Chapter 5: The Land of Souls
The next thing I knew was that I was already in another unfamiliar place. I found myself lying against a bunch of hay. I pushed myself to sit and scanned the place with my eyes. It was dark and gloomy, even worse than the impression I had when I saw the ruined dungeon. It looked like a ravaged and abandoned land. Even the scent of the place badly stank. There were plowed parts with dead crops; others being feasted over by flies which were twice as big as their original size.
I stood up and shook off the dirt. My head immediately pulsed when I stood up. Then I started recalling the green witch and the dark hole that swallowed me up and brought me here.
"Ligian! Oh, I'm glad you're safe." A little voice said.
I turned around and saw Twinkle Bell! How glad I was to know that Twinkle didn't disappear!
"Twinkle! I'm glad you're here. What is this place? What are we going to do now?"
"Well, seems like we're in one of the weirdest places in Forestierre."
"What? I mean, there's not even one place in Forestierre that's normal so far."
"This is the Land of Souls, if I'm not mistaken. This is where the spirits go after death."
I shivered after hearing what Twinkle had just said. If we were at the Land of Souls, then there might be ghosts roaming around!
"Hey, I know what you're thinking, missy. Don't worry, they're not scary you know?"
"Let's just find the way out, alright?"
"Um... well I think it's the well located in a certain jungle. But, let's just move. Let's decide which way to go afterwards." Twinkle said.
"What? Are you saying that you're not sure about this?" was my anxious question.
"Yea- not exactly... but we'll see alright? Don't be so pessimistic there."
I didn't really want to rely on Twinkle Bell. In fact, he seemed like he wasn't sure about anything. But as my guardian, and the only companion that I had at that moment, what else could I have possibly done?
We walked until we reached a long, deep river. The darkness of the place made us blind of the river's real color. Everything appeared in two shades only--black and gray. From there we saw three boats.
"What? There are such things in the land of spirits?" I asked.
"Yes. That gondola is where new spirits ride to go to where the judge is."
"Ah! Now that I think about it... yes! That is a gondola! I saw it from one of the books in the library before." I said.
"Yeah, and you didn't tell me, huh? Anyway, let's get on that boat."
I was really shocked. But Twinkle had just said that it was for the delivery of new spirits to the judge. So did he mean that we're going to see the judge?
"What? Why? We're still alive, yes?" I asked anxiously.
"Yes, of course! We just have to go to the Jungle of Souls."
"What is that place? How would the gondolier know that we're going there? And is that really possible?" I asked.
"Just tell the gondolier the name of the place. And oh, don't breathe. Breathing is a sign of life. We'd just be brought to the lake of fire once he finds out that you're alive. Well since you can't do that for such a long period of time, you'll just have to breathe when the gondolier isn't looking around. You see, he mustn't see you breathing." Twinkle explained.
