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Battle of Wills- Part 2

4/25/2012

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“Ashton?  What have you done?”

Ashton ran his hand through his hair, and stared down at the accusation that blazed in the blue eye of the Unicorn.

“What are you talking about, Horse?”

Silren stomped his front hoof.  “We are not where we should be.  This is not where I was taking us.”

Ashton looked around at the golden leaves drifting from the trees.  The terrain didn’t look much different than any of the other places they had passed through.  In fact, it looked down right close to what he had left at home, except for the change in season.  Here, fall held sway.  He shivered in his summer weight clothes.

“How would I know?  You’re the one who’s kidnapped me.  I have no idea of your destination.  And it’s your feet taking us by the way.  So how did I do it?”

“Don’t get snarky.  You know perfectly well I’m referring to this last veil crossing.  You don’t have to walk to phase shift.”

“And I would know this how?”

The Unicorn snorted and started to move again, muttering under his breath.  They walked briskly through the early sun.  The fallen leaves crunched under hoof.  Up ahead, two tall trees stood sentinel flanking the path.  As they approached, Ashton felt the brand on his chest start to react again, and he thought about the last shift. 

Had he inadvertently used this power to control their phase shift?

I had only been dreaming of home.  Could it be that simple?  

Mist drifted through the trees and Silren’s horn grew brighter.  Ashton closed his eyes and, this time, intentionally formed the most detailed picture of home he could manage. 

He smashed his face against Silren’s raised neck when the Unicorn came to an abrupt stop. 

“Ashton!”

He spit out strands of Silren’s silky mane and looked around with watering eyes.  They had stopped between the two sentinel trees.  The mist lay thick on the ground.  He rubbed his sore nose.

“Stop experimenting, Human.  I’m trying to take us through the safest veils I can.  But that doesn’t mean there still aren’t dangers.”

Ashton narrowed his eyes at the reprimand.  If you think I’m going to just docilely follow in your footsteps, think again, Horse.  

The burn from the mark increased as Silren used his power to bridge the veils.  He pushed the Unicorn’s warning aside and reformed his picture of home.

Fire spread through his body but he held to his focus.  Silren’s harsh breathing reached his ears and he felt the Unicorn’s skin tremble over the rigid muscles as they fought over control of the crossing.  His concentration slipped for a second.  And that’s all it took.  Silren’s body relaxed and Ashton opened his eyes.

In place of the sentinel trees now stood two pillars of ragged grey stone.  A narrow rock-strewn pass stretched out before them that looked almost identical to the mountains that had surrounded the lake they had slept by.

The Unicorn set out at a brisk walk, his nimble feet stepping through the loose shale that littered the path.  Ashton rubbed his chest to ease the last of the ache, disappointed that he had lost the round. 

A few hours later, frustration nagged at him.  They had steadily gained in altitude and Ashton had used that time to work on tapping this power of his to initiate a shift of his own.  But no matter how hard he concentrated, he couldn’t get his mark to react.  He was stuck with the bossy know-it-all Unicorn until he could move himself around. 

The trail narrowed through a split in the rock face.  The rough sides scraped against his jeans.  They squeezed through, and slipped around a corner.  The horizon blossomed out ahead.  Ashton stared slack jawed at the vista stretched before them.  A tiny ribbon of light marked the length of a river at the base of the drop.  Only an occasional tree marked the jagged slopes.  Another large peak rose on the other side of the valley.

He had just caught a glimpse of the goat-track excuse for a trail when the Unicorn leapt over the edge and into a run.  Clutching fistfuls of mane, he clamped his legs around Silren’s barrel and held on for dear life.  The insane Unicorn raced down the steep narrow mountain trail.  Frozen, Ashton couldn’t form a coherent thought when he felt his mark heat.  The blaze of the Unicorn’s horn blinded him as they plunged into the dense fog that filled the void between two boulders, and passed through.  The Unicorn’s hind end slew to the side in an effort to stop his mad plunge.

