The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Magic Returns
by Kim Richards

The ground rumbled though it was no earthquake. The sound came from magic gathering beneath the surface of the Earth. For centuries it swirled and flowed deep below within rivers of magma. Now it answered a call…a summons from the dying world above. The surface world cried out for help.

The magic found crevices with its white-hot fingers and turned them into pathways. It pulsed and moved along them as if they were blood vessels and magic rivulets of blood.

Upon reaching the top, air cooled them into yellow tendrils which spread out across the ground, weaving their way among the grasses and over the rocks. Overhead the skies were grey. Pollution and smoke blotted out the sun and stars. Everything stunk of dry decay and now with an overtone of ozone.

The magic gathered in special places. Nodes of power from ages past. Many were marked by trees, standing alone in the fields or forests. As it came together and fed through the roots, the trunks were set ablaze. Smokeless fires climbed and consumed the limbs, often forming into faces of terrible creatures with fangs and claws.

The Earth cried out for help and Magic understood there must be a cleansing. With a thunderous clap it challenged the destroyers and lifted its lighting sword to the sky. In that instant, the beasts were loosed upon the world to devour the flesh of mankind.

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Fiction © Copyright Kim Richards
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com