TW: Violence/death
Image by Phil Botha
all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, every star that ever was
Sunlight filters behind her eyelids and the song of birds begins to rouse her from her sleep. There had been a terrible dream. One where Gale had actually been a monster in disguise and had attacked her, one where she flees from him with failure drying bitterly on her tongue. So slowly she wakes, her head aching and her body feeling as if it had been broken to pieces.
And then the reality sits in. The one that’s worse then what she had dreamed. The only thing that was real in her dream was her failure. Because she hadn’t escaped from him. She had failed, immensely. He had been so much stronger than her and had managed to break her shield. Had sliced clean through the burning layers of gas and light when she had gone to strike him with her hooves and slashed her across her already scarred face and chest. She had been knocked prone to the ground, blinded by a pain and a fear that she had never experienced before.
This was nothing like the Underneath.
This was worse.
The high of her adrenaline was the only thing that had kept her conscious when he had snapped the bones in her legs, a screaming fiery white-hot pain that courses up her limbs and floods into the rest of her body. There is no time for her to cry out and any words die in her throat, swept away in a tidal wave of agony. The swirls of her eyes have never moved so fast as they look up, glassy and confused, at the stallion she had once cared for. Her friend. No, the thing wearing her friend's face. That swell of fear she tastes is so different from anything she has felt before because she knows she is looking at the face of her death. And it's smiling at her. It's that irritating grin that makes her refuse to give up, still tries to rise on broken bones and take some part of him with her. Refuses to give up so easily.
He carves her open and the stars around her begin to dim with the exception of the ones that she calls “companions”. They seem to glow incredibly brighter with outrage and despair as he pulls out her magic and takes it. He fails to sever her link to the stars above when he leaves her heart in her chest and she doesn’t know how lucky she is that he leaves that behind. Crimson pools from the wounds he has created, staining the ground around her as the pain becomes so overwhelming, blood bubbling from her throat and nose, as she watches him devour her magic and smiles.
“Delicious.” He says and she spits blood at his hooves with a snarl. “I hope you choke on them.” She manages from her strangled voice, coughing as the heavy coppery taste of blood fills her senses. And then he kicks her in the head and the world goes black as the fallen star dies.
Dies and comes back to life because when she wakes she doesn’t remember being anywhere other then here. She hadn’t returned to the night sky in her release from life and it must have only been a whisper of a death for the hole in her chest is filled. He had healed her. She doesn’t understand why. And then with a sick laugh she realizes that he hadn’t healed all of her.
Her front legs remain mangled and useless and a fresh wave of pain threatens to overwhelm her. It eventually wins and she becomes sick all over herself, unable to stop retching at the brutality of her body and what Gale had become. She lays in the sticky remains of her blood that stains the grass a brownish hue and rolls to her side, simply breathing heavily and replaying the nights events in her mind. Over and over again she sees her death and her magic being taken from her and something within her starts to harden at the edges, something steals away the last of her innocence as the Curse in Hyaline burns the wisteria she had loved so much. All that had been left of a simpler time.
And so she waits to die again but her mind refuses to give up the thousands of ways she hopes to carve Gale apart the way he had done to her and how she might find the power to do so if she manages to live.
And then the reality sits in. The one that’s worse then what she had dreamed. The only thing that was real in her dream was her failure. Because she hadn’t escaped from him. She had failed, immensely. He had been so much stronger than her and had managed to break her shield. Had sliced clean through the burning layers of gas and light when she had gone to strike him with her hooves and slashed her across her already scarred face and chest. She had been knocked prone to the ground, blinded by a pain and a fear that she had never experienced before.
This was nothing like the Underneath.
This was worse.
The high of her adrenaline was the only thing that had kept her conscious when he had snapped the bones in her legs, a screaming fiery white-hot pain that courses up her limbs and floods into the rest of her body. There is no time for her to cry out and any words die in her throat, swept away in a tidal wave of agony. The swirls of her eyes have never moved so fast as they look up, glassy and confused, at the stallion she had once cared for. Her friend. No, the thing wearing her friend's face. That swell of fear she tastes is so different from anything she has felt before because she knows she is looking at the face of her death. And it's smiling at her. It's that irritating grin that makes her refuse to give up, still tries to rise on broken bones and take some part of him with her. Refuses to give up so easily.
He carves her open and the stars around her begin to dim with the exception of the ones that she calls “companions”. They seem to glow incredibly brighter with outrage and despair as he pulls out her magic and takes it. He fails to sever her link to the stars above when he leaves her heart in her chest and she doesn’t know how lucky she is that he leaves that behind. Crimson pools from the wounds he has created, staining the ground around her as the pain becomes so overwhelming, blood bubbling from her throat and nose, as she watches him devour her magic and smiles.
“Delicious.” He says and she spits blood at his hooves with a snarl. “I hope you choke on them.” She manages from her strangled voice, coughing as the heavy coppery taste of blood fills her senses. And then he kicks her in the head and the world goes black as the fallen star dies.
Dies and comes back to life because when she wakes she doesn’t remember being anywhere other then here. She hadn’t returned to the night sky in her release from life and it must have only been a whisper of a death for the hole in her chest is filled. He had healed her. She doesn’t understand why. And then with a sick laugh she realizes that he hadn’t healed all of her.
Her front legs remain mangled and useless and a fresh wave of pain threatens to overwhelm her. It eventually wins and she becomes sick all over herself, unable to stop retching at the brutality of her body and what Gale had become. She lays in the sticky remains of her blood that stains the grass a brownish hue and rolls to her side, simply breathing heavily and replaying the nights events in her mind. Over and over again she sees her death and her magic being taken from her and something within her starts to harden at the edges, something steals away the last of her innocence as the Curse in Hyaline burns the wisteria she had loved so much. All that had been left of a simpler time.
And so she waits to die again but her mind refuses to give up the thousands of ways she hopes to carve Gale apart the way he had done to her and how she might find the power to do so if she manages to live.
-- Ciri