Passage – A #Fantasy #ShortStory – Part Two
Instantly, time seemed to stand still and he stood with it, motionless. A bright flash of purple light surrounded him, but there was no sound of clangorous chimes and no noise of battle into which he was hurled. Instead, there was nothing at all. Nothing, and at the same time, within the nothingness, a swarm of minuscule lights began to ebb and flow.
Slowly. Inward, then outward, and back again. Warping and bending and, with each oscillation, coming closer. Possibly, it was a result of his shifting perception. Perhaps it was nothing more than a fragment of his imagination. Whatever it was, though, it materialized around him into completeness and he stood looking at it with astonishment and wonder.
Where had he come? What was this place?
A dimly lit expanse of mystery filled his questioning gaze, innumerable points of light filling what had been empty only seconds before. They sparkled like stars, yet were as close to him as the air itself, surrounding him with shimmers of dancing light that both beguiled and bewildered. Made unsteady by their movement, he glanced down at the ground beneath his boots and his confusion mounted. The ground beneath his feet appeared much as he expected it to. Rocks, gravel and dust; yet the surface undulated slowly like ripples of water, although he stood perfectly still and the ground felt entirely solid.
Curious, he crouched down and reach out to run his fingers through the gravel and dust at his feet. Grayish-crimson in color, the soil felt like dust and gravel, but it reacted to his stirring motion like thick, slow-moving water. Stretching and rippling outward behind the uneven line he drew in the dusty appearing surface, the ground became more of a viscous goo that clung to his fingers and seemed to reach upward for him when he drew his hand away in surprise. A sensation of dread washed over him and he stood upright, unsettled by the discovery though not entirely certain why.
Looking outward into the bejeweled atmosphere, he noted the softly pulsing, pinkish-purple light that filled the sky. There was no visible source of this light, no sun or moon or any other celestial body that caused the sky to glow, but it glimmered, luminous and ethereal, all the same. As he stood contemplating, he recalled the imagery he’d seen in the vision just before he stepped into the portal; a vision of this place, despite the fact that he’d never seen it before.
Or had he? The glimmering light reflected in his liquescent cerulean gaze as he scanned the landscape, drinking in the scene that was both foreign and familiar when a whisper, just above the point of perception, hinted that he was not alone.
A feminine voice drifted on the soft breeze.
Stepping into the shimmering darkness of the landscape, he cast about him in search of the speaker. Strangely, her voice seemed to echo from the distance more loudly than from the nearby. The sound was soft and subtle; still, it drew him like an intoxication he could not deny. It serrated through him, as chilling as ice drawn across exposed skin, while at the same time it gave him a sense of calm he’d never felt before.
Was the voice familiar? Had he heard it before?
Searching the landscape as he turned in a full circle, the barren surroundings offered no evidence of her existence. Stretching outward toward a rose-hued horizon awash with stars, the odd, gravely-velvety ground transformed into rocky terrain somewhere between a point that was neither near nor far. It undulated like a serpent, moving as if of its own volition and blurring perception. The terrain seemed flat and two-dimensional while also appeared to warp and shift in and out of focus. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head, trying to refocus.
Crossing such an expanse would be challenging in ways he couldn’t begin to calculate, but, just as he’d known he had to step within the portal, he knew he had to cross it. Her voice called to him just as the portal had. It urged him forward into the unknown and tempted him to throw caution to the wind. Again. Reaching for his phone, he tried to get his bearings by checking the compass app, but the phone was inert as a stone. Not surprisingly, it wouldn’t even turn on.
“Already crossed the bridge. May as well see where it brought me,” he muttered to himself as he replaced the phone back onto his belt. The sound of his voice was swallowed by the sparkling atmosphere, making it sound oddly unfamiliar and off pitch. He suddenly didn’t sound like himself, but, for some reason, the whispering serenade of the feminine voice sang clear as the sweetest birdsong and filled him with eagerness.
Her voice was more than just familiar. Though he had no rational explanation, he knew he’d heard her voice before. Many times.
“Weston.”
Again, she called out to him, and, like before, as the softly echoing sound of his name reached his ears, a vivid image filled his mind’s eye. A woman dressed in sparkling blue stood gazing at him. She was held in someone’s arms. No, not just someone. The vision contracted, rushing outward and away, but what he saw was undeniable. She was held in his arms.
Determined, as well as immensely curious, he dragged his boot through the peculiar, velvety gravel, marking the place where he’d crossed with a large X. Not very original perhaps, but without any large stones with which to indicate where the portal was, he needed some way of finding his way back. Although, as he took one final look around, he realized there was no circle of stone on this side. There was nothing at all. Just as he’d feared, the portal had dumped him into obscurity and vanished.
Now, the only option was to find the woman who kept calling to him and get some answers.
.
Words and Art by ~Morgan~
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