Hello, From the Edge of the World

Chapter Three: "Soldier, Poet, King"

As I came to, I couldn't help but notice how much pain I was in. Man, those a-list actors did a really good job of portraying what it feels like to fall from a high building or a stage. 'I'm looking at you Benedict Cumberbatch' I thought to myself while spitting loamy soil out of my mouth and picking odd-looking, feathery leaves out of my bangs. "Nicole! Where are you?" I shouted, in hopes that she would hear me. "I'm right here, El." She responded weakly and limped over from across the shady glen. She had numerous leaves, sticks, and slime in her hair and on her clothes, almost as if she got stuck in a piece of shrubbery with some kind of sap on it. I groaned and tried to turn myself onto my stomach, in hopes that laying in a different position would ease my bumps and bruises. That didn't last long. I soon found myself face-to-face with a stranger—or maybe a child?—who looked at me with equal surprise. "OI!" he yelled, as we quickly scrambled out from under each other. "Get off of me, Gloamglozer!" The strange child pulled out a knife from his pocket and pointed it at Nicole and I.

As I stood up, I gasped at the scenery around me. It was dense, green, and wooded, and I dare say the air was heavy and cold, yet it seemed to have its own sort of beauty. The branches under me creaked and cracked with groans—and their leaves glowed a soft, sleepy shade of blue—that sounded like a mournful song of old. Bushes and shrubs in shades of green and gold blew beads of white frost into the air that landed on the sides of my cheek. Even the trees themselves seemed to move on their own, and whisper secrets to each other in a language only they could understand. What was real and tangible did not feel real, and each natural object seemed to glitter in this strange, new world.

Frantically, I instinctively grabbed a loose stick from the ground and pointed it back at him. "If you do not mind me asking, where the heck is this place and what in the world is a Gloamglozer? Who are you?" I asked, or more accurately cried out. Nicole quickly nodded, fear-stricken. "How did we even get here, and how are we going to get back? I have to go to my families' house on the weekend, help with Greek week preparations, and write that stupid essay on those useless fantasy books!" She glared at me. "I thought you said that reading trick would be quick and helpful, Elspeth! Thanks to you, we are both stuck in a fantasy land with this small, beady-haired child!" she shrieked. I covered my ears. "Well how was I supposed to know this would happen? Normally when I read aloud to myself, I usually do not get literally sucked into a book, only figuratively!" I argued back.

The stranger now looked very confused and insulted that he had just been called a 'beady-haired child,' by someone who was wearing a loose garb that had an even weirder man with a pink feather boa and tattoo sleeves. "Excuse me? For your information, my name is Twig, and I am a fully-grown adult. Thirteen years old to be exact, and I am more than capable of finding my way back to the right path." Nicole and I just blinked at this 'adult' as he continued to vent. "How do you not know what a Gloamglozer is? He's a hideous, shape-shifting demon who haunts the Deepwoods and possesses those who wander too deeply into the woods! I should have listened to Mother-mine better and went straight to my uncle's house, and now the Gloamglozer will be after me because of my stupidity." He put his knife back in his pocket. By this point, the three of us were all very nervous and confused about the given situation.

"Well—whatever a 'Gloamglozer' looks like—you may rest assured that we are not demons who are out to get your soul. We are simply lost. And if you're so worried about this, why are you even out here in the first place?" I asked. He sighed. "I am lost as well. Before I was almost smashed into tilder-sausages by the likes of you and that leaf-devil over there, I was in the process of finding my uncle's place. But I'm not like the Woodtrolls in my village, and sooner than later, I found myself wandering into a grove of Lullabee trees when I heard an unsettling noise." I stood still and pondered for a minute about who—or what—Twig was talking about. And then I remembered the floating red blob who was yelling at us as we fell through the clouds. He's probably long gone now. I wondered about how he might have gotten that way, who he was, why he was out here in this dangerous forest with us.

Then suddenly, as if my thoughts were visible, Twig took his knife out from his pocket again and fiddled with it angrily. "I thought it might be one of those slaughterers. Nasty, inhumane creatures if you will, who are constantly destroying the forests to fuel their Hammelhorn-skin leather industry. Each race depends on the natural resources that are provided by the Deepwoods. However, the slaughterers have gone too far, and they are cutting down life-sustaining trees. To cut down one of the trees means that you are taking away the life of something innocent. My village and theirs have been at each other's throats for months now. Rumours have circulated about their deals with the Termagant Trogs, and how our feuds might turn into something bigger if we are not careful. I did not want to believe it, and so I left the safety of my home in hopes to find the last ships of the sky pirates, so that I can someday leave this place." He explained.

"Well Twig, I feel like we've gotten off on the wrong foot," I said, sticking out my hand. "My name is El, and this is Nicole. We do not know how to get back home, but if all of us are willing to trust each other, then maybe we will find our way back again. Would you be willing to guide us out of these woods in exchange for our help on your quest?" Nicole glanced at me and pulled me aside. "How do we know if we can trust him to lead us through this place safely? I mean, he's not exactly the most intuitive person on the block." She whispered. Logically, I knew she was right, but my gut was telling me something different. "I do not know how to answer that right now, but we cannot stay in this spot forever waiting for help to come to us, so I'm not sure that we have any other choice but to trust him," I said. If these 'Sky Pirates' had ships that would get Nicole and I back to the real world, we would have no other choice but to trust Twig.

I looked at him. I could see in his eyes that he felt the same, mutual distrust as we felt. But it seemed that he had yearned for a sense of belonging and trust his whole life. The air felt heavy, and the feeling of desperation sunk with the setting sun. Twig looked back at us and took our hands. "Well then, we'd best get a move on if we want to get out of here alive. There is no place more deadly for inexperienced travelers than the Deepwoods." So off we went like all of the adventurers before me, from deadly peril and into even deadlier peril. But this time around, I was glad to not be alone.