The River Back

The colt trotted through his tiny piece of utopia alongside the river, musing over the landscape features from the small blades of grass to fallen trees dotted with moss, finding himself content every step of the way. He breathed in the moist air when suddenly, far down his path a glowing spec floated into his view. He was so tired he thought it was his mind playing tricks on him, but then another appeared, then five more, then ten, twenty, fifty nearing the appearance of hundreds if not thousands, all gently hovering down from the branches like slow-motion rain, settling on the ground around him.

He stared at the ring of glowing insects surrounding him, each beady eye looking up at him as if they were anticipating him to begin communicating, but his brain was so void of thought that he could only stare back at the sheer amount of them. In what could be seen as disappointment, each insect gradually ascended back into the canopy and disappeared, leaving the colt with a deep sense of guilt for not acting sooner. He sighed and continued down his neverending path.

Something latching onto his back however, making him shriek in surprise and leap into the freshwater stream. He hid under the water for a moment, scratching at the point where the thing touched him as he carefully re-emerged from the water, rising just enough to clearly see one of the small glowing insects at the edge of the bank looking back at him, as a matter of fact, it was the only remaining one from it's whole legion.

Whilst pulling himself up to dry land and shaking all the water off, the insect stayed where it was looking up at him. The colt glanced over to the insect, gave it a solemn nod, and continued along the riverside.

Not long after he began walking again, the small insect fluttered in front of him, landing in the middle of his path. It tried to start a conversation with him by opening it's wings and closing them to the rhythm of an unco-ordinated tune it produced through chirping noises, so the colt stepped back and lay on the grass in curiosity. The pair exchanged looks before the insect waddled it's way over to him, crawled up his face where he restrained himself from scratching again, and plonked itself on the edge of his nose, conjuring further joyful sounds.

The colt delicately rose from the ground and continued down the river with his newfound friend, eyeing it with very slight paranoia. He yawned as his eyelids began to droop, listening to the insect's almost hypnotic melody. His body was about to give in when the insect cut the tune and rocketed off his muzzle like a fair weather friend. It took the colt a moment to comprehend the event, and through blurry eyes he looked over to where he thought the insect bolted to, seeing it cling to a tree trunk further down the river waiting for him.

Honing in on the little light source, he realised the insect was hardly moving from a box it somehow trapped itself in, similar to the small boxes pinned against trees in front of the old house, but with closer inspection he found it was a flame generating the light in the box, not the insect, cocking his head to one side in confusion as to how there would be a lamp in the middle of nowhere. Further down the river he heard the chirping of the insect, but on top of that there was the clear sound of gushing water, Tensing his muscles and drawing a sharp breath, he hoped he wouldn't have to to climb another waterfall to perilous heights.

The colt ran towards the location of the chirping, the sound of the waterfall gradually growing as he passed more lamps pinned to trees, and soon enough he saw the waterfall, relieved when finding that the waterfall only came down a small hill that could easily be traversed in no time at all. What struck him as odd for this earth formation was the small iron door from the side, only a few steps away from the waterfall with vines drooping over it's wooden framing, the familiar glow of his insect pal illuminating from one of the vines waiting cheerfully for the colt.

The door's stature seemed rotten and old, the colt nudged the door with one hoof hoping it would open easily. The door ignored his effort, then using his upper-strength to push against the door again and with his back hooves digging into the soft soil, the small pony burst the door's frame apart, splinters scattering the ground as he tumbled inside The moment he regained his hoofing he darted back out into the wilderness and hid in a bush, waiting patiently for an alien to run out after him in rage.

Not a peep arose from behind the twisted door, the only movement or sound came from the gentle wind moving through the branches above him, and the river which should go without saying. The observing insect fluttered to the ground and walked into the structure without worry, so concluding that there was no danger, colt creeped towards the door again and peered inside, the yellow light of the insect beside another light flickering in the breeze at the top of a short white rod on a table.

He stepped over the door's warped frame and into the room not seeing a soul, but instead, a variety of woodworks from shelving to cupboards lined the walls, even a bed with neatly folded covers in the corner of the room. The flame sat merrily as it ate through it's remaining stump of fuel, it's cup-shaped gold base sat on a sheet of paper, but at first glance he realised there was no way of reading the incomprehensible scribble covering it. The insect hovered over to the colt's nose where it lay once more, giving the colt mild comfort as he scouted every nook of the room from the leather-bound novels lining the walls, to the passageway leading into a smaller room with the characteristic of the waterfall flowing over an open wall, trickling into a small pond that could be used as a bath.

