Soon? Was that all that the stallion could say? Soon. It was the type of reply an adult would give when they just wanted to stave off a child’s irksome behavior – which was precisely where I think I had landed. I’m sorry but after a night with next to no sleep and travelling what seemed like the entire world one such as myself probably would start to become a little annoying.

Next stop! Mild insanity.

Perhaps Areli was already at that stop, but despite that being a very big possibility, her response to my earlier whispers seemed to comfort me slightly. Somehow she knew this edge of the world place we were headed and seemed to be sure that we’d be safe. Even though I was just slightly less on edge, I was still watching everything as if danger lurked around some unforeseen corner.

Before I know it, the stallion is introducing us to the mare before us all. Nyx she says is her name and she even reveals herself as a herd warrior. A warrior? A WARRIOR?! What in the world was this stallion planning behind our backs? There was no chance in…in…in hell that we could stand up to both of them now! Not with two of…

What was that?!

My head snaps at a rustle in a group of nearby bushes and suddenly I’m on alert. Then…it…emerged. I could feel my ice blue eyes widen as the blood covered feline dragged a leg of its kill over to the mare. A leg. It killed something and something big. With eyes locked on the creature, my body and the world surrounding seemed to freeze. There…there was so much…blood. Cold chills washed over me as the thing stared at me. It was almost like the thing was thinking about eating me. I gulped. A jittery feeling began to grow deep within my stomach as I held my ever fearful gaze on the creature that was just tearing away at the limb he had brought here. What if…what if that was someone Areli or I knew? Were we simply just corralled over to this land just so we could satiate this beast’s hunger pains? Were we merely just a sacrificial collection to the two adults here? What the hell was going on?!

Breaths became uneven the longer I stared at the creature covered in blood. The blood of the person or thing it killed. With that simple thought my sanity began to waver as dreams, memories, and reality meshed together. The leg that was being eaten morphed itself into the body of Areli. Only, I didn’t know how it was Areli. The thing was so broken, so bloodied that she was almost indistinguishable. Then to either side laid the bodies of my parents. They had obviously been dead for some time as their bodies were no longer the vibrant colors I remembered them to be and their eyes…their eyes were completely white - glazed over with a film that bore one of death’s colors. Slowly a crimson colored pool seemed to rise out of the ground, racing towards me with bloodied fingers seeming to grasp and claw their way through the blades of grass. So I stepped backwards to avoid it.

I wanted to scream, wanted to yell at the top of my lungs at the creature who seemed to be eating Areli, wanted to run out of here like hell on wheels. But I knew…I knew it couldn’t be real. Something in my heart started screaming for me to snap back to reality. Maybe it was because I knew Areli was just to my side or perhaps it was the fact that it was naught but impossible that my parents’ corpses would magically travel from the Celestial Wood to…well…wherever this place was. Whatever it was it helped me gain a grasp back on reality (but not without shedding a single tear) only to realize I must have missed a lot while I was having my interpersonal breakdown.

First my eyes looked to Areli, who still looked to be in pain. Then I looked to the stallion that brought us here. Hm. Did they move forward or did I really move backwards? Then my eyes fell upon the mare ahead and…and I didn’t know how to act.

Part of me wanted to scream and run.

Part of me wanted to examine whatever the hell she was doing.

Silently, I watched from afar – not daring to budge an inch closer. What in the world was she doing? What was the point of whatever she was doing? Hairs on my neck began to feel like they were standing on end as some sort of…er thing covered her. Suddenly a spark seemed to travel from her leg and onto the creature sitting between her legs. The beast yelps and with his yelp I jump back a little ways and the beast seems to also head off as well.

Lightning?

Once I had the um unpleasant experience of seeing what happens when a tree is struck by lightning. Father had even told me numerous times never to fly through a storm ever because of the lightning. He always said that it would kill if I would try. But how in the world was Nyx able to hold lightning to her body and with no storms about either. It was almost as if she was sick or the lightning was being produced by…

“Majick,” the word slips through my lips as my eyes widen out of surprise. It was the only explanation I could think of, but mother and father had always said that magic didn’t exist and so I had believed them. But there really was no other way to explain what was going on.

“How is zis possible? Majick is not real. Muzzer and Fazzer told me…” I paused as I looked once more at Nyx and then to the stallion and Areli as I slowly took a few steps backwards out of a confused fear, “Vat is going on here? Vere am I? Vat is zis place?”

The words came spilling out in a frantic manner but who could blame a girl for acting as such when she didn’t know where she was, who she was with exactly, had just watched a beast eat the leg of something, and just see magic for the first time in her life.


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