His mount wobbled for a moment as Silren’s hooves fought for purchase with the marble like stones that now surfaced the trail.  They slid backwards a few meters before the Unicorn came to a halt, Ashton swayed in his seat from Silren’s labored breathing.

Rocks continued to clatter down the steep path, breaking the stillness of the forested mountain pass.

It took a moment for Ashton’s wits to catch up.  He stared up the trail where two roughly waist high boulders stood flanking the path above them.  Yellow rock, instead of grey, his mind identified.  As if he needed any more indication that they had phase shifted, than the sudden appearance of trees on the once barren mountain side.

“You goddamned, crazy son of a bitch!”  Ashton said.  He pried his stiff fingers free, then forced his legs to relax.  He slid to the ground.  His legs gave out and he fell on his rear.  “You could have killed us.”

“No more than… you could have… if you had fought me on that crossing.”  The Unicorn’s voice held a note of strain. 

Ashton pushed himself shakily upright.  He took a step down the trail and ended up sliding several feet.  The loose tan rock acted like marbles.  The grey shale had been preferable.  He skidded to the side of the path, hopeful the edge would be less treacherous.  Unfortunately, the evergreen trees in this terrain grew too far apart for their needles to form any sort of useful mat on the ground.  Just more loose rock.  He continued to work his way down the hillside.

The Unicorn picked his way over to where he slid.  “Get back on me Ash.  It’s a long way down.”

“Screw you.”  He continued to skate a step at a time.  The topography through the trees looked like it matched the last veil.  He could make out the glint of water through the tree cover at the bottom of the valley.  It was a long way down.

His foot went out from under him and started a mini cascade.  A flash of white shot by him as he slid out of control, then pain exploded from his ribs as his body wrapped around a white leg.  Half under the Unicorn, he fought to get his diaphragm to unseize. 

“Get.  Back.  On.  Now, before you break your neck.”

He gulped in a lungful of air and glared into the Unicorn’s blue eye.  But he dragged himself up the white leg to grab a fistful of mane anyway.  It took some effort, but he managed to gain the broad back.  Silren retraced the trail, picked up the fallen blanket, and flung it over his shoulder at him. 

Stiffly, Silren worked his way down the mountain.  Ashton cautiously drew air into his lungs to check the state of his ribs.  Bruised, but thankfully not broken.  Not that the distinction mattered much since they let him know with every jarring step Silren took on the decent.  When they reached the bottom Silren picked his pace up to a trot.  The sun ran high over head.  Hungry, Ashton pulled some of the food Dafydd had given him out of the grass bag that he had somehow managed to retain possession of.  He took a bite of the crusty bread and smoked fish, and thought about his next move.

***

The setting sun blinded Ashton as Silren stumbled to a stop.  The Unicorn’s body trembled with fatigue.  Ashton didn’t feel much better.  Their current veil consisted of a mixed hardwood forest.  They were still in the mountains, from what Ash could tell, but their elevation had dropped considerably.  The green leaves had just started to turn. 

They had stopped in the middle of a wide, grassy lane.  The trees of the forest marched along either side for as far as Ashton could see.  Silren’s head hung to the ground.  The battle the two of them fought all day had drained them both. 

A glint of light floated out of the woods.  It circled them before it came to a stop to hover near Silren’s eyes.  The Unicorn wearily raised his head, then shambled off to follow the bouncing sparkle. 

Not too far off the wide grass road, they came to an open space where a stream burbled.  The smell of roasting meat twisted Ashton’s stomach.  A fire crackled in the empty clearing.  Twilight fell with alarming speed once the trees blocked the light.  Ashton slid off of Silren’s back onto his rubbery legs.  He dropped his blanket next to the fire, then got a drink.  When he turned away from the water, he caught Silren staring at him.

“I’m sorry you find this necessity so hard to accept, Ashton.”  The Unicorn sighed.  “The Will-o-the-wisp says that your food should be done.” 

Ashton turned away from Silren.  Whatever else the Unicorn had to say he could keep.  All he wanted, besides to go home, was food and sleep.  He pulled the roasted rabbit off of the spit and burned his fingers for his trouble.  His stomach filled the air with noise, but he forced himself to slow down and let it cool a bit more between each piece. 

