𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂 | 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐲 𝐓𝐚𝐢𝐥

o1 • the stone of discovery

Curious, I think. The thing that had caused such a commotion was this little stone?

Little, indeed; it is no bigger and no darker than a plum. The stone fits comfortably in the palm of my hand, and as silly as it might sound, it appears that... it is heating up. It grows hotter and hotter, stinging my skin. I brush my fingers over the smooth surface of the stone. It has only been just a few weeks since the end of autumn, and the temperature is already bordering zero degrees. It is always cold in Caelum, even during the summer months.

I sigh, and roll the stone over in my hand. As if turning hotter than an oven isn't enough, it is starting to vibrate. Yes, it is shocking - who in history has ever held a self-heating piece of charcoal? - but I am not frightened by it. I know my curiosity would have gotten the better of me, sooner or later. I drop it in the same place I had retrieved it only moments earlier, down into the grass that has been growing around it in the past month. After spending seven hours searching for it, after gathering as much information as I could about the strange stone, I must admit- I'm not very pleased by this lewd outcome.

I step away and hike up my dress, preparing to return to the slope of the hill which I slid down. To my surprise, the ground begins to shake not even a moment later. Hastily, I prepare to climb, digging my nails through the earth in search of a sturdy enough mount to push myself off of, but in my haste, I lose the slight grip I have in the soil, the dirt crumbling beneath my fingers.

The terror that has washed over me in my seconds of attempted escape is stifling. I cannot focus, I cannot think. The scramble of sounds that escape through my parted lips are dreadful, and humiliating. It makes my ears ring, rendering my efforts of escaping the crater around me futile. The earth splits, and I have no choice but to remain still with my fathers' boots planted in the soil, my fingers plugging my ears tight. I close my one eyes for good measure, keeping the other open to review the situation.

And suddenly, it stops, but it had most definitely been enough to call those who live nearby out of their homes and to the edge of the pit. They are just as curious as I, myself, had been, but after feeling and hearing what I just felt and heard, I am now quite the opposite. And I know that the quaking of the earth had just been the beginning-yes, there will be more resonating terror to come.

"What are you doing?" I bellow up to them once my ears cease ringing. I wave my hands at them in a flurry. "Run! Get as far from here as you can!"

Many of those surrounding the edge stumble backwards by my words, just as I had, but go no further. Others heed my warning the moment I finish speaking. They flee with their tails between their legs, towards their homes or the main street in the village's centerfold-from where I stand, I cannot wholly tell.

"Oi!" someone shouts from above. My eyes search for whom the voice belongs to, before settling on a young boy with blond hair. "Get out of there, lady!"

I make a second attempt at safety, clawing away at the earth to grab onto a thick root, uncovered and belonging to a neighbouring tree that had been planted long before my return to Caelum, and before the crater had even dared to exist. From what I had learned prior to this moment, here, there used to be a flourishing meadow. I should have known that, though. I lived here, too, long ago, my family and I.

And any day now, I would leave for the heavens and join them. My mother and young sister died from a common illness belonging to my family. It will be my turn soon. My father, the delirious fool, left when I had been a child, myself, under the assumption that he could learn from the Dragon population. I would not doubt of his passing- he, most likely, did not survive more than an hour in their presence. But if I don't die by the same illness, then I will die here, where I stand.