"So... you're a Horseman too?" Austin asked, examining the scythe.
"Yeah... that's why I'm not... dead..."
Austin turned. "Is that why no one'll touch me? 'cuz I thought-"
"Wait, you've been living with humans?"
"...I-"
"You're the Horseman of Death, for crying out loud! Anything not supernatural dies when you touch it!"
Austin was silent for a moment. "So, I'm... like, the Grim Reaper?"
Michael shrugged. "I guess... it's really not-"
"Hey! Who's in there!?"
They scamper out the backdoor of the shop. Through alleyways and wide black streets Austin looses all sense of direction. Michael laughs in giddy excitement, perhaps from lack of energy.
"Are you... okay...?"
"H-huh? Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine. That was fun! We might be lost though. Nah, we're not lost, I can get us out of here. We should leave, people probably saw your scythe. I could put it back. Pocket dimension, y'know?"
"So you can just-?"
"Oh, we all have our secrets."
"And yours is... pocket dimensions..."
"Yup."
"Right..." Austin huffs. Nothing in the alleyway felt at all familiar, from the spray-paint walls to the skunk-esque scent. Michael doesn't seem bothered.
"So... why can't I touch anyone?"
"You'll kill them. I mean, usually you have to intend it, but humans are, like, stupid fragile,"
"So I'm... not human-"
"Well, of course not! I told you, you're a Horseman."
"I look human thou-"
"Well you're not a centaur." He snatches the scythe, twirling it as he talks. "It just means you're gonna help me find the others and we're gonna stop the leviathan."
. . .
Bylanes and backstreets. How secretive. Austin smiles, remembering the books that kept him company when all the guards were busy. Most of them were kind to him, and he grew up in a loose tangle of friendships. There were those he trusted and those he didn't. Those who taught him things, and those who liked him in the dark.
Michael stops ahead of him. Shadows cast by the buildings ahead blur to form organic shapes. A sudden wind through the foliage brings an ominous energy, not unlike the pulse of his scythe beating faintly on his back.
"This," Michael says, turning to face him, "is. . ."
Inhuman.. Austin ponders. Little wonder some guards avoided even his eyes.
"Austin? Austin!"
He blinks and nods. Sure, I was listening.
Michael explains the world he knows, unaware of the eyes in the foliage. Some are small and red, others slit yellow, and still others as wide as an owl's. Austin tries not to flinch.
Ahead, old ruins sit near the path. Cobwebs and moss color what's left of the church walls. Leaves drift down from the canopy, signs of a coming wind. A graveyard clearing lies abandoned to the left.
"What... made them abandon this place?"
Michael glances it over and shrugs. "Not sure. It's been there awhile though."
Beyond the graveyard,
something growled.
YOU ARE READING
Celestial Forest: Rewritten
AdventureThe escape had been planned in snatches and whispers, half-hope dreams and a good deal of luck. Shadows were never a strength of his, but Austin did know how to use them. Not in the way others did, of course, those with the abilities of folklore and...
