Convicted Hearts: The Dragons Stone

by SaphireHoyt

The Dangers of Wandering Far From Home

I awoke terrified, looking around for the eyes I had seen staring at me from the stars. They were twinkling, slowly fading. They were fading more and more. The sky was turning a strange red. The tree I was in was surrounded by a massive expanse of fields with, in the distance, a tree line of pine trees. The Evergreens. Oh how I loved the scent of pine. It soothed me. The stars twinkled and winked until only one was left, staring through the now bright-ish purple red. I watched with a soothed mind as the last star was fizzled out of existence. I was excited now, to get up and walk. This place was more open than the foreboding atmosphere of the dragon isle. How did I know what it was called? I don't even know. It was hard to tell if I was even still there in my body with how soothed and spaced out I was by the strange array of color in the sky. The sun began to rise, and the only sensation I had was now that I was safe from harm. That I was safe from discomfort. The image of the tall white unicorn with wings came into my mind, and I felt the feeling intensify.

"Good morning." I said to myself, getting up and stretching. My legs were cramped from sleeping like I was. I stretched to the point I was sure my limbs would snap. I took out my several empty water bottles I had in my bag and proceeded to fill them promptly. Each one would last me two days. I pulled out my small two inch multipurpose knife tool to look it over and analyze it. It seemed so foreign to me, but yet like I had used it all the time. I cut some tree bark off the tree and ate some, choking it down with water from the lake. I saw a fish in my reflection and I grabbed it, smiling that I had caught my meal.

A true predator, I was about to become. I looked into my preys eyes and froze, seeing something I had not originally thought about. I saw something in its eyes. It had an expression. One of desperation. One of fear. One of pleading. I swear to the stars that It even gasped out words that were pleading for it's life. In shock, it dropped from my hands and fell into the water. It swam off, faster than I have ever seen anything move in my life. It was so... Scared. It, I thought... It has a soul.

That put things into perspective for me. Everything I was thinking of, what I was remembering from before... Every morsel of meat I have ever neaten... Was from an animal much like that one. A pig here could possibly talk like the dragons, not even being able to know what other creatures could possibly be here in this world. Dragons, those strange unicorn Pegasus hybrids? Could they talk? What else could? What else was intelligent?

I took a step away from the edge of the lake and began to walk to the tree line of the evergreens. I gave a small shaky sob as I looked at the ground ahead. It had become eerily quiet. It had become scarily silent. I looked around and teared up. I heard a howl, and the feeling of safety that I had felt in the meadow was gone. I could hear everything. There was as growl off to the right. There was a groan to the left. The wind blew and the trees shook, creaking angrily. I gained a feeling of intense hatred in my body. It filled my every fiber, but was drowned out by fear when I heard a not so distant howl and the roar of a lion in the distance along with the intense creaking and growl of wood. I ran, fearing the sounds. They seemed to get quieter, but got louder whenever I slowed my pace to anything below a frantic run. There was no end in sight for me. The sun had disappeared and left, leaving me to run through strange foliage, crying and calling for help. I hoped for my sake, that these beings were intelligent like I was. Like the Dragons were. There was a howl from less than a few meters away and I cried out, running even faster. I trudged through thorn bushes, ran through strange flowers, even crossed a choppy river in order to escape. The pursuit got even hotter when I was approaching now, a path that led to a strange castle. There was an intense angry howl from the wolf now that I had been able to identify this. The fog around the place terrified me, but I ran across the old rickety bridge even though it was about to snap.

I had made it this far inland, lost now in an intense and thick forest of horrible monsters. Somehow night had fallen. I wanted nothing to do with the monsters that lurked out there tonight. I fell to my knees in the broken down throne room on the tattered carpet. I rocked back and forth, crying loudly as I covered my head. I wanted to go home. But my home wasn't with the dragons, nor was it here. It wasn't in this world as far as I knew.

I crawled, pathetically dragging myself up between the thrones to curl up and cry myself to sleep under the cruel twinkling stars.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was getting another memory. This time a memory from the pool of mirrors. I was watching a montage of six different small horses, smiling and laughing, defeating various monsters and evil people. I felt close to these six, like I had known them my entire life. I could not pinpoint the exact reason how I knew them. I felt the urge, the strong pull to find these six small horses. The pair of eyes twinkled back into my mind and this time I looked at them with fear, remembering the last time I had woken up. The hell I had gone through just to escape the beings that wished death upon me. The voice returned and spoke to me, watching me as I tried to slink passed the feeling of overwhelming fear and pressure coming into me.

