A blur of colors.
Boundless expanses of endless emptiness.
Fluttering of countless feathers in a dance.
Red eyes stalking every moment.
Coalescing into a sense of falling.
Down
Down
Down
Down
Before with a splash, the ground became an ocean.
On the other side was a forest. A haze, mist, fog, covered every which way.
White as the snow fell, the bark smooth and bone-like.
Leaves shuddered with a wind that never got felt or touched the flakes of not-ice.
A lack of bushes yet there was always constant rustling.
Alien.
Everything was Alien.
The snow should have crunched after the first step. There was no such sound. Rather a squelch followed by pure pain and ice was the only sensory significance offered.
Every step after, needles and ice followed.
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Shadows didn’t exist.
Light wasn’t light anymore.
The wind grew fiercer with every step.
The pain didn’t stop.
The ice climbed higher and higher.
Then it stopped.
Red footprints in the snow.
A wet back and endless sky.
A red eye was in the center, watching.
Spreading orange and yellow across the endless nothing.
Madness
Madness
Mad-
Chirp
A red sparrow. Feathers gradient into black. Watching and protecting. Waiting for the next. Eldritch yet safe. Never stray from the sparrow. The guardian of Other. Gods fear what is unknown. Madness is all that awaits. But for those who gaze at the Bleeding Crown and remember, true insanity will follow. So paint a tapestry of stars. Lock the memories away. Forget. Pain is never far from those who choose to live in Other.
Listen to these words. Step after step. Come home whole and leave Other behind. The Bleeding Crown only curses. Eyes closed and walk. Fly sparrow. Journey across Other but leave the gifts behind. The cold is a comfort. The horrors are fearsome. The dark lurking under thou crown. For the red sparrow watches. And never speak to the shadows.
Pain.
Cold
Squelch
Another trail of red in the snow.
One after another.
An endless journey while following the chirping in the darkness.
The wind calm yet elusive.
The rustling close, but subdued.
The Bleeding Crown watching for the next victim of Other.
And at the end of infinity, a sea of dark purple. Stars twinkling along the surface in shapes same but alien. The red sparrow dives under, but a glance to the sky of falling not-ice and the Bleeding Crown incites indecision.
A question.
An offer.
Live in Other or take Other with.
No malice.
No trick.
Pure happiness at finding another.
One who has traveled Other thousands of times.
One who has gazed at Horrors.
One who has journeyed countless paths.
One who has eaten Other’s fruits and Horrors’ flesh.
One who is alien but Safe.
Who has travelled without red sparrow guiding.
An offer to become the First.
No longer the journeyer.
An offer acc—
SCREEEE—
A red sparrow
A push
A fall
Down
Down
Down
A splash
Ocean turns to ground.
A blur of colors.
A glow of white.
Another star added to the tapestry of infinity.