Lightscript Legends Episode 7
“The Stories Inside”
Shifting forms, dark roses, and turning pages of Time…
Elina sat staring at the floor in stunned silence, heart throbbing and knuckles going white from gripping the blanket so tightly.
With a sparkling flourish, Skyvior shrank to the size of a songbird and fluttered to her shoulder. The whispering breath of the Lightscript rustled his feathers as he landed, carrying a faint flicker of light to her dazed eyes. Small as it was, that tiny spark of familiar light ignited just enough courage for her to crawl from the bed and inch down the stairs.
In the living room, she found Dravial standing near a window with head held high and wings elegantly draped around his body…which had enlarged tenfold.
Elina froze mid-step and drew in a shaky breath. “Why did you…grow so much?”
“For dramatic effect, of course.” Dravial unfurled his wings, shadows streaming from his feathers in slowly spiraling ribbons that wove themselves into a billowing black cloak. The cloak whipped around his changing form on untraceable winds as feathers melded into skin and fabric, talons stretched out into fingers, and serrated fangs morphed into a dashing smile.
Elina stumbled backwards, just managing to steady herself against the wall. Wordlessly, she gaped at the man standing in the dragon’s place…
Sleek dark hair framed a pale face with sharp, chiseled features. Silken black garments clothed a tall, lean, muscled body. But the venom-green eyes of a monster still peered out from that mask of human perfection.
“There,” Dravial said with arrogant satisfaction. “Is this a more approachable form?” He extended a hand toward Elina and a dark flourish sprouted from his palm, forming a single rose with a tantalizing fragrance drifting from its deep red petals. Simultaneously, the shadow vines entangling the cabin blossomed with the same inky-red blooms.
Back still pressed against the wall, Elina gave the rose a long, blank stare. “Uh…is the flower also just for dramatic effect…or does it…mean something?”
Skyvior’s feathers trembled with restrained laughter as, much to Dravial’s surprise, the rose crumbled to ashes in his hand.
“Oh, never mind,” Dravial muttered, shaking the ashen petals from his palm. “I have more important things to show you tonight. Such as this window.”
Elina’s eyes shifted questioningly between the Shadowshifter and the dirty glass. “Are there more spooky roses outside?”
Dravial’s feathers were, quite literally, ruffled. “You may call my creations any number of things, from sinister to alluring, but do not call them spooky. Such descriptions only belong in children’s campfire stories. And don’t you dare throw that metal stick at me!”
Elina jerked her hand, which had been slowly reaching for the metal poker leaning against the wood stove, behind her back.
Dravial regained composure with a deliberate swish of his smoky cloak. “As I was saying… This window has looked out on the same fragment of your world for years, watching this setting as the pages of Time have turned. Touch it, and you will see the stories it has seen.”
Elina’s eyes darted from the Shadowshifter to the window to the fire poker. She started a slow step toward the window, then made another grasp for the poker.
Dravial snapped his fingers, and it was instantly engulfed by a plume of shadow just as her hand met the metal.
“Whoa!” Elina jumped and dropped her would-be weapon to the floor.
Dravial stepped aside, bowing slightly, as he gestured to the window once again. “Well now, since you are a touch jumpy tonight, I will give you some space.”
Elina crept forward reluctantly, clutching her hands to her chest, and peered out the window. Nothing sinister looked back at her through the darkened pane. Nothing stirred on the empty screen porch. Nothing howled from the forest or screeched from the sky. There was only darkness, silent and still.
Finally, she placed one hesitant hand against the window’s cool glass. The air shifted as if reacting to her touch, and an icy sensation shot out through her fingertips. Roiling shadows formed inside the glass, morphing into silhouetted shapes that spilled out into the night with a chorus of distant voices.
The walls shuddered under the force of a wind that sounded like the rapid turning of enormous pages. A brutal history flashed across her vision in a blurred array of shadow, smoke and flame. Laughter, music and birdsong was mingled with howls, cries, roaring fire, shattering glass, and haunting sounds she couldn’t name.
“Ahhhh, the detestable is delectable.” Dravial stepped forward and placed an uninvited hand on Elina’s shuddering shoulder. “You see, dear little dreamer, even this small fragment of earth you imagined to be your fairytale escape is stained with blood, scarred by fire, soaked in tears…”
Elina jerked her hand away from the window, and the overwhelming torrent of silhouettes dissipated on a final gust of wind. Everything fell silent, except for the pounding of her heart. “It’s just a…just a dream!” she stammered, wringing her hand in a desperate attempt to shake the icy sensation coursing through her veins.
“A dream, yes,” Dravial replied calmly. “But also a reality. Those were the shadows of real characters. Some who trod this setting before your first page, others who will come after your last. You are all different characters, yet you are all alike. Mortal ink in the talons of the Shadowshifters.”
A sudden roar made Dravial pull away from Elina with a start, barely dodging a flash of flaming fangs.
Even Elina heard a faint echo of that roar, though she couldn’t see the searing streams of light spilling from Skyvior’s mouth to wrap around the shadowy vines.
Dravial maintained the flow of shadows to keep the cabin engulfed in darkness, but he could not stop his black branches from trembling in the grip of light.
Seeing only fleeting glimpses of that light flickering through the thicket of shadows, Elina was confused by the sudden unsteadiness of the Dreamscape. Dravial’s distracted displeasure over whatever had shaken it made her even more uneasy…until a golden shimmer threaded with green glister caught her eye.
She looked down to find her keyring, dropped somewhere in the shuffle of the past evening, laying at her feet. Ignited by Skyvior’s breath, the little star in the heart of the wooden locket was alive with flowing light.
“Touch it,” Skyvior urged, his voice still far below a whisper to her. “Open the story inside.”
Desperate to escape the nightmare, as dark roses began raining down from the quaking black briers overhead, Elina leapt for the locket like a cat.
“No!” Dravial hissed, only to be choked by a vine of Skyvior’s breath coiling around his neck. He clawed at it with a vengeance, his dragon-like form reemerging from his human mask as he broke away from the light with a bloodcurdling roar.
He was too late. The instant Elina’s fingers grasped the polished wood, the story within the locket unfurled around her. Gossamery golden threads quickly spread from the tiny engraved star, weaving the tapestry of another page of Time…
🏔️💫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!