Silren nattered on about the veil they currently occupied, and the shyness of their hosts, while he ate a trough of grain left out.  He let Silren’s one sided conversation go in one ear and out the other.  After he had finished the rabbit, he tossed the bones into the fire and wiped his fingers off on some grass.  Then built the fire up and wrapped himself in his blanket, and lay down on his side to sleep.

***

Jolting awake, his heart pounding, Ashton gazed into the darkness.  Once again, he found his head pillowed on Silren’s leg, not sure of how that came to be.  He struggled out of the cocooning blanket and sat up against Silren’s side.  The Unicorn snored softly behind him.  The fire burned low, mostly coals that flared and brightened as a breath of wind played across them. 

Breath of wind.

Breath.

Fear clouded his mind.  A hot breeze tickled the back of his neck.  He screamed and leapt out of his blanket to scramble away.  From the other side of the fire, he spun around. 

And saw himself still wrapped up, sound asleep against a snoring Unicorn.  He backed up several steps.  His legs turned to water.

A scrape.

His head whipped to stare across the fire.  Twin coals floated out of the darkness.  He whimpered and backed up another step. 

Her hooves clacked against the hard packed ground.  She stepped out into the dim light cast by the remains of the fire; her coat blacker than the night that surrounded them.  She switched her tail and the eddy of a warm breeze swirled around him.  The fire blazed. 

She stopped by the flames and stretched her neck out over the heat.  Her eyes closed blissfully and Ashton felt himself drawn forward, his fingers itched to pet her soft cheek.  Not again.  No.  That desire warred with the incipient hysteria.   Oh my god, oh my god, she’s here, oh my god.  Silren…  

Without consent, his feet took him the last steps to the fire.  His heart hammered in his chest but his fingers still reached out.  She moaned as they sank into her velvety fur, and he scratched.  Losing himself in the warmth and texture, his fear receded. 

Her eye cracked open and caught his.  They studied one another for a while before she spoke.  “I know you wish to go home.  Why don’t you?  You have the power to you know.” 

His mark started to throb in time with his heart beat, and his fingers stilled.  She pulled her head away.

“I don’t know how.”  He whispered.

“Follow your heart.”  She wuffled his hair, then looked back over her shoulder.  “Catch.”

A fireball arced out of the darkness from behind her.  She stepped to the side.  Frozen, he watched it come straight at him.  He opened his mouth to scream. 

“I’ll be waiting.”  He heard her whisper as it hit him.

His eyes snapped open and he gasped.  Wrapped in his blanket, his back still pressed into the snoring Unicorn, he stared at the dim fire.  No sign at all that another creature had disturbed the clearing.

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Battle of Wills- Part 1

4/4/2012

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How can I be so exhausted, when I basically slept for four days?  Ashton clung to Silren’s mane.  The Unicorn had slowed his pace when he clattered onto the rocks that rung the edge of a mountain lake.  They had spent the whole of the day running.  The terrain shifted from one location to another, blurring like oil on water.  He lost track of the number of veils they had passed through.

Thirsty, Ashton slid to the ground at the water’s edge.  He shivered in the cold, and sank to his knees.  After drinking his fill, he splashed his face.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Silren lift his dripping muzzle and stare out over the glassy surface. 

“Dafydd?”

He startled when the Unicorn’s call broke the eerie silence, and almost toppled into the water.  A seal bobbed to the surface a distance out, its dark eyes unblinking. 

Silren continued to speak in a liquid language.  The seal cocked its head, then slid back into the water. 

I think I’m too hungry to care.  Shaking his head, he stood up and stumbled away from Silren.  The rocky beach gave way to a dry alpine meadow.  He plopped down onto the scratchy grass and groaned.  The sun had sunk behind the craggy peaks before they had made the water’s edge, and the chill in the air made Ashton think of Fall.  Too bad it’s the height of summer at home, and that my clothes reflect that. 

