Sworded Tales

For long moments you sit in silence watching the candlelight dance across the pallid surface of the ouija before you.  The delicate breezes brush against your skin, playfully tugging at the long tresses flowing down over your shoulders.  The sound of commonality disintegrate into the night as your essence begins to slowly take shape, weaving itself into existence from the very threads of the great fabric.

You take in a full breath, opening your mind to receive the visions which will grant you clarity into what lies ahead.  Closing your eyes, you exhale deeply, listening to the beating of your faerie heart, lub dub, focusing on your place, your purpose, within the grand scheme.  Lub dub.

Whispers emanate from the darkness all around you, creeping slowly forward against the light.  Lub dub.

Your eyes open and fall on the ouija as nearly invisible hands edge the pointer across its glassy surface.  Lub dub.

The rhythmic flash of light pulls your eyes slightly upward toward the candelabra.  Lub dub.

The flames flicker and dance…seething with light…  Lub dub.

…pulsing in time…  Lub dub.

…with the beating…  Lub dub.

…of your heart.  Lub dub.

Transfixed on the beating flames, your eyes only vaguely notice the ouija spelling out the words that are whispered all too clearly in your ears.  Lub dub.

Is…he…lost…  Lub dub.

One of the candle flames flares brilliantly, and in its heart you see…

…a hulking figure stumbles among the dunes of some unknown wasteland.  Plunging forward, down one slope, up another.  The figure stops only briefly to scan the distant horizon through squinting, hardened eyes before trudging ahead into the endless sea of sand.  Atop the next dune, you hear him call into the desert a word that is lost to the winds.  The figure glances up, and you see Colin’s weathered face.  You follow his line of sight into the depths of the blazing sun and are blinded…

…as the light fades, you see the candle has extinguished.  Smoke ebbs from it, wrapping itself seductively around its fellow wax siblings.  Lub dub.

At your knees, the ouija continues to slide smoothly as the smoke begins to billow around you.  Lub dub.

Again you hear the voices.  What…evil…awaits…  Lub dub.

As the mists close around you, another candle pulses brightly…

…the silken sheet ripples beneath you, and you are almost certain you feel the ground fall away beneath you.  A thick wind picks up and blows your hair back over your shoulders, giving a clear view of a fog the likes of which you have never before encountered.  It is difficult to even visualize the ground before you, but you believe you can make out the dark forms of landmarks passing by as you seemingly glide through the mist.

Then again, you could always be sitting still…and those shapes could be gliding around you.

You pull your eyes from the unknown and push your senses into the blankness in front of you…but amidst the shifting eddies and currents of the gray morass, you simply cannot discern anything with certainty.

How much time passes in this limbo?  How does one tell?  Bereft of your senses, you begin to worry…

When suddenly, something looms in front of you, materializing out of the murk.

You find yourself kneeling upon the edge of some large chasm.  A natural stone bridge some thirty feet across reaches out into the emptiness.  Your eyes follow the cold expanse farther out over the chasm.  At the limit of your vision, you detect movement.  Shadows…dancing.

A blast of icy wind cuts the fog and you recognize the immense form of Colin, dressed in the desert garb, struggling to maintain his grip on some dark beast that writhes in his embrace.  It is difficult to see the monster with which the troll struggles.  Its shape and size seem to change.  Its movements are fluidic and mesmerizing to the eye.

You instinctively step toward the bridge to lend your aid, and a thick bank of fog rolls into you obscuring your vision…

…and you next see the candelabra, with a second candle extinguished.  Lub dub.

Your breathing has quickened and with it, your pulse.  Lub dub.

The pounding in your heart, the pulse of the flames, is almost too much to bear.  Lub dub.

You turn your head skyward seeking a moment’s reprieve, only to have your eyes filled by the blazing moon in the crisp night sky.  Lub dub.

It too beats in unison with the rhythms of your heart.  Lub dub.

Does…he…the…circle…close…  Lub dub.

In that instant, it has changed from night to day, and you stare down, open-mouthed upon…

…a field of battle sprawl out before you.  Thousands upon thousands of forms are broken and twisted atop this grotesque landscape.  Weapons clash, the tides of hundreds of battles surge, endless screams fill the air, pillars of gray fire arc into the sky from rifts in the ground, the haze of death enshrouds all who walk this day.

The sheer vastness of this panorama, the chaos, the destruction, the finality of it all, numbs your senses beyond the most cursory intake…

…and it is gone.  A tear burns hotly down your cheek as you stare into the moonlight.  Lub dub.

Your head lowers slowly, hair enshrouding your face, swallowing dryly.  Lub dub.

Only two candles remain lit, pulsing alternately in time with your heart.  Lub dub.

You…wish…to…find…him…  Lub dub.

A whoosh of frigid air whips into your face…

…your eyes water from the intense cold.  Your vision blurs as you are chilled to the marrow.  Darkness engulfs you, and you long even for the meager warmth of the candle.  Your feet ache with a cold burning sensation.  Glancing down, you see the snow and ice has covered the lower portion of your legs.  Quickly you glance up…hopeful…at the sound in the distance.

Your sight begins to clear as your tears freeze on your face.  A figure approaches by torchlight amidst an unusual field of trees.  You watch with sluggish movements as the shambling figure looms nearer.  It seems an eternity before he has drawn close enough to speak.  The figure stops and you attempt a greeting…but no sound emerges!  Your jaw will not move, your lips remain sealed, no sound emanates from your throat.

Slowly the figure shakes his head and turns to head off.  Fear leaps into your throat…but nothing else can emerge.  As your eyes begin to fill with tears again, the last you see is the figure moving off slowly amidst what you now see are others…like yourself…covered in ice…

…an involuntary shiver brings you back to the silken sheet.  Lub dub.

You can still feel the burning in your legs.  Lub dub.

One solitary candle burns yet.  You stare at it with wonder…and fear.  Lub dub.

Has…he…fallen…  Lub dub.

The candle snuffs out, and you find yourself…

…staring down into the void…into nothingness.  You see the stone bridge under you feet, but below it, there is absolute emptiness.

Oblivion.  ‘That’s a good name for it,’ you think.  Movement at the side of your vision pulls you from the blankness.

You find yourself standing on the stone bridge, arching out over this…oblivion.  Ahead of you grapple Colin and the dark beast, as if no time had passed since you last visited them.  A damp, chill gust of wind courses along the length of the bridge.  Staring blankly at the wrestling duo, the insatiable urge to walk to the far end of the bridge overcomes you.  You simply must know where it leads.  The word, must, echoes in your ears, whispered by a thousand shadows.  Your foot reaches out and comes down firmly a single step closer to your destination.

And everything screeches into slow motion.

Colin’s head snaps around and sees you, his eyes wide with shock.

The beast recoils from him, finally slipping from his grip.

As he turns again to face it, the beast springs…but it does not leap for him.

Hurtling past him, the dark shape races right toward you.

Colin lunges out for the tail end of the beast and fastens one hand around the dark posterior.

The beast snakes but once, and a thick tentacle lashes out crashing into the troll.

You see in vivid clarity as the blow lifts Colin from his feet and rips his hand from the hide of the beast, sending him hurtling through the air.

As the beast turns and slams into your terrified form, the last image you have is of the large troll sailing over the edge of the bridge into the abyss below…