The whisperer soon tired of its endless reflections. It leapt off its chair and came to the window, hesitant. Raising its head, it nudged the curtains aside and saw an entire world beyond—a quiet world of branches etched in white, in frost.
The whisperer touched the window and found it had no bars, nor glass. It slipped through the narrow space and into the land of winter—but it was not winter anymore. Everything was dry and parched and littered with fragments of bone, like macabre confetti. And not a thing could be heard.
The creature sat, wondering where to go from here. As it thought, it saw something approaching from the distance. Across the flat plain, a blue river was rushing, and around it streamed a curl of black ribbon. A current of fear ran through the whisperer's body, but its legs wouldn't move.
The river and ribbon tumbled closer. The ribbon twisted around the river, and the river rose in a great tide. When it slammed mightily onto the ground, the brittle earth broke. Cracks snaked through the plain and deepened into fissures. The whisperer, unmoving still, saw the river and ribbon fall into the crevasse.
Then it was engulfed in half-light, falling with them.
(
What happened next could simply not be described. However much they tried to remember later, Frost, Ravine, and Spire were left at a loss for words and thought.
Looking back, they knew this: one moment they were someplace else, somewhere no living being had gone before and would never be able to go again, and the next they were in a dark cavern—in the cavern where it had started.
They saw feathers and scales covering the floor. A beak, two fangs, and four damp eyes lay strewn on the pitch-black rock.
All throughout the mindfield, the very air held its breath.
And then, when it exhaled, a tide of warmth ran through the world. It combed the hair of the trees, smoothed the sharp corners of the mountains, and kindled again the dying light of the red and swollen sun.
A whisperer wailed, flinching and shaking, in a dark corner.
A woman and a songbird opened their eyes and began to feel again.
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...
