Blood Moon Knight

IV

Marco hid within the branches of a tree, trembling with anticipation, as below a large horse lowered its head to drink from a slow-moving stream. The tree was large and clearly ancient, as the branches were thick and strong despite hanging over the stream. Without intending to do so, Marco silently shuffled farther out on the branch he was standing on, reaching ahead to grasp a smaller branch to steady himself. His arm looked very different from what he was used to seeing; the skin tone was much paler, almost alabaster, and the arm's build very gracile. Without any conscious thought, Marco moved into a crouch on the edge of the branch, then dropped onto the horse's back.

It seemed unreal; Marco could see and hear and feel everything, but he nonetheless felt detached, with no control over anything he was doing. It was as if he was trapped within someone else's body. He felt confused, to say the least.

With a start, Marco realized the animal was not a horse but a unicorn; a large horn protruded from the middle of its forehead, tapering to a wicked point. The animal reared and the shared body grabbed the unicorn's mane, while gripping the beast's thickly muscled back as best it could with its thighs. The unicorn threw its head back, attempting to impale its unwanted rider, but the body had successfully dropped in the perfect spot to be out of reach of the deadly weapon.

Realizing its efforts were useless, the unicorn burst into a hard gallop. The body settled behind the animal's strong shoulders, using its arms and legs to point the beast in the direction the body wanted to go. The route started with a trail that ran from the stream back into the woods, eventually intersecting another trail, wide and well packed. The animal was then guided down the new trail, what Marco surmised was a road.

Soon, the unicorn burst from the forest, passing a sign marked "Forest of Certain Death" as they entered a small hamlet clustered about the road. The body looked behind, giving Marco his first good look at the woodland. It looked decidedly menacing; the trees were otherwordly, with spine-covered vines hanging from gnarled branches covered in reddish leaves, their bark oozing red sap like treacly blood. The sounds he could hear over the hooves of the ersatz mount, emanating from the forest, were chillingly otherworldly, the glowing, red, eyes of the shriekers and growlers blinking in the shadows. The body looked up, seeing a blueish sky with clouds stained orange, and multiple moons; it was decidedly otherworldly.

Finally, it all made sense; the confusion Marco had been feeling about his situation and surroundings became clarity. He concluded he was on another world ... or, in other words, dreaming. But it was like no dream he'd ever had before; it was too clear and too linear. It was as if he was watching a memory play out for him, but he was viewing it from inside the body of whoever's memory it was, experiencing and feeling what they had but without knowing their thoughts.

The dreambody brought its gaze down to ground level as it left the hamlet behind, showing Marco that the road stretched toward a large settlement. Dominating the village was a castle built into a lone mountain. Consisting of many levels, its towers, except for those on a surrounding battlement wall, were all topped with onion-domes. At the foot of the mountain stood many small buildings and open areas, likely stables, workshops, barracks, training and sports fields, and the like. Outside the battlement wall was a large town, and both mountain and town were surrounded by a small river, looking all the other-world like a moat.

Now in the open space betwixt the hamlet and village, the dreambody looked around, taking advantage of the unobstructed view to take in the rest of the sights. The terrain was generally hilly with large mountains in the distance, but scattered throughout were plains and valleys with farm fields, more small hamlets, and other signs of habitation. Most sported one or more pyramids of varying sizes.

The unicorn and its rider reached the river, then crossed a large, stone, bridge into the town. Their speed did not slacken as they raced down the stone-paved main thoroughfare, people screaming and scrambling out of the way lest they be trampled. Marco thought it was way too fast, but not only did their speed not decrease, it seemed as if the dreambody was encouraging even more speed out of its mount. The road was fairly straight and the buildings short, allowing Marco to see that that the road would take them right to the gates of the battlement wall.