by Lee Magnus
She left with the sound of a locking door. For the first time, Trey felt hopeless. He couldn’t see any way he could escape this room.
Trey walked to where Simon was and said, ”Simon? You still here?”
“I thought she would never leave. That was smart of you – your ambiguity is appreciated.”
Simon crawled from the grates of the vent then grew to his former size.
“They won’t let me leave.”
“I know. I have found a way out.”
“Really?”
“Indeed.”
Trey placed a hand on Simons shell then said looking through the grate, “I’m much too big to fit through there. We’ll have to find another way.”
The room, to Trey’s disoriented mind, instantly grew many times its original size. “What’s happening!” he screamed.
Then a semblance of normality remained – but not quite.
“Get on my back. We have to be quick while we have time.”
Still in shock, Trey climbed onto Simon’s ridged back, then through the vent they proceeded.
Trey regained some awareness and asked, “What did you do? Did you shrink me?”
“Yes.”
“Awesome!” he exclaimed with a raised fist.
The ventilation system was dark and breezy. Light shone periodically through grates along the metal shaft. After slowly navigating for a short while, they overheard a heated discussion. Simon stopped to listen.
“…but the boy may be part of it. We have to help if we can,” said the voice of Madam Charise.
“She literally just said she wouldn’t help,” Trey said quietly to Simon.
“I heard.”
“No. We can’t be involved. We have to protect our kind. Humans are of no concern to us,” said Toman.
“This is beyond race and worlds even. If Khaitu is released, we will all suffer just like the old books describe.”
“We don’t even know if this human child is the one or even if the prophecy is true. It doesn’t mean anything that he has the sword. He said so himself. He got it from someone else. Maybe the other guy is the one.”
“Perhaps. I suppose it is possible he’s here by mistake. Nevertheless, we cannot let him go. We must know more in order to proceed.”
“Yes. I’m glad we can agree on that.”
“We must move faster,” said Simon.
“What were they talking about? Prophecy? Who do they think I am?”
“I don’t know. Let’s just keep going.”
Trey didn’t like the uneasiness in Simon’s thoughts and suspected he wasn’t being forthcoming.
They passed several vent openings stopping at each to look.
They came upon another, “This is it,” Simon said.
They crawled into the empty room, then approached a wall with a window slightly cracked open.
Simon grew them to normal size. Trey couldn’t budge the window.
Simon said, “We’ll have to shrink again. How’s your grip? Think you can hold on all the way up?”
“My grip is pretty good, but can’t you just make me small while you grow taller to lift me up to the ledge?”
“No. You can only grow and shrink with me.”
“Oh. Okay. Then my grip will have to be good enough.”
“Climb on my back, grasp the front of my shell and hold on tightly.”
“Okay,” Trey said unsteadily as they shrunk to the size of a roach.
They began the treacherous ascent.
“This isn’t so bad,” Trey said about a third of the way up as he dangled from the bug’s ridged shell.
Simon continued to climb higher and higher. While only a few feet from the ground, at this size it was more like a hundred to Trey.
“My fingers are getting pretty tired now.”
“We’re about halfway.”
Higher and higher. Trey began to doubt his ability to hold on. He wriggled his fingers individually to release tension. He tried to relieve the pressure with his feet but found no grip.
Anxiously he said, “I’m really having a hard time. My fingers feel like they’ll break off any minute now.”
“Not much farther.”
It was as if he were sixty stories high – about two football fields. His pinkies were no longer able to grasp the shell. His grip slowly faltered. Blinding pain clouded his judgement. He tried to pull himself up, but his right hand slipped off leaving him dangling by four fingers.
“Trey! Stop moving! Hold on we’re almost there!”
His grip slipped to the middle knuckle.
“I’m slipping Simon!”
“Just a few more inches!” Simon pushed his many legs to their limits as he hoisted the dangling boy up the vertical obstacle.
Inches seemed like miles to Trey.
Trey slipped to the last knuckle, barely holding on by the tips of his fingers. Reaching desperately, futilely trying to dig his fingernails into the hard, smooth shell.
Simon apexed the vertical climb just as Trey slipped off falling to the windowsill in a crouching ball, breathing rapidly with eyes wide open, holding aching fingers to his chest.
“Lets – not – ever – do – that – again!” Trey said gasping for air.
“Get up. We must keep moving.”
Trey slowly rose, still clutching his fingers as they climbed out the window onto the outer windowsill.
Trey looked over the side fearfully and said, “There’s no way I can hold on all the way back down.”
Simon ignored the comment and became silent. His antenna wriggled rapidly for several minutes.
“Simon. What are we doing?” Trey said while looking out over a bell tower in the distance.
Simon remained quiet.
“What’s the plan? I can’t go down the way we came up.”
No response.
He looked worriedly at the mostly immobile bug. His antennae seemed to pulse in a slow rhythm.
“Simon?”
Just before everything went black, Trey thought he saw something large descend upon them from behind. He never imagined that he would be eaten by a blue jay that day.
