Editing Prompt September 2021 (section)

== Rhianna Ring-Howell ==
Shadows cascade across the ground and ripple off the water. My bow sits squarely across my back, arrows in their container. The only light left comes from the sliver of the moon showing through the clouds.

Nothing is familiar.

The eerie sounds of the forest cause the hair on my neck to stand on end. My boots step hard on the leaves, causing them to crackle like fireworks and my heart to skip a beat.

The place is unrecognizable in the cover of darkness. The bright-colored flowers and shrubs seem menacing. My stomach flips, knees knocking together.

I’m reminded of the time when I was a child, living at the edge of the forest. Where my only worry was whether or not I was having fun.

But I’m no longer a child, and the stories I’ve heard are real.

Too real.

It doesn’t matter that I have the power to manipulate the world around me, bending it to my will. It doesn’t matter that I’ve trained for years under the best of teachers.

Instead, it’s a weakness.

The creatures can smell it. The magic dripping from my fingertips. Oozing out from every part of my being.

It’s a call to them.

The creatures of the night.

More dangerous than anything I’ve ever heard about in the stories my mother told me. And they come from the most innocent and pure of places. A place I spent years trying to find, hoping that it would reveal the secrets of my gift.

A bush rustles behind me, and I jump, practically flying across the grass. Blood rushes in my ears, and my body thrums with energy. I tug my bow off my back with shaking fingers.

Knocking an arrow on the string, I draw it back gently.

I remember the first time I saw this place. Alight and alive with magic.

Light streaming through the trees. The laughing brook.

Something snorts behind me.

I spin around, dirt flying about my heels.

The pure bliss. The dancing. The birds. The fairies.

And the snow-white creatures with pearly horns.

Soft footsteps sound behind me, and my bowstring creaks. I dig my heels in, taking slow, measured breaths.

The Empress had told me it would be dangerous. Gaius warned me not to go, telling me I would be no match for the creatures. And that I wouldn’t be able to take in what I saw. That the world was not the same at night.

My pulse quickens at the piercing screech, that sends the birds flying from the trees.

Perhaps he was right.

Something steps out of the shadows, and my muscles tense, urging me to run. But I can’t take my eyes off of it.

A horse-like creature looms with a black hide that seems to ooze darkness onto the ground. A jagged horn that appears to be made of the sharpest of metals sticks out of its head. And its eyes. They stare into my soul like an abyss.

How could a creature of hope and light become so dark?

The magic in me thrums, and the creature sniffs the air, turning its head towards me.

My hands shake as it rears. I aim the arrow carefully, trying to forget what it looked like when I first saw it.

It hits the ground and starts at a run, screaming loudly.

I squeeze my eyes shut and release the shaft. It whistles through the air, cutting through the space like a sharp knife.

Gaius was right.

Even the most beautiful places turn dark during the night.