The Veridians

Chapter 3

When you're a child, you're told to believe in the impossible. It's encouraged to believe in fantastical things that adults know are false. They encourage this behavior for years, but the second you step into society, the same behavior is condemned and frowned upon. All of a sudden, you're forced to conform to society's idealistic view of the world. Become an engineer, become a lawyer, become an accountant, become something that will actually benefit society. Yet through all this drilling & nailing into our young heads that fantasy & fantastic ideas are ridiculous, there are people who choose to ignore these preconceived notions set by the world. And those people are the people who the world shines a light on in order to inspire young minds. And we're thrown right back into the cycle once more. The cycle drones on and on, never getting rest, but through it all, one thing is made certain. Yes, there are fantastic things in this world. You just have to know where to look for them.

The vast expanse of the mythical forest was a sight unlike any other. Clouds of black shrouded the seemingly endless extent of dark oak trees. The grass on the grounds of Verzawald was a dark, muddy purple, which further cemented the mythicality of the forest. But even with the obvious point of difference, Julian couldn't help but feel that something else was off. As he looked further into the forest, he couldn't see anything. No life, no civilization, no anything. But even still, he brushed it off, assuming the author exaggerated a little bit for the enjoyment of the reader. Suddenly, something emerged from behind the trees of Verzawald. A strange creature that resembled a jackalope came towards the gate that had been opened. It kept moving forward, gaining speed, but just as it was about to approach the barrier between the real world and Verzawald, it slammed its head against nothing & scampered away from the edge of the forest.

"A magical barrier... woah."

Julian looked up & down the gateway, seemingly stalling time. Is this what everything in his life came down to? A few steps into a dark realm are what he's been waiting for his whole life? It was overwhelming and underwhelming at the same time, and he didn't know if he had the strength to push forward. But nonetheless, he put aside his fear & worry and refocused himself. He reached his hand out & felt a weak, invisible force preventing his hand from fully going through the barrier. As he pressed his hand harder against the force, it only got stronger & it became harder to push any further. But he kept pushing, pushing through the barrier, and as he pushed, he felt his hand slip through the barrier. Alarmed by the sudden loss of force, his whole body fell forward into the barrier. A wall of trees cut off the light from the outside world, leaving nothing in Julian's sight but the forest. Blue light illuminated from up above.

"Ouch."

Julian lifted his head up off of the ground. As his eyes refocused to his new environment, an overwhelming feeling of amazement fell onto him. The forest had become far more fantastical than the forest he saw before entry. The trees were revealed to be dark reds and blues, their leaves a wide variety of color. He looked up past the leaves of the trees & saw a pastel purple & blue sky full of stars. The muddy purple of the grass became a more saturated, vibrant purple ("This is the softest grass I've ever fallen into," Julian thought when he fell onto the grass a moment prior). He looked closer at the dirt and he saw the dark brown ocean of rich & healthy soil buried underneath the plentiful grass he had fallen onto. "I think this is just normal dirt," he said to himself. But even though it likely was any average dirt, it felt so much more different & amazing than anything Julian had set his eyes on before. The culmination of everything in front of him made Julian think that he had to be dreaming or hallucinating. But as sure as the soil he felt beneath his feet, everything in front of him was, in fact, real.

He stood up from the ground & brushed off the dirt on his vest. He took in a deep breath of the air, just as he did when he first entered Germany, but this time, he could notice a distinct difference in the air. If charm and whimsy had a scent, that's what Verzawald's air felt like.