Entropy

WG| Chapter X: City Made By a God

Markus

Day 4

Tranquility washes over me as I lose sight of that wretched place. I continue walking through the colorful trees with attractive fruits. The fruits shine and some of them have clear juices flowing out of them as if the fruits cannot contain the crazy to be consumed. Fear doesn't exist in these woods. I want to reach the city before total darkness. I have never seen the night sky here before. Is it beautiful? Will it remind me of Earth? Does the star never fully set? It took me minutes to realize the stars orbiting each other. There are two stars here! This planet is brutal to withstand two stars. How though?

I hear a humming noise not so ahead of me with leaves ruffling. I continue without fearing it. It sounds harmless. The one making the noise is a little girl with fox ears and tails. She has long orange-reddish ears and is dressed in a thick furry dress coat. She is picking up fruits and putting them in her little basket.

Her ears twitch. She stops what she is doing and her head peers toward me. She has white whiskers, but her orange eyes are mermadic. Her humming silenced, yet her smile never fades. We lock eyes. She doesn't fear me. She picks a fruit from her basket and offers out the fruit that she just picked from the tree. The fruit has white fur and it's glowing purple. I stare at the fruit, debating whether to accept or politely decline.

"You look like you've been hungry for a while," she speaks in a soft childish voice.

She is right. I starved during my much younger years until Naomi and Phil took me in after I'd gone paralyzed. I am no longer severely malnourished. I am still slightly underweight though. I never ate for days at the haunting place. Appetite was not on my mind. I walk and grab it from the girl's hand. I stare at the fruit out of curiosity and caution. The girl is picking the fruit; she could eat it, but can I consume it?

I take a small bite. The fruit melts against my tongue with sourness and sweetness. My tongue swirls in it as its desire to taste grows. They are grapes, raspberries, and blackberries mixed into one. Gosh, these fruits are exotic but delicious! Purple smoke comes out of my mouth and nose, surprising me. The girl laughs at my shocked expression.

"That's normal," she reassures me with a smile, "You get used to it. Be careful when eating those fruits with the juices leaking out of them because they can be dangerous. Fools like to swallow the small one's whole. Some of them die because they didn't get the fruit out of them in time before they ruptured their intestines. Those things won't stop leaking juices."

I swallow. I can feel the coolness of the juices going down my throat. I wait a moment to see what would happen, but nothing did. Realizing that I am not going to die, I take another bite.

"You aren't from around here," she notes.

"Yes," I admit. My voice is hoarse from the fight earlier.

She looks behind me. Her eyes widen for a second before she asks, "Did you just came from Teketa?"

"The what?"

"The land with the hives and immoral sorcery," she clarifies.

"Maybe," I shrug, "I bust myself out of its walls."

"Did you make sure no one is following you?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"You're lucky," she comments, "Those who have been kidnapped or made foot into those lands were never seen again."

"My-uhh-friends are still trapped. I don't know where in the castle."

"It takes the luck of finding a baby dragon in a cave system to make it out of Netedinark's Teketa unscathed."

"Thanks..." Now I am uncomfortable and my hope is ruined if I had any that I feel.

She shakes her head slightly and sighs, "It never used to be like this."

"What?"

She looks at me confusedly and asks, "You never heard about the history of Verantuvia, our world before?" She doesn't sound like she is ridiculing me.

"No... I am not from this world- I was transferred to this world days ago," I inform her.

"Guess, we will tell you." She smiles.

"What do you mean "we"?

"My father. I am Verdentina," she introduces.

I follow Verdentina out of the forest. The green and blue city that I am sure I'll go to, but it is the village, Ferilocks, north of the city. This is where Verdentina is from. Verdentina doesn't take any transportation other than herself. She tells me she transforms into an animal to go here, but she walks back, feeling the outside under the night sky. It amazes me that this girl can walk alone even with Teketa close to those woods. She guides me to Ferilocks. Ferilocks isn't visible to the naked eye until hours after walking north of the city. Ferilocks are buildings in the mountains. They are high enough to be in the glaciers and snow, but they get a beautiful view of the world.

An aurora sets in the night sky. They are more defining here. It's an emerald luminescent tracing across the orange-kissed sky. If I fly up, I can surely touch it and feel its heart and jewel. All of us look up. It appears gradually out of nowhere. It takes several minutes going up and down hills before we climb up the mountain. I am out of breath while the girl is perfectly fine.

"Are you okay down there?" She asks me while looking down. I am behind.

"I never climbed a tall mountain before," I whine with my voice cracking.

"Can you fly?" Verdentina asks. Reddish orange feathery wings spread out from her back. They have never been there before. Feeling my assets of fire, I call upon my wings. The black draconic wings are now being taken over by an orange-reddish glow that emits flamed sparks that float away from gravity, only to cool down into nothing. It's been a long time since I flew with my control.

We fly higher up the mountain until we see a house. It's possibly a large one-story or a small two-story house strongly set on the sides of the mountain. There are no stairs leading up to the porch. There are wooden fences only at the right and left sides of the deck that welcome flyers. I fly up to the porch of the house with Verdentina. Verdentina enters without knocking before she graciously introduces me: "Dad, I've met a lost boy in the forest."

The dad gets up in his chair. He was resting at the fireplace. The fireplace displays the world's media without setting the living room on fire. I feel its heat and it's comfortable. Her dad's eyes have never directed away from me. His face tightens with scrutiny. Cold sweat and shivers rise up and down my body. My mouth becomes dry. I am on the verge of an anxiety attack again. This world has people that know what I've done before meeting me. Her dad must be one of them.

It took a long time of unsettling stares before he finally eases off.

"Hello," he says without excitement.

"Hello," I reply nervously, "I am Markus... By the looks of it, I see you know my history. My past hasn't been glorious and glam- far from it. I can assure you that I have no evil intentions."

"Yeah," he admits, "I also smell Teketa off of you."

"I was taken there against my will. I escaped with the cost of their lives. I am sure you know of my other powers of manipulation."

"Yes, I do."

"As said to Verdentina, I wasn't followed. None of their slime trails were on me. I am also from a lower world and uneducated about this world. I need to understand it...and also find a place to stay safe...Temporarily."

"I believe you." The cold sweats and shivers stop after hearing him saying that.

"So, can you tell me about your world?" I ask.

"I can," he nods, "I am Forgison. You may want to grab a seat because it's a long road."