The colt returned to the bed, seeing it as the best place to get some rest, crawling into the sheets for the hope of a satisfying doze, the insect likewise on the bed's side table, bundling up comfortably.

With a mind absent of any threat, the colt drifted into the dreamworld accompanied by nature's lullaby, consisting an orchestra of distant creatures and gushing water, which for the first time in his short memory gave him peace, drifting off into the darkness of slumber.

Dreaming...

He'd never dreamt anything before, hardly even used his imagination outside the logical world, yet here he stood in a golden field he'd never seen, and the sun neither rising nor setting as it painted the sky red over a mountain range, leaving the surrounding world in the shadow of overcast clouds. The colt wondered what the sky looked like at the top of a mountain like those ones, and the instant the thought popped into his head something grasped his whole body, and in one swift motion he was pulled at full throttle towards the mountain. He shut his eyes tight and looked away expecting to slam against the side of the alp, but when the wind rushing through his mane suddenly stopped, he cracked open his eyes to find himself at the peak of the mountain, over viewing the plains coated in long grass and deep scarlet sky, just like he wanted.

The colt felt like he'd been through so much already he didn't care if he flew to the top of a mountain with the power of his mind, but it was when he turned to trek back down the slope he saw a white glow close by, something sitting on a bench spectating the landscape whilst having a conversation with itself. He crept closer to it until he knelt a handful of meters away from the being, almost able to make out a couple of the words they said, then a thin sliver of the light poked it's head up a moment before the being split into three and looked directly at him.

Freezing the moment he was spotted, the colt realised it was four individual beings instead of one, the fourth and bulkiest member of the party turned to air the first chance it got, taking the bench with it. Two others in the shape of what he thought were aliens stood back bewildered, one with a thin, winged reptile on it's shoulder that climbed down to the ground and scampered over to the colt, standing upright close enough to feel it's warm breath against his muzzle. The two stared at each examining the new animal before them, the other pair mumbled words to each other whilst gesturing towards the colt.

Eventually the reptile's master sounded a sharp whistle, and the creature scurried back over to the being and perched itself on a shoulder, the colt could've sworn he saw it whisper something into the alien's ear. The alien crouched to get a better view of the young colt, gently fondling a part of it's face the pony could just make out to be wisps of facial hair.

After a lengthy silence and a number of tired yawns from the colt, the other glowing alien nudged the observer's side and pointed out towards the plains. The colt followed the gaze of them both to spy the tiny movement of another alien, yet even at a distance he could tell this one was severely malnourished, not to mention wounded judging by the tattered blue clothing it wore. When the colt looked back to the beings, the one still standing now moved towards him at a calm pace in the hope of not frightening the colt away, but he felt no sense of fear from the aliens, just a strange, almost omniscient presence the closer it got. The being reached out and brushed the colt's fur gently. ca every muscle in his little body relax and crumble to the ground in exhaustion, only to see darkness once more.

The cooing of birds brought him back to reality, beams of sunlight shone through the twisted door showing the dust particles floating above the ground. He stretched his limbs and heard his bones heave, but looking down his body something scratched at his mind, telling him something had changed. His eyes widened in surprise when he that no wound, not even a scar bore any resemblance on his flank from the wolves. He doubted damage like that could've healed in a day, so perhaps the apparitions he met in his dream had something to do with it?

After a moment, he shrugged off the possibility. It was healed; that's all that mattered to him. The colt sighed and looked over to his only friend in the world, sleeping happily on the barren bedside table. The colt crawled out of bed and stood next to the insect with a grin, nudging it's side gently, the insect rose and fluffed it's wings, chirping as it flew onto the tip of his muzzle again ready to continue the adventure. Upon stepping out into the warm sun, he clambered up the hill and pushed forward along the stream.

Yet something further upstream shimmered in the sunlight. The colt picked up his pace to get into view sooner, and to his astonishment a large, metallic structure protruded from the forest landscape, and from the only gaping mouth of an entrance the river poured out. Why such a creation existed here eluded him, and why the river he'd been following all this time had been a product of this building only peaked his interest further.

The colt cautiously walked towards the derelict edifice, all his instincts telling him to turn back as the building loomed over his tiny body, blocking out the sun. The insect scrambled to hide in the colt's mane as a deathly-cold breeze of air crawled it's way out to greet him.

With tenuous courage, the colt took a deep breath and put one hoof in front of the other, and before he could conceive the possibility of turning back, he was knee-deep in water and consumed in darkness.