#black sugi

[the-nightmare-chronicles]

Black Sugar - Nightmare World - Part IV

Black Sugar - The call of the wilderness is a connected story. The correct order is in the masterlist in my pinned post

It had attacked them. It hadn’t even needed to chase Fina — she had practically run straight into its claws. Princess had turned and run, but the creature had leapt over her in a single bound and struck her head with its claw‑armed paw. After that, it had gone after Sugar. Now it had knocked all three of them down — yet it didn’t eat them. Thoughts, questions, images, speculations drifted through Princess’s mind. It hurt, and she could barely grasp any of them. Predators killed to eat. Why else go through the effort? Why else spend the energy to chase and catch prey? Did the thing hunt for fun? Was it driven by the pure joy of killing? The way Princess’s father had enjoyed tyrannizing his herd? But the monster had none of Freedom’s self‑righteous, sadistic nature. It didn’t seem pleased. It didn’t seem to feel anything at all. But then why did it kill? That is not its purpose. It wasn’t a thought — more like a feeling. Princess didn’t know how she knew, but somewhere deep inside she sensed that this creature had been created for one purpose only: to torment. Its sole function was to spread terror and fear. That was the meaning of its existence. Not survival — just torment, without gain. Because that was its task. She shouldn’t think so much. Thinking hurt. She should use the strength she had left. She should get up and run before the beast changed its mind for the first time and decided to kill her after all. But her body felt so far away. Princess felt as if she were somewhere else entirely. She no longer felt the body that lay paralyzed in the sand. Her mind wandered restlessly, searching, questioning, philosophizing. Why did this thing exist? Where were they? Why had her mother run straight into the monster’s arms? Only the headache remained. The creature made no sound as it left them. It simply turned around and walked away. Princess didn’t follow it with her eyes. She felt strangely numb. Her thoughts drifted on, but her emotions had fallen silent. She wasn’t relieved that the creature was gone. She wasn’t afraid it might return. She didn’t worry about her mother or Sugar, who weren’t moving. She didn’t fear dying here. Inside, she felt strangely empty. The headache grew worse. Princess felt it pushing her out of the present, bit by bit. I’m going to lose consciousness after all, she noted calmly. It didn’t scare her. Nothing scared her. Scared… the sand… gray… the sky… Sugar... Fina… thinking… thoughts… Princess’s thoughts slipped away from her, and then the world went dark.

Chapter 12 will be published on 22 August 2026

[the-nightmare-chronicles]

Black Sugar - Nightmare World - Part II

Black Sugar - The call of the wilderness is a connected story. The correct order is in the masterlist in my pinned post

“Dude, chill! I’m fine!” “Don’t call me dude!” “Yeah, okay, okay. But I’m really fine.” Chill. Sometimes Fina simply couldn’t make sense of her daughter. Sure, foals couldn’t judge danger properly yet — but no fear at all? That was dangerous. Fina limited herself to an irritated flick of her tail. She didn’t want to argue now. This was not the place for it. And Princess had pointed out something Fina hadn’t thought about yet. How had they gotten here? “Well, I fell and…” Sugar seemed to search for words. “Yeah, no idea, I just ended up in the sand.” Fina eyed him skeptically. “And how did you end up next to me? I just kept running until the ground turned into sand, and then suddenly you were beside me again.” “No clue. None of this makes no sense at all.” …makes no sense at all. Poetic masterpiece, Sugar. But he was right. It didn’t make sense. “And— khh, khh, khh — what do we do now?” Princess’s cough still hadn’t improved. “Find a way out,” Fina decided. “If you can get in, you can get out again. And maybe we’ll even find some water,” she added, glancing at her coughing daughter. And so they set off. They didn’t really have a destination, so they simply walked in the first direction that seemed reasonable. Fina didn’t believe they would magically end up back in the forest. But none of them could think of anything better than walking. For horses, that made sense. They could worry about what this place was, or how they had gotten here, once they were safe. At home. If home still existed.

