chaos in your soul & lightning in your veins...you my dear were made for wild and wondrous things
Magic settles in around the top of the mountain. What air there is becomes almost thick with it, and every labored breath she drags in tastes metallic and foul as it goes from nostril to tongue. For a minute, she thinks she sees the air shimmer, but she can't be sure. This is the type of night to make imaginations runaway, after all. Panic fights for a spot in her chest, and the burning at the back of her eyes tells her that tears would not take much encouragement to spill down her pretty face. She does not, will not, allow herself that childish reprieve though. While her journey to the peak of the mountain had been wholly involuntary, a small corner of her heart still longs to prove that she is more than a silly girl who can talk to the wind.
The air thickens again as the dark magic dances amongst the molecules of oxygen. It sharpens, somehow, and the shimmer she had once thought to be imagined suddenly becomes something more. Not quite tangible, but there is no denying that the darkness is opening. A portal, but she doesn't have the words to articulate that. Of course she knew that Beqanna was ripe with magics both new and old, but this is something else entirely. Instead, her pretty head tilts to the side as she watches it grow, frozen in both fear and curiosity. Within the opening she can see a rush of green, and a rush of damp, moldy air seems to breath out of the split.
She has almost made up her mind to go backwards, when that strange compulsion she had felt before drags her limbs forwards.
Into that great unknown, with nothing more than her wits to guide her. She thinks she feels electricity bite her skin as she steps though, but there is no time to pay that much mind. She can pass that off as imagination, too. As soon as she is through, a snap! rings through her, and she knows even without turning that the opening has now closed, leaving her trapped in whatever Hell she's walked headlong into.
The air is hot, though it is a welcome reprieve from the metallic bitterness that had been at the top of the Mountain. She shivers slightly as she begins to warm, and it is that involuntary movement alone that tells her she's been released from the magic. All of her senses are assaulted as she tries to take in her predicament. This is a jungle, that much is plain to see. Though she has never visited the jungles of Beqanna, her mother had told her tales of the mighty women who lived amongst the trees and ruins. Perhaps this is it? She cannot figure why anyone would voluntarily live here though. The screaming of the insects is enough to drive her mad. So with a scowl and pinned ears she moves forward into the trees. So far, forward has been her only option. It seems silly to go backwards now.
The seconds give way to minutes before bleeding into hours. Time seems to have no meaning here. She has seen all manner of strange creatures and plants, but nothing yet has seemed to bother her so she has returned that courtesy. Even a large golden cat with black rossets covering its velvet pelt had let her pass, though it had been sure to show her its wicked teeth and claws. Some of the plants seem to make her itch, but there are so many she doesn't know which ones are the offender so forward she goes.
She goes, until she's forced to stop.
The path ahead is suddenly occupied by the strangest creature she has ever seen. It is a huge thing, and looks as if someone has laid leather over boulders and then gave it legs. On its head are large, flapping ears, small beady eyes, and something that she can only assume is a nose. It is long, nearly dragging the ground, but seems articulate in a way most noses are not. Beside the nose are two massive, ivory swords. To its right is a mosquito-filled pool that she has only noticed. The edge of the pool is muddy and well-trodden, as if it belonged only to this massive creature. She watches it quietly, hardly daring to breath; maybe it hasn't noticed her, though how it couldn't she does not know. She is standing in the middle of the path, and her snowwhite coat is almost blindingly white in this green world.
Her worst fears are confirmed when the creature turns its massive head and those beady little eyes narrow as they find her face.
She tries to wheel around, to use her agility to provide her an escape. Surely something so big must be slow and cumbersome! But in her fear she forgets that magic does not play by their mortal rules. The creature moves fast, faster than she could even blink and that horrible nose is suddenly wrapped around her throat. A scream leaves her mouth as she feet leave the ground, and she tries to call on her own magic, but the wind isn't hers in this realm. She is only a victim to it as she flies through it. It will provide her no soft landing this time.
The stagnant water feels like a solid wall as she slams into it. The air is forced from her lungs in a great whoosh! and stars swim in her eyes. Eyes that open under water. Pure instinct drives her upwards, and as soon as she breaks the surface she drags in a painful breath. Her ribs feel as if they are busted but she breathes anyways, grateful for that hot muggy air that fills her lungs.
This is not a land of reprieve, however.
Before she can find her feet, that horrible nose is shoving her downwards once more. She is powerless to stop it, though instinct forces her to try. Again and again and again. Up, down. Up, down. Up, down. Allowed only enough air to survive. Not quite drowning, but close enough.
Hours bleed to days. She suddenlu awakens on the shore line of a raging river. The filthy water is white capped and moving quickly, and she is sure she sees things just below the surface. The creature is gone, however, and with it? Her flesh. Hollow sockets glance over her body...or what is left of it. She is bones and nothing more. No pure white hide, no raven black mane and tail. No startling blue eyes. No muscle, no sinew, no fat or organs. Just bones. Bones with magic crawling across them like graveworms. A laugh spills across her teeth, because for a moment she thinks "well, at least I have no need for air now"
This is not a land of reprieve, though.
Wayfair