I stood near the edge of the ravine, my feet planted firmly in the dampened earth. Tempered winds wove between the branches of the overgrown giants in the wood behind me. As the air flowed around my body it felt ancient and controlled, like the particles had ventured from a time before this one, determined to reach their destination.

I watched the wind carry strewn debris up toward the sky as an eerie cold rushed against my back—a presence I don’t think a weathered hex-raven herself could distinguish from the usual spirits. That’s not to say that I was abnormally attuned, but rather the presence there felt...selective.

The clouds were darker than usual. Storm clouds—not uncommon—but the depth of their color was consuming, and their movement felt of a sinister nature. Every so often a ray of twilight would find its way through and illuminate a thin patch of forest, gasping for breath, doing everything in its power to not drown beneath the harsh tide of the oncoming storm.

I caught myself as the wind pushed more debri past my feet; larger things now—sticks and hellthettles in full boom—and more of it, too. A sense of urgency permeated the air. 

***

The sky...it was breathing. Swirling...and breathing. The clouds folded inward as they pulsed gently with life, causing the red light of the horizon to flash in tandem...a signal. The light continued to flash with increasing zeal and rhythm. 

Standing in silence, the sound of my heartbeat began to fill my ears. Louder and louder with more force, just as the light flashed and the clouds heaved, my pulse was being harnessed by this energy. I watched as the entirety of the sky began to synchronize with the rhythm in my chest; Every breath I took it took with me; I was no longer in control; I was the host and it was the parasite. 

Faster now, its presence was injecting fear directly into my blood. The sky tossed and turned in a fervor as it stayed chained to my breath, aching to break free once it had siphoned away enough of my being.

I no longer paid mind to the stones and branches that battered against my legs before making their way over the ledge. My stance held firm not by choice, but by desire—a desire of which I had no control—a desire to watch this sky writhe and bore itself anew from the shackles of my dread.

The sounds of the violent gales were drowned out by the insistent beating in my chest. My blood boiled and sweat through my pores. The clouds had turned a rancid black now, and the sky continued to thrash as my pulse raced, evermore pressing and profound. The light of the waning evening flashed with dying gasps. And as the final sliver of the sun fell below the horizon, my pulse ceased.

And so did the sky. What was once a restless beast was now as silent as the dead. Perhaps this was death—the foreboding brood of the unknown in whatever form it chose to take. 

***

Rain began to fall. Not the torrent to be expected from the mass of clouds overhead, but a light drizzle that broke the silence across the valley. I stood and listened as the droplets fell against the moss-scuffed stones pressed firmly into the embankment of the ravine, the jagged and wiry branches of the trees, and the patches of dried leaves that had fallen to the earth beneath them. Each filled the air with its own sound that added to a moment of serenity greater than the sum of its parts.

The rain felt warm as it ran down my face to my lips. Salt. Was this the sky shedding its tears, or were they my own? My synchronicity with the clouds had me questioning if we were even two separate entities anymore, or if this sudden surge of anguish washing over me was even mine to begin with.

***

And then, crrrack. As if every tree in the forest were being pulled apart, I watched as the clouds began to tremble and splinter along their edges; they recoiled in pain, creating breaches that bled with colorless light—tremors to another world. 

As the portals took form the rest of the sky began to calm. The deafening groans of the clouds subsided and the fissures held their reach. The wind was only a lingering breeze now, but had stripped the thicket of its foliage, leaving behind only twisted and hollow skeletons. The rain continued to fall delicately.

A sudden shockwave reverberated from the sky and across the grove. The trees shook, their branches clacked together in a haunting applause, sending cumulated beads of water plummeting to the ground in a forceful deluge. My eyes turned upward toward the gaps in the clouds; A presence had shifted into this world.