#thin spaces

She said that I clearly hadn’t seen enough of the school yet. It made me laugh. She really didn’t get me, not until I took her back to where I spend my summers as a kid.

Everyone’s heard that long drawn out story about the otherworldly connotations to crossroads and in-betweens and rest stops of all things. And this place was somehow strung between all of those. Literally, a belt of farmland between rainy temperate forest and total wasteland, bordering a rest stop and an intersection leading into an overpass.

Not to mention it’s just a really neat little spot.

I only applied to EU in the first place because my cousin did and she liked it well enough, said it was my kind of place. And she was right. I felt at home there.

But I felt at home in the green belt, the place that never seemed to make it fully to the present day, with the three lakes all feeding into each other, the farthest back only reachable by an eight mile trail, where you could see the very glacier that fed it.

My whole life is wanted to go up there. I hadn’t even known there was more than one lake for years. Back when my grandfather ran the joint we never went back behind the first lake. He refused to take us up to the second. But once he passed my dad took us to the second lake and when I heard about the third I knew I had to go.

“Rae,” my roommate, who was referred to as Ailslyn, begged me, “it’s weird how much you want to hike up to that lake. Like I get it, you basically spent your entire childhood in a place like Elsewhere, but even I get weird vibes from that place.”

“Ailslyn, you don’t understand. I just need to. That lake is calling me.”

“Well you know what else calls you? Telemarketers, fake foreign relatives begging for money, politicians, do you answer those?”

“… water has never failed me Ailslyn. If you don’t want to go, just stay here.”

She went anyway. I could tell she was worried but I couldn’t bring myself to care. Not about the bugs I so greatly feared, not about the summer heat or the lengthy walk. I had to get to the lake.

It was every bit the lake I’d thought it would be, a perfect circle surrounded by ice, surely so cold I’d die if I entered.

And yet. I could not stop myself. From the moment we entered the clearing I was sprinting to the water, the very last thing I witnessed was my body splashing ungracefully into the icy black depths.

…

I woke up in the fountain outside our dorm, head resting on the stone edge.

I was wearing nothing but my undergarments.

Leaning over me was the dorm advisor Sherry, a red haired woman who never seemed to take any precautions like the rest of us.

“Rae dear… why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

I didn’t understand. How had I gotten back to school? Where was Ailslyn? Where were my clothes?

“Honey, sweetheart, did they never tell you what you were?”

What I am?

What-

I notice a weight around my neck. Ailslyn’s locket. She never let anyone touch it. Not even me.

Carefully, I open the gold locket, surprised to find what looked to be a phone’s SIM card in place of a photo, encased in plastic wrap to deter water damage.

Once I’m inside and clothed, Sherry and I put the card into my phone, which was somehow intact, here, and in working order.

In all of the data the only recent thing we find is a video of the hike.

It’s showing the last moments before we reach the lake.

My voice rises up, sounding different than I remember-

“I can’t wait! This is what I’ve been dreaming of for years Ailslyn! It’s like I’m coming home for the-”

And then I’m sprinting, crashing into the later with all the grace of a dying walrus. And I sink.

The camera shakes as Ailslyn rushes to the waters edge.

“Rae? RAE?!”

A hand, covered in scales, nails clearly painted with my favorite purple nail polish that’s still on them now, reaches out and heals at her long brown braids, inducing a struggle. Before Ailslyn is tugged into the water herself, she manages to rip off the necklace and throw it and the phone to the center of the clearing.

The screen goes dark for a minute or so, I could hear no struggling.

And then someone picks up the phone, I can barely see his rugged features with the was the sun is shining.

The man sighs, and stops the video, and that’s it.

