But she knew she still had to deal with her odd condition, with the strange sights and visions she would be subjected to during those moments of carelessness when the sun would catch her off-guard. She understood that no one fully understood the Obelisks and that they may not have anything to do with her situation. It still meant she had to make sure.
She managed to convince Ember that she had to go on this expedition on her own. That as much as she was grateful for his support, it was something she had to face on her own.
The obelisk loomed before her in the nightscape, a knot forming in her stomach from anxiety. She felt Ember's supportive, protective presence beside her and Sun-Cursed looked up to smile at him. She thanked him for escorting her to the obelisk, despite how late it must be for him. After some last-minute cuddles to strengthen her resolve, Sun-Cursed strode forward, towards the mysterious structure.
She glanced back, "I will be back as soon as I can. I shouldn't be longer than two weeks." She didn't know enough to give a more specific estimate of time, but she quickly ran back to him to press her forehead against his, murmuring "I'll be thinking about you and your strength and warmth."
Before she finally went inside.
----
The in-between was nothing she had ever expected. She thought it would be similar to the Endless Forest. But in here, everything was... diminished in a way. She couldn't see very far despite her halo's glow and the darkness felt so vast and large. She drew a deep breath of the scentless air and started to walk along the path.
Something invisible that brushes up against their flank.
Sun-Cursed let out a startled yelp, almost hopping off the path. She glanced to where the sensation came from but saw nothing. At first. Then from the corner of her eye she thought she caught movement. She turned again, feeling her heart race in fear. She called out to ask who it was or what they wanted but all that came out was hardly a whisper.
She didn't want to stay too long in one spot, with great effort she refocused her attention to the path, strangling a gasp of horror that her hooves had come so close to stepping off the trail. She side-stepped back into the center and continued on, eyes trained at the landscape ahead.
A hideous row of dead trees, each pulsing with a heartbeat.
The darkness was still deep and ever-present. Sun-Cursed didn't know how long she was walking but she took comfort in the muted sounds of her hooves against the ground. Her hoof-steps slowly started to gain a rhythm and she was fine to continue as is until her ear picked up something else.
She paused in her tracks and the air was filled with the thrum of hearts beating. When did it happen? When did the formerly empty landscape of the in-between become filled with these hideous dead trees? How could they be making those sounds? She folded her ears against her head, trying to drown out the rhythm and ignore the pulsing sensation in the air.
It proved futile. She could still hear it right inside her head. So she pretended it was Ember's heartbeat. The thought of her love calmed her down and she could keep moving.
A shape, constantly in flux, that floats beside them as they walk.
The trees remained but were thankfully silent. From the corner of her eye she saw something slip from the cracks of a dead trunk, slithering through the air to settle beside her. She picked up her pace but whatever this was, it could keep up with her with ease.
Of all the attempts to waylay Sun-Cursed from her path, this was the worst. Whatever this thing following her was, it seemed to know too much about her. Sometimes the form resembled an acha, a specific acha who would cuddle and invade her personal space without a thought. The only thing this shape didn't do was touch her.
Then it would shift and take on a kimeti buck, a specific buck that made Sun-Cursed bare her teeth and her halo flare in anger. "No! You do not get to take his shape! How dare you!" She turned away with a low growl, a rare outward display of displeasure. There were few things that made her angry enough to show it. And having some thing pretend to be Smoldering Ember to try and trick her off the path was one of them.
But sooner than she expected, she was out of the obelisk and found herself in the desert night.