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The Colour of Whispers

Jan 6 · 2017

Long feet, more like stilts than anything, contacting the floor. As each struck, a little flair of light burst forwards, pink and yellow sparkles, illuminating the floor that didn’t truly exist. This world was darkness after all, light was rare but Moodswing didn’t mind that, she could make her own light especially during this time. Her body shone a soft orange and yellow as the flames of happiness burned through her. She hadn’t been this way before, it was off the usual trail and deep within a series of not-corridors, ones that lived only temporarily, walls that may or may not bar progress but things were going well. It was always odd living in this place where darkness ruled, she remembered back to the lights in the distance she had seen earlier, flitting, shifting, dancing and finally fading… They always faded in the end, nothing lasted forever after all but why dwell on that?
The colours of happiness around Moodswing’s arms and legs faded, turning transparent as she realised that there was something wrong, darkness settled in closer, a blanket wrapping around her. What had went wrong? Everything looked normal and she shook her head, letting out a soft sigh. ’…Sigh…’. No sound but the word drifted before her, a gentle blue against the darkness and it faded away. Moodswing blinked a few times, trying to be sure that she had actually seen such a thing. She stepped forwards into the darkness, another little burst of light but it was darker this time and there was no sound of her stilt hitting the floor. Glowing eyes flicked down and saw the last remnants of ‘click’ floating away into the darkness, disappearing from sight. Silence. That was the problem; this whole place was entirely silent, there was no sense of her breathing, no sense of her body’s rhythms, nothing.
The creature paused and crossed her eyes, staring down her nose to look at the end of her muzzle, sure enough there were little yellow ‘huff, huff, huff’s leaving her as she breathed, fading away almost instantly. Her paw came up to her mouth, attempting to catch the words but they danced between her claws like smoke. This was certainly odd, she’d never experienced this before. Scanning around she took a few steps back and almost instantly sound came back to her; the sound of her faster breathing, the clicking of her feet against the floor. “What…?” She mumbled before looking forwards into the darkness. There was nothing marking out the different nature but her curiosity was flaring up, the lights returning to her hands. It was time to delve into the silence and see what was causing it.
It didn’t take too long to find another that stood within it. The little lights of their sounds burst in the distance, small 'Tick’s, 'Tack’s and 'Shhffff’s that faded almost instantly. There were many though and she quietened herself, crouching down and crawling forwards to get a better look at what was causing the noises. Standing there, barely moving, was a tall creature, almost twice the height of Moodswing. It looked hooded and cloaked although it was entirely lined in dark blue, the rest was black, making it seem almost like a skeleton of a cloak. Poking out of the hood was a long, hound-like snout and that was definitely skeletal, nothing soft about it. Fingers like twigs reaching out from a fold of the cloak and were holding something that glowed a gleaming green, a long rod that it was tapping and tacking against the wall that existed just before it, each touch leaving a small green mark and a flash of a word, a noise, as it fluttered away from the touch of the rod against the wall. It stopped a few moments later and the creature of dark blue leaned in, staring at the wall for a few moments before a long, 'siiiiigh’, left it. 'Another attempt… Never so pretty… I hope I done well enough…’ The words appeared around the thing’s head, as though written in the air by the quickest pen and then wiped away just as fast, no trace of them left. She couldn’t tell but Moodswing got the distinct impression this creature was male and she stepped closer before letting out a soft…
'Hello…’
The tall, hooded figure turned and looked directly at her, the light of the word briefly illuminated his face, long, dog-like, all bone with sharp, glass-like eyes and forward curving horns of black glass framing the top of his skull. In a way, Moodswing thought he looked utterly terrifying and her light started to fade, this was a terrible idea and she was soon about to run until she realised that the other creature had already backed up and hunkered lower, watching her closely, the sounds around its mouth a rapid series of 'pant, pant, pant’s. Was it scared of her? She stopped herself and stepped forwards and the other one stepped back, his cloak letting out a few dark blue 'shff’s as it shifted against the floor. 'I… I’m sorry for scaring you. I didn’t mean to! I won’t hurt you.’ She tried to tell the other being and he paused, looking at her, scanning the words that flared up around her head, a sweet buttercup yellow that dissolved into sparkles. They seemed to ease him and he stood up, walking closer to her and looking down, the hand holding the green rod disappearing into his robe and returning empty.
'I get scared easily, I do apologise. My name is Fear, what is yours?’ He asked her, holding out a long, clawed hand, all the little bones outlined in dark blue, looking as though they were connected by nothing at all.
'Moodswing… My name is Moodswing. What is going on here?’ The smaller creature asked, taking his hand and giving it a small shake, her other gesturing to the words around her that turned to a dark green as she spoke.