I fell unconscious immediately.

some areas on my way home where I’m sure The Gentry walk

A small, spindly colt sat at a desk in an equivalently sized room, Ancient Equestrian Myths and Legends laying shut before him. He stared wistfully out the window at the dying light of day, but seeing none of it. His mind instead wandered the great expanse that only children and the especially gifted can imagine, seeking out new discoveries, seeing impossible and possible futures, which sometimes came true … ~*~ He'd found it! Glancing between the parchment in his hoof and the slab before him, a young Techno nodded to himself. This was certainly the place. The runes depicted on the aged parchment perfectly matched the ones etched deep into the rock. Etched? No, they almost appeared as if cracks, naturally formed on an unnatural boulder. It was too thin, too long, and made up of far more lines than curves. Honestly, it resembled a stone coffin more than a boulder. He walked closer, cautious. Tapping it a couple times, he nodded again. Definitely a boulder. He glanced once more at the parchment. Definitely the place. Refolding and pocketing the small square, he peered about the copse, looking for the final symbol. As his gaze panned the trees, his eyes would flick into every sliver of shadows between the trunks. Lips taunt, expression tight and focused, he shifted uneasily. Apart from his breaths, it was utterly silent. As deep in the Everfree as he was, where the wild magic was at it's peak, one would expect the utmost danger. Yet according to Celestia, this specific copse was probably the safest place in all the realms---there was something stronger than known magic at play here. The thought both terrified him and left him exhilarated all at once. Ah, there it was. Huh. The branch really did look like a dragon's finger after all. "Thought she was exaggerating," he breathed out, though suddenly uncomfortable with breaking the silence. Following the pointing claw---branch---around the opposite side of the copse, Techno found the widened gap in the trees. His breath came short and fast. This was where Luna had first entered. This is where a myth had been born---a myth that was apparently true. With a deep draw of breath, he slipped between the trunks. The darkness was nearly all-encompassing. Even sound seemed unable to pierce the shade. Yet as he turned his head back from where he came, he saw light filtering through. Drawing upon a simple illumination spell, he looked back forward. Nothing. Well, not nothing---there was certain something, but that something was a carpet of moss in an entirely regularly shaped meadow. The only perceivable difference than the last was the lack of the boulder and that there was certainly no other way out. Walking further into the small enclosure, he drew a breath … … and stopped dead, not even moving his eyes, ears, or lips. Slowly, he drew in another breath. It seemed … elongated. Not strained, such as in too-thin atmosphere---there was plenty of oxygen in the breath. It simply was … He breathed in again. Yes, elongated was the best description. The breath seemed at once a normal breath, yet also incredibly stretched out. He took another step closer to the center. Fascinating! The strange effect on his breath wasn't confined to just breath, but to all his senses, and it strengthened with each step. His legs seemed to stretch and grow before his eyes, though at once seeming entirely the same. His vision became as if looking through a telescope, a microscope, or normally all at the same time. The greatest wonder is that no vertigo came, that his brain would be able to contend with doing multiple things at once. No, being multiple places at once. He felt stretched across space and time, as if he were overlapping into a thousand different worlds! So enamored was he with the sensations that he missed when the whispers began. However, the moment he heard the breaths, his entire focus zeroed in on the voices. This is what he came for, after all: what would they tell him? Celestia's warning came to his mind unbidden, but he shook it away. Even if it were a horror, he must know what they would say to him. Besides, Luna had come back time and time again- His spine suddenly tensed. He could begin to make out pieces, familiar sound from foreign mouths. What were they saying? What were they saying?! He strained his ears, leaning forward, focusing on the voices that seemed to be everywhere at once. Tell me, he pleaded silently, tell me! The sounds slowly became louder, more clear. The breaths that turned to whispered syllables now turned into quiet words, just out of range of understanding. And then … and then …! Words! He understood! They- they … what? Techno blinked. He blinked again, the words growing louder, now repeating over and over about him. A chant, almost. There seemed to be laughter behind the words, making the young stallion all the more confused, dumbfounded. Who would say such things? What did they even mean?! And the suddenly, they abruptly died. "Wait! No!" Techno cried, stumbling forward as all the effects of the space fled as well. "Wait! What did you mean? I don't understand!" He turned around and around, peering every which way, but for all that he could tell, the meadow was no different than any other ordinary meadow. He stopped, tail and ears drooping. "I don't get it," he snorted. "What does it mean, `he's fifty eight`?"