Deception
“AAAAARRRRAAAHHHHHH!” yelled Trey.
He calmed down after a moment, opened his eyes then said, “Where are we?”
“Inside the beak of a bird.”
“What! Why isn’t it eating us?”
“I am in control of her.”
“You mean you’re telling it what to do and where to go?”
“Yes. Now be quiet. It isn’t as easy as it may seem.”
The bird didn’t fly a straight pattern. It ducked and rolled, stopped and started tossing Trey all about. Simon seemed to be unaffected by the violent turbulence. The jarring flight ended when Trey tumbled out of its mouth into a wide meadow. Simon casually crawled onto a giant blade of grass. The bird quickly stooped and turned its head. It eyed him intently then lept into the air. Trey shielded his eyes as it beat its huge wings to disappear into the distance.
Trey laid back amid the large grass. He held his face in his hands and said, “Can I please just go ahead and die! I can’t take much more of this! I’m hungry! I’m tired! I just want to go home!”
“We have to keep moving. We can’t risk getting caught again. Touch my shell.”
“Arrrrggggg!”
Trey touched the shell, returning them to their normal heights.
They spotted Ravenger’s forest which seemed about half as close as when they started. After a while hiking open meadows and thin bushy-treed areas, Trey said, “I’m pretty hungry. I can’t remember the last time I ate. Do you know of anything here that’s safe?”
“Why yes, the bumble berry is very good. The leaves are also tasty. Keep a lookout for a tall bush about your height covered in dark purple berries with tiny white spots. We should find some on the other side of that stream ahead.”
They crossed a clear stream of leaping fish with small wings that hovered above the water f
or just long enough to snap at passing yellow and black flies. Making their way a few more paces down the stream they came upon a group of bushes with purple berries. Simon rose on his back legs, then began moving leaves and berries into his mouth. Watching Simon carefully, he determined the berries were safe. Trey timidly picked a berry. He squished it in his fingers, sniffed it, then touched his tongue to it.
“Not so bad,” he said. “Looks like a blueberry but tastes like a grape.”
He ate several more, mixing in many sweet tasting leaves.
“We must not linger,” said Simon. “Daylight is short.”
Trey gathered many berries and leaves for the trip ahead.
After another twenty minutes of walking, they summited a small hill. A herd of furry brown two-legged animals, each with a pair of large horns, ran together in an adjacent meadow.
“I’m not feeling so well,” said Trey. Are you sure those berries were safe?”
“Of course,” replied Simon.
“But you’re a bug from this place, maybe they affect you differently?” he said groggily.
“You are very smart. They are safe – for me.”
Trey detected a sinister tone in Simon’s telepathy and thought he sensed him say “I’m not a bug,” as darkness overcame him.
The Keeper’s Burrow
Trey awoke feeling the sensation of floating – as if in a dream – lightheaded and dizzy. Confused, he watched trees and colorful flowers pass by.
Are plants mobile here?
“Hey little guy,” he said in a sleepy high-pitched voice to a grasshopper that landed on his chest.
It leaped off onto a passing bush.
“Wakey wakey,” from a voice in his head.
That doesn’t sound like me. Who is that? Did those berries make be insane? Berries.
“The berries! Simon! How long have I been out?”
“About three hours.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“To the burrow as we agreed.”
“Why can’t I move?”
“The berries didn’t sit well with you. It should wear off soon.”
“And you’ve been carrying me all this time?”
“Yes.”
“Uh, thanks, I guess.”
“Where are we?”
“Ravenger’s Forest.”
“It’s beautiful from this viewpoint.” He passed under a brilliantly decorated tree with vividly red and white flowers resembling carnations. Various pink and blue bugs buzzed around the large petals.
“Yes. That is what he would like you to believe.”
“What do you mean?”
“What you see is not real. The forest is a gloomy and dangerous place. Can’t you feel it?”
“Yes. It doesn’t feel right. It’s cold and damp, but I see the sun shining brightly. I can’t feel warmth at all. And the stench. What is that?”
“Death and decay.”
“Who would make such an effort to hide the real forest? And how?”
“The Keeper controls this forest and the magic within.”
An abnormally large butterfly, about the size of a Cardinal with similarly red wings accented by blue tips flew next to them. He certainly did a good job. It looks so real. Trey tried to touch the insect but couldn’t move his arms. It raised up revealing a beautiful yellow colored humanoid female figure.
“Whoa, what’s that?”
It smiled at him with dazzling white teeth as they passed under the forest canopy
“That is a Dandrelierden.”
“A what?”
“A fairy.”
“She’s beautiful,” Trey said hypnotically still looking at the tiny girl. Several more flew in to encircle Trey.
A green one with golden wings that shimmered in the sunlight hugged a blue one with silver sparkling wings. Another yellow one with white and light blue wings rested on Trey’s forehead looking at him at an inverted angle.
