[open quest] there's thunder in our hearts - round two

[Areane]

It feels more like being swept away by a wave, or tumbled into an avalanche, than soaring into a storm. She knows that this one is more than that; she has spied the almost-night-dark clouds as they had come rolling angrily off the sea. Areane had watched as those violent winds had white-crested the waves and made the Tephran jungle nearly bow down against its anger as the heavens clashed above with thunderclaps and lightning strikes.

Areane has always considered herself a capable flier. It had taken her nearly a year to regain her confidence after Loess had sunk, as that day had collided with her very first solo flight. It had taken her seasons to reclaim the skies again. Once she had been reunited with her family, the black pegasus had rarely left them. She had always remained nearby, almost always in sight of one of them; it had taken several glances over her winged shoulder to remind herself that Starros was there; that if she looked the other way, she would find her parents, Tarian and Altissima.

But her confidence was rattled when the thunder, which had sounded long and low in the distance, suddenly cracked above her. The wind rushed in a wild torrent of air and Areane spun, losing control of herself until she was falling, spiraling towards a landing that she no longer had command of. The clouds circled as she did, spinning and spinning, until she suddenly stopped. She was caught in a trap of some kind, a monster’s weaving of a web like the spiders. Her wings struggled against the silk-like twine, trying to free themselves as the young mare tried to kick or twist or do something with her body that would free it.

Finally working her speckled head free, it was then that she noticed the shadowy figure at the edge of the web. Its fangs glistened, its eyes glowed menacingly, and it came crawling forward slowly at first, taking its time as if to taunt Areane with her immediate death. Her head jerked up, suddenly free, and the many-legged creature leapt towards her -

Lightning flashed and the thunder peeled again.

There was more, as the Fairy had claimed there would be.

Faces filled with terror as they watched the things they feared most were brought to life in this dream-reality. There was fire that devastated everything, burning and consuming, and she stood, frozen, as if the one screaming out in agony was someone beloved to her. There was drowning, and at one point, she went from watching the massive tidal wave that had swallowed
Loess on a pebbled shore to find herself being dragged down, down, down until something with tentacles grabbed onto her legs, bringing her into the bottom-deep dark of the ocean.

She blinked and then she was running, racing through a forest she didn’t know, pursued by such a frenzied fear that Areane wasn’t able to look behind her.

Another flash of lightning and then her wing caught on a bramble where it pierced the flesh and she was caught again in another trap. A body laid on the ground, wreathed in its lifeblood, not far from her, causing her to pull and begin to panic. Somewhere in the distance, a gray stallion roared to run, and that was when she saw it: a creature of another world. Something made of shadow and bone. Perhaps a wraith, or perhaps some other terrible thing that Areane had once heard (or concocted in her adventurous mind) as a child. It was pursuing something until it heard the brambles clatter, the audible sound of her struggle, and with an unnatural turn of its white skull. You, the word suddenly loomed, filling her mind. What had been empty sockets suddenly light fire-red, burning for vengeance, burning for revenge, and then the Beast began to rush forward, hell-bent, thinking itself finally able to finish its lifelong purpose.

Death.

The wind roared in one final enraged gust, and when the thunder bellowed in the distance, Areane blinked to find herself back in the drizzle and damp of the clouds.