At the top of the hill, I spotted the cliff I had jumped off of, way back on the other side of the yellow leaf forest. But off in the distance in the opposite direction, there was something I’d never seen before. Stone cliffs lined up like trees. Every edge of them was sheer, straight, the tops were perfectly straight, and none of the cliffs leaned at all.

A forest of stone.

I wanted to see more of it, figure out what it was about, so I went that way. I had to stop once and duck down in the tall grass, because a shadow passed over me, but it was just a cloud covering the sun. When I was sure the cloud was leaving, I got back up and started moving again.

The cliffs were farther away than they looked. I panicked a little when I realized red water was running into the sky behind me. Night was coming.

I turned in a circle, looking for a tree or something I could climb up on before the stone covered me.

Nothing. The woods had disappeared in the tall grass, and the only high thing in any direction was those straight cliffs.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I took off running, opened my wings, and pounded the air until I was half flying and half leaping through the waving grass. Thistles and seedheads smacked my legs and slapped my shorts. Between hot, short breaths, I hollered. No words. Just a sound to call somebody to me so I wouldn’t die alone on the ground when the night sleep came.

Nobody came except the dark. The shadows around the tall grass swallowed me up, stone right on its heels. It pulled me down, down, out of the air. My legs dragged, feet tangling in the knots of dead grass. My wings flapped as hard as they could, trying to keep me up, but finally the cold stillness bit into my wings and I fell out of flight.

My shouting stopped against my will, and I lay there silent, sidelong, my face pressed to the settling, jagged pieces of broken-off grass.

Darkness climbed over everything. I knew the stars were bobbing up in their black water, glaring down at me. This was when they would do it. While I couldn’t watch them, they would finally get me.

And if the hateful stars didn’t come tonight, the monsters would. I was right there, lying on the ground where anything could get me. Easy food.

The fear pain was so bad that I stopped being me and became just that endless, sick, deep-down screaming ache.

Moonie, please start singing. Please see the moon. Please let me hear some music. Please. Please. Please.