The Horn

Don't hit a unicorn with a car.

Seriously 1.1  

   ”Oh my God, seriously!? I haven’t had this car one week and I hit a f*****g deer? Are you kidding me right now?  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?”, he yelled as he looked up at the ceiling of his brand new “Integra”.  As he opened the door to get out and assess the damages to his vehicle, he almost slipped, as his foot transitioned the minor height difference between the road and the shoulder.  He walked around the front to see his entire left front headlight assembly had been shattered, half of his bumper was hanging off, and there was a puncture hole in the frame that tore up through the hood. He threw his hands up in the air, not really letting what he saw sink in other than the thousands of dollars worth of frame work he’d need, and mumbled several obscenities before coming to his senses for a minute.

      He realized that if the deer had still been in the road, he should at least try to move it, as not to cause another motorist an accident.    For him, it was some strange bright light that blinded him from the wood line, causing him not to see the deer until it was too late.   As his eyes adjusted to the slightly dimmer light behind the car in the middle of the road, he noticed something odd about the deer he had just hit.  ”What the hell…”, he said, as he got closer.  He realized it was more the size of a horse, and it had something sticking out of its forehead.  He almost threw up, thinking it was a piece of metal lodged into it’s skull. 

Must be a Virgin 1.2

     It took him several moments to collect his composure, and approach the dead, or dying, thing.  He took one step closer and bent down, noticing that it wasn’t a piece of metal, but what appeared to be a horn.  

     A wheezing rasp came from the thing laying in the road, scaring the crap out of him, “You ….need …to close…”, the thing coughed, ” …the rift, behind…”   He tried to turn heel and run to his car, and then he saw it.  It looked like television static in mid air, surrounded by sparkling light, shining of every color of the rainbow.  His eye twitched trying to comprehend what he was seeing, but his brain processed one thing, that it was growing slowly. He turned back around horrified and then it spoke again, “…one of the other four…you must”, the dying thing stopped abruptly, spat up one last gust of blood, and mustered “…the unicorns, find…”  Just then, it’s eyes closed shut, and it’s body began to shimmer.  His eyes grew wide as he saw the body turn to into pure energy, and float away into the night.  

     ”A….unic…I don’t even…”, he stammered to himself.  He could not grasp the situation. He unconsciously walked towards where it had laid a moment ago, and bent down to pick up the only thing that didn’t disintegrate  into particles of energy, the horn.  As soon as his hand made contact with the horn, his body jolted as if he had been struck by lightning.  The horn disintegrated in his hand and he felt the energy enter his body. He fell to his knees and stayed still, as words, and memories, and places all flooded his mind.  They were things he’d never seen or heard before, but suddenly they were his memories too, side by side with his current life.  He grasped his head, as though it were a headache and stumbled backwards a few steps, not realizing the tear in the fabric of reality he noticed earlier was now just a bit taller and winder than he was.

   

One Ticket to “Paradise” 1.3

     He suddenly felt as though his body was being pushed through a solid wall.  At first there was a lot of pressure on his chest, to his ribs, and then his back.  Once the pressure subsided, he realized he was falling.  He clenched his fists in fear, and refused to look down,closing his eyes.   Just as his body told him, he was going to die from the impact, his right hand began to glow, right where he felt the energy from the horn enter his body.  Suddenly he felt like someone hit him in the back with a down pillow.  He tried to turn his head, realizing he was on his back, on the ground.  He jumped up immediately, wondering how any of this was even possible.  But before he could do any thinking, the other memories clouded his mind.  

     He gripped at his head again, as the new memory forced it’s way through.  He saw a clear sign in his brain, telling him he needed to go east through the mountains.  What mountains? He had never even been here before.  But where WAS here?  He noticed he was in a large open field, with mountains, not to far off into the distance, and a wood line no more than 100 yards north of him.  As he tried to take in his surroundings, wondering where on Earth he was, if he was, his hand began to glow again, and he felt as though he HAD to go East.  He felt a pain in his sides and down his spine.  Taking this as a sign, finally, he decided to stumble a few directions towards the mountains in the East.  He felt the pain subside a little, and he continued moving East until the pain went away.  

     Every time he tried to think of how he got here, or what happened, it would be interrupted by another memory of a place, or name, as though the power inside him would not let him be sidetracked with the “minor details”.   He felt a word press itself to the forefront of his mind “Gryphon.” His mind kept telling him “Gryphon, Gryphon, Gryphon.” 

Not Peter 1.4

     He cried out in frustration, “Will you please, shut , the  fu…”, only to be interrupted by the sound of large flapping wings, and a shadow passing over.  He looked up and saw it, diving down towards him, it’s claws shining in the sunlight.  Out of instinct he threw up his right arm to block his face, causing the Gryphon to slash at his arm, which was now covered in what looked like a shield made of intertwining prisms.  As soon as the Gryphon’s claws made contact, he saw chunks of something fly past his face.

      He realized that those chunks were the claws from the Gryphon’s feet, shattering against the prisms shielding his right arm.  It cried out in pain and flew up into the sky, blood trailing out of it’s right foot. As soon as it began it’s next descent, he noticed it was positioning itself between him and the sun.  He though that maybe it was trying to blind him, by making him look straight up, but then realized.  As the Gryphon started to get closer, it brought it’s wings in, for a divebomb, causing the sun to hit the prisms on his right arm just right.

      At first, his arm became unusually hot, and then the prisms started to emanate  colors from the visible spectrum, refracting the light in every direction.  The light seemed to tangle itself into a weave, red, orange, yellow, and all the rest of the colors, started to somehow, form a solid object at the end of the prismatic shield.  Once the light finished moving, it resembled a long , sharp, horn.  He had not so much as one second to react, when he heard his brain shout the word, “STRIKE!”  Just then he threw a punch with his right arm, sending the horn straight through the Gryphon’s beak, shattering it too, on impact.  Just as the impact occurred the force knocked him back a step.  However, the rest of the Gryphon’s body did not follow.  As soon as the initial strike happened, it’s body exploded into a surge of energy, not unlike the unicorn he had hit, what, at this point, may as well have been a million years ago.  

     That’s when he felt it again, the surge, as the energy from the Gryphon entered his body.  He could feel both of his shoulder blades start to emanate energy, until it became too much.  His body couldn’t handle it anymore, as he slumped to the ground in the open field.