The woman awoke in a dark night. Her head was mostly cleared of the dream she had had. The Viper had left her. She brushed her limp hair from her face and glanced beside her. The bird lay still as a stone. She stroked its feathers, trying to wake it.
She knew they must escape from this dead meadow.
The moonlight brought out all the angles and curves and shadows in this sleeping realm. Something howled far away.
She continued to absentmindedly stroke the bird while she recalled the events of her dream. She shuddered.
Contorted.
Her mouth opened wide like a beak to scream, but a few dry words were all that emerged.
"Bone-cold
Colorless
Dark."
The land was suddenly awash in light.
She could see far. Everything was the same: dark white hills, colorless mountains capped with jagged peaks.
Her mind beat with the bird's. The land around her had begun to mirror what it was seeing through its dream-swayed eyes.
She had to get out or her mind was going to rot into nothing but fear. The shadows in this whitened land beckoned to her.
Come on. Come with us.
She shook her head and picked the bird up.
"Falling
Flinching
Shaking," it said.
The woman flinched and began to shake.
No.
No.
She would not succumb. It was what they wanted from her.
She ignored the bird's hissing voice and began to run again.
The Viper stewed in angry silence and disappeared into the earth.
YOU ARE READING
Aeolia
General FictionA woman runs from everything. A songbird joins her from nowhere, singing colors and images. A whisperer finds the pair among a field of poplars and graves. A dark and vicious viper stalks them from deep in the earth. They must flee from the Viper...
