World of Wonder

Chapter 1

"So I really don't have a say in this!?"

I was arguing with my father. He was the leader of an army and thought that arranging a marriage between me and some daughter of another army was a good idea.

"Son this will work in both our favors! You get a wife and I get a bigger army! You best prepare yourself, she will be here by the end of the month."

There was no use in fighting with him. He was as stubborn as I was and so I swung my backpack over my shoulder and left without another word.

As I walked through the base, all I saw were soldiers scrambling to try and impress the leaders son. Saluting and avoiding eye contact was all I saw, as well as many rushing towards the doors. Most were scared of me, partly because of my father, but mainly because of my known temper. I've been known to cause scenes around the base if something upsets me or bothers me, so a lot of the soldiers avoid me to keep out of trouble. Babies I tell ya, every one of them.

Once I was out of the main building, there was nothing to do. I wasn't one to really stick around the base for long, but I also didn't know much people on the outside so I went into the forest just to get away from everyone.

Once I was far enough to barley here anything, I sat down under a tree and placed my backpack in front of me. It had rained the night before so it was muddy but that was the least of my worry's. I had a few books to keep me  busy, but they're all about running an army and dumb shit I don't really care about. Yeah running an army sounds cool, but my father was the one in control as of now, I could care less. I can't do anything until he retires of something.

None the less, I opened the book and started to read, and by read I am stare at the page while I drift off into thought. As I started to think, my eyelids felt heavy and I found it hard to stay wake. I tried to blink it off, but something glowing caught my eye. I set my book down and slowly got up from where I was. Leaving my things behind, I look behind a tree and saw a purple heart shaped thing sticking out of a bush along with almost identical thorns moving from side to side. It was glowing a bright purple and was honestly starting to irritate my eyes.

Out of curiosity, I reached out and grabbed a hold of it, the black tail like thing attached to it felt like leather. Almost as soon as I grabbed it, it was pulled out of my grab and disappeared into a bush. I pulled my arm back, but then reached out again now with both hands and opened up the bush. I couldn't see what was attached to the heart shaped thing, but I was able to catch the sight of the glowing dust like fog it was leaving. Without thinking, I followed its trail and didn't realize how deep in the forest I was until there was no noise coming from the base at all, and instead was replaced by animals and the sound of leaf's rustling against the wind.

I followed the trail, running so that I could see what was making it. I made a sharp turn behind a tree and saw it just as it went down a hole. I run up to it and only saw the heart shaped thing dimly as it went farther in. I looked around in confusion, this area wasn't familiar to me and seemed out of place from the rest of the forest. It was a pretty spaced out clearing with only a single tree.  The tree that the hole was up against looked dead. It wasn't even a tree at this point as it was just the bone of it with no leaf's. I knocked on the wood, hollow. It was only now that I realized there were no animals to be heard. The wind was still and no leaf's made a sound. It was quiet, unsettling, to say the least. I glanced back at the hole and decided to head back.

I started walking back the way I came from, I don't think I took that many turns so getting back should be fairly easy. When the environment started to look familiar, I though I was getting closer to the tree I started at, but it was still unsettlingly quiet. When I turned behind a tree, I expected to see my things under a tree, but I instead saw the same dead looking tree standing in front of me. The fuck.

I went straight across from the area I came from and took different turns but somehow managed to end right back at the tree. At this point I was getting frustrated and honestly kind of hungry.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" My shouts echoed through the trees. I continued through the trees and kept shouting for anyone, but the silence was far louder than my echoing shouts. I heard something move straight ahead of me, and I ran towards it thinking maybe a soldier had found me, but I only ended right back at the tree.

Out of frustration, I started yelling.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? HOW THE HELL DO I KEEP ENding.. up here?" Although my anger was built up, I was able to catch something off. There was no echo.

"Hello?"

Nothing.

Alright, I have no idea what's going on here, but I need to get out of here. I turned to the hole again, got on my knees and carefully crept up to peak inside. When I looked down, it was dark. But a clearly visible dim light was at the very bottom. It was just a small dot, but it was very noticeable. I leaned in closer to get a more clear image of what it was. I put my hands against the trunk of the tree and hovered over the hole. I leaned down just a little more when my knee slipped on a bit of mud, the weight shift threw me off balance, my other knee trembled and my hands sled down, causing me to fall head first down the hole.