Lifelike

1.

The evening breeze blew calmly. Each tree in the forest swayed towards the direction the wind was blowing. The gloomy clouds in the sky had already begun gathering. Two boys lay on the soft grass, each facing the opposite direction as the other.

Suddenly, a loud roar was heard from a far distance which made the boys jolt up.

They looked at each other in fright as the taller one stood up.

"What was that sound? Where are we? How did we get here?" The second, who was still on the floor asked as he panicked whilst looking around. His head felt hazy and he couldn't recollect how he and his twin brother had gotten there.

"Quiet down Alex, whatever made that sound will hear you and maybe come here," the taller one said as he scratched his head and started walking towards a tree.

"Hey, Alan! Where are you going?" Alex said and stood up quickly to follow his brother.

"Whenever you're in a forest, it's safer to be in the trees, so the wild animals won't get you, you're the nerd and yet you don't know that?" Alan said as he shook his head. He had already reached the base of the tree by then.

Alex, feeling insulted, kept quiet as he stood beside his brother.

Alan knelt down and cupped his hands so that he could give his brother a boost but Alex, still mad at his brother for his statement snubbed the kind gesture and started clawing his way up the tree.

"I'd start climbing if I were you," he said and grabbed hold of another branch.

Alan chuckled. "For a short dude, you have a huge temper," he said as he too began climbing.

No sooner had they began climbing than the rains started pouring.

After securing comfortable spits for themselves in between the tree's branches, they tried to think how they had come here.

"I don't remember anything before hearing the roar," Alan said.

"Me neither, I find this strange, this can't be normal, we have to get to the bottom of this," Alex said as he adjusted some leaves above him so as to stop the raindrops from reaching him.

"This is just crazy, like we are in a forest, a freaking forest with trees and everything," Alan said. He was frustrated as he couldn't fully cover himself with leaves and so the raindrops washed down from the tree top to him.

The sun set quickly and the moon was observed from the opposite distance.

"So we are going to sleep on a tree?! What in the world is this?" Alan continued grumbling as his clothes soaked in more water.

"Quiet down, I'm trying to sleep," Alex said as he adjusted the leaf pillow he was resting his head on.

Alan took a good look at Alex. In the short while they had spent on the tree, Alex had folded some leaves together to make a leafy pillow, he used three branches of the tree to ensure he was in a fixed angle and could not roll.

"What the?! How did you do all that just now?" Alan asked dumbfounded.

"Well, I'm nerd enough to do so," Alex replied smugly.

"Pfft, showoff," Alan said as he sat up, resting his back on the tree and eventually falling asleep.

A few hours later, Alan woke up to the sound of birds chirping all around them.

"Ah, so loud," Alan shouted as he sat up and looked around. Alex wasn't in the place where he had been the previous night. Alan gasped. "Surely, Alex had not fallen down," he thought.