Curious

            Glowing a rainbow hue from within the palms of translucent crystalline statues was the flame of a candle that danced with glittering sparks of magic. Each was cradled protectively within the center of their chest, their faces downturned towards it in silence as the human part of them focused in concentration. Whereas the animal part seemed poised and ready to attack. In the place where their legs and feet should be were instead the lower halves of beasts, each one different from the last as they stood in a circle surrounded by radiant moonflowers. From right to left there were five in total, ranging from that of an eagle, a spider, a rabbit, a wolf, and an octopus.

Why they were there, the people of the grove did not know. All they knew was that the statues were there, and always had been. It was something that just was. And anyone who visited Crale knew of the statues presence, as well as how the flames of their candles never went out. No storm could shatter the magic of these mysterious figures. Nor earthquake or attack.

So one morning, when the flames had gone out.... A panic like no other had spread not only through Crale, but through the surrounding towns around it as well. It had left everyone fearful of what was to come, because if someone was so powerful to destroy something that not even the elements could then surely they would be next. But that moment never came. Years passed by within the blink of an eye, and all had remained the same. The only difference was that the magic was gone. The flames of the candles no longer danced. Nor could the wicks be lit. Vines that were thick with thorns cracked at the quartz till it bled an eerie crimson that was mistaken for sap, and the moonflowers shriveled into dust at the cracked earth of the once flourishing circle. Limbs of the statues fell from their entrapment. Breaking from age when for a millennia they had stood in silence, when now they creaked and groaned from the wind. Birds made nests in their crowns. Webs decorated their palms and chipped faces. And a feeling of death clung to the air. Those that noticed attributed it to the circles decayed state. Thinking nothing more of it and moving on about their day.

All but one that is.

One who had been watching since the moment they could walk.

And wondering what truly was going on.

Robin had always been... curious, his mother would say. While his father called him too curious for his own good. Their small family lived far from their homeland, their relatives were not near enough for them to see often. So as a young child he had often been alone. And while most in their Crale did not mind when the children went out to play and have their adventures, the surrounding forest and mountain being relatively safe, they did not like them going to the grove that much either. Or frankly... at all. It was forbidden. In an unspoken sense. While most had stopped believing in its magic and wonder years ago. There was still an ominous air about the place that left one feeling like they were intruding           on the dead rather than a relic from a time long past. Having no other family too watch him as both his parents worked, however, Robin took it upon himself even when the other children wouldn’t, to explore the decaying ruins.

While others feared the worse. He had no fear at all. The statues, while silent, were his friends. His companions. And Robin talked to them like a child was one to do with a doll. Perhaps, at some point in time, within his young mind he had at one point in time seen them as such. But as it was, as he grew into the man that he now was he saw them more of a mystery. As something that he wanted to find the answer to. An equation for him to solve as he continued to sit among their crystalline forms every day when he found the time. Sometimes he would tell them about his day. Others he would contemplate their mysteries and jot down the changes that he had found along their frames within a journal that was worn from age and use. And others, he would simply sit and contemplate life.

As an adult, Robin had grown to be what most parents would hope for their child. He was relatively handsome, made a decent living from the book shop that had once been his fathers before he retired to spend his days in the home working with his wife and Robin’s mother with her knitting business, and had a somewhat decent social life despite his ‘odd’ tendencies that tended to make the least brave of them avoid him like the plague. But – to him at least – this normal day to day life didn’t feel... real. Didn’t feel like it was enough. Felt foreign in a way that he couldn’t explain. It sometimes felt like he was living the life of somebody else and that he was just operating the meat suit while the other person’s soul did whatever it was that they were doing in the unknown. Like he wasn’t supposed to be here. Or at the least, be someone else that he wasn’t.

It was these thoughts that kept him coming back to the statues. Kept him attached to the grove as he wondered about the things that could have been if he had done what he had at one point in time planned to do.

But, thus was life.

Dreams were dreams and nothing else.

And when it was time to grow up, you had to leave silly dreams of wonder and adventure behind. At least, that’s what he repeated to himself as day in and day out he continued the monotony of his parents hopes and wishes for his ‘normal’ life. Though, it was times like now, as he sat before what felt like an altar before Gods, that he wanted more. That he thought back to those times when he would look at these relics with wonder for the future.

If there was truly magic, he thought to himself, then it would have appeared here a long time ago.

Rain began to pelt against him from above, the droplets were heavy and chilly as they splattered against his skin. It was the summer, so the reprieve from the heat was welcome as he allowed himself to grow soaked from the clouds above before regrettably standing back up and bidding his inanimate companions a farewell for the night. It was as he turned away, however, that the rain stopped. The world freezing for a split second as a sound that rolled louder than thunder and as sharp as an arrow whistling through the wind pierced his ears. And as he stood there. Rooted to his spot in the center of the grove. The candles that had not been lit for years suddenly ignited. Their flame was beautiful, vibrant, and terrifying in their ferocity. The cackling embers glittering with an ethereal magic as the popped and grew to heights that would be deadly if they were to spark on the ground this close to the tree line. And finally, with a cracking rumble from the ground below the earth shook and split into five directions. Each leading the base of a statue.

Hypnotized by the events happening around him, Robin simply stood and stared. His feet rooted to his place in the center of the grove as if he was paralyzed and not simply in awe as he watched the cracks begin to glow just as the flames seemed to travel from their resting places atop the candles wicks to the ground below and dip into the broken earth. It filled him with horror, dread, and fascination all at the same time that he was the one to witness this. And as the animal representation clawed its way from the clutches of the dirt and flames to stand in front of its statuesque counterpart, he could only silently look in abstract wonder.

That is, until the beasts strode towards him. Their frames far taller than the beings that they represented in reality, and their bodies glowing an eerie crystalline hue as they descended upon him at once. Robin didn’t even have time to scream as one by one a part of his body was ripped from him and separated into five pieces. The creatures having tore him into five pieces and killing him before he could even contemplate the nightmare that had befallen him.

With Robins blood staining the center of the grove, the creatures slunk back to their positions at the base of the statues. Their pieces of flesh caught between their maws as they each placed their morsel within the flames of the candles before descending back within the cracks of the earth from whence they came.

             It was as if nothing had happened. And as the rain washed away the blood from the statues frames and earth below them, no one noticed a thing as the next day the candles were miraculously lit and stayed that way for many days to come. Of course they all wondered what had happened to Robin. The curious man that ran his father’s old book store within the villages center. But as his mother had always said, he was a curious boy, and thus a curious man.

His father being the only one to look at the statues with sadness and horror as he continued to argue that he was too curious for his own good.