“Dandrelierden’s were the occupants of this forest before The Keeper arrived. It looked very much like what it does now but smelled of jasmine and melted caramel. They were astounding keepers of the beauty and life of this land. Not only personally full of love and loveliness but they also shared their magic with anyone worthy who happened to venture into their forest. It was an amazing place to be.”
“You came here before? When they ruled?”
“Yes. Many times. She is Coméllula. I know her well. Always excited about meeting new friends.”
“However, she is not herself today. None of them are.”
Coméllula gave Simon an angry glance before turning back to Trey resuming her precious smile.
“She has been transformed, just like the rest of the light creatures of this forest.”
“Transformed? Into what?”
“Slaves. Slaves to the will of The Keeper. Her job is to distract you from what is coming.”
Coméllula’s smile wavered.
“What do you mean distract me?”
“Just as you are now. Unwary that the forest has shifted.”
“Shifted? What?”
Coméllula’s expression transformed to anger as she shot Simon an evil glance. Her face and body distorted into a grotesque grey form with a crooked long nose and crinkly bent appendages like a zombified mosquito. Darkness exuded from around her tattered black wings. She hissed, then gave Trey an atrocious scowl before flying off into the dark menacing woods. Trey’s eyes widened as his limp body was unable to reflexively move away from the frightening fairy. The others all hissed and scowled at Trey as they left in progression.
“That was so horrifying! I couldn’t get away. I feel helpless. How long will this last?”
“I don’t know.”
“I think you did it on purpose.”
“I think you walk slow.”
“So, you poisoned me? I could have sped up.”
Trey sensed Simon’s rationale wasn’t truthful.
“It didn’t kill you and we made great time.”
“Whatever.”
Trey was angry. He felt Simon was dishonest and manipulative. He feared and needed him at the same time.
After Trey calmed from the terrifying fairy experience he said, “Those poor fairies. They were once so beautiful and happy. I could feel it in her.”
“That is merely what she wanted you to feel.”
“No. It was her. Maybe her former self trying desperately to be free of the curse. The Keeper did this?”
“Yes. He tricked them into sharing their wonderful light magic, just as they always did to those deserving of it. But he is very powerful and hid his true intent. Once they began to share, he trapped them and took it all. He uses the magic to transform this place into the dark and callous prison you now see and feel.”
“I don’t understand. Why go through the trouble recreating the forest as it was?”
“Why would anyone come in here if it looked like it felt?” replied Simon.
“Clearly I’m not catching on. Why would the Keeper disguise a gloomy forest to look like a beautiful forest just so others will come?”
“Food. Trey. The Keeper likes new and interesting food.”
“And we’re going right up to his house?” Trey exclaimed.
“Yes, Trey. That was our arrangement.”
“Our arrangement was to get me to where Grandpa went, not to take me to some magical Keeper that might eat us!”
“Not us, Trey. He doesn’t like – bugs,” he said with contempt. “Besides, the old guy got past the Keeper once, maybe twice. If he can do it, certainly you can too. It shall be very interesting to see what happens.”
“See what happens?” Trey could only express his panic with wide terrified eyes. “You’re not going to help me?”
“Bringing you to the Keeper will build favor for me with him. That could prove very valuable.”
“Arggg! You have got to be kidding me! Wait till I get my legs back!”
Trey immediately shut Simo
n out of his mind as Simon’s many legs carried him to possible doom.
Trey focused intently on moving his fingers.
Nothing. Come on toe! Wiggle!
Nothing.
For nearly an hour, Trey attempted to will every part of his body to move but to no avail. All nonessential muscles remained completely motionless. Only his mind and eyes seemed to be functioning.
Ok Trey. Think. We’re travelling approximately four miles per hour at a 330-degree angle to the sun. The sun was directly behind us when we were on a straight path toward the forest so we must have angled to the left when we hit the forest. Simon said I was out for three hours and another has passed. The hill with the two-legged animals was maybe six miles from the forest. It’s possible Simon moved faster in the open, maybe at five miles per hour. That puts us about thirteen miles into this forest assuming we’ve been on a direct course since entering. So, escaping to the meadow where the bird left us, I would need to travel at 150 degrees to the sun or 180 from our current direction to the edge of the forest then directly away from the sun until I reach the hill, assuming the sun moves in a manner similar to the one on my Earth.
The loose plan made him feel better about his dire predicament. He took a labored breath, then again attempted to move his fingers.
The forest became eerily silent. No grasshoppers, no ladybug dragonflies or scary fairies. Nothing but cold grey dampness surrounded them.
Trey opened his mind, then projected, “Why doesn’t he hide this part of the forest?”
“Once you get this far, there is no escaping. You understand? He already has you by now.”
“He knows we’re here?”
“He’s known we were here since we entered the forest. We’ve been followed the last eight miles. Haven’t you seen?”
“No. How can I see from this position? Oh. You mean in the trees. I haven’t seen anything. Wait. What was that?”
“You haven’t seen because you weren’t looking.”