there are no markings on her country roads no signs that show the way back home
Waker's mention of the unknown land on the other sound of the mountain had made Otem curious. Of course he probably meant on the other other side of the Pinnacle, but as soon as the words had reached her ears, it had made Otem wonder. |
R I X E N The day was rather sultry. The Scorch sun shone brightly as I walked through the sand. As I plodded steadily along, I could almost see the heat waves rising off the golden sand in my path. I enjoyed this season. Scorch was beautiful, because the trees were green and the sun was always shining, despite the Rift’s sickness. There weren't many large trees around here, though, mostly because the desert soil was too dry for them to grow. I rarely visited these parts, but today I decided that it was time I paid the Pinnacle a visit. I had been spending most of my time everywhere else except in the north. Making my way up the side of a sandy dune took some effort, but it was nothing a stallion of my size and age could not handle. My emerald gaze was fixed on some imaginary path on the ground ahead of me, but I couldn't help looking up upon seeing a dark shape appear at the edge of my vision. For once, it was someone I recognized - Otem, the mare who had given me the healing orb. I remembered the ram-horned mare well, and was glad to run into her again. What was she doing alone out here? Her reasons for coming to the Pinnacle most likely did not differ too much from my own. Perhaps she too had grown restless, and sought someplace new to explore. Deciding to say hello and ask Otem what she was doing, I picked up my pace, making my way through the sand in her direction. I was still a good distance away from the mare when I nickered a greeting to her, my silver-tipped ears pricked forward and my tone cheerful. "Hello, Otem! Fancy seeing you here." The object of her fixation was something I could not yet see from my position on the dune. "Talk." they heard me singing and they told me to stop quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock |
there are no markings on her country roads no signs that show the way back home
Otem's orb bobbed silently, appearing to say that no, it couldn't do anything about the black curtain before her. Despite this, as Rixen's voice called out, she momentarily mistook it for being the voice of her orb, and jumped back startled. It was only as he continued, Fancy seeing you here, that the girl's rationality caught up with her. Turning around, heart still thumping slightly from the adrenaline rushing through her system, she spied the oddly decorated unicorn she'd now bumped into on a handful of occasions, and smiled. |
R I X E N Otem looked startled at the sound of my voice. Oops. It had not been my intention to startle her or to disrupt whatever she had been doing. At least she seemed to recover quickly upon realizing that it was me. The burgundy mare turned to face me with a smile, and I picked up a trot toward her. My slow gait was almost soundless as my hooves kissed the sand. They carrying me across the dune with minimal effort, quickly closing the gap between us. When I caught up to Otem, she wasted no time in delving straight into the mystery at hoof. In a brief but complicated question, she asked me if I knew anything about this. What exactly was the this that she was referring to? The girl seemed to be looking at something before me, something I knew that I should be seeing. Strange. Before us the sand seemed to stretch on...then it flickered black, tall, and vast. It reached as far and wide as I could see. Certainly no horse, or any winged creature, for that matter, could fly over a structure so huge. Was it even a structure? Perhaps it was the product of the Rift's mysterious magic. Or maybe a combination of both. "It’s some kind of barrier." I breathed in awe. I had never noticed it before. From far away, it just looked like the desert was endless, but up close it became apparent that there was an impenetrable wall here and that the Rift did in fact come to an end. Otem kicked a small pebble at the barrier and I watched as it disappeared into the blackness. But organic matter could not pass through, according to the girl, who had apparently been examining this- this curious thing for a while. "I’ve never seen something like this before." Was all I could think of to say. The barrier puzzled me as much as Otem. I was eager to know what would happen if one of us touched it, but at the same time I hadn't yet mustered up the courage to find out. "Talk." they heard me singing and they told me to stop quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock |
there are no markings on her country roads no signs that show the way back home
When Rixen's gaze seemed to peer farther away than the barrier would allow, briefly Otem wondered if she wasn't just imaginging in. Narrowing her eyes she tried to scrutinize the air just before her, to see if there was anything that gave it away as an illusion. She hadn't made any potions lately, so surely it wasn't her own hallucinogenic magic ... that was, unless maybe she had too much magic built up in her system? |
