Seol'valista

Of crystal wings...
(©SunBlind - October 2005)

Seol'valista's wings fluttered in the morning sun, casting glittering reflections about the forest in which he stood. He watched the sparkles dance over the leaves and across the ground. He sighed quietly and shook his head.

How long had he been in this place, alone, no other of his kind to be seen. Not much of any kind to be seen unless one spoke of birds and insects. He did not mind their company, but as time wore on he longed for something more like himself.

As he did every morning, he walked to the stream from which he drank the clear waters. Again he watched the reflected sunlight, broken into a million shimmering pieces by the movement of the water. He stared deep to the stones and pebbles beneath, then once more looked about at his surroundings.

It was a small wooded area, mainly birch and oak, but a tall pine mixed in to add a touch of freshness to the air. It was a strange place though. Small, but never ending. It took the Tuani some days to realize this, but the further he walked, the more he traveled, the more things remained the same. The same trees, the same stream, the same cool, beautiful morning that never ended.

On a whim, he had crushed an ant. He stared at its broken body, wondering what would happen, if anything. After a while he grew bored and wandered off, though his wandering soon brought him back to this place, as he knew they would. Glancing down to where the ant had been, he found it, running about busy with its business. Was it the same one? Was it a mirror image of a mirror image reflected a thousand times over, duplicated to no end? Where there hundreds of thousands of him, wandering about, lost, looking for a way out. The thought depressed him and he swore to think of it no more.

That's when the dreams started. The dreams of the large white stallion, the one he knew was named Elidan, though he had never heard of him, let along met him. The stallion would stand patiently in these dreams, saying not a word. Sometimes Seol'valista would scream at him, demand that he release him from this place if he was the one keeping him here, or to help him if he was not the one that held him. Other times he would stare back, determined not to be the first to look away. But all was for naught, the stallion never responded.

Not till that night. When the dream came, Seol'valista decided to just ignore the stallion, as the stallion had ignored him. So it came as a surprise as he heard the deep and gentle voice within his head. You have bound yourself here. When he turned, the stallion had vanished, and it was once again morning.

That made no sense, there was nothing more that Seol'valista wanted than to leave, why would he have been his own keeper, trapping himself in a place that would surely drive himself mad. How long had he been here, anyway. Where was here? He asked this of the stallion the next time he dreamed. You have been here but a moment, in a place out of time. You have bound yourself here.

A place out of time. At least that made sense. It would explain why things never changed here. Why it was always morning, why that which was dead was still alive. Seol'valista pondered his dream, but still could not grasp how he could have bound himself here. And worst of all, the stallion no longer returned to his dreams.

Time, he seemed to have a lot of it here. Frozen like a sheet of ice. Ice that should shatter into a glittering shards, melting in the warmth of the sun, just like the reflections off his wings. And then he understood, he just knew, and he willed it. At first nothing happened, but he began to walk. As he walked he stared a familiar trees, he passed the stream to be amongst more trees he knew so well. At a trot he moved faster and faster until he stopped in his tracks. Before him was an ocean he had not seen before. He looked up at the noonday sun and cherished the feeling, soaking it up as never before.

Time. He seemed to be able to control time. Only he didn't know it, so had done it by mistake. Trapped himself in his own time bubble. And then, as a shaft of light through a crystal glass, he found he was able to pierce his prison, shattering it and freeing himself.

Looking up at the sky, he once more saw the white stallion, soaring high above him. This time it wasn't a dream, he was calling him up there, to the Heights. Where there were more of his kind. He followed the stallion up, knowing that he still had a lot to learn.

Statistics:
Name: Seol'valista (Glass Wings)
ID: 1029
Gender: Stallion
Parents: Wild
Class: Tunai
Glory: Cora Finien
Charity: None
October 2005