who's to know if your soul will fade at all

the one you sold to fool the world

Every step Roland took had him thinking there was increasingly little substance beneath his feet, as if the earth might crack and crumble beneath his weight and send him plummeting through the ground. It was difficult to wrap his head around the idea of being on a floating island, and a remarkable amount of trust was required in order to ignore it, having faith in whatever magic had suspended the sky-bound haven. The work of the Gods, he supposed somewhat bitterly. They were never there for him when he wanted them to be, and yet they had the time to make grand and empty gestures such as these.

But it offered a welcome change of pace from the usual, presenting new scenery and warmer weather than what the Thief had grown accustomed to over the years. There were no walls of stone to bar him in on every side, only gently sloping hills sprawling from one edge of the island to the other. It was unlike anything the stallion had seen before, having grown up under the shelter of forested glades, and settled now in the shadow of snow capped mountains. There was a certain vulnerability to be found upon an open field, but there was no denying the freedom it offered, either. His duty to the Basin had the Thief wondering if he should return to his northern home, where preparations for the festival were no doubt underway; yet curiousity had convinced him to remain at least until the following dawn.

Night had fallen, drawing with it a cloak of shadowed indigo. Silver threads of starlight peered out amongst the dark fabric, and in the centre, like a clasp uniting the cosmos, rose the moon. The threat of an autumn rain hung in the air as clouds gathered overhead, the latent electricity of an oncoming storm lingering on every breeze like static.

Even on the precipice of such a tempest, the Thief remained out in the open and, daringly, perched upon the edge of the island. His hooves were firmly rooted in the grass, even though he looked down to ensure his stability every so often, as one could never be too safe. To his left the river tumbled off the brink of the earth, water droplets dispersing into the air as the falls plummeted into the ether. A heavy swath of vapor lurked about the mouth of the cascade, lingering like a heavy mist across the rocks. The drop-off yawned before him, so great that the ground below had vanished entirely from sight- or Roland had simply not looked hard enough for fear of actually finding it. Yet in spite of it all, he was calm. A cool night air rushed across his golden skin, carding through the grass and stirring it into a raucous discourse of whispered secrets and floral confessions, spun beneath the moonlight.

As if to dispel the quiet, or otherwise disrupt the peace that had descended in the face of a tranquil twilight, Roland stooped to take a rock between his teeth. It felt cool against his lips, and he held it carefully in his mouth as he straightened and turned, throwing it over the edge of the land mass. A furtive smile danced across his lips as he watched it tumble through the air until it was no more than an inky speck, and absently hoped it wouldn’t hit an unsuspecting creature down below.