Chapter Thirteen: Thaer
NO, NO, NO, NO!! was all that echoed in Julian’s head as they fell, a silent scream etched on his face interrupted by the impact. They did not break the surface with the grace of a diver but instead landed at an awkward, painful angle. Then all was cold and water. Julian had taken some into his lungs – he was going to drown, he was going to drown! And yet his uncle was somehow untangling himself and drifting back up to the surface, his face grim and ghostly under the water. Julian was sure he was leaving him to die.
Then Julian felt a strange sensation, a tingling feeling, and he was being pulled down deeper as if a magnet was drawing him to the very bottom of the lake. Alistaire was getting further above and away. Julian thrashed with all his might, fighting the panic, but the effort was to no avail. He was sinking further and faster and consciousness was slipping away. He was seeing little white lights dancing across his vision, and then he felt suddenly warm. Was death warm?
There was a lurch and just as suddenly, his insides were being pushed upward, tugging his body behind. There should have been pain for what he felt but his mind had no precedence for this kind of sensation and just like that everything switched off.
⚶
The creature felt a sudden vibration – something had entered its domain. It extended its tongue, tasting its surroundings for a hint of the whereabouts of the intruder. If it were capable of speech, it would whoop in celebration. For what it tasted was prey, large prey, larger than had wandered into its domain for a long time. It stirred, setting its many limbs in motion, towards what promised to be a most succulent meal.
⚶
There were sounds, voices coming from far away and he couldn’t make out what they were saying. Was he in limbo? Were they deliberating on whether or not he’d been a good boy and deserved to enter heaven? He thought of all the naughty things he had done in life, there were not very many – surely he’d be given a chance at a wonderful afterlife. But then the voices came nearer, or he nearer to them. He was beginning to see light, little lights like neon. They were green and there was a whitish glow beyond them. They were flashing. He hadn’t thought that much about heaven before now but this seemed strange.
His body fell into spasm in rhythm with the flashing of the lights. Then there was an oozing burning coming from somewhere near his ribs, flowing up to his throat, gurgling. He coughed violently, feeling like he was retching. The green lights scattered. He rolled onto his side, one hand pressed against his abdomen, the other pressed against soft earth. His eyes made out grass and mud. He was coughing and his throat hurt from the tiny explosions, some kind of liquid coming out with each eruption. There was grass and mud; no limbo, no afterlife, no drowning. Miraculously he had made it through the brutal episode and he was more than thankful to be alive.
His coughs finally subsiding, Julian picked up the voices again. Now on his hands and knees, he inclined his head towards them. The voices were tiny and shrill and coming from the little green lights. As his eyes adjusted, they widened in astonishment – the little green flashing lights were actually miniature wings, and what’s more, these miniature wings were attached to miniature people! There were arms, legs, torsos, heads, faces and wings. The bodies were a slightly darker green than the wings and did not flash in that firefly manner but they were just as vibrant. There were about twenty of these miniature people, each about the size of a tube of chap-stick; some standing on the ground, some suspended in mid-air by their beating wings, all chattering animatedly so that their collective voices formed a high-pitched cacophony. After a few moments, Julian picked up distinct words, somewhat warped, but words nonetheless as one voice drowned out the rest.
“Feel betta? Sleepy sleep no more?” the voice inquired.
He could barely believe it. There was a little green man, or maybe a woman, he wasn’t sure, a little green something talking to him in broken, disjointed English. He didn’t answer but turned and shifted onto his lower back propping himself up with his elbows. From that position Julian took his time and looked around. He was on the bank of a river that ran through a forest. His rucksack was not on his person but rested on a tuft of grass a few feet away from him to his left, as did the bow. In front of him, at the water’s edge, were even more of the little green people, some on reeds, others on toadstools. Beyond them were even more, balancing on the surface of the water and causing minute ripples in their wake as they shifted about. Across the water the forest continued.
He looked up. The whitish glow he had seen earlier was actually daylight peeking through overhanging branches from the trees on his side of the river. He turned again to face the little green being that asked if he felt better. It had waited patiently, and the others had fallen silent while Julian collected himself. He took a deep, hungry breath and closed his eyes as he exhaled. His mind was working hard to process the images his eyes and ears had just recorded.
He kept his eyes shut, silently counted to ten, and then reopened. The little green being was now suspended in the air now directly two feet in front of his face; neon wings beating gently from her back. He was sure it was a woman now because of the subtle curvature. He noticed that her eyes took up most of her face and were almost little more than holes through which more green shone, though a bit darker than her body. He couldn’t quite make out her nose as it was indistinct but he saw a thin slit that must have been where her mouth was. He didn’t see any ears, but surmised that there must be a way for her to hear. Finally, there were little wisps that protruded from her head about her shoulders forming something like hair. Taking in the entirety of her features, Julian realized how oddly insubstantial she looked, like her body was made of blended water and light. He had analyzed her appearance to a fine detail before he allowed his mouth to speak what his mind had already concluded by this time.
“I’m in Thaer.”
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