Author:
Kalea, Thur, and Caspe
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Date Posted: 13:55:57 03/15/06 Wed
In reply to:
Trebor/Dante/The Corn
's message, "Calling on Her" on 12:49:29 03/15/06 Wed
OOC: I made a slight change to my Many-Color's name - just letting you know so it won't be too confusing. :)
- - -
The morning sun touched the ancient stone with a delicate golden light, as though taking care that it would not damage the structure. On a breezy hilltop stood a unicorn, a Many-Color, and a Silent Paw, the first two bearing two-legged burdens, and the five of them stared in mute fascination at the edifice in the valley. The old remains of a man-made building of sorts, it looked very out of place among the blue grass, forlorn and solitary. Bits of crumbling roof, petrified by time, clung to the marble pillars and lay in windswept heaps on the stone floor, and the large fountain in the center, no doubt once a beautiful peace, was worn beyond recognition, its dry well filled with dead grass.
"We have to go...there?" asked Kalea in a murmur, afraid to speak too loudly. The Silent Paw's eyes were still slightly glazed, his head tilted as though listening to some faraway music that the others could not hear. She did not at all like the look of the stone place where no birds nested.
Thuronil, still winded from their lightning dash over the hills, tapped one hoof nervously. There was bad feeling wrapped all around this place like a shadow - listening carefully, it seemed to him that every sound in that valley was muted and hesitant, every scent dry and old. He was about to sign a question to the one-horn, but just then they all heard a whisper:
(follow in my footsteps)
The words seemed to crawl up to them across the grass, and Thur pinned back his ears at the faint vibration he perceived in the stone pillars down below.
The Silent Paw began the descent without consulting the others, moving with quick decisiveness, and they had no choice but to follow. Kalea leaned low over the long sleek neck of her mount, feeling his pulse quicken as they approached the stone, but before they reached it, acting on impulse, she slid from his back. Much as she did not want to be here, she had the sudden conviction that if she were to come at all, it should be on her own two feet. Ever-loyal, Dante clambered down from the back of the little winged horse and reached for her hand. Kalea held his little hand and squeezed it reassuringly, and they followed their four-legged companions onto the stone.
The floor was not just cobbled, Kalea realized, but had probably once been perfectly smooth, the stones cunningly fitted and polished. Time and weather had ruined the effect, though, and she knelt to run her fingers through the layer of dirt and debris, tracing a line of pale red through the pattern. How long ago? she wondered.
(follow me find me)
Kalea jerked upright again, heart pounding, for the whisper had seemed to come from the stone at her very feet. Dante whimpered and she stroked his hair, murmuring some vague comfort, and they hurried to catch up with the others.
Trebor had halted in front of what Kalea at first thought was an old pillar, more crumbled and worn than the others. But as she looked more closely the shadows seemed to shift and she cried out loud, startling everyone, for a bit of the rock had looked like the white flash of bared teeth. Trembling, she looked again and saw only dull, harmless stone.
"What is that?" she asked in an unsteady voice, not noticing when Dante slipped his hand away to walk toward Trebor.
I do not like this, signed Thur, who had been struggling against the impulse to bolt since they had set foot on the stone. This is bad.
"This is necessary," the unicorn said gently.
None of them noticed when Trebor, using the power that belongs to all Silent Paw, struck a bit of fire from his empty paws and set it on a little pile of brush, never taking his eyes from the ancient statue before him. And they still did not notice when Dante, his yellow eyes darting back and forth between the fire and the statue, picked up a flaming stick and walked up next to the stone. On a little ledge there sat what looked to him like a candle, very old and half-melted, and in his mind it was proper that all candles should be lit.
The other three had not noticed these things, but they certainly all took notice when Dante touched the fire to the candle. Indeed, it would have been hard for them not to notice, for at that moment the ground beneath them gave a mighty heaving roll - without actually moving. It was the movement of a presence, an entity, a mind, and the voice that had heretofore only whispered suddenly filled the whole world with a bubbling scream. Kalea collapsed, staring wildly around her, but there was no visible source; and after a moment she realized that the screaming was laughter.
They all stared at the statue with the little lump of candle burning brightly - and they saw that the candle's flame did not waver but stood perfectly upright, despite the breeze and their movement. The stone of the statue seemed to glow with a faint red light, and as they watched it grew stronger and brighter until they had to look away, but the light pierced even their closed eyelids and the maniacal laughter pierced their minds and the world was all pain and fear. Then there was a sound like shattering glass that shivered with electricity, and Kalea looked up just in time to see the spirit arrive.
It came out of the rock, a shaft of fire laced with lightning that made Kalea think, for one confused instant, of her sister Nashota. It raced around the periphery of the stones in a leaping cavorting trail, and amidst the inane laughter Kalea thought she heard chanting in a deeper, gutteral voice, words she could not catch and did not want to. She saw the little horse with wings mantled aggressively, the unicorn looking startled but steady, and the Silent Paw blinking in dazed wonder. But Dante, her little warrior, was dancing in a circle as he watched the spirit swish and swirl its circular path, clapping his hands and laughing in delight. And as she watched, the spirit stopped its mindless circles and came toward the boy, and then it began to take shape - a four-legged creature with long white legs that tapered and did not seem to touch the ground, and its throat was electric-white but its head and back were a deep fiery red, and it had four tails, and from its back came wavering lines of smoke and heat as though its skin itself were aflame. Where its eyes should have been glowed two red coals that were constantly dripping a molten red light down the white cheeks, like tears.
Kalea was frozen with horror to see such an apparition in the plain light of day, but when the thing's lips curled back in a hideous sharp-toothed smile, she leapt to her feet and ran to Dante, pulling him away and sheltering him protectively. "Stay away!" she cried.
Though its mouth did not move, the thing's laughter squealed and hissed all around them, finally dying down enough to allow words through. (ahahaha o me o my my brave little one bare feet on my stone, what have you to say? Speak o speak, o sing me a song and dance with me!)
But then it raised its long, delicate nose and seemed to forget her, leaping into the air with liquid flickering motion and going over to Trebor. It slipped beneath his belly and leapt over his back, capering and giggling, and nipped at his tail with a bite that could not be felt. (you you it was you, your voice in my mind, I heard your song in my deep wandering sleep. I have come to you, to you o prince of the valleys, and do you know me? Fire-hound, shadow-cat, stone-with-sharp-teeth am I! You called me you called me you found me again, o I have been waiting to burn again in your air.)
She (for the voice was decidedly female) came to rest at last and her burning gaze took in each of them in turn before resting upon Trebor. (You called me, now speak.)
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