•
19 posts • Page 1 of 1 
))The sun rose, the dazzling crimson glow upon the horizon casting an eerie radiance across the dark towers of the city walls and painting the grey stone with the colour of fresh blood. There it stayed, resting - the giant orb seemingly clutching at the brief respite – but few emerged in these precious hours. The animals were the first to appear: the rats and the mice, scavenging their meals with bellies fatter than they should’ve been if it were but a normal land. The cats, though tempted, bore a sense keener than the rodents that warned them away from the enticing prey and the empty street.
And then the world was plunged once more into the pale mellow twilight of the day. Birds clamoured on their perches as the tower bells began to toll, signalling the end of another long night, and slowly – like the opening of a new flower – the city of Ebervae began to wake and the mortals began to retake their streets.
Beyond the walls, the forest stirred restlessly, leaves shifting in a hiss that warned that careful listener of the danger that permeated the very air. Centaurs gathered in their herd - as blind as their Gods – their previous observations of destiny reduced to reading only what the woodland could give, and among them, a long figure stood watching, her slim figure blending almost seamlessly into the bole of the cedar behind her.
“Here?” she murmured, her voice low in tone, merging with the gentle moan of the wind. The centaur nodded, his golden mane of hair cascading over creamy bay flanks.
“You have heard them as well as the rest of us, my lady,” he answered the nymph, his chocolate-coloured eyes resting upon her own muted hazel with a respect reflected in the eyes of the others, “There can be no other place.”
Illianora turned, her almond eyes shifting to a swirl of yellow-green as she settled them upon the city before her. “Your words are truer than you realise,” she returned quietly, a hint of sadness lacing the words, “There is no other place left. The West has fallen and the East never had to do so. The North bears nothing but dead mountains. My brother has extended his reach much farther than I believed he could ever do so.”
As the hazy sun shed its feeble light upon the grey stone of Ebervae, Illianora acknowledged the centaurs with a short nod, her ivy robes shifting about her willowy frame as she stepped onto the narrow dirt track. “I will call if I need your aid,” she told them softly, and headed towards the forbidding iron of the city gates.
Saphina))