[Comm (Coins)] (1) Through The Gate

The mountains always felt different at dusk. Too quiet, almost watchful in their still intensity, like the shadows were waiting for someone to make the wrong move, take the wrong trail. But Artic didn’t seem to notice at all, he was too busy flipping his thick forelock out of his eyes and trying to make me laugh.

“...so then I told him, ‘That’s not a salt lick, that’s my hoofprint!’” Arctic practically wheezed, stumbling over a rock because he had turned his head just to flash her a grin.

I nickered a polite laugh at him, because I hadn’t really heard the rest of the joke. “That’s definitely…something,” I added.

Behind us, Khaos walked in silence, like he often did. His large frame moved with a sharp deliberation of a hunter with no interest in wasting energy. Despite the warm tones of his coat and eyes, they felt cold as they swept over me, and then the mountains. He wasn’t listening to Arctic either.

Both of us were listening for Aska.

This morning when we woke, Aska hadn’t been there. Tracks, scattered and hurried, led into the forbidding loom of the jagged peaks. We had all decided to follow him, unsure as to why he left.

We’d lost the tracks a long time ago, due to the worn, rocky trail. But now Khaos paused for a moment, head low and nostrils flaring. “He was here,” he snorted. “Definitely went in this direction.”

Arctic stopped his next story. “You’re sure? Because we’ve been climbing for hours now and there’s really no reason he would’ve headed up this way.”

“I’m certain.” Khaos’s voice was clipped, but he tempered it with a bob of his head. “We need to keep going.”

I stepped up beside him and touched his shoulder gently. “Don’t worry, we’ll find him. I’m sure he’s just exploring a bit. Besides, it doesn’t seem that dangerous up here.”

Khaos answered by moving ahead on the trail again. I understood his worry. It wasn’t like Aska to just up and disappear without us.

We followed the trail deeper and deeper into the mountains until a small valley opened abruptly. It was unnaturally round, like a bowl carved by some godlike creature. In the very center stood a massive arch of stone, weathered but intact, shaped in a spiral of rock which should be impossible.

I blinked in shock, “What is that?”

Arctic trotted forward, his mane bouncing with excitement. “Cool! I love fancy rock circles.” 

“Don’t touch it!” Khaos tried to step into his path, but Arctic was already too close. He sniffed it, then bumped his nose against one of the carved spirals.

The ground began to tremble and I gasped as my footing slipped. “Arctic!”

“I didn’t do anything!” he protested, but the runes etched into the arch began to glow. Pale light traced every curve, swirling inward like the ruin was waking from a long sleep.

“Get back, now!” Khaos grabbed Arctic’s tail in his teeth and pulled him backwards, closer to me. A low hum vibrated through the clearing, becoming louder and louder, like a breath being drawn in by an enormous creature.

“Is it… singing?” My eyes widened and together, we all backed further and further toward the entrance in hopes of escape.

As I turned to lead them out, however, a giant boulder smashed into the only exit, blocking our path out.

Then the arch began to pull us forward, as if it had its own gravity. The tunnel of light unfurling inside the spiral was impossible to look away from, even more impossible to resist, and soon their hooves stepped toward it of their own accord.

“No, no, we have to stop!” My mind attempted to fight it, but my legs still forced me towards the glowing corridor. Then, the light swallowed us whole.

***

We stumbled into a corridor made of smooth stone, its walls curving upward like the inside of a ribcage. Faint blue light pulsed from veins in the rock and behind us, the archway dissolved into solid stone.

Arctic slammed his shoulder into it with a shout. “HEY! Hey, no, no, no, I need air. I need daylight, I need a pasture, I can’t be underground-”

“It’s sealed,” Khaos interrupted tightly, though not unkindly. “We’re trapped.”

I exhaled and pushed through the fear that was welling up. “Let’s find another way out. Panicking won’t help.”

“I’m not panicking, I’m expressing healthy emotional concerns through loud vocalization,” Arctic said, pinning his ears back. “It is a perfectly normal response to being LOCKED in a CAVE.”

His words echoed around them, and before I could soothe him, a new voice echoed through the corridor.

“Oh, hello!”

Arctic shrieked and I stumbled backward slightly. Khaos froze, horror and shock pinning his ears back and making his muscles ripple.

Two figures trotted toward us from the far end of the stone hall. One was prancing and exceptionally round, the other a fuzzy, light chestnut.

“Gravity? Daydream?” I was barely able to whicker their names. Somehow, they weren’t ghosts; not shimmering or translucent at all. In fact, I could definitely scent them, which meant they were…alive?

Gravity’s ears were perked. “Wow, you guys look terrible. Did the spiral eat you too?”

Arctic spluttered and wheezed, “You’re…you’re…”

Daydream giggled, “We’re us, yep!”

My voice cracked as I moved closer to them. “You’re alive though? How?”

Gravity shrugged, her stomach swaying slightly as she touched her forehead to mine in greeting. “Don’t really know. We were wandering and I guess fell into a sleep or something. Woke up here with real bodies again. There’s great snacks! The moss tastes like mint candy.” She licked her lips and greeted Khaos and Arctic before moving back to the walls, where she ripped the glowing blue moss off the walls in large chunks.

“But-” Arctic pointed dramatically. “But you were ghosts and now you’re NOT and you’re acting like that’s totally normal?!”

Daydream shrugged, “I’m not asking questions.”

Before Arctic could continue spiraling, the corridor shuddered. The veins of light and moss brightened, then dimmed, as though the whole structure was breathing in slow, heavy cadence.

I looked anxiously toward the far end and nickered in horror. “Something’s happening!”

The floor rippled again, like water disturbed by a pebble. The ripples were spreading out, coming closer and closer.

We all danced back nervously, crowding against the wall behind us. Except for Gravity who continued to chomp away at the moss.

“Move back, Gravity,” Khaos called to her, but she just turned and shrugged.
“It’ll get me wherever I stand,” she nickered cheerfully. “Might as well be eating!”

Then, the wave of distortion passed under their hooves without harming them, but as it reached the wall behind them, the stone shifted. The wall beside them opened up and curved abruptly, bending into new paths.

Arctic, Khaos, and I stared. 

Daydream blinked serenely. “It’s rearranging the puzzle again I suppose.”

“Puzzle?!” Arctic yelped. “THIS is a puzzle?! This is kidnapping with extra steps!”

Khaos lowered his head. “We need to move.” 

“Why?” Arctic asked. “Because the hallway might start juggling us?”

“Because Aska came through here.” Khaos stomped at faint smudges along the ground. Fresh. A few hours old.”

I brightened with hope. “So he’s ahead of us.”

Gravity shoved between them. “If we have to, fine. But if we find more berries I call dibs.”

A faint feeling of being watched made me stiffen. “Is this place… watching us?”

Daydream giggled again. “Oh, it definitely is. It brought us all here for a reason.”

“Do you know something?” Khaos nudged her shoulder.

Daydream only smiled, eyes drifting half-shut. “Maybe later.” Deciding that I would have to push them again if we were going to find Aska, I touched Arctic’s flank gently. 

“Let’s move. Aska needs us.” 

Khyova was already ahead, silent, determined. Gravity ambled after her, while Daydream walked alongside me and Artic.

Arctic sighed as he moved forward, mane falling over his eyes. “Fine. But if I die here, I’m haunting all of you.”