Sugar felt increasingly uneasy. At first, their sudden… change of location had unsettled him surprisingly little. Since his escape from the slaughter, he had seen so many new and terrifying things; this bleak desert simply hadn’t surprised him anymore. Now it was different. There was nothing edible here, no water, and no sign of a way out. None of them knew how they were supposed to escape this place. They would die of thirst. As if the desert had heard Sugar’s thoughts, the sand around their hooves began to stir. It curled upward in drifting clouds, even though there was no wind, and laid a diffuse veil over the world. Fine as dust, the grains crept into Sugar’s nostrils. His throat felt like a dried‑out, cracked riverbed. He needed water. Desperately. But instead, more sand came, clogging his throat. As if someone had stuffed sandpaper — or the entire earth itself — down his windpipe. Sugar had to cough. At this rate, dying of thirst would happen faster than expected. “We should get out of here,” Fina gasped through the swirling gray haze. Get out was an understatement. Sugar would have preferred to run to the next universe. Away from this cursed desert with its non‑air. Away from this disgusting gray sand. Just run. That had always worked before. But running had brought him here in the first place. If they had just gone deeper into the forest when the dragon spotted them… it could never have followed them through the trees. If they hadn’t stormed into the heath, maybe they would never have ended up here. Maybe running wasn’t the solution to every problem. Right now, it would only increase their need for water. No — running was not a good idea at the moment. Sugar took a deep breath. He almost expected more sand, but instead clear air flowed into his lungs. Still strangely non‑airy, but at least no warm sand stuck to his bronchi. Even his vision began to clear. The windless sandstorm faded. Even the dryness in his throat eased. As if rain had finally come and brought the riverbed back to life. And that, even though he still hadn’t drunk anything. Maybe the non‑air had regenerative properties. Breathing freely again, they continued walking. What else could they have done? There had to be something in this desert. Anything. Some trivial little thing they could use as a clue for… whatever.

Part III

[the-nightmare-chronicles]

Black Sugar - Nightmare World - Part III

Black Sugar - The call of the wilderness is a connected story. The correct order is in the masterlist in my pinned post

The relief didn’t last long. At first, it was barely noticeable. Above them stretched an empty, pale‑gray sky. Even though no sun was visible, the desert lay in an ashen twilight. But the farther they walked, the darker it became. The sky remained unchanged — gray like sun‑bleached granite. But somehow… the light was fading. Not like dusk; it felt as if something were sucking the light away. As if someone had held a vacuum cleaner over the desert. Or as if the light were being diluted, like syrup in water. Sugar stopped abruptly when something appeared in front of them. It simply manifested out of nothing. Its body seemed made of pure darkness. It was nothing but wavering tendrils swirling around a pitch‑black core. The desert darkened even further, as if the mere presence of the thing pushed the light away. Sugar, Princess, and Fina stood frozen as the thing began to change shape. The black mass sprouted legs and a long neck until it looked like a monstrous ghost‑horse. The black tendrils wrapped around its body. They wove themselves into chains, grew into spikes, sharpened into thorns. Like a spiked suit of armor. It had — once again — no smell. It was more like a phenomenon, a shadow, a bogeyman. A nightmare made real, unfinished and spectral. The shadow‑horse threw its head back, its chains cracking through the air and the sand. Like ash, the sand was hurled upward and rained down on them in a grainy shower. The thing was physical. It could hurt them. That was the starting signal. Calm and reason were all well and good, but now — now was the time to run. Sugar, Fina, and Princess bolted, and the shadow‑horse charged after them. Sugar heard its heavy steps behind him. It sounded like an approaching thunderstorm. He tried to move his legs faster, but with every gallop he seemed to sink deeper into the sand. He tore his hooves free, hurled himself forward, yanked his legs upward. Again and again. The rumbling behind him grew closer. Sugar stretched his body as far as he could. His forelegs dug into the sand. He yanked his hind legs up. At first he had only sunk to his fetlocks, but now the sand reached his chest. He heaved himself up, forward, up again, forward, up, forward — like in water that was far too deep. Only that the sand fell endlessly, felt heavier. Behind him the shadow‑horse thundered, and Sugar was certain he was going to die of fear. Just fall over and be done with it. Beside him, one of the chains slammed into the ground. Gray sand sprayed into Sugar’s face. Shit, shit! Behind him something cracked like a stiff joint. Then something appeared in the corner of his vision. It was blurry, but it was dark — and it was growing. It grew larger and larger. Sugar wasn’t running anymore; he was only flailing. He had to get away, but the sand was so deep, so heavy. It held him fast. Sugar fought. Forward — he had to get forward, damn it! He had to get out of here. The sand reached up to his flanks. Sugar pulled, but he couldn’t free his legs from the gray mass. Away, damn it! Away! Black metal, forged from darkness, slammed against Sugar’s head. There was a crack. Sugar’s vision blurred. His field of view tilted and spun sideways. For a moment, a bright, roaring pain flared in his skull — then everything went black.

