exhaust

[OPEN] exhaust

Eribor Posts: N/A

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08-12-2013, 02:04 AM

I fought off the knowledge that I had failed in my escape for as long as I possibly could. They say denial is the first stage of grief, and I don't think it would be unreasonable to say that I was in grief over the fate cast upon me, to be trapped in this world of morbid darkness and crazed Amazons. In my haste to escape the gaggle of mares I must have taken a wrong turn at the third or fortieth glowing tree; somehow, instead of gliding over sunlit mountains I found myself standing in a moonlit field, utterly lost and too exhausted to care.

I could not walk for long, not here. It wasn't just my muscles. The moist spring of malnourished grass under my broad hooves felt too much like home, when the land lay burnt and wasted in the wake of invasion, reeking of death and latent decay. I recalled what the grullo mare had said about the gods having left this land, that the darkness came from their abandonment. How long had it been since the sun shone here? Days? Weeks? By the smell and the chill, closer to weeks. The moon cast a shallow pallor over the dying world, lending to the feel of desolation that haunted this hell I found myself cast into. I found myself wondering what gods these were, who were so cruel as to abandon their followers so utterly. Whoever they were, I had decided long ago that they could not have been mine, my benevolent spirits of Earth and Sky, and that I did not care for them. A snap judgment, perhaps, but given the circumstances I didn't care.

The moon had traveled halfway through the sky, and still I had not found the meadow's end. My muscles ached from hock to hip, and I could feel every sinew of my wings weighing heavily on my back - each feather weighed a thousand pounds, each ounce of flesh multiplied by ten. The emeralds burned into my cheek stung against the cold, damp air; really, there was no end to the pain I felt. It can't get worse, I decided stupidly. Stupidly, because of course the moment I decided it could not get worse my hoof caught on a root and I went down, down, legs collapsing under me, knees covered in moist dirt.

A string of silent curses left me then, muted only by years of discipline and the warnings of a deceased father. Looking back on the moment, it certainly wasn't the low point of my life- oh, god, not even close. Lying in the dirt in some damned place far from home, surrounded in darkness that would never die? Yeah, no - overall, it had been a good day. Still, in the moment it felt pretty damned miserable, and I was ready to indulge in some self-pity. Groaning audibly I closed my eyes, settling down to a fully fledged pity party, ready to review all my past pains in one lovely and vibrant slideshow of misery.

It took three seconds for me to fall asleep.

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Messages In This Thread

exhaust - by Eribor - 08-12-2013, 02:04 AM

RE: exhaust - by Ampere - 08-18-2013, 12:03 AM

RE: exhaust - by Harmony - 08-18-2013, 01:01 AM

RE: exhaust - by Rosario - 08-29-2013, 10:34 AM

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