***forgive me, I'm a bit of a rust bucket at this right now. If this HTML is too jenky will you let me know? I'm using something made for a b2g board but it is working for me on my computer.
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He must have been one of the last ones to leave or the first ones to go. Novus was new and the Rift was gone. Between
this-a-way and
that-a-way he saw no hide nor hair of the ones he knew before
this moment right now.
Had he truly been alone for that long?
In the last days of the Rift - everything had disappeared and it had been everyone he knew who went first. After that it all went in a painful, insufferably slow procession; first the sky then the sun, then trees and the grass - the flowers went too- all of it
went until there was nothing but glass beneath his feet, not even dirt. He knew hunger long before he knew thirst. When the water started to become harder and harder to find that is when he knew the game must have been close to being over.
Somehow, you managed to get us caught in our game. Stephan figured in the closet space of Only's mind, even he was too weak to be angry - too tired to shake himself from the mental irons his hands and feet Only lade him down with.
The last river he visited had once been an ocean - one that had tried to drown him once, twice - the third time to pull him in would be soon. Soon. Out of desperation to satisfy some part of the emptiness which slowly crept into him. He believed that the Rift was filling him with the same kind of 'stuff' that
it was made out of. Soon it would all be over - he felt it coming. Soon.
In the beginning of the end, there had been a bright and powerful flash of light. Only hoped that it was the rapture. The sky, always black and always full of stars, was blue and the cold, frozen, mirrors beneath his feet were soft, lush, and green with grass. Only sagged under the weight of a new world. He was caught between the cross-roads of being relieved as well as overwhelmed. His legs wibble-wobbled and eventually caved in beneath him. Down-down-
down into a lush carpet of green, green grass (oh such bliss! The grass was
alive! Alive and not dead!) - just to feel it cool and wet with dew beneath his belly.
Dawn had never felt so blissful until this day.
The air was fresh (there was air! not water? was he not drowning?!) and the breeze most pleasant. It felt like a Summer morning but he could not be too sure. In truth he wasn't even sure what Summer meant anymore because being lost in the Rift was like being lost in a dark room with nothing in it. Would it rain? Would it snow? Would there be a constant lightning storm for weeks (months? years?) that never ended? Would the rain-
rain so hard that it would turn into the sea in seconds? His worry drove him from eating the grass or drinking from the creeks, from laying in a safe, quiet glen and sleeping for once - to the point that all he could do was sit and worry.
Butterflies floated by and he drew in a quick breath of air as it passed by. Would the moment shatter? What wicked beast had turned the world upside down this time? What cursed magic desired to trick him into thinking he was back in Nebraska? Only had appeared on the front grounds of a land he knew nothing of - no, this wasn't Nebraska, it was somewhere (something?) else - and he could not bring himself to exhale the breath caught in his lungs. His eyes did not dare to blink. Secretly, Only wished the breeze would shush itself long enough to settle his hair. Any entropy at all and the whole thing could be over with. Surely this was worse than a dream, it was some altered reality that wouldn't settle for more than five minutes. The butterflies paused at the red poppies and bee balm, his eyes shifting only once before something else was already happening.
Something snapped, Only moved quite fast for a man so down on his luck.
"I didn't--" he started but found another horse standing not far from him. Which one of them was the traveler and the other a settler? He was beside himself with a flurry of troubled emotions that passed through his eyes like reflections of a storm but he was too tired to try and understand. He could cry if crying didn't look so ugly on him. He staggered in the mild morning breeze as he took a step towards the stranger.
They are real. Good God, they are
real.
"Please let me stay. Please."
.only
thief for hire
low-functioning telekinesis
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
For many are called but few are chosen.
