2Authors Note: There are no chapters, only sections as I upload them here is the prologue, not really needed, but still how the narrator ended up in the mysterious world./ppThis is a nearly completed Novella – I'll try to upload a new chapter every 3-4 days (no guarantee) If you like the story or wish to follow it please review and/or add the story to your favorites (even those who are not registered can review a story!) I love feedback, I will return the review./ppThis is an experimental text, written from the 1st person point of view of a blindfolded character. He travels a mysterious wild world with only his imagination and the words of others to guide him with his four other senses.
The sky is on fire, the sky is on fire.. FIRE! Oh no! I only have ten minutes to live, ten minutes to go on with my life, ten minutes to progress to an alternate reality. It seemed impossible, unforeseeable—I couldn't do it, but no, I must—there is only one way to commence—it's to kill the Holy Treedom.
Yes, I said it kill the Holy Treedom, don't ask why he must die, it's a certain misfortune, but he needs death and death is what he shall get. Now, moving onto planning—yes, I have to plan. And the plan is… first I'll sneak into his forest (cause oddly he lives in a forest) and bribe one of the guards to let me sneak into his bedchamber. Then I'll fall to sleep, yes, sleep mwhahaha! Once asleep in his chamber I'll be able to infiltrate his dreams and tear him up, I'll be able to destroy him from his own mind! But let's remember the sky is on fire now, and I've only got eight more minutes to live.
So, here I go, the guard, he was sleeping—which was quite odd for such a dire situation, but atlas—not my problem, it's just one less fair I have to pay. I slipped easily into the forest, the large trees towered miles into the sky. They were so tall I was unable to see the tops, matter of fact I was unable to see even the leaves of the trees. Only God would know how massive the leaves must be. And with looking at the fallen remains they were massive.
Okay. I've moved into the bedchamber, it's a hidden place somewhere in the middle of the forest inside one of the largest of trees. His chamber is actually fairly small, but it still seems reasonable for he is a fairly small tree. Once I was inside I quickly rushed into his bed, a large bark-covered bed of mush and rot. It was nasty, and I only have a few minutes to fall asleep in his tough bed and move into the alternate reality to save myself. But how the hell was I going to sleep in a bed of bark? It seemed impossible.
Then I realized, there was only one way. I had to knock myself out. I had to punch myself in the face till I fainted, and thus I commenced…. The first whack was unbearably painful, but I continued I hit again, and again—I was once told it was impossible to knock yourself out—but I'll prove those bastards otherwise! Mhaha! Whack! Whack! Whack! My darn hand is holding me back, I must keep trying—whack! Whack! I'll get it sooner or later! Whack!
Crash.
Dreams.
Everything around me got hot, I felt at peace as the heat from above melted down into the tree hideout I was peacefully in. I had no problems with this peace; it was the most enjoyable sleep ever. Then I saw a light, a strange light, it must be the gateway to the other reality, I must have made it—I must have gotten there in time, but there was no way I could tell, I had to move towards it. I had to get to the light, closer, closer, closer I moved—I was almost there I was almost in it and—BLACKNESS.
Light.
Light, it was everywhere, blinding me—I lost where I was. Did I make it? I feel I ran out of time, I couldn't have made it—it was impossible, I never got to kill the Holy Treedom in his dreams like planned. I observed my surroundings, everything slowly came into focus. Fire burned in the distance. I ignored the fire, it wasn't hot—I couldn't feel the heat.
Closer to me, I smelled fresh grinded wood, I looked down, bark—then I felt it on my flesh. The wood stuck to my sweaty neck and crispy clothing. Crispy clothing? I noticed chunks of my shirt missing—burned away by the fire now in the distance. I looked at my burned shirt and noticed it wasn't just my shirt that was burned, my skin was too. Black—my flesh was black, why couldn't I feel it? Why could I feel the bark pressed against my face but I couldn't feel the black flesh below it?
What happened? Did the world end? Did I make it to the next world? Maybe I was damaged, maybe that's what the black was—damage? I made it part way through. What was burning? My eyes drifted away from my black skin, my fingers were afraid to touch it—incase my skin might suddenly realize its burned and spread pain through my body. The walls. The walls were burning. The walls were made of wood. Walls of wood? Circular walls. There is only one place I know off that has circular walls of wood that extend as large of this one. The Holy Treedom's fort! I was still in his tree. The fire, it must be the end of the world; the sky must have fallen when I knocked myself out. The massive tree protected me from the inferno of death!
I had to regain my grounds, I had lived, somehow. I looked down at my body once more. Daringly, I moved my fingers towards the black flesh on my stomach and hip. I touch it—like melted wax the hot flesh stuck to my fingers. My fingers burned—the black flesh burned and stuck like napalm on my fingers I watched as the flesh on my fingers was torn away and dripped away like candle wax. Pain—indescribable pain—a dream. This must be a dream. I had to wake up I had to!
I rushed for one of the burning walls of the tree, into the fire—that ought to wake me up. That ought to stop this nightmare. As I drew closer to the burning tree I felt the heat from the fire. Several large chunks of the interior of the tree fell from far above crashing onto the bark bed I woke up from moments before. I was only a few feet from the burning wall, I could feel the fire, I could see the sparks raging off it—it started to hurt my skin, even the molten black wax that was once my chest—it hurt, hurt from the fire. The very bones of my fingers I could feel crack from the heat.
I started having second thoughts. I started to pull away, it was too hot—it would hurt too much, I couldn't throw myself into the fire. But there was no other way. Several more chunks of the internal burning tree fell. It was jump into the wall of fire and die or die as the tree fell in on itself. This was certainly not the situation I planned on being in. I thought I was above getting caught in a no way out situation.
The fire wall it is. I closed my eyes. I backed up till I couldn't feel much of the heat radiating out of the burning wall. Three… two… one… I ran. My body was engulfed in the heat, but just for a second—then it was cool again. I was out, outside of the tree. I turned around, the massive tree I was in moments ago was on fire. I spun a circle, the trees around it were on fire—the entire forest was on fire. My abdomen suddenly cramped up. In an instinctive reaction my hand went for the cramp, pushing deep into the molten black flesh on my stomach. My fingers stung, my head burned, the cramp worsened, and my face hit the warm dirt.