Skyward
Tap tap tap.
Fairy groaned and rolled over in her sleep. One of her long, floppy ears fell over her face as she moved, and she tucked her blanket around herself more securely. Posey, her puppea, snuggled in closely to her.
Tap tap tap tap tap. The noise grew louder, and more insistent, a persistent thud against her door. Fairy sighed. It had been a long day in the fields. Her crops were going well, but they required care and attention and that was hard work and she needed to rest gosh darn it, but the noise would not stop and was growing even louder.
It was so dark, and she was so tired. Hold on a second- why was it so dim? According to the clock that she peered at with bleary eyes, it was creeping into the early hours of the morning- shouldn’t the sun be rising? Shouldn’t light be seeping in through her curtains? She begun to feel a sense of unease. Posey began to growl lightly at the door, no longer curled up next to Fairy, now standing on the bed, steady and alert.
Bang bang bang BANG BANG BANG. There was the noise on her door once again. Posey was barking angrily now and she couldn’t ignore it any longer. She got out of bed and shivered for a second, before striding decisively to the door and swinging it right open.
“What ever is the matte-”
Caius- who was leaning towards where the door was, evidently about to begin another attempt to wake her, toppled forwards and tripped onto the floor. Legs akimbo and hat covering his eyes as he sat, it would have been funny if not for the crowd of pouflons standing outside her little cottage, in various stages of distress.
Clove and Amias stood next to each other. Clove was shivering anxiously, her tufted tail swinging back and forth. The big red unicorn beside her stomped his pooves onto the ground in anxious repetition, trampling a patch of grass into the ground.
Fairy blinked in annoyance that was forgotten seconds later.
Aimee was there too, with tears in her eyes, the tiny pixie pouflon looking scared and confused in the unnatural darkness. Sunny stood silently in the back. Fraise knelt down on the grass, trying to calm her ichigato, who was mewling in distress. Killian was laughing with a group of scared blooms, trying to soothe their nerves, offering them cupcakes he pulled out of his satchel with a forced smile. Ashley stood stoically beside him.
At the front of the group, Vela, Willow and Rosie were talking urgently to one another. It seemed that the whole of Goldfair was gathered outside her door.
They all stopped and raised their heads to the door as they realised Fairy was up.
Something was seriously wrong.
“Hey Fairy” Caius groaned and got up. “You’re a heavy sleepe-” He was interrupted by Vela, who ran to the front of the group.
“Oh thank goodness you’re awake, we have to move, grab Posey and let’s go”, she said, already turning to leave.
“What’s going on?”
“We don’t know.” Came the reply from Vela, her normally immaculate braid swinging widely from side to side, stray hairs everywhere. Her breathing was shallow. Fairy had never seen the mage so rattled- normally she was the epitome of calm. “But it’s dark and the sky, and, and, we just have to go somewhere, do something.”
It was only then that Fairy looked at the sky, and what she saw made her breathe catch in her throat. In the menacing dark grey, a bright, white crack had appeared above their heads. It shimmered like a mirage. A horrible, unnatural mirage and her sense of dread grew even further.
The sky seemed to strain against itself. And then the noise began. A horrible, piercing noise that made the pouflons yell out in agony. Sunny and Aimee collapsed onto the ground, and Clove shrieked in terror. Rosie ran over to help them, looking terrified herself, her curls wild and unkempt- quite alarming for those that knew the gentle, put together artist.
Those still standing moved to help them. Amias used his magic to lift Aimee onto his back, and Ashley nudged Sunny up, letting the exhausted pouflon lean on him for support.
The sky was breaking, fracturing apart, as the piercing noise continued, the crack grew louder and louder, exposing a blinding white light that broke the sky.
With terrified, rolling, eyes the pouflons looked at each other.
Willow spoke in a low, commanding voice that hurried the others into action. “We have to leave. NOW.”
The sky screamed again.
“FLY!” Willow yelled, spurring the terrified pouflons into action. One by one, they leapt into the sky- all but a few.
Fraise and Fairy looked at each other with concern, but nodded- they would have to run, to ensure the safety of their pets. Vela, who had remained behind to ensure the others took to the sky safely, looked at them. “I’ll go with you”, she said, her voice wobbling.
“Ah.. I- I don’t fly”, Ashley choked out, looking at the others with fear in his eyes.
“It’s okay,” Fairy said urgently. “Lets just go.”
And they ran. They ran fast and hard, over fields and dirt roads, nudging each other on as they tried to escape from whatever was happening, and find someone who could help.
Patches of black grass began to emerge, glowing evilly and emitting strange black and red sparks. They dodged them, weaving deftly around.
But it was so dark. It was so hard to see in almost pitch black state of the world. And they were so tired, their muscles ached and sweat glinted on their foreheads.
There was a log covered in the dark, spreading, sickness. Fairy, Ashley and Fraise cleared it, and raced on.
Vela jumped. But she didn’t jump high enough. She didn’t see the rouge branch on the top of the log as it caught her belly. And she screamed in pain, falling directly on top of the corruption.
It emerged her, covering her in the dark. Her fur was black and she moaned in pain. Her eyes turned bright red. And then Vela was no more.