[open] i've been running from something, any

[Memorie]

one lives in hope of becoming a memory

The most unusual thing happens, just as I cross the river. A shadow crosses my line of sight. Then the very air around us seems to shift and contort, as if tinged with some form of wicked magic, and the stallion changes before my eyes. The vertebrae beneath his skin along his back seem to grow and change. They form spikes that protrude from his skin. For a moment, I stand there, shell-shocked, staring at the grey figure before me. In that moment, I couldn’t figure out if I wanted to back away in terror or spew a thousand curious questions about what had just happened.

The stallion, however, seems completely unfazed by the sudden events that had transpired beneath the dark sky. Meanwhile, I just stand there looking like an idiot, staring at him with my mouth gaping open.

It is his words that break the awkward silence that surrounds us. A response to a question I’d forgotten I even asked. It snaps me back down to my current reality, the one where the sun doesn’t shine and I was trying to figure out if this stallion held any clues as to why. I shake my head slightly, my flaxen mane falling softly into my eyes so that I have to shake it back once more. The motion brings all of my thoughts back to where I had been before the weird occurrence that had produced the spikes down his back.

His admission that he doesn’t know how long ago he’d lost the sun is slightly disappointing, though, but knowing that the sun shines elsewhere could only mean that this was a problem that faced Beqanna alone. It must mean that something had gone wrong with the magic that thrived here.

The stallion asks what caused the darkness, and a soft laugh brushes past my lips. “I was just trying to figure that out, myself,” I admit, “I was hoping you would have provided some of those answers. As far as I know, though, something went wrong with the magic here. But it’s not just the darkness. There are monsters, as well.” I have a sneaking suspicion that they have something to do with the sudden appearance of those bone spikes, which I wearily cast a shadowed glance toward. “The monsters arrived at the same time the sun blinked out of the sky. I’ve heard rumors that the monsters have done something to the magic here, as well.”

Memorie

Image by Calcifer

@[rembrandt]