Love is Magic, and Magic is Love

Guts and Golems

I squint my eyes and peer ahead through seemingly endless purple and black swirls, wondering how long this tunnel goes on for. Just when I'm starting to worry that we might be trapped here forever, in some kind of motion-sickness hell, we burst through the other side, into thin air.

"Oh, shii-"

I yell as we fall, reaching my hands for Melog's mane, and pulling myself close to them. We fall turning head over heel, the wind hurtling past my fur, the ground and the sky a dizzying blur as we spin around.

"This is not good," Melog says, whining.

I manage to climb back onto their back and straighten out our spiralling fall, holding on for dear life. "No shit!" I yell, squinting my eyes and watching helplessly as the red, barren ground hurtles towards us at an alarming rate. Well this was a mistake , I think, snapping my eyes shut just before we hit the floor.

Something slams into my stomach, winding me, and I feel my fall roughly broken. I open my eyes and peer up, finding an angel holding me in one arm, and Melog in the other. She flaps her huge, majestic wings once, twice, then lands us all safely onto the ground, before she puts us down and glares at me.

"Who are you?"

"You're Angella, right?" I ask, rubbing my bruised abdomen. "I'm, uh-"

"It matters not. You are trespassing, and making an awful rukus. Leave at once!"

"Look," I say, rolling my eyes, "we're here to rescue you, so just-"

"What on etheria are you talking about?" Angella scoffs, spreading her arms wide. "Rescue me? From my own palace?"

I peer around, flattening my ears, finding only crimson, rocky ground, with a few small dust devils blowing around. Above, there's a dirty-orange sky with no sun to be found anywhere.

Angella places her hands on her waist. "Well?"

"Um," I say, waving into the distance. "There's nothing here."

"You're clearly quite mad," Angella says, spreading her wings wide then thrusting them down, sending dust and grit into my eyes. "And I have other matters to attend to."

When I blink away the dirt, she's nowhere to be seen. "Well, fuck."

"This is not good," Melog says, bumping their snout against my leg.

"So you keep saying," I say, shaking my head. "Remind me why we came here?"

Melog huffs, appearing amused. "You wanted to play the hero."

"Oh, come on."

"It's true."

"No I don't, Melog. I just thought we could help. Turns out we can't, if that was anything to go by."

"You are giving up so easily?"

"Maybe," I say, clutching my arm, "just...tell me you have a plan for getting us out of here."

"Of sorts. It is something I have never tried."

"You're not really filling me with confidence here, buddy."

"We will be okay," Melog says, walking ahead of me. "I saw her fly in this direction, come."

I sprint towards them, then hop on their back. "Okay. Hopefully we'll catch her."

--

We walk for what feels like hours, not that I can know for sure when the sky never seems to change colour, and there's no sun to guide me. Then I see it again, just in the corner of my eye, something I've noticed four times now. Someone is definitely following us , I think, twisting my head around. But I find nothing but wide, open and parched terrain.