He stood in a forest. Shrubs and ferns crowded his ankles, making him appear to be sinking into the shadow-striped foliage. The barest hint of green could be seen—all else was black, every tree a not-quite-straight pillar shooting up into the dark canopy of leaves. A bluish-violet light seeped through the cracks of the forest, trickling between each pillar to give the greenery an eerie, icy glow. He shivered and tried to move. To find more light before the twilight hour could end. But his feet were stuck. Or rather he was moving, but the ground was too, keeping pace with him, moving opposite. Spinning. Keeping him there amongst the pitch-black trees. Something whooshed past his face, causing his hair to blow wildly in the sudden breeze. He twisted around, looked over his shoulder. A gold-feathered songbird flitted to a tree branch. Sat for a moment. Then pushed off the branch and darted deeper into the trees.
More sounds in front of him. Creaking. Groaning. He turned back around. The trees were distorting, bending and twisting together, creating slivers for the twilight between some trees and bright gaps between others. Knobby shapes bulged out the sides of each black tree, some growing, others disappearing as soon as they appeared. He watched the forest shift around him, change then straighten, then blur and change again. The twilight darkened. The shadows lengthened. The bulges in the trees from a distance seemed almost humanoid at a glance. He did a double take, an icy coldness creeping up his spine. One of them wasn't a bulge. One of them was real: a figure, barely moving, half hidden behind a tree. It remained unnaturally still, its slowly swiveling head the only part of it that moved. Its head twisted left, toward him, revealing two glowing green eyes. The eyes scanned back and forth, up and around. Searching. Hunting.
Then the head snapped back to the left. Its eyes fixated on him, wide and unblinking. And it stared. And stared. And stared.
He couldn't move. Couldn't speak. The coldness had enveloped him and his entire body trembled. He closed his eyes, waiting for the forest to change. For the bulges to disappear and take the green-eyed figure with it. He opened his eyes and there was the creature. Piercing green eyes an inch from his own, black, featureless body looming over him.
It opened its mouth wide and grinned.
YOU ARE READING
Flight (new version)
FantasyPart I of the Land of Green and Gold Trilogy The war between humans and Elder has ended in the disappearance of magic and the enslavement of those who once wielded it. Years later, a young spriggan named Max toils for his master, the olden days of m...