R I X E N "That would make sense," I agreed, continuing to examine the wall with great interest. I wanted to reach out and touch the barrier. And if I was anyplace else, I probably would have. This was not any other place. This was the Rift, and around every corner there lurked unforeseen dangers. I almost liked that aspect of the Rift. It kept me on the tips of my hooves. It kept my heart beating and my blood pumping. In a way, it gave me life where there was none for me before. Still, I wasn't about to try anything without at least some notion of what I was getting into beforehand. The Rift was too dangerous for that. "By the looks of it-" I gestured again up and down the height of the blackness with my antlers, "-this wall doesn’t look too salubrious." There was a somber, almost deathly look about it. This quality was not solely due to its dark color, but another I couldn't quite place. "Strangely, I couldn’t see it from far away. It was only when I drew closer to you that the wall became visible. It seems like it’s disguised by some kind of illusion, one that tricks your mind into thinking the desert stretches on when it really comes to an end. Rift magic sure does work in unusual ways." I observed. Everything and everyone I had encountered during my time in the Rift thus far reminded me that magic was all around me now, though I once thought it to be naught. In the blink of an eye, it was all very real. I watched as Otem tried to nudge her orb toward the wall, but the second she moved back the orb returned to its position by her shoulder, as if it were tethered to the mare’s side by an invisible string. As it turned out, Otem was almost as clueless about the Rift as I was. That's what her words implied, at least. She knew more than me, but in the spectrum of things to know about the Rift, the knowledge was not much. My response came with a humorless and rather distant chuckle. I don’t know why I chuckled, because there was nothing particularly funny about any of this. It was not a nervous laugh, but an unpretentious one - my way of filling the otherwise still air with a little more sound. "As I'm sure you know, I’ve been here a small fraction of the time you have. I wish I knew, but very much like you, I'm haven't got any idea how things around here work." I was not trying to make an excuse for myself, for my cluelessness. Even though there was not really any reason for Otem to think that I would know something more about the Rift than she did, I went out of my way to state the obvious, just in case. In no way did I want to sound arrogant. What an idiot I would make of myself, if I were to say something as if I knew, and it turned out to be completely wrong. Otem’s idea was simple, and certainly better than anything I could come up with. That's not to say it anything special, just throwing a course of action onto the table of possibilities in hopes of uncovering a path to the answer. Nevertheless, trying to use both of our orbs together was better than staring at the wall for who knows how long. Until we were bored, I guessed. "It’s worth a try." We were flying blind. The worst that could happen was nothing at all. "Talk." they heard me singing and they told me to stop quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock |
there are no markings on her country roads no signs that show the way back home
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R I X E N Occasionally, I liked to incorporate an elaborate word or two into my vocabulary. In part, the reason for this was because it made me feel more intelligent in situations where I felt particularly imbecile for not knowing things that I ought to. Also, so that I might be listened to as an educated, intelligent speaker. Good word choice was the only way to truly influence others with any credence. I didn't mean "influence" in a bad way. But, you know, it was just better that I try not to make a fool of myself. It was just as important to be capable of defending myself with my tongue as with my hooves. To me, words were extremely interesting. After all, horses would not be able to communicate with each other without them. The world would indeed be more simple if I were to use only small words, but everything would be a bit boring and unusual. "There are other Gods in the Rift?" Otem’s mention of there being wolf, crocodile, and tiger gods furthered my curiosity. "I do recall you, or rather your necklace, telling me who Kisamoa is and how he was a God of this place who brought you here and now he wants us to heal everything. I never knew there were others…" It was impossible to forget the task that loomed over us all. Heal this place. At least I could be reassured by the knowledge that I had healed the Rift somehow by helping to deliver hope to the sirens. Even if it was by the tiniest bit, I felt much better contributing than sitting back and being a burden. How could I expect the Rift to heal if I was not willing to do everything in my power to help it? "It would make sense that they