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 Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2023 8:02 am
Word Count: 1515
Maren would chalk this up to a bad dream, except that she knew for a fact she’d been awake before ending up here. Walking home at dusk after a long school day, she’d spotted the die she now held in her hand, and, finding herself drawn to it, picked it up without a second thought.
She regretted it now, but the die, despite its pull, had seemed innocuous. It could’ve been dropped by anyone. Maren glanced at it, then at the path which stretched before her, and the strange golden markings upon each square. She knew what it was without much consideration: a board game brought to life. What she didn’t understand was why or how. She didn’t exactly want to play. Jumanji taught her better than that.
But there was no way to go except forward, and she couldn’t even do that. Probably not until she rolled. Heart pounding, Maren squeezed her eyes shut and did just that.
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Sunshine Alouette rolled 1 6-sided dice:
5
Total: 5 (1-6)
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2023 8:03 am
Quote: Space 5: A dog barks, fierce and frightening. You can hear its growl and the hackles stand up on the back of your neck. You can practically feel spittle on you. It’s close. And it’s big. And it’s angry. If this beastly dog could reach you, no doubt it would try to tear you to shreds.
This one growled menacingly. She felt its spittle. She knew it was close, that it was big, and mean, and hateful, and she wanted nothing more than to get away before it sank its teeth in, but she couldn't move out of the square, couldn’t run away until she rolled again.
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Sunshine Alouette rolled 1 6-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-6)
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2023 8:05 am
Quote: Space 6: You hear a shrill, humming noise; it sounds almost like something is firing past you–and sometimes, you even feel a sharp burst of air, like something has just missed you. Maybe, even, it does get a slice out of you. Sharp, bladelike threads seem to string up around you; you’d best be careful not to get cut on any of them between now and your next dice roll.
She flinched away from the shrill humming just as she’d flinched away from the dog. Now she didn’t know what to expect. Something shot past her, accompanied by a burst of air. Maren wheeled around, eyes wide and fearful, peering through the dark, but all she saw was the emergence of sharp threads around her. One ripped the sleeve of her jacket, cut into her arm, and drew blood. Another snagged on her hip but didn’t quite manage to get through her jeans.
Maren twisted and turned, too terrified to be careful, earning several more nicks and cuts for her efforts, before hastily rolling the die.
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Sunshine Alouette rolled 1 6-sided dice:
5
Total: 5 (1-6)
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2023 8:07 am
Quote: Space 11: You hear a frantic flapping above you, but that’s all the warning you get before a hoard of bats descend. They scratch and slap and screech, but you avoid getting bitten. For now. You’ve invaded their space and they seem keen to defend it. You can try to fight them, but the only way to escape them is to roll again.
This was not at all how she wanted to spend her evening.
The flapping drew her gaze up. Then a hoard of bats descended upon her and, with a shriek, Maren could do nothing but lift her arms to shield her head. The bats screeched and scratched at her. One got tangled in her hair. Maren slapped it away, but there were so many. She could hardly see through the swarm. They wouldn’t let up no matter how she fought, or tried to retreat. Soon her hands were a mess of scratches, her jacket torn beyond repair.
With another shriek of her own, Maren did the only thing she could do to make it stop: she rolled again.
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Sunshine Alouette rolled 1 6-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-6)
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2023 8:09 am
Quote: Space 12: The smell of smoke is in the air. You can’t see what’s burning, but you can hear distant screams, and–carnival music? It feels like people are running past you, and the air fills with panic and alarm–but there’s nowhere for you to go, and the smoke is so thick. You’d better roll quickly so you can get out of here.
Coughing harshly, she managed to roll.
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Sunshine Alouette rolled 1 6-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-6)
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2023 8:11 am
Quote: Space 13: At first, the square is quiet. Nothing seems amiss. It’s unnerving in how safe it seems. But then, it only takes a few seconds before you understand why. It’s just taken a moment for them to get to you. The patter of tiny feet is rapidly approaching. There’s no light to see them, but there’s a reflection in their beady eyes. Rats. Thousands of them. Chittering, frothing in the mouth. These are strangely grotesque, mutated abominations. They’re running at you like they haven’t got a fear in the world–only, hungry. And rage. If they get to you, they’ll eat you alive. The ground is trembling with their weight. You’d better roll quickly if you don’t wind up a meal.
