07-16-2021, 02:09 PM
GRAVITAS
Guilt is such a vicious thing. Gravitas knows this, though he does not know the depth of the well that opens in his rider’s gut as they charge back toward the battle. He does not know the pitch of the clarity that steals through Pollux as he pulls his mount up short there on the beach.
(Pollux turns his gaze back to the ridge.
What has he done?
The battle continues to rage on the shore, swelling, but he can no longer hear it. The cacophony falls by the wayside as he looks to the place where his brother fell.
What had seized him? What bitter, putrid jealousy had grabbed him by the throat, manipulated his hand? His head swims as he slips from his mount’s back.)
Gravitas skitters backward, trembling, red eyes rolling as Pollux hits his knees in the sand. He watches, gasping, as the man throws back his own head and lets out a savage cry. It occurs to him then that perhaps he does not understand the whims of men and his skin glints with diamonds as Pollux weeps.
(“Please,” Pollux cries at the heavens, head thrown back, hot tears cutting rivers down his dirty cheeks.
“Take me,” he begs, his fingers curled into his chest, as if he might reach into his chest and pull out his still-beating heart. As if he might somehow replace his brother.
And then he rises, chest heaving, and releases his mount. One last mercy, his penance.)
Gravitas watches him retreat, watches him dissolve. He is free and his rider is presumably dead, stardust. He blinks, turning to survey the bloody stretch of beach. The battle has ceased, nothing left here but the dead and a few stragglers, riderless horses. No one pays him any mind, concentrating instead on their work as they comb through the dead in search of survivors.
He is paralyzed by indecision. How does he get home? He does not have time to decide before the seas begin to swell and something surfaces. Something monstrous, heinous, wretched. Something with its terrible eyes trained on him. His pulse jumps and he shuffles backward as fast as his feet will carry him, stumbling, clumsy, panicked.
For the first time since he awoke in this nightmare, he wishes the man were here to guide him, to provide him with some direction. What a coward he is, Gravitas. Dreadful thing coated in diamonds that will do nothing for him now. There is nothing he can do except run, he realizes. So, he turns and races up the beach but the crab gives chase. The crab’s strides are massive and it occurs to Gravitas that he will be outrun in a matter of minutes.
He will die.
So, he surrenders.
For the first time in his life, he will not be a coward. He stops, turns. He will face his death head-on. The crab is upon him in seconds, sweeping him up in an enormous claw. The crab tries to crush him, but he is indestructible, the diamonds unyielding beneath the claw’s crushing grip. So the crab pushes him into its mouth and Gravitas sucks in a large breath as he’s swallowed down, realizing suddenly that perhaps there is hope for him after all.
He tumbles down into the crab’s stomach, desperately holding his breath, tumbling, disoriented. It is dark but he swims through the acid and the bile, heart hammering, listening hard for the origin point of the crab’s own heart. And when he finds the wall of the crab’s stomach, he kicks with everything he has. He hammers at it with his hooves and his diamond crusted head, tearing at it with all of his might until it begins to give. He digs viciously for the heartbeat, desperate for the sound, wanting so terribly to sink his teeth into the meat of it. His lungs seize and spasm with the effort and his temples throb but the wall of the stomach finally ruptures and he tumbles through into the heart.
He knows that he cannot relent. He does not have the luxury of time. He continues his assault, flailing wildly against the beating muscle as viciously as he can until the beating stops and he can feel the shock of the crab’s body hitting the beach ripple through the cavernous insides.
But this is not a victory yet, he knows, because the only way he knows to get out is the way he came in. His lungs ache with their want for air and he must find his way back through the hole he’d punched through the wall of the stomach and back up into the mouth. He had resigned himself to death only moments earlier but he is desperate to live now that there is some small glimmer of hope. He feels blindly for the opening he’d made for himself between the stomach and the heart and his own heart leaps when he finds it and forces his way through it, trying to remember his way back to the mouth. Had it been straight across? Had there been some strange turn? Would it be easier to hug the wall of the stomach until he found another soft spot and forced his way through?
He opts to stick close to the stomach’s lining lest he get turned around trying to find his way across. He can feel his consciousness beginning to soften as he feels his way around, everything beginning to fade before finally, mercifully, he finds his way out. He barely has any strength at all left as he struggles his way back into the mouth, using his diamonds to his advantage to force his way out. The crab had fallen with its mouth parted and he can see a slip of bright sky as he sucks in a world-swallowing breath and staggers back out into the world, swaying on his feet as he blinks himself back to consciousness and turns to look at the monstrous thing.
