Cassandra's Great Adventure

The Mountain Pass

I slowly opened my eyes to see daylight breaking through the trees of the forest around me.

Morning already? I thought to myself as I surveyed the clearing, watching the light slowly flood in. A few birds were chirping to one another in the trees above, getting louder as they went as if they were arguing about something. The fire had gone out at some point in the night, but I never found more wood to keep it going. It was nothing more than a pile of ash now, with a small trickle of smoke leaking into the air.

I yawned and stretched my arms, beginning to feel more awake. Owl jumped off my shoulder as I stretched, startling me. "Hoot.." He said groggily, making me laugh. "Good morning to you too, Owl." For spending the night in the middle of the woods, that was the best sleep I've had in a while.

Since the fight with Zhan Tiri, I've been having these nightmares. Not every night, but more nights with them than without them. I have these creeping thoughts about what I did when I was in control of the moonstone. I see flashes of that darkness and hatred in me again. I see flashes of me destroying Corona, using the power of the black rocks to tear it apart. I see flashes of me hurting my friends, nearly killing them.

It's like when I was first learning to control the moonstone, and I was told to fulfill my destiny I had to destroy Rapunzel... I was terrified, and in my state of fear I conjured up the red rocks. Not the normal black spires that normally pierce through the ground, but blood red rocks that showed people their worst fears when they got too close to them...

These nightmares I've been having lately have been even worse than what I saw back then, because what I see now actually happened. I was consumed by darkness and hatred. I did nearly destroy Corona with the black rocks. I did hurt my friends, and nearly killed Rapunzel and Eugene more times than I can count. Sure, the two of them have forgiven me, but I'll never know how the rest of the kingdom feels. I put those people through so much, and as much as I wish I could take it back, I can't.

I shook my head, trying to dismiss the thoughts. I just went a whole night without having one of those nightmares, no need to put them back in my head now.

Fidella was up now and eating a nearby patch of grass, refueling her body for the journey ahead. Owl was gliding through the trees, presumably also looking for his breakfast. I decided to follow suit and began to scavenge for my own meal.

I gathered some leaves, berries, and a few mushrooms from a denser part of the forest and made myself a half-decent breakfast salad. I would've hunted for something that was more filling, but I didn't have time to play the waiting game. We were coming up on a mountain pass in the road and I wanted to give us as much time to traverse it as possible.

As I scarfed down my food, I kept my senses heightened. I still had a feeling that I was being watched, but no matter how many times I scanned the area surrounding me, I saw no signs of anyone or anything. I quickened my pace and decided it was time for us to continue our journey.

~~~

The mountain pass was barely wide enough for two horses. As we slowly trotted through, there were tiny crevices and caves littered along the walls of the canyon, but the main pass wasn't very large. It also wasn't a very linear path, it curved and dipped around corners, and even split into multiple pathways at some points. A shallow river ran across the pass about half a mile into it, and Fidella reluctantly trudged through it, whinnying and complaining about getting her hooves wet. I petted her mane, soothing her through the cold mountain water.

The canyon was quiet, almost too quiet at some points. There wasn't much life present here like there was in the forest. No birds singing, or bugs chirping. No leaves crunching under the feet of some squirrels, I thought to myself. Just silence.

A little ways past the river, we came upon another fork in the road. I turned my head to the sky and whistled, letting Owl know to scout ahead to see which path would lead us out of here. He hooted and flew down the path to the right, with Fidella and I following on the ground. As we continued on the path, it felt like one of those moments where it was too quiet. The only sound echoing throughout the canyon was Fidella's hooves hitting the solid ground, and then all of a sudden, she stopped.

Fidella stood still, and then took a step back. She seemed very hesitant, and I had the same feeling I had earlier. Someone is watching us. The silence didn't last long. Rocks began to fall from the top of the canyon. They started small at first, just little pebbles trickling to the ground. But from that height, they came down fast and it was enough to spook Fidella. She threw her front legs in the air and neighed loudly.

"Woah there, easy girl." I tried calming her down as best as I could, but it didn't work. She stood on her hind legs, knocking me off her back. She wasted no time and charged straight through the path, leaving me in her dust. She's never done that before, I thought as I turned my head back to the sky. The noises from above grew louder and louder, and from the looks of it, the rocks were getting larger and larger. Boulders began crashing down, blocking the path and putting a barricade between me and my horse. I jumped back as one of them landed right in front of me, and looked up to see Owl dodging them from the sky.

"OWL!" I shouted up, and he dove down to me as fast as he could. "Owl, I need you to fly up above the canyon and find out what caused the rock slide." He hooted and flew back up just as fast as he came down. I continued dodging the rocks, watching them continue to fill up the pass from wall to wall. I wanted nothing more than to just run through while I could and go after Fidella, but there were too many of them coming at once.

I decided I couldn't wait for Owl to find the source. Something wasn't right here and I needed to find out what it was now. I scanned my eyes across the canyon and watched a boulder fall from one of the little crevices along the wall. As the rock came down, I noticed a shadowy figure moving within the crevice, seemingly pushing the rocks down. Through all the dust and debris, it was hard to tell if what I was seeing was actually a person or not. But then the figure looked straight into my eyes as another rock came tumbling down. I squinted hoping to get a better look as he pushed another rock over the edge. My mind racing, I didn't realize how close the rock was to me. I tried to jump out of the way, but it was too late.

Crack.

The rock slammed into the back of my skull, and I toppled to the ground. I tried to lift myself back up but my head was pounding... The rockslide subsided almost immediately and I saw two.. three... no, four more figures slowly coming to surround me.

"Who are y-" The words managed to stumble out of my mouth as everything went black.