'No noise can be made around me, only colour. It’s part of who I am and I’m sorry for that. I don’t have much colour myself you see so I need to make it… I’m getting better…’ His words started amber and swiftly grew into a dark blue as he spoke, gesturing towards the wall. Moodswing turned and looked at it, noticing all of the markings scrawled along the wall, crude pictures of many things in many different colours. She could recognise some of them, lights and creatures that she had seen before on her travels. Reaching up she touched the wall, a brighter burst of colour illuminating what she couldn’t see, showing the dozens, no, hundreds of other pictures that were coating the walls, some at the absolute extent that Fear should have been able to reach.
'You must have been here for so long… Is this all you’ve been doing, drawing?’ She queried, the green of her words pulsing softly into a light blue as she turned back to look at him.
'Some of us are born with skill, some of us must learn it. I want to ensure that I am amazing before I go. After all, I am not just doing this for myself… I have a purpose to this…’ He trailed off, his words staying a dark blue and he hung his head for a moment before looking at her. 'I get each traveler I meet to draw me a picture so that I can see their skill and so that they can understand why I do this… Would you like to draw a picture for me, Moodswing? It can be anything you can think of, no matter how terrible, I will enjoy it.’ He told her.
The small creature thought about it and slowly her light returned to her, flaring through her body and she nodded. 'I would love to, it sounds like fun! I’ve never really tried to draw anything before but I want to try!’ Her words flared a bright yellow and Fear nodded a few times, little yellow 'Heh, heh, heh’s fluttering from his mouth.
'Then hold out your hand, little Moodswing. I will give you a piece of chalk to let you draw on these walls. Did you know, if you mark them they stay forever until the mark is removed? They only stop existing when we have no proof of them. Fascinating, isn’t it?’ His colours, those of his words, lightened as he spoke, soft sparkles of yellow visible through them. Moodswing smiled and held out her hand towards Fear. The taller, hooded beast reached into the darkness of his robes and a small series of 'clink’s flitted out from under it. When he withdrew his hand, the rod he held this time was bright yellow; chalk, she recalled him calling it. 'This chalk is very special and you will see why… And why I do this…’
He reached out and put the chalk in her hand, closing her fingers over it and removing his own hands. The moment he did she had a flash through her mind; another creature, this one a gleaming, beautiful sunshine yellow. It danced through fields of green, small chubby legs hopping it forwards, a serpent-like tail with a ball of fluff on the end helping it to keep balance as it leaped around, searching for new and exciting things with the small claws on its arms, a mane of fluff around its neck and brilliant, large eyes scanning around. The image faded quickly and she looked down to the chalk… It was the same colour. This chalk was the last remnant of that creature and she looked up into Fear’s eyes. The words he spoke were the deepest blue, almost impossible to see.
'A joy… Wonderful little things, always so happy. Sometimes they don’t understand danger. I find their chalk the least, few want to attack something so precious. I make sure to draw them when I can, I want to honour their memory… All of their memories…’ He looked back across the wall and then nodded before gesturing towards it. 'Draw, Moodswing, let me see what memory you want to preserve.’
Moodswing didn’t really have anything to say in return to that and she looked towards the wall. It took a few moments of thinking before she started to draw. The little 'tick’s and 'tack’s of her chalk were joined soon after by Fear as he focused on his own drawings, leaning in close to make sure that he could see what he was drawing. The chalk he held was bright pink and it finalised her idea. It took a while, a lot longer than it took Fear to do even three of his own cruder drawings but eventually she stepped back and gently tugged on the larger creature’s cloak.
Fear paused and looked to her before looking to the wall. He stepped closer and reached up, pressing the tips of his fingers next to the drawing. A pair of Joys, sitting together, one resting on the other, eyes closed as the other gazed upwards towards a series of yellow sparkles. The detail was fine, down to the fluff around their necks. It was many minutes before Fear spoke and his words were a stunning rose pink, flecked with dark blue. 'It’s beautiful, Moodswing… You have true talent. That much I can see. This would honour that Joy’s memory, I am more than certain of it. Take that piece with you on your travels and if you find others… Well… You don’t need to listen to an old fool like me, but please draw a little picture for each of them? Just in case I cannot finish my work.’ He told her, reaching out and resting his hand atop her head, gently ruffling the fur there.
'I’ll… I’ll do my best, Fear, okay? Or if anything, I’ll leave them in a little pouch for you to find so you can continue your work.’ She smiled up to him, her words yellow.
'Thank you, little Moodswing. I’ll be at this forever but in a way, I don’t really mind, if I must leave my mark on only these walls then I shall. Now run along, I don’t want to keep you forever, you’ll find new friends, new memories. Whatever you leave your mark on this place after all… It stays forever.’ He nodded and chuckled again. Moodswing nodded and ran off, the lights returning to her, flaring up inside her body as her happiness came back. She might go and visit Fear again, see how his drawings were getting along. As she ran and finally broke free of the other side of the silence, all of the noises coming back to her, she remembered one thing in particular; when Fear handed her the chalk, there were clinks from inside the robes, the sound of chalk on chalk, each stick a representation of an emotion that had died and he would draw a perfect memory of, each one causing a flash of their memory in one’s mind… Each clink a being, much like herself…
…And there had been hundreds of them.

Artistic Science

The Colour of Whispers