None of the figures further down the beach have even looked up.
(Pollux turns his gaze back to the ridge.
What has he done?
The battle continues to rage on the shore, swelling, but he can no longer hear it. The cacophony falls by the wayside as he looks to the place where his brother fell.
What had seized him? What bitter, putrid jealousy had grabbed him by the throat, manipulated his hand? His head swims as he slips from his mount’s back.)
Gravitas skitters backward, trembling, red eyes rolling as Pollux hits his knees in the sand. He watches, gasping, as the man throws back his own head and lets out a savage cry. It occurs to him then that perhaps he does not understand the whims of men and his skin glints with diamonds as Pollux weeps.
(“Please,” Pollux cries at the heavens, head thrown back, hot tears cutting rivers down his dirty cheeks.
“Take me,” he begs, his fingers curled into his chest, as if he might reach into his chest and pull out his still-beating heart. As if he might somehow replace his brother.
And then he rises, chest heaving, and releases his mount. One last mercy, his penance.)
Gravitas watches him retreat, watches him dissolve. He is free and his rider is presumably dead, stardust. He blinks, turning to survey the bloody stretch of beach. The battle has ceased, nothing left here but the dead and a few stragglers, riderless horses. No one pays him any mind, concentrating instead on their work as they comb through the dead in search of survivors.
He is paralyzed by indecision. How does he get home? He does not have time to decide before the seas begin to swell and something surfaces. Something monstrous, heinous, wretched. Something with its terrible eyes trained on him. His pulse jumps and he shuffles backward as fast as his feet will carry him, stumbling, clumsy, panicked.
For the first time since he awoke in this nightmare, he wishes the man were here to guide him, to provide him with some direction. What a coward he is, Gravitas. Dreadful thing coated in diamonds that will do nothing for him now. There is nothing he can do except run, he realizes. So, he turns and races up the beach but the crab gives chase. The crab’s strides are massive and it occurs to Gravitas that he will be outrun in a matter of minutes.
He will die.
So, he surrenders.
For the first time in his life, he will not be a coward. He stops, turns. He will face his death head-on. The crab is upon him in seconds, sweeping him up in an enormous claw. The crab tries to crush him, but he is indestructible, the diamonds unyielding beneath the claw’s crushing grip. So the crab pushes him into its mouth and Gravitas sucks in a large breath as he’s swallowed down, realizing suddenly that perhaps there is hope for him after all.
He tumbles down into the crab’s stomach, desperately holding his breath, tumbling, disoriented. It is dark but he swims through the acid and the bile, heart hammering, listening hard for the origin point of the crab’s own heart. And when he finds the wall of the crab’s stomach, he kicks with everything he has. He hammers at it with his hooves and his diamond crusted head, tearing at it with all of his might until it begins to give. He digs viciously for the heartbeat, desperate for the sound, wanting so terribly to sink his teeth into the meat of it. His lungs seize and spasm with the effort and his temples throb but the wall of the stomach finally ruptures and he tumbles through into the heart.
He knows that he cannot relent. He does not have the luxury of time. He continues his assault, flailing wildly against the beating muscle as viciously as he can until the beating stops and he can feel the shock of the crab’s body hitting the beach ripple through the cavernous insides.
But this is not a victory yet, he knows, because the only way he knows to get out is the way he came in. His lungs ache with their want for air and he must find his way back through the hole he’d punched through the wall of the stomach and back up into the mouth. He had resigned himself to death only moments earlier but he is desperate to live now that there is some small glimmer of hope. He feels blindly for the opening he’d made for himself between the stomach and the heart and his own heart leaps when he finds it and forces his way through it, trying to remember his way back to the mouth. Had it been straight across? Had there been some strange turn? Would it be easier to hug the wall of the stomach until he found another soft spot and forced his way through?
He opts to stick close to the stomach’s lining lest he get turned around trying to find his way across. He can feel his consciousness beginning to soften as he feels his way around, everything beginning to fade before finally, mercifully, he finds his way out. He barely has any strength at all left as he struggles his way back into the mouth, using his diamonds to his advantage to force his way out. The crab had fallen with its mouth parted and he can see a slip of bright sky as he sucks in a world-swallowing breath and staggers back out into the world, swaying on his feet as he blinks himself back to consciousness and turns to look at the monstrous thing.
None of the figures further down the beach have even looked up.