For a moment, she thought she was safe. Nothing happened. Maybe that was the point. Maybe the game was allowing her to rest. But then she heard the sounds — the quiet rustling; the pitter-patter of numerous tiny feet; the squeaking. Maren turned and saw their beady eyes before she knew what they were. Then she screamed.
She scrambled back and fell, colliding with the invisible wall that kept her confined to the square. The rats came for her, so many she couldn’t hope to count them, or avoid them. They were like a wave rushing at her, biting every part of her within reach. Her boots protected her feet, but her hands were exposed and vulnerable. Maren batted the rats away, crawling along the wall in an attempt to escape them. She kicked at them. She stomped one beneath her foot, then another. They squeaked and bit and clawed at her, climbing her legs, clinging to her jacket.
Maren couldn’t find the die. She searched, sacrificing her fingers to the writhing hoard of rats, but the only thing she came across was a stick.
Then: warmth. It was as if something erupted from within her — a power she never knew she had, but one that felt right, that felt safe. For a moment, she excluded light; some of the rats skittered away from it. When it was done, she knew on instinct that something had happened to her. She had become something. She was Maren, and she was someone else. A name came to her from the recesses of her brain. Pieria.
In her hand, she held a white stick, from which hung a cluster of pink flowers and a golden star charm.
She used the stick to poke the rats away. Her other hand came down to support her weight, and as it did so, she felt the magical die beneath her palm.
Pieria rolled it, and escaped to her next allotted square.
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Sunshine Alouette rolled 1 6-sided dice:
4
Total: 4 (1-6)
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2023 8:12 am
Quote: Space 17: Something howls in the distance. It’s loud and echoes with such ferocity it seems to shake you. On the other side of you–another howl. Closer. This one is loud enough to hurt your ears. The ground trembles with the force of something charging at you. A growl, a snarl. Yellow eyes staring you down. There’s not just one monster out there–there’s several, and they’re all coming for you.
“Oh my God,” she breathed.
She didn’t have time to wonder, to think about what it all meant. Something howled in the distance. Then, as she turned to see what it was, another howl sounded much closer. She winced, but kept her feet this time when the ground trembled. In the dark, a pair of yellow eyes caught her in their sights.
Pieria rolled before she could stick around long enough to find out what it was.
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Sunshine Alouette rolled 1 6-sided dice:
2
Total: 2 (1-6)
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2023 8:14 am
Quote: Space 19: You’re so close! Almost at the end! But the space you’re standing on shifts and shakes and seems to crumble beneath you. You have to hold on; there’s nowhere to fall but down into the deep abyss. If you manage to hang on for long enough, you find some invisible purchase and can pull yourself back up, but it’s quite the ordeal. Make sure you don’t get cut on falling spaces! The ground restores itself once you roll again.
“Damn it.”
The ground beneath her shook, then crumbled. Pieria had no time to avoid it. She fell with a scream, and only just managed to catch hold of whatever ledge remained. Blackness stretched beneath her. She couldn’t see the bottom, had no idea how far she would fall, but assumed even her new power wouldn’t save her if she did.
Before tonight, she wouldn’t have been able to pull herself back up. Pieria didn’t know where the sudden burst of upper body strength came from. Maybe it was desperation. Her arms didn’t look any different, but she hung there without straining herself, and hoisted her weight up with less effort than she expected.
She only hoped the ground held long enough for her to make it.
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Sunshine Alouette rolled 1 6-sided dice:
5
Total: 5 (1-6)
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2023 8:15 am
Quote: Space 20: The end; once you have arrived here you are free to leave. You will see be basked in the glow of a beautiful, opalescent aura that will take you back home. If you arrived with a guest, you can leave without them or choose to stay until they make it to the end as well. When you arrive back in Destiny City, you may choose to keep the six sided die–if nothing else, it’s pretty! Though, it doesn’t seem to have any magical qualities, that might be for the best.
The dogs were gone, and the sharp threads, and the bats and the smoke and the rats, and whatever monsters had been lurking in the dark of the gameboard. The sidewalk was stable beneath her feet. The night air was cool. Under different circumstances, she might have thought her experience had been little more than a dream, or a hallucination.
But the white gown remained, and the decorative stick, and the certainty of the title she’d assumed: Pieria, Page of Cosmos.
She clutched the die in her hand, then stared up and down the deserted street and whispered to herself.
“What the ********>
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