could have something to do with the creation of this wall. Why would they put it here? Might there be something on the other side?" There were so many questions. There were so many things that I had to learn, and many that I never would. Never in my existence had my mind been so full of wonder and curiousity and frustration at my inability to understand. Being surrounded by questions made everything more interesting, but at the same time it was irritating to be so in the dark. Otem watched the two orbs, as if by some miracle they would hear our pleading or sense our desperation to find out why this wall was here and do something, anything to the wall. I watched them too, my emerald eyes following the motion of the glowing spheres as they floated gently up and down. Silently, I willed them to respond. Show us the way, please. But there was no response. "There has to be another way. Should we try to touch the wall? You said you were considering it." Would something bad happen if one or both of us did? "Talk." they heard me singing and they told me to stop quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock |
there are no markings on her country roads no signs that show the way back home
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R I X E N "Wow." I listened to Otem interestedly, taking in all that she had to tell me about the land she came from. She spoke of herds and fighting and Gods who were able to move lands from world to world. Where I came from, such a thing was impossible. Otem reminded me of the evident power of Kisamoa, who was formed by these smaller Gods. Surely his magic was even stronger than all of the others combined. And what did he do with his power? Build giant walls for no apparent reason. On the bright side, now we could experience the thrills and joys of figuring said reasons out. Not to mention frustration. "Well, that would make sense." I agreed. The Gods probably returned with those lands, like she said. All the while, my thoughts wandered to the question of the wall. It was confusing at best, like everything about the Rift was. What was the wall made of? But more importantly, why was it here, and what did it serve to separate us from. I wished that someone could provide us with an answer. I'd be thinking about this strange structure for the next five hundred years if I didn't walk a way with some sort of answer today. Enough thinking about a wall - there were better things to trouble myself with. Though I wanted to do something to ease my intellectual appetite, I didn't know what I could do. One thing was certain: it was silly enough to be so perplexed by and focused on a simple thing such as a wall, yet here I was. There was nothing else to do but stare at it. Otem didn’t answer me per se, but it was soon clear to me what the girl’s answer was. I watched as she stepped toward the black mass of a wall, holding my breath with uncertainty. Did she dare? She did. Otem was more brave than I. That notion embarrassed me a little, but she did not seem to view it that way, and the feeling disappeared rather quickly. As Otem drew closer, I contemplated what might happen the moment her body came into contact with the strange structure. Hopefully nothing terrible. I didn’t know what I would do if something happened. Pushing such negative thoughts away, I focused on observing whatever was to happen. Whatever it was might be noteworthy. The wall seemed to give way as Otem stepped into it, leaving her orb behind. No, I’d say that the glowing orb chose to stay behind, possibly because it knew that it was a futile attempt to breach the barrier. For a moment I wondered if it was really a wall, and whether we had been able to simply pass right through all along. But soon it became evident that the swirling blackness was indeed solid. After a certain point, it rejected Otem’s body, forcing her backwards. She backed out slowly but nevertheless clumsily, emerging rump-first, followed by her barrel, wings, and horns, all deposited in a heap right next to me again. All I could do was look down at her and suppress a small chuckle, but I think my amusement was given away by my eyes. "Neither was I. I mean it would have been a pleasant surprise to find out that you could go through. Or the wall could have done something worse like injure you, which didn’t happen, fortunately. What I’m trying to say is-" I paused, searching for the right words. In part, I was glad of what had happened, even if it did not curb my profuse curiosity. "-that wasn’t the worst possible outcome. Although it still leaves us with many questions." The wall was kind of like a child who had eaten a vegetable, decided the texture wasn’t like cake, and spit it right back out again. That was the conclusion I came to after watching Otem test its permeability. By the way it had forced Otem back out, whatever stuff the wall was made up of appeared to be almost gelatinous or rubbery or elastic-y. Definitely a substance with a lot of rebound. "Talk." they heard me singing and they told me to stop quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock |