A Place Without Aideen's Light - Chapter 4.

(Úplně jsem zapomněla, že jsem to ještě nedopřeložila tssk :/.)

The sun was slowly getting closer to the horison, as Ziggy returned to the Mystic's territorry. Few horses looked up as she stomped through the grass, but it seemed that her dissapearance went unnoticed. Everyone was already used to her playing Hide and Seek with the squirrels and sometimes her play lead her to various places.

The filly leaned down to bite some grass. She heared footsteps behind her. "Willow!" she smiled. She liked the older mare. She knew that Willow joined the herd when she was younger, but Ziggy wasn't even born then. She only knew Willow as a Mystic and couldn't imagine her as anything else.

The older mare's gray-brown fur glistened under the setting sun and the light from mushrooms tangled in her mane grew in intensity. "How was your day, little one?" she asked with a smile. The filly whipped her tail and started happily talking about the Hide and Seek with the squirrels. She knew that Willow would surely believe her.

But she shook her head. "I know you weren't at the Sentinel Tree today. The squirrels chirped about your disappearance. But I think no one else heard them." Ziggy lowered her ears. "So tell me, where did your journey lead you?"

The gray filly knew she could trust the mare. Ziggy lay down on the grass and told her about the strange snowy place, where the big horses with long teeth used to live. She wasn't sure whether to share the experience with the green portal, but she wanted to tell Willow about the blue squirrel who helped them.

Willow nodded her head silently. "You were right not to let Athena go through. The other side of the portal hides terrible things. A secret dimension, that no horse from the Wild Woods should ever enter."

"And the Gray-Worlders can?"

"Usually not. Many of them are also scared, but some are intrigued. The place is colorful, bright and mysterious and some want to see, what it looks like. But dark powers rule over the land and Aideen's light can't reach it."

Ziggy flicked her ears. To this day she'd never heared of a place that even Aideen herself couldn't look over. Everyone said that even in the Gray World, her life-giving light still shone to help lost souls find their way.

"So nobody ever goes there?"

"I can't say that's true. Some brave souls of the Gray World go there and try to rid the land of those dark forces that rule over it."

Willow ruffled the little filly's blue mane with her nose. "You shouldn't go there. At least not for now. Brave humans from the Gray World have more knowledge about how to survive there. We could never do that. Something always happens and changes in their world. We're not built for these changes."

Ziggy threw her mane to the other side and nodded. "Athena was interested in that place. I think she would like to explore it someday."

"Warrior souls dream of adventure and journeys full of mystery.  They'd rather see things with their on eyes than think and wonder and daydream like we do. Let's hope her bravery leads her just where she'd like to end up. Your friendship is a strange one and technically against the rules... but it's not an unusual one"

Willow smiled. "I won't tell anyone about it, don't worry. Just try to keep both of you away from the snowy valley. The blue squirrel might not appear a second time."

The gray filly nodded again and laid her head on the ground. Now that she'd heard all this from Willow, she really wondered who would be so brave to visit the other side of the portal. Could that weird human, who dresses just like their horse, be one of them? If she left with one of the Gray-Worlders... could she see the place too?

She'd never considered leaving the Wild Woods, and this too was likely just a passing fantasy... But for just a moment she thought about one day becoming one of the brave beings to cross the threshold of a different reality. Fripp, the cosmic being, that looks like a squirrel, would be her guardian and hopefully she'd find a human to carry along too. Maybe even Athena would come with her...

They were all just innocent childish dreams. Before she gets to make that kind of decision, many years will pass. Until then she can just wait, talk to squirrels and hopefully continue the secret meetings with Athena. But most importantly she will keep her distance from that strange entrance to another world.