Hung the Moon

We Live Our Lives Of A Sacred Ground

"Well," Adam said, reclining in his wicker throne, "It seems to me, it just seems to me, that you should test your powers. Remember what Newt said about proper experiments?"

"Yeah," Brian answered dutifully, hanging upside down from a nearby tree. He had his legs crooked over a big branch, his hands hanging and free to emote. Though, Adam had to worry over it since Brian had gone as red as a phone box. "You gotta have an idea first. And then you test it, and see if you can get the same results more than once."

"That's what I'm saying!" Adam agreed as Wensley and Pepper looked on. "Wensley, Pepper, we should try it! You know how Uncle Zira and Uncle Crowley do things? They find something they want to change, and then poof!"

Adam said, snapping his fingers for good measure. Dog started barking as if he knew that doing so usually preceded a blessing or a curse. It was easy to forget that he was once a hellhound.

"Okay," Pepper said, in that tone that warned of an upcoming storm. "Okay, maybe you have a point. But how're we going to get out of Tadfield? We might be horsepersons, but we're still kids. Can't just drive away, can we?"

"Actually," Wensley started, using his index finger to push his glasses back into place. "It's in the name, isn't it? Horsepersons."

Pepper pursed her lips and her forehead wrinkled. Sitting in a pile of leaves as she was made her look inhuman, like a faerie or a spirit. As if she'd grown out of Hogback Woods like a sprout.

"The original horsepersons had bikes though," Brian interjected, clambering out of the tree to join the conversation properly. "So could the horses be anything that, you know, moves people?"

"I want a proper horse," Pepper announced, her eyes hard and fiery. Adam had to fight the urge to recoil. He remembered more of being the Antichrist than he wanted to, how easy it was to abuse power like that. He moved back, hoping that if it were noticed no one would think he was trying to get away from one of his closest friends in the world.

"Let's go get one!" Brian suggested, throwing his hands up in excitement. "You both went into, like, this other world, right? I bet if we could go back there, we could find everything you want. Maybe a dragon, even!"

"Come on, there's no dragons," Adam scoffed. But really, he felt uneasy. He'd seen the Devil itself. Couldn't there be dragons, then?

"There could be," Brian pointed out. "There could be anything out there, huh?"

"Well," Pepper said, standing and dusting off her trousers. "Let's go find out."

Wensley paused in the nearby field, the one adjacent to R.P. Tyler's jealously guarded orchard. The Them stopped too, just short of banging into Wensley as he came to an unexpected stop.

"This is where I saw it," Wensley was saying, unconcerned by anything that didn't have to do with his previous vision. Adam watched him stare at the grass as if the blades would rearrange themselves into a meaningful statement of some kind, but of course nothing of the sort happened.

But Pepper had a determined look on her face, as if she were tracking a wounded animal back to its den. She could see the spoor and smell the musk, but she hadn't quite decided whether the prey had taken the left fork or the right.

"Well, something magical is going on," she said, her tone firm as if she expected them to disbelieve her. A verbal cue that she was made of stone and wouldn't be moved. "And it makes sense there's a whole other magical realm, right? If Uncle Zira and Uncle Crowley have Heaven and Hell, the Earth and all its spirits and gods must have something too."

Silence. Then after a long moment, Wensley said: "I thought I was in Tir na Nog."

It came out of him in a whisper and Adam wondered what force had manifested itself, what nefarious thing was trying to push Wensley's words right back down his throat.

"Tir na Nog," Wensley repeated. "There's something...bugger it. It's..." He continued to struggle for a moment, but none of the Them could even conceive of interrupting him. "It has other names. Delightful Plain, Place of Many Colors..."

If Wensley were sitting, Adam thought, he would have leapt from his chair. As it was an excited wiggle made his whole body undulate. He'd definitely spent too much time around Aziraphale.

"I've got it!" Wensley crowed. "Land of Apples! The Island of Apple Trees!"

Every one of them knew the significance of apples. If not in their former lives, they did now. Understanding went up red in Adam's middle, like, well. Like a flourishing apple tree.

"So...it's like there is this huge otherworld," Adam began. "But there are a lot of different ways to get in?"

"Sure," Brian said with all the confidence in the world, though he shifted from one foot to another as he took everything in. "That makes some kind of sense, right? Not every door unlocks with the same key."

"No no," Wensley all but snapped. "That's not it. Brian, Adam, shield your eyes."
They did as told. No one had heard such a confident, serious tone from little Wensley before, and they did as he asked without argument. "I'm going to test whether this is replicable."

The moment Wensley did...whatever he was doing, blazing light poured over their heads. Adam could see it even with his eyes closed, and he was very glad indeed that they were closed; god only knew what it would be like to stare directly at it.

Satiation settled into him as if it were a badger and his body its den. Hunger became an impossible concept to comprehend, and it was so far away besides. He dared to open his eyes. The light had banked a bit, enough that Adam could consider it without going blind.

Wensley held a silver bough in his hands, heavy with golden apples that shimmered like cockatrice wings. Before him, the earth had opened up like a mouth open in a cry, leading down into an ancient burial tomb. Beside him, Pepper stood. Her magic must have been reacting to Wensley's in some way, because she wore a floating cloak of pure iridescence.

The horsepersons were meant to work in a group.

Adam caught the glance Brian had thrown his way. Brian stood there like a wolf in the snow, having heard the first hunter's rifle. Still, not nearly as afraid as Adam would have expected. That was true for himself as well; he found himself remarkably unbothered by the idea of walking a path right into the land of the dead.

Pepper had white flames licking at her face and entwined with her hair, but she didn't react. As if it were normal, like she had things like that happen to her every other day. White and pink poppies were woven into her hair, where it had been pulled tight and twisted into a ponytail. Her clothes flickered. One moment, her usual outfit. The next, a robe of many colors that made Adam hear the whispers of the ancestors.

She had the sword, too, strapped to her back. It wasn't on fire yet, but easily could be at any moment. He understood that sometimes Peace came over a place through violent means. Just staring at her, he comprehended this truth. No wonder he and Brian weren't afraid; they were in the presence of Peace herself.

Adam watched as Pepper ventured into the burial mound. As the days passed and they all grew older, he found he had lost his affinity for leadership. What he'd almost done to the Them...what he had done to the Them. He hadn't lost all of his powers since he'd renounced Satan and he didn't want to be tempted by it again.

He followed Wensley and Pepper into the darkness, Brian next to him and gripping his arm as if terrified.

(the only other living being that saw them descend into the earth was R.P. Tyler's dog, who half-heartedly barked as if to say "hey put those apples back, you scoundrels!").