Timeweaver

Nothing Like Shrek

The sunglasses helped a little, but then again they were only regular sunglasses, made to protect eyes from the harmful rays of the sun, not the reflection of sun rays off of a bunch of metal trees. Tabitha marched through the forest a lot more confident than she actually felt. She kept glancing back at Catalina, whose eyes were glued to the dirt. It was, after all, the only thing, besides themselves, that wasn't extremely bright. Perhaps she found it comforting.

The girls trudged through the forest for what seemed like hours, and the only sounds they could hear were their footsteps on the metallic leaves and twigs. Tabitha was on the brink of panic. The forest never changed. She could have sworn many times that she had seen that tree over there or this bush over here thirty minutes ago.

Oh no, she thought to herself, We're lost. My best friend and I are lost in this stupid forest and we'll never get out. Why did I just have to stick my hand into the mysterious portal thing in the first place? I mean, who does that? She heaved a deep sigh. Me, I guess.

Tabitha quietly muttered on and on about the situation being all her fault. She felt like she was about to burst into tears when she heard a muffled shriek and a few heavy footsteps behind her. Tabitha turned around only to be greeted by a sharp blow to the head. She swayed back and forth, trying to regain her balance. It didn't exactly work out. She tripped over her own feet and fell to the ground, landing flat on her face. This only made the headache worse. She struggled to her knees, trying her best to ignore her throbbing head and see what was happening to Catalina. In the end, the pain won, and Tabitha could see her friend's legs disappear into the trees as Cat was yanked through the tangled mess of golden branches before everything went black and Tabitha fell back to the ground.

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Catalina gave up on screaming. She was sure no one would be able to hear her anyway with this huge whatever-it-was covering her mouth with its beefy hand. She was scared to death but didn't want to let it show in case her fear did actually lead to her death. If Tabby could be brave, she could at least pretend to.

Oh, Tabitha. She had been trying to help but instead was hit hard right in the forehead with a huge golden club. Luckily it was made out of wood and not actual gold.

Cat blinked furiously to keep the tears from flowing. She had her green eyes fixed straight ahead of her, watching the metallic forest get farther and farther away. There was something different about it now. It wasn't as bright. Have we been walking all day? Is it night time? she wondered. Then another question struck her. What are our families going to do when we don't get home?

She was distracted from thinking any more about the possibilities because not only was the sky getting darker, the trees were too. She broke her defiant gaze to look around. The golden forest faded away, and the trees surrounding her were black, completely, utterly black. Cat glanced up and saw nothing but the menacing branches of the tall, dark trees choking out the sunlight, which only filtered through enough light so it wasn't pitch black. She began to get very uncomfortable, and apparently her transportation (she had not dared to look to see what was carrying her) sensed this too.

It dropped her, none too gently, on the black dirt and before she could look up at her rude traveling companion, its deep voice growled, "Don't move. He will be here soon to, how you say, take care of you." It had a strange accent, but what that accent said worried her even more. What did it mean by "take care of me"? She already had an idea, but was hoping no one would prove it. She sat there, frozen with fear, for almost ten minutes, when she heard very soft - too soft to be anything somewhat related to a human - footsteps approaching from her right.