The Altar
Fear pumped through my veins and battered my heart like a piñata baton clashing upon a lama. Clouds of dense, grey mist lifelessly bobbed up and down staining the already darkened atmosphere. Clank, clank the sound of iron on stone as I traipsed on the wood’s leafy ground that seemed to submerge ever more for every step I took. Following the misleading trail of flagstone, I managed to reach the altar. Lonely it stood rooted to the ground isolated from the world, shrouding itself in the clump of ice-bound trees that eventually died out. But it did have two everlasting companions – the sun and the moon; during day and night, each one of them would traverse the sky ever so slightly peeking beneath the clouds illuminating all they could see.
Suddenly beams of dark light shone onto the altar irradiating the embellished scriptures that were engraved onto the large stone slabs that built up the face of the altar. Under the exposure of the radiant light, a creature of disgust descended upon the altar, unfolding its magnificently symmetrical wing, vigorously impelling the strips of leaves that aligned with the altar’s silhouette. Like bones expanding in size, the creature spread its pain through the vast expanse of the wood’s and through the barren land that lay beyond. My eyes were slowly drawn into the hypnotizing site (and I was obliged to move them from the restraining pain). Ominous, tinted clouds gathered around the beam of light and all at once poured buckets of water onto the surface below. Stunned by the force of the water (which felt like a hundred hammers dropped onto my head) I was unable to move and feel my own body. But I was still able to smell the musty stench that flowed through my body. Then the creature looked at me, its bloodshot red eyes staring at mine; I was so concentrated I could even hear its distinct growling in the background of the rain splashing onto the ground.
It trudged on its four, flimsy-looking legs, its rigid, keen claws grasping onto the ground preventing it from falling and scuttled across to me. A wave of panic rushed through my head capsizing my brain with fear while my heart raced fearfully almost out of my chest. But the creature just stood to observe me and disappeared into darkness that now concealed the wood’s miniature details. I was now able to move my body and my eyes, I could almost feel the relief pouring out of me like a waterfall.