and even as she struggles to separate one silhouette from the next, she can feel her heart thrumming like a hummingbird in her chest. She turns, so quiet, body tight and tense, returning to where she had come, to the thicker forests she knew so well.
Until someone stepped out of the dark.
This was one of those nights.
Ava blamed it on the wall. She did not need any magic of her own to know that it was dark and unnatural - it had risen up without warning, twisted a forest that had always been peaceful and quiet. But she did not understand where it came from or why it had come, why it seemed to stretch on as far as she had followed it. Didn't it have an end somewhere? It had to, otherwise that meant it went all the way around the kingdom and that would be so strange.
Unless-
Like a seed, the thought took root, planted itself in her mind until she was overcome with it, with a morbid curiosity that coaxed her further and further from the depths of her trees and out along the border. It was endless, immense and without weakness, impenetrable as far as she could tell. She followed it through the forest she knew well, and then into the open areas she knew less well, uneasy and wary where unwelcome eyes could see her moving through the night.
Something snaps to her left, the side opposite the barrier, and she turns abruptly to face it, beautiful face wild and weary, the bright turquoise framed by the black of her mane. The sound had come from somewhere in the forest, somewhere in those deep, moving shadows, and even as she struggles to separate one silhouette from the next, she can feel her heart thrumming like a hummingbird in her chest. She turns, so quiet, body tight and tense, returning to where she had come, to the thicker forests she knew so well.
Until someone stepped out of the dark.
Ava
sahm x newton