lovingly shall nestle near

Ever Mayawyn · 02-05-2011, 10:43 PM

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Final post
1038

Horses. There were horses everywhere. Not a single tree was in sight, just the green grass and blue sky. No shrubs or bushes or even a small hill that disturbed the incline. Clouds were absent from the air as were the mountains that gently protruded from the horizon, which was gone along with everything else. Just horses. Everywhere.

They were all around, in every corner of vision. Running past occasionally tossing their heads and manes that whipped violently in the wind. Their silken bodies filled every space and their hooves pounded silently against the grass, barely visible underneath their presence.

Ever couldn’t feel any of this. She couldn’t reach out to catch hold of their dancing hair or feel the comfortable vibrations of their steps sinking and rising from the ground. They were all moving, not one slowed or sped up, and not one passed another or fell back. All in rhythm like a song.

Each one was different, though. The girl could make out the deep browns of chestnuts or the discoloring of pintos. But there were no palominos. She gazed through the sea of colors that made her eyes dash hungrily over the array of unfamiliar patterns. Her point of view was set just above the backs of each horse. But was it all real? Her subconscious never stumbled across the thought.

The only thing it knew was that horses were everywhere, and they kept coming. Thousands rolled across the land in racehorse fashion right where the sky sheltered the ground. But she started to notice something. They were fading. A moaning sound seemed to rip from their lips and roar in her ears. Steadily, they were becoming transparent, revealing the earth that settled under them.

The blades were as fresh as if just grown. All the same height and not a single wilting patch in sight. Everything was perfect. But the moaning continued until the horses were gone completely and the lack of motion made the world spin. Or was it really spinning? Ever tried to hold onto something, but there was nothing. The sky swirled into an angry gray even though there were no clouds to filter such a color. Haze stretched across the wide plain and clung to it like a shred of rope.

The suddenly, the ground dropped. The grass turned to stone the color of frost and a sinking feeling entered the girls stomach. She could feel the throbbing of her head and wrist slowly come back to her and increase when the world broke to pieces, revealing large gaps full of red. What was happening to her quaint little world?

It felt like some had hit her hard in the head. She awoke in a large gasp of breath that sucked icicles into her lungs. Her face twisted into a wince, which helped clear her vision followed by a couple slow blinks. The air was a whirlwind of snow flurries and the sleet strangled her fur and chilled her with the dropping temperature. Already, the shallow path her body had created sliding down the slope was covered. She lay at the bottom being eaten alive by the cold. Something was broken, but everything hurt too much to tell. Ever picked up her head and forced her body to ignore the screaming pain that seemed to add up and crush itself inside of her mind. Black spots started bouncing in her vision again and she uncontrollably fell back down.

She knew she needed help. And she knew she wasn’t going to get it. The slope was too steep to climb and the weather made everything, including scents, indistinguishable. A blanket of snow had already started to pile up on her pelt and she did the best to shift it off, but she was weak. Her bones were stiff and she was trapped in optime form. Trapped at the bottom of the fall. Trapped in a cold and useless body. But she couldn’t be alone.

Ever summed up enough energy to look around in a slow, controlled movement. Where was her horse? Or did she imagining him falling with her to their near death? The wind was moaning like the horses in her dream now. It whipped her fur back with a furious curiosity although the girl willed it to go away. She was conflicted in many ways now. A desperate franticness welled up inside of her heart but she refused to let go.

So she started to list what she could do. Calling out would be daft, and climbing up the slope would be near impossible. Crawling back home could take hours, but maybe not to the barn. They had to have been close before they fell. She tried to picture the area around the stables in spring, or summer, even fall, whatever time she could that would make it easier to see the surrounding area. And it worked. Ever miraculously knew where she was. The storm had not blown her and Saphraine very far off the route, only towards the sea more, where the terrain had became rocky, sea spray-laden, and very uneven. She must have fallen down one of the grassy slopes that started the hilly area.

Ever begged her legs to move, but the blood were gone from them under the snow cover. Black hands pushed off what she could but she had to leave her right hand limp. It was broken. Useless. New found confidence helped her stir the strength inside her and she managed to stumble to a well-sheltered tree. The snow on the ground was thin here.

She stopped to pant, knowing the trip to the stables would be unbearably long. Tears were flowing freely now from the stinging cold and pain that pushed out from her ribs and wrist. But suddenly, a warm breeze billowed from somewhere above her and spread onto her open hands. Ever looked up, barely able to keep her balance on the tree. Saphraine was there, standing with the concern look she had seen the first day she met him. And nothing broken or cut. The girl smiled.

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