Princess’s head was pounding. She felt paralyzed. Only her mind was still active. It wandered restlessly while Princess watched the scene with a strange indifference. The beast had struck her, dragging one of its claws across her head. Princess had seen stars and collapsed. Her body felt numb and foreign, yet her eyes did not close. She lay half‑dazed in the sand, watching the monstrosity that prowled between her, Sugar, and her mother. It didn’t eat them. It had simply grown out of the ground, as if lifted upward on a platform beneath the sand. A large, hideous beast. It resembled the mutated bear that had attacked her — but it was bigger. Much bigger, with matted, shaggy fur and a huge maw full of massive teeth. It looked like something torn straight from a nightmare.

Part IV

[the-nightmare-chronicles]

Black Sugar - Nightmare World - Part I

Black Sugar - The call of the wilderness is a connected story. The correct order is in the masterlist in my pinned post

Your imagination paints bogeymen. They frighten you. But deep inside, you know they’re only bogeymen. They can’t hurt you. But what do you do when the ghosts become real? When they can hurt you? What do you do in a world where your fears are real? Run away? But where to? Where do you run in a world made only of terror? Or do you fight? Against the fear, against the ghosts? To one day find happiness again. But until then, you have to fight. Fight to avoid dying like all the others before you.

Fina didn’t know what had happened. She had run. She had seen the dragon and she had run. Her mind had shut down, and her thoughts seemed trapped in a dark, narrow tunnel. Always along that one straight path. Farther, faster. Always running. She had barely registered what was happening around her. The ground in front of her — that had been important, that her brain had processed. So she wouldn’t stumble. That had been important. At some point, Sugar and Princess had disappeared. Fina hadn’t understood it while fleeing, but now she remembered. Sugar had fallen behind her at some point, and then he was gone. Princess had been to her left — and then she wasn’t. Fina didn’t know where they had gone. She didn’t really know anything anymore. She had run, kept running, endlessly running. The ground had changed beneath her — stone and heather had turned into sand. Gray, warm sand. But she hadn’t understood that at first. She had only run. At some point she had stopped. Her instinct told her the dragon was gone. Sugar had been lying beside her, his chest and head buried in the sand. A faint voice somewhere in the back of Fina’s mind had wondered how he could be next to her when he had fallen behind. She had seen Princess a few meters away, and for a moment everything else had vanished. Fina had rushed to her, and for a moment she had felt nothing but relief. Relief that her daughter was still alive. But now the relief slowly faded, and for the first time Fina truly began to take in her surroundings. It felt as if lightning had struck her. They were standing in a desert. Or at least, this was what Fina imagined a desert to look like. Gentle hills of sand stretched all the way to the horizon. Fine, gray sand, speckled with tiny black dots. Like ash. And it was silent. No wind, no crunching sand, no animals. It wasn’t like the silence before a storm. The world wasn’t trying to make no sound — there simply were no sounds. The only noises reaching Fina’s ears were the ones Sugar, Princess, and she herself produced. Nothing else. Fina thought she could smell the grainy, slightly earthy scent of sand in her nose — but when she sniffed more carefully… there was nothing. Her brain was inventing the smell, but in this wasteland there was nothing. No trace of other animals, no plants, the air didn’t even smell sterile. It simply smelled like nothing. The sand in which Fina’s hooves sank was warm. That was the only tangible sensation in this place. The air, on the other hand, was again… nothing. It was neither warm nor cold. Fina didn’t feel any wind either. It sounded absurd, but she believed she couldn’t even feel the air pressure. If someone had asked her to describe it, she wouldn’t have known what to say. She could breathe, but the air didn’t feel like air. It was simply a nothingness, an empty space. A vacuum. “How did you even— khh — get here?” Princess still sounded as if her vocal cords were made of sandpaper. Hopefully that wouldn’t leave any damage. “What do you mean?” Sugar asked. He sounded surprisingly calm, considering their situation. “Well, the dragon dragged me here…” “The dragon did what?” For a moment, Fina thought her heart stopped. Then it continued beating — painfully, pounding hard.

