Image Prompt #6

The artwork used is “Custapor, Gatekeeper to Nirvana” by Logan Feliciano, found here: https://i.imgur.com/D71aDkh.jpg

“To be honest,” I said as I tried not to stare at the Gatekeeper’s beast, “I didn’t think I’d make it this far.”

The Gatekeeper folded her wings neatly as she dismounted from her beast. The large animal kept staring at me, its ears twitching as if it were eager to just swallow me whole.

“And yet you have succeeded,” said the Gatekeeper.

She paused and looked me over.

“You could not have made it here on your own; you are too weak, too frail. Where is your party?” she asked.

The pang in my heart that had settled down when I saw the gates of Nirvana in the distance now returned at full force.

“Dead,” I managed, “picked off one by one by the creatures in the wastelands of Darktree.”

She squinted at me.

“How did you make it the rest of the way, once your last companion was gone?”

I held up my hand and summoned a small, blue light. She didn’t seem very impressed.

“Magic?” she said, “Any fool can be born with the ability to-“

“Not born,” I said, “I learned it.”

Now her eyebrows raised; she sheathed her dagger and looked at me carefully.

“There’s never been any record of someone learning magic,” she said, “how do I know you’re not lying?”

I held up my hands.

“Check my wrists, my arms – no markings.”

She made a noise of disapproval, then yanked the sleeves of my tunic down and looked my arms over. When she saw that there were no markings on my arms, wrists, or hands, she stepped back.

“Why have you come here?” she asked.

Her beast looked at me, its eyes wide with curiosity; I supposed that was better than it wanting to eat me.

“Nirvana is the only city that has books on magic,” I said, “I need them. No one born with the abilities can teach me; they always say it’s a matter of instinct, but I don’t have that. I need to learn more.”

She shook her head.

“Why are you really here?” she asked.

I extinguished the light from my hand, and reached into the inside pocket of my tunic. I pulled out the scrap of metal and showed it to her.

“I need to find the men who wear armbands made from this metal,” I said, “they destroyed my village, and they’ve destroyed many more.”

She nodded, then glanced at her beast. She snapped her fingers, and the creature made a low growling noise in its throat as it approached me.

Every instinct in me told me to run, but I managed to stand firm and look the beast in the eyes. It snorted, and I felt its hot breath on my skin. I looked at the Gatekeeper as she climbed atop the beast’s back.

“He likes you,” she said with a hint of a smirk.

She offered her hand to me.

“Get on. If what you say is true, then you’ll need more than magic tomes.”

I took her hand and she hoisted me up. The beast rumbled beneath me as we peered over the edge of the cliff that separated the Mainland from the floating city of Nirvana. The Gatekeeper’s own wings stretched out in the breeze. Although I was sitting behind her, she seemed to sense my fear.

She chuckled.

“Don’t look down,” she said.

She snapped her fingers again, and the beast leaped from the cliff. I clung to it for dear life, certain that it couldn’t possibly make this jump –

until with a great noise like rushing wind, the beast unfurled massive feathered wings of its own.

I felt all my breath knocked out of me as we soared. And it wasn’t until we arrived at the gates of the city itself that I’d gotten it back again.

This prompt was found on the subreddit r/writingprompts here: https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/gnaq58/ip_the_gatekeeper/