Toro wasn’t exactly sure what compelled him to enter the maze. He was not one for mystery, and gave little attention to feats of magic. Perhaps it was the pretty Benevolent girls with their shimmering silks and inviting smiles, encouraging him to “go play.” “I’d rather play with you girls,” he’d said, and one flashed him the dagger on her hip, which he thought was very romantic.
Once black night had fallen, Isra appeared from the maze, strong and soft as silk. Her words were lost on Toro, who recalled immediately their moment on the mountaintop. He could not take his eyes from her till he passed into the dark, expressionless.
Standing at the maze mouth, El Toro could see - and hear - the many strange features long before he entered. Crystalline shards here, blossoms there, and discomfortingly distant music. He wasn’t sure he liked the way the notes traveled leaden and trickled down his spine like sweat, or how even in the night certain sections shown sunlit. Nevertheless, he pressed forward, hardly getting anywhere before four paths appeared. Thinking back on the girl with the dagger, he chose one at random - better to get this over with, when such spoils awaited.
He was not anticipating the spectacle which met him.
The world grew lighter, golden dawn clouds shifting in the sky above him, music and birdsong tickling his ears as the blossoms against his flesh. A dark mare is already there, and a pitch black pegasus.
Toro resolves to have a good time anyway. But he feels just as compelled to pitch the black colt over the hedges. It is then that the grand bud in the center of the clearing begins to unfurl, and the most beautiful girl in the world steps out. She glows like the dawn itself, and the white stallion thinks back on when Anzhelo thought him a god. She offers them an answer, if they have a question.
Both of the strangers have things they wish to know. Toro merely says, ”What are you?”
first path
((will make pretty later))
