embers like stars -
M
aybe you already know this race is a test of your bravery (or is it faith spurring you on now like all you know is worship?). Maybe you only have something to prove to yourself, and that is why you find yourself gathering your strength and aiming for the flames when others swerve away.Whatever it is, you find yourself staring down the flames as they rise bright and tall before you.
But oh! The flames are staring back.
The smoke is thicker here, but not unpleasant. The smell of frankincense and lotus blossoms fill the air around you as you leap through the flames, and while the fire singes the ends of your hair you pass through it quickly enough to avoid true harm. But as soon as your hooves touch the ground again, the smoke descends on you like a blanket.
It swirls around you, obscuring the path from view. Shadowy figures dance in the smoke around you, and strange voices echo in place of the music from before. They start as a whisper, but with every step they are growing louder, and fiercer, and clearer. The smoke takes shape around you, as visions swim across your vision. Perhaps they are visions from your past or future, like the smoke is only a diviner showing you the way. Perhaps they are of fearsome beasts that you can feel clawing along your hips or stumbling beneath your hooves. Maybe the visions you see make sense only to you, or you struggle to sort through them at all.
But as the smoke twirls in ribbons around you, embers start to drip from the sky like smoke. They fall upon you like stars, catching in your hair, your teeth, the crease of your spine, lighting the smoke around you. In them you can hear the voices from before, whether they are laughing or singing or crying for you to run faster, faster, faster.
As the smoke begins to lift, you see another horse still running ahead of you, and the race demands you catch up and fight them for the lead —
But the embers are leading to the side, like miniature stars that can leap and dance without the burden of wishes to weigh them down. And perhaps it looks to you like they are leading to another shortcut, or are beckoning to you and you alone to follow.
To continue the race, you must reply to this thread with your character's choice. There is no word limit, and you can be as creative with the prompt as you'd like! For a few moments, there is only smoke that clouds your vision, showing you images of whatever may have meaning to you. Once the smoke lifts, it's clear that you have lagged behind in the race. However, there are embers that catch your attention and almost seem to be leading you in a different direction...
Choices: let the embers lead you on, or follow the horse ahead of you
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