Part II

[the-nightmare-chronicles]

Black Sugar - Vulture - Part VI

Black Sugar - The call of the wilderness is a connected story. The correct order is in the masterlist in my pinned post

“Oh my God, Princess!” It was her mother’s voice. Princess heard hoofbeats, muffled by the sand. A strange crunching sound. She saw two shapes above her and felt her mother’s breath as she sniffed her anxiously. “Are you alright?” “Khh, khh, khh.” Speaking wasn’t happening yet. “Princess? What’s wrong with you?” “Just… khh… swallowed… khh.” Princess thought she might suffocate as she forced those two words out. Speaking was even harder than breathing. Her joints slowly began to ache, so Princess laboriously pulled her legs beneath herself. She almost toppled forward as she pushed herself up, but somehow she managed to get back onto all four hooves. Luckily, she wasn’t injured. The sand seemed to have cushioned her fall well. Speaking of sand… For the first time since her crash landing, Princess looked around. At first, she didn’t understand what she was seeing. The dragon, the flight, the fall — it had all been too much. And it had happened so fast. Her mind was still foggy, and she simply couldn’t grasp what she was looking at. Inside her head, everything was swirling, and at the same time there was a yawning emptiness. One single thought seeped through the chaos into her consciousness: Now I know why there’s so much sand here. The realization made her feel small. Small and afraid. At home, in the forest and the heath, the ground was rocky. There was no sand there. But here, there was sand. Because they weren’t home.

Chapter 11

[the-nightmare-chronicles]

Black Sugar - Vulture - Part V

Black Sugar - The call of the wilderness is a connected story. The correct order is in the masterlist in my pinned post

Sugar’s instinct had taken over. It crushed his reason, broke through the paralysis. And it screamed only one word: Run! And Sugar ran.

Princess had never run this fast in her life. Wolves, bears, pumas, mutants — nothing had ever driven her like this. But now, now she ran. As fast as she could. Her thoughts had stopped the moment she saw the creature. Inside her head, everything had gone silent. Now she ran. Out. Into the open. She didn’t think it — she knew it. Horses fled into the wide open. They ran. She knew that. And so she did what her centuries‑old instinct told her to do. The dragon had stopped droning, but now the wind roared in Princess’s ears. Faster, farther, away, faster! Was that a flap above the rushing wind? Didn’t matter — farther, faster, farther! Princess ran, blind and deaf to everything, driven by an ancient instinct. Her chest began to cramp. It felt tight, squeezed shut. No — she had to breathe! She needed air! Air! Princess fought back. She forced the air into her lungs. She needed it! If necessary, by force. But her ribs met resistance. A barrier. Like a warm, thick grid. For a moment, Princess wondered. Then the air was forgotten. Her hoof had stepped into emptiness. There was no ground beneath her leg. She was going to fall! Princess tipped forward. She fell! God, she was falling… away from the ground. She fell higher and higher. Further and further into the air! Her other legs lifted off, she was floating. She would escape the dragon! She would just fly away. Fly… Since when could horses fly? Warm, bony fingers holding her. Long claws pressing into her belly. The stench of carrion and that flap, flap, flap. Oh shit, oh shit, shit, shit, SHIT! The dragon had her. It held her in its claws — and it was flying! With her! She had to get away! It would eat her! She had to get away! Away, away, away! Princess thrashed. She struggled. She fought. Away, away, away! She would break her neck on impact. But it didn’t matter — just away! Princess writhed. She threw her head around and twisted her upper body. Tried to free herself from that warm grip. It was warm with life. And yet so dead. The world began to spin. Faster and faster, more frantic every second. Princess fought even harder. And the world spun even harder. Princess fought. And the world spun. It spun and spun and spun. And Princess hit the ground. She rolled, she tumbled over herself. She swallowed sand. She came to a stop. She coughed. Breathe! She couldn’t breathe! She was going to suffocate! More coughing. Air! She needed air! And suddenly it came. The air. It rushed through Princess’s throat, into her lungs. It was rough like sandpaper, but it was air! She could breathe! And Princess breathed. She lay there and— Wait. She was lying? Yes, she was lying. On her belly. Slowly, the world stopped spinning and Princess’s thoughts returned. It had all happened so fast. The dragon had grabbed her. It had lifted her into the air and flown with her. She had tried to break free, she had writhed. And then the world had begun to spin. Or was it just her head? The dragon must have dropped her again. Maybe she had struggled too much. Or she had been too heavy. Or… it had wanted to bring her here. That would explain why it was nowhere to be found now. Princess had crashed to the ground. Onto sand. She had tumbled and swallowed sand. That explained the sandpaper feeling in her throat. But sand? There was no sand here. The ground here was rocky.