"Awaken to the stars. Run and follow the moon. There, you will find the crystal castle."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I coughed myself awake, hungry, aching and thirsty. I grabbed a water bottle I had filled and chugged half the bottle, coughing a bit. I looked at the moon and remembered the Spanish word for moon. Luna? Yes Luna. I looked at the sky and watched. "Luna" was setting. I remembered the dream... I must follow the moon? I felt the undying urge to run. I felt my hunger die with my aching, and my focus was on the bright round circle in the sky. The stars seemed to watch my hypnotic state as I wandered west towards Luna. Towards the Crystal Castle, as the dream stated. I cut off tree bark as I passed and ate them, coughing as I choked it down. I trudged through thorn bushes and through a small clearing. I only stopped when I reached the boarder to a strangely greener line of grass. I looked down at it and blinked, breaking my hypnosis for a moment. I stepped over, and a the desperate feeling of relief filled me. It was as if a mother who had lost sight of her child had found them once more. The feeling was amazing. My marking burned. I looked around.

In the distance there was an illuminated town, civilization. I spotted a cottage that was dimmed, the lights inside were out. I looked towards the sky and saw the sun was rising again. How had I traversed that madness in a day? Maybe less?! I felt my stomach ache and groan for food. I doubled over and looked around, spotting a line of fenced in apple trees. I made my way over. The fence was almost up passed my waist. I climbed through the gap between the top and bottom and saw a massive bucket of apples sitting out. I looked out and saw an empty bucket. I pulled out my notebook and filled the bucket with the best apples I could reach by just climbing. I coughed slightly and wrote a note on the apple bucket, saying that I had plucked a few bruised apples off the ground, and one from a tree, and the rest were in the bucket. I heard someone coming, a loud clippity-clop.

I carefully placed the note on top of the bucket and ran as fast as I could off the property and towards the cottage. I munched a bruised apple I had snagged, and for the first time in a long time I had eaten something actually good for me. I coughed as I ate. There was a loud galloping sound to where I was hiding. There was yelling and barking too. I froze up, becoming scared. There was a heavy knocking on the door of the cottage, and the door was opened. There was a relatively quiet voice that answered.

"Flutters, look at this!" I had an amused aura surround me as I ate the apple and finished listening in on the conversation. For kicks and giggles, I decided to leave another note on the apple core I had eaten, and in the note I apologized from stealing apples from her, and that I was just starving from a trip though the forest. I left the seeds on the note too, to freak them out. I snuck off through the side of the cottage and looked at the town. It was still early. I ran as fast as I could, crouching a bit. Maybe I was ick. Maybe I was well. The cough was from eating nothing but tree bark. I drank some water and peeked out to look around.

There was a huge castle at just the end of the road. I bit my lip and looked around. The windows of the houses were still dim. They were dimly lit. They were just waking up. If I hurried, I could ruin to the castle. There was a gingerbread house big enough for me to live inside, and there was a strange carrousel. It was bedazzled to the point where I could pretty much assume it was a fashion statement. I looked around and began to make my way through the village, walking though the middle of the road. I had my blanket covering my head like a hood and my bag on my back over my shoulders and my blanket. I heard the creak of a door, a frightened shriek, and a loud scream. I spun around and my hood fell off, revealing my greasy and grimy hair, and mud smudged face, clean near my mouth from eating the apple and drinking water. It was a group of three little horses, about as tall as me, surprisingly, screaming and pointing at me. They zoomed back inside locked down the house. I felt a bit bad about that. I then looked around, realizing ponies were looking out their windows and doors at me with terrified and disgusted looks. I looked around and teared up, and slowly made my way towards the castle. I his in the bushes outside and huddled up, sniffling.

I genuinely try not to hurt people!... Horses... Creatures. Ever since the fish. I just laid there, my blanket hood over my head and the bag carefully being used as a pillow. Luna had told me to come here... But why? I scribbled quickly in my notebook about the dreams and then went into a deep dreamless sleep.