I am not like any ordinary world
The younger boy cries out behind him, the sound of his shock and fear ricocheting off the walls. Leonidas does not stop, not when his confusion, his hurt push him over the edge. He is reckless in his youth, hormones fuelling the wilder side of him. Not for a moment does the older colt think just what he might lead the younger boy into…
Maybe that is why he grins, free as a mountain breeze as the ivory boy throws himself from the lip of the volcano and down into its molten maw. Leonidas feels the heat upon his throat and chest as he watches the lava bubble. The volcano blinks as the younger boy falls into it, it blinks and stone steps rise up from within the lava.
Lava runs like red, glowing blood down the open steps. Steam rises but soon, all is turning to stone and Leonidas too topples himself over the edge of the volcano. The heat scolds his skin, but then it is gone, lost to cold dark stone. He lands beside his young companion and tilts his chin up, too brave, too boldly, to stare with golden eyes upon the monstrous king atop its throne.
The creature watches them, proudly, vainly. Its many eyes blink, its wings of blazing lava reaching from wall to wall across the room. Rich tapestries hang luxurious, silver thread glowing like starlight, every colour coming alive in the light of the monster-king’s wings. The wild-wood boy stares at the king and there is no respect within his brave-bold eyes. He does not know to bow to kings or queens or monster-kings of strange islands.
What is it?
The boy whispers beside him and Leonidas continues to drink in the creature that presses its imprint upon the back of his mind. Its skin glows bright as the sun could ever wish to glow. From its arms vines fall as if he is a wood, his skin the sun to grow the leaves. The great king’s mouth opens and a tongue of fire sparks in the darkness. The yawning, gaping darkness.
The great king grins, his teeth like stars, his opened maw like the endless black of the universe. “It is everything.” Leonidas whispers as he sees worlds within the monster’s mouth. “Do we live in there?” The fae-boy asks his young companion.
Suddenly the beast is rising, reaching for the children who dared fall into his throne room. And the floor begins to open and they are tumbling into the earth, down, down, down, into water, into a room submerged and upside down. Leonidas swims for the window and it is pressed tightly shut. The monster king looks down upon them from the floor above them. Leonidas watches, little more than a golden fish held within a bowl.
The glass shatters and they spill out into the silver flowing river of the island and behind them, the room, the volcano and the monster king are gone. The Glowstone City rises up around them, only their drenched bodies speak the truth of their adventure.
@Pan