Twilight leached the color from the countryside.  The crunch of hooves echoed across the silent lake.  Opening his eyes, he looked up at the Unicorn standing over him.  “I’m hungry, Silren.”

“Unsurprising.”

They stared at one another.  For the first time, with the leisure to take the other’s measure.  “I want to go home.”

“Also, unsurprising.  But the answer remains the same.  It’s too dangerous.” 

“It’s not just a want.  I need to go home, Horse.  Look, I can’t just disappear.  People will be worried, my Mom for starters.  And there’s my job.  And even if I go with you, I need some clothes.”  He tugged his summer weight t-shirt for emphasis. 

“The Nightmare can find you there.”

He sat up, and hunched around his raised knees.  “That doesn’t seem to be any different than this morning.”

“Maybe not, but here we can cross to another veil and stay one step ahead of him.  At your home veil, I can’t be close enough to keep you safe.”

“That doesn’t change anything…”  Movement down the beach drew his attention from the conversation. 

A young man approached.  He wore loose brown pants and shirt.  His wet hair was slicked back from his forehead.  He held a string of fish in one hand and a bundle of wood in the other.  He laid his burdens to the side then started to move rocks making a depression on the beach.

“Hello?”  Ashton rose to his feet.

Silren stepped in front of him.  “He won’t understand you Ash.  Besides, Selkies tend to be quiet.”

Silren said something in that strange language.  The man looked up from his task, and Ashton met liquid brown eyes.  After a moment of study, the stranger nodded his head and went back to building a fire.

The Unicorn stepped aside and moved closer to the newcomer, so Ashton followed.  “Dafydd will cook you some fish.  After a couple of good meals, and a solid night of normal sleep, you’ll feel more like yourself.” 

His stomach growled.  Damn it, he’s right.  He needed to recover his strength to gain any hope of convincing the horse to take him home.

 ***

The stars twinkled in the cloudless sky.  Ashton pulled the rough wool blanket tighter around his shoulders and settled back against Silren’s side.  The fire, that he had just added wood to, blazed up.  Pleasantly full of warm fish, his eyes started to droop shut. 

“We should be safe from the Nightmare here tonight.  As a rule they aren’t overly fond of large bodies of water.”  The rumble of Silren’s voice woke him back up.  “When he sent you dreams, what were they about?” 

Ashton spent a moment rocking a better depression in the gravel to give himself some time to think.  “I’m not sure about all of the dreams.  Most of them were just night mares, you know.  Disturbed my sleep, but I don’t remember the details.” 

“What about when you received the mark?  Do you remember that one?”

He shivered.  Oh yeah, I remember that one.  

The silence stretched for a moment, then Silren asked, “Ash?  Please?  Can you describe it?”

“The dreams had become…”  He cleared his throat, “more disturbing.  I was having trouble staying awake by that point.  I found myself somewhere else.  That’s the only way to explain it.”

He pulled the blanket up higher.  “It was all rock.  Heat and cold.  There was nothing alive that I could see, except a noise came from behind me.  When I turned, she was there.  A giant black horse.  A very pregnant horse.  She reached out, and breathed on me.  The pain woke me up, and I had this mark.”

“You had an actual night Mare?  And she was pregnant?”  The Unicorn asked.

“Either that, or she was really fat.  She didn’t seem fat to me though.”

“That’s not good.” 

The dream world still remained crystal clear in his mind.  With an effort, he turned his thoughts back out to the real world.  “What does it mean?”

Silren’s tail flicked.  “How does the mark feel now?  Does it still burn?” 

Exasperated, he sighed.  “No.  The pain seems to be gone.”

“Good.  I feared the poison leaching from it.  I had hoped that when I lanced it, the mark would go away.  I’m not sure why it has, instead, taken on this aspect.”

The fire snapped and sparks showered into the air.  “Where are you taking me, since you won’t take me home?”  He turned his head and met the Unicorn’s eye.