Part VI

[the-nightmare-chronicles]

Black Sugar - Vulture - Part IV

Black Sugar - The call of the wilderness is a connected story. The correct order is in the masterlist in my pinned post

Flap, flap, flap. Any moment now it would appear between the treetops. It would dive through the pine branches toward them. It would grab them, and then it would tear them apart with its sharp beak. Rip them to pieces until nothing of them was left. Flap, flap, flap. “That’s not a vulture,” Sugar whispered. He didn’t even need to try to whisper — the fear was choking his throat shut. No one was surprised. They had all known it wasn’t a vulture. It was simply too big, too wrong to be a bird. But it had been such a comforting excuse. It had kept the fear small. The droning started again. God, Sugar hated that sound! It seemed to squeeze his already too‑small chest even tighter and sent pain through his skull. His eyes felt as if they were bulging from their sockets, the noise was so loud this time. So piercing. The trees began to sway again. Branches crashed against each other, needles rained down, and cold snow slapped against Sugar’s neck. He barely felt it. Could his eyeballs really fall out of their sockets? It felt as if his eyes were being pushed out of his skull. Overwhelmed by a mad, suffocating fear, Sugar squeezed his eyes shut. He felt like a foal. If I close my eyes, the monster can’t eat me. His instinct screamed at him to lift his eyelids again, to look, and to run, run, run! But Sugar forced the panic down. His instincts weren’t made for something like this. They were useless here. Please go away! Please go away! Please, please, please! The droning stopped. Just as suddenly as last time. When his eyes finally stopped feeling as if they were about to roll out of their sockets, Sugar cautiously opened his lids again. For a moment, the white landscape was painfully bright, and Sugar wanted nothing more than to close his eyes again. But they had to keep moving. There was no other choice, was there? They couldn’t stay here — the urge to flee was too strong. A soft pattering sounded as more needles fell around their hooves. With a wet slurp, more snow slid from the branches above them. Strange — Sugar no longer felt any vibration in the ground. So why were the branches still shaking…? All three of them had the same thought and looked up. What they saw made Sugar forget everything. His fear, the tightness in his chest, his stiff legs — all of it vanished. He could only stand there and stare. It was perched on one of the thick branches, and it was no vulture. It wasn’t a bird at all. It was… Blue. It was twisted, scaly, and blue. Incredibly long claws. Two crumpled legs. A thin, hairless body. Bones jutting out. Two skinny, leathery wings in baby blue. It looked almost absurdly childish. Except for the yellowish spikes along the wings. They looked like… fingernails. A narrow torso. A long, spiny neck. An absurdly small head. A crest of pus‑yellow spikes. Tiny, black bead‑eyes. A massive horned beak. And those eyes… Sugar had never seen anything so uncanny. Those eyes radiated something. Something terrible. This creature was evil to its core. The creature looked ridiculous, with its absurd colors and wrong proportions. It looked like a bad joke of nature. But its gaze made it clear that it wasn’t one. The creature — the dragon — opened its mouth. A disgusting stench of death, decay, carrion flooded into Sugar’s nose. Inside the mouth lay a thick, blood‑red tongue. It writhed and vibrated as the droning began again. It came from its mouth. It was its voice! Sugar wanted to stay still. He wanted to scream. He wanted to die. But his body decided for him.

