Lightscript Legends Episode 10
“Dreamscape Forest”
Burning trees, seeds in the ashes, and a forest reborn…
A steady warmth pulsated like a tiny heartbeat in Elina’s hand. She opened her fingers to see the locket’s little star aglow, like a glistering ember.
She looked back up to find Norius, Shadar and Talvi gone…but something else remained. Like a dream too distant to remember, but just near enough to sense, seeing Talvi and Norius together felt familiar.
Skyvior’s light flickered with faint hope as he read her thoughtful expression. Just maybe seeing Norius so closely had sparked a buried Dreamscape memory.
Noticing a green glimmer in the corner of her eye, Elina turned in hopes of catching sight of its source.
Dravial seized the momentary distraction as his chance to strike the locket from her hand. When it fell from her grasp, the star went dark and the cozy setting dissipated into black mist.
A dark forest emerged from that mist and materialized around Elina, tinged with eery orange light and the thick scent of smoke. She was almost getting used to the jarring transitions from one page of Time to another, but a shudder of dread still crawled up her spine at the vicious roar of approaching flames.
She turned in a slow circle, eyes darting about until they settled on a thick plume of smoke gathering into a distinct form, like a massive six-winged eagle with poison-green eyes.
It was, of course, Dravial. He smiled down at her, slowly descending to land on the rotting trunk of a fallen tree. “You look disturbed. Would you prefer I return to my human form?”
Elina bit her lip, eyeing the growing orange glow peering over the treetops. “Wouldn’t your dragon look be more fire resistant?”
Dravial laughed. “Don’t worry, little human. Those flames are not of your page in Time. So they are no threat to either of us, regardless of which mask I wear.”
Skyvior quirked an eyebrow. “That was an uncharacteristically comforting thing for you to say.”
Dravial replied outside Elina’s range of hearing. “It was not for the sake of comfort. It was to keep her from inconveniencing me by running away during the best part of the show.”
Skyvior rolled his eyes. “You Shadowshifters see everything wicked as a game or a show.”
Dravial shrugged his wings. “You Lightshifters take everything too seriously.”
Skyvior snorted with disgust. “Says one of the creatures obsessed with dominating and destroying worlds.”
“That is still a game of sorts.” Dravial grinned down at Elina. “And do I ever play my pieces well.”
Skyvior bristled. “She does not belong to you.”
Dravial’s grin only broadened. “Ah, but the show is not over yet.”
Just then a pair of deer bolted past Elina, fleeing the oncoming inferno. She felt the urge to follow them, assuming they were heading for water. But what good would running do, in this ever-shifting Dreamscape, where Time and Place splashed about and collided like unruly waves?
“Why are we here?” she asked nervously.
Dravial’s eyes danced with demented delight as the vicious flames roared into view. “Because destruction is a delicacy I quite enjoy. And it will refresh me after that revoltingly heartwarming scene I just had to endure.”
Elina scanned her igniting surroundings, confused by the way they felt simultaneously familiar and foreign. “Where are we?”
“Oh, this is the same setting,” Dravial replied casually. “I simply turned to a different page of Time.”
Needles on the branches nearest to Elina began curling and crackling in the rising heat. She squeezed her eyes shut as the wildfire tore through the trees like a ravenous monster, willing herself to wake before it consumed her. The roaring and crackling of the devouring flames became deafening…then…suddenly…all fell silent and still.
Dazed, Elina blinked her eyes open to silvery moonlight shining down on the ash-blanketed ground where the forest had been. Charred tree trunks with faint wisps of smoke rising from their blackened bark were all that remained.
Dravial glided past her and perched atop a smoldering stump. He surveyed the devastation with an expression of deep satisfaction. “My, my. This setting is rather like a reflection of its new keeper, isn’t it? Perhaps you truly are meant to be here.” He broke a shiny chunk of blackened wood loose from the stump with his talons, letting the crumbling fragments fall to the ground one-by-one.
Elina’s heart sank a little lower with each dull thud and puff of ash stirred by the falling fragments. She had tasted a hopeful moment, warm with light. And then this was what followed.
Destruction
Disappointment
Despair
Wisps of shadow started drifting from her fingertips to join the trails of black smoke rising from the dead trees. Then, the mysterious little glimmer caught her eye once again, drawing her attention to a lone pinecone lying at her feet.
Cast to the ground, coated with the ashes of the once lush forest and charred at the edges, it did not look like a story worth opening. Still, she knelt to pick it up. At her touch, its scales opened and another story unfurled, with a flurry of tiny seeds carried on Skyvior’s spiraling breath.
Elina watched in awe as multiple pages of Time whirred past within a single moment. The tiny seeds were scattered across the burned ground, taking root in the ashes of the forest before them. The shadows streaming from her fingers slowed as she watched tender green shoots rising alongside blackened stumps, reaching for the sunlight until they grew to scrape the sky…only to have the sun blocked by a thicket of shadows pouring from Dravial’s wicked jaws.
Elina’s skin crawled while the beautiful young forest was ravaged by pests and infected with disease. Her hair whipped across her face with a stinging slap and lightning reflected in her eyes as it was battered by violent storms.
“All dreams turn to dust,” Dravial growled through a rumble of thunder, as the first tree she had watched sprout from the ashes was uprooted by a vicious gust of wind. “All life comes to death. All stories end the same.”
The wind ceased as suddenly as it struck. Elina stood still, arms hanging limply at her sides, rivulets of shadow seeping from her fingertips. Starlight glimmered in the sky overhead, but shadows flooded the forest floor like a shallow river of ink. After a moment of deafening silence, she waded through the gathering darkness and approached the downed tree.
“All stories end the same.” The words echoed through the night in a haunting whisper.
But to both Dravial and Skyvior’s surprise, a golden spark flared in Elina’s eyes when she placed a soot-smudged hand against the broken trunk and whispered, “What about after the end?”
🏔️💫Lightscript Legends💫🌲 is an ongoing series of bite-sized stories and sip-on-the-go serials. Click here for the full list of published episodes and subscribe to get new installments in your inbox!