“From what I can tell, the mark has caged your power.  Instead of releasing it with my horn, I punctured a hole, so it’s slowly leaking out.  I’m taking you to someone who I think can help unlock it.”

“But I don’t want it unlocked.  I was perfectly happy the way I was.”  Mostly.  

Frustrated with the stubborn beast, he threw another couple of logs on the fire, and then settled down for the night.  Snuggled up in the blanket that Dafydd had given him, he drifted off.  His mind wandered.  Pathways stretched out before him.  And no matter how much he didn’t want to go, something still shoved him down them.  With no care for how ready he might be.

***

The crunch of a log hitting the fire, and sparks spitting, broke into Ashton’s sleep.  He opened groggy eyes, and saw Dafydd gutting more fish on the other side of the fire.  The mist from the lake had settled on everything.  He blinked the water off his lashes and wiped his face dry with the underside of the blanket.

Silren heaved a sigh behind him and raised his head.  His nostrils flaring.  The stallion spoke to the Selkie, and oddly enough, Ash realized he understood a word or two.  Dafydd paused in his skewering of the fish and tapped a grass basket with his foot, speaking at the same time.

“Ash, can you grab that basket please?  Dafydd’s wife made us some porridge.  Eat your fill first, and I’ll finish the rest.”

Unwrapping, he leaned across, and pulled the surprisingly heavy basket closer.  He made eye contact with the Selkie.  “Thank you.”

Dafydd cocked his head, just like the seal had, then slowly blinked his eyes at him.  He nodded once and went back to cooking the fish.

Steam escaped from the fibers of the basket.  He lifted the lid and took a whiff of the cereal.  His stomach grumbled in the quiet.  A small, flat stick protruded from the mound of grain.  He pulled it free and took a bite.  Amazing flavor rolled around his tongue.  Visions of dripping honeycombs, and bursts of juicy berries blinded him to everything else.  He ate until full and only then realized his single mindedness. 

The unicorn laughed, “Done?”

Ashton felt his cheeks heat.  He set the stick to the side and placed the basket under Silren’s nose.  There was still plenty left.

“Don’t worry Ash.  Dafydd’s wife is an amazing cook, and you have over four days worth of food to catch up on.”  He stuck his long nose into the basket.

Ashton glanced across the fire and met Dafydd’s grin.  His sharp, pointy toothed grin.  I’m so not in Kansas anymore.  

He stood up, letting the blanket puddle around his feet, and looked across the open meadow for a bush of some kind.  Giving up he just walked a good distance away.  By the time he returned, Dafydd had finished cooking the fish and had stuffed them into a couple loaves of bread. 

Silren clattered to his hooves.  “Dafydd says you can keep the blanket.  So fold it up, and use it as a saddle pad.”

Throwing the folded blanket over the Unicorn’s back, he jumped up and swung his leg over.  A very satisfying act.  Not to mention a huge improvement over his strength yesterday.  He settled his weight, then reached down and took the bundle of wrapped bread that Dafydd held out to him.  He slung the grass pouch over his shoulder and settled it in the small of his back. 

He smiled his thanks.  Silren pawed the ground and bobbed his head, then turned to walk out onto the grass.  His hooves thudded the ground. 

Some distance from their camping spot, Ashton felt his mark heat and begin to throb.  A glance showed that Silren’s horn had started a soft glow as well.  So.  I can feel a veil crossing.  That’s what the pain means. 

I wish I could go home.  

His thoughts and feelings, memories of home filled his entire being.  The mark continued to burn but he ignored it, engrossed in his own world.  The longing so strong, and worry about what his family and coworkers would think of his absence, blinded him to his surroundings. 

Silren stumbled, and he nearly lost his seat when the Unicorn came to an abrupt halt. 

They no longer traversed an alpine meadow.  The terrain had become forested again.

 “Wha… This is not…”  The Unicorn slowly turned his head and pinned him with a blue eye.  “Ashton?  What have you done?”

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    Picture
    Artwork by Tomas Polcic.
    Picture
    This is Rajani the Nightmare and Silren.

    Equilibrium Saga

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