Part V

[the-nightmare-chronicles]

Black Sugar - Vulture - Part III

Black Sugar - The call of the wilderness is a connected story. The correct order is in the masterlist in my pinned post

Tense, she lifted her eyes and ears upward. Sugar and Princess did the same. And so they all saw the dark shadow gliding slowly over the branches. It was enormous. The trees looked small beside this gigantic monstrosity that drifted over the forest — slowly, almost majestically. It made no sound now. Had it not produced the droning earlier at all? Or had it created that sound with vocal cords? Did it have a language? Through the fir’s branches, Fina couldn’t see what it was. But it was gaunt and twisted. Bony, spiky, gristly. And it had enormous wings, covered in skin so thin she could see the gray sky shimmering through them. And it stank. The smell of rotting flesh and sweet decay followed it. Like a vulture. Or as if it were carrion itself — decaying, suffocating, and yet not dead. The creature was almost too much for Fina’s nerves. The sounds, the appearance, the smell… it was all too much. Too many sensations, too many contradictions. How could something be loud and silent, majestic and hideous, graceful and reeking all at once? It was so unnatural, so wrong. The creature didn’t notice them. Maybe it didn’t even look down. It flew on, straight toward the heart of the forest. “Slow,” Fina whispered once she guessed the shadow was out of earshot. “Very slow. Stay under the trees at all times.” Her instinct was screaming by now. It wanted her to run. Out of the forest, into the open plains. There they were fast, there they could escape. But whatever was circling in the sky wasn’t a bear, wasn’t a puma, and wasn’t a wolf. This was something else. Something her ancient instincts had no answer for. All she had left was her mind. “Mama, what is that?” Princess asked quietly as they followed the edge of the forest, keeping as much distance as possible from the creature. Fina saw the fear, the panic, the terror in her eyes. And she saw how Princess fought it back — forced it down inside herself so she wouldn’t lose control. Fina hadn’t known her daughter could be so grown, so strong. “A vulture, sweetheart,” Fina answered, deliberately calm. “Just a big vulture.” They all knew it was a lie.

Flap, flap, flap. The sound still echoed in Sugar’s ears. His chest felt too tight for his lungs. His legs felt like stiff sticks. The fear was unbearable. And even worse was holding it back — not bolting blindly. His stiff legs probably wouldn’t carry him anyway. Flap, flap, flap. Dear God, walking had suddenly become so hard. His legs seemed to grow stiffer and stiffer. They would give out. He would fall, and the vulture would take him. Flap, flap, flap. He wanted to run. He wanted to stand still. He wanted to scream. He wanted to disappear. None of it made sense, but fear didn’t have to make sense. Flap, flap, flap. These weren’t the right thoughts. And yet Sugar couldn’t stop them. He searched desperately for a thought to hold on to. But everything slipped away from him. Like water. Flap, flap, flap. For a moment, Sugar no longer knew where his legs were. They didn’t belong to him anymore. They were just two sticks someone had shoved underneath him. Flap, flap, flap. Were the intervals getting shorter? Was it coming closer? No — the flapping was only the echo of his memories. Flap, flap, flap. Or maybe not… “I think it’s coming closer,” Princess whispered. Fina lifted her head and turned her ears in every direction. Then she stepped sideways, blocking Sugar and Princess from moving forward. Pressed tightly together, they stood beneath the snow‑laden branches of a pine. Flap, flap, flap. No, he wasn’t imagining it. Flap, flap, flap.

Part IV