Memory Lane

12. The tribe

12. The tribe

After a walk through the forests, Fred and his associates were forced to scale a large stem to the top. In the canopy lay a large complex of interconnected treehouses lined with bridges and ropes, teeming with more Neurons. The stems all blossomed out skyward to form a matted dense subsection that blocked out sunlight. Silhouette had the chance to escape, but he had a duty to help Fred and decided to be taken prisoner with him rather than flee. The largest tree house long the branches of the canopy was the final stop for the convoy, with the prisoners looking around to gathering Neurons until their leader emerged from his homestead. Out from a door of bush reeds came another Neuron with two red stripes under his blue eyes and a small crown made of stem bark.

"silence!!. I am the chief of the Neuron tribe before you. Where have you come from?" the decorated Neuron spoke to the prisoners.

"we're sorry for intruding, but we just want to find a way out of here" Fred pleaded.

"head over the canopy until it ends on the plains, there you shall leave" the chief held out a limb for direction.

"really?... thanks very much, your excellency... but we'd best be off now..." Fred hesitated and got up but was barred from exiting by the spears of the smaller Neurons.

"the great storm will come soon. If you survive, then you may leave" the chief continued.

"are you kidding me?" Anima shrugged.

"show them to the trunks" the chief ordered his guards to herd off the prisoners. They were sent back down to the stem trunks, each tied up to an individual trunk by braces of glowing blue energy. The rest of the Neuron tribe watched from the safety of the canopy in anticipation of the coming storm. The brainstorms of the Stem Forests usually rumbled along the ground in the form of an electric lightning fog coupled with violent winds.

"fifteen minutes, and I already hate you" Anima looked over to Fred on the opposite trunk.

"this isn't as bad as he made it out to be" Fred replied, happy they had not been killed yet.

"how can you even tie down a shadow anyways?" Silhouette was left on another trunk with no braces until he pointed this fact out. Soon, several neuron spears rained down from the canopy, hitting the shadow in his arms and legs.

"that'll do...also OW!!" Silhouette yelped as he was finally restrained.

"I was just trying to get away from someone, but where am I now?. Stuck with two idiots who didn't bother to ask for directions" Anima complained while struggling to break free from her braces. The wind on the forest floor picked up, a lowly fog filled the air moving with the wind, and lightning soon followed, snapping at the stem trunks while the Neurons ran for cover. Anima managed to break free and tried to keep herself on the trunk for as long as possible.

"quick, help me out of these!!" Fred shouted to Anima, who jumped over to the next trunk against the wind and helped break Fred out of his braces. On the forest floor, Ego was still searching for Anima in the middle of the brainstorm.

"where did she go?!" Ego tried to look straight ahead while lightning stuck around him, and rain poured from the canopy. He found himself blown off course as the rain finally ceased and the storm showed signs of letting up. The fog began to dissipate, and the lightning ceased, with Fred, Anima and Silhouette still alive while the residue of the brainstorm descended to the forest floor and melted away. By the end of it, Ego could hear screams and unfamiliar voices that made him follow their sounds through the forest.

"is it over?!" Silhouette looked up to find Anima ripping the spears out of his limbs.

"you have passed the test, strange ones. You may now leave" the chief appeared in front of his tribe in the canopy and called down.

"well, what do you know?. Still not dead. We make a great team" Fred perked up.

"they left rather sharpish" Anima looked up to find the tribe had vanished back into their high-rise dwellings. She then felt something grab her tightly by the leg.

"got you!!" Ego held out his gripping hand with the other holding onto the stem trunk below.

"Anima!!!" Silhouette rushed over, but Ego shot out a blinding blue light from his eyes, keeping the shadow at bay. Ego then tried to bring Anima down from the stem, but instead received a surprise kick off from Fred who leaped between the trunks and sent the villain flying down to a heavy thud.

"I was right. You really are here" Ego held onto his aching body and looked up to see Fred next to Anima. Fred looked down into Ego's blue eyes as he ran off into the forest.

"thanks for helping out. Where were you guys going again?" Anima appreciated the other's company and proceeded to climb another stem to a more uninhabited part of the canopy.

"I may have said it before, but we were heading to the Frontal Barrier" Fred responded while climbing another nearby stem.

"fancy that. I was heading back up to. Things should have died down now, so I guess I should be going" Anima poked her body through the top of the Stem Forests to see a mid-afternoon blue sun on the horizon and lush rolling turquoise plains surrounding the living labyrinth.

"wait. We could really use your help" Fred stopped Anima from jumping off the edge of the Stem Forests to the plains.

"the Frontal Barrier you say?. At this rate, you're going to need all the help you can get" Anima was intrigued.

"I'll take that as a yes. The more, the merrier" Fred accepted.