The Dreamer: The Book of Godspells

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

My back was still against the stump, but I was so close to the water's edge of the Motif River that I felt cold, and my back was somehow damp. As I pressed my hands down to help myself up, the ground beneath me was bone dry. Why was I damp?

Colik got up without another word about what just happened to us, so I tried to do the same. I grabbed the side of a stump next to me, just now realizing its unique shape. As I touched it, I swore I felt a pulse, its warm touch to my skin way too familiar to that of a beating heart from a human's chest.

"GET OFF!" a voice cried out, making me fall directly into Colik like we were attached with a bungee cord that had just snapped. He grabbed me tightly by instinct before letting me go. We both looked around, following the voice, to find nothing.

"What was that?" I whispered.

"I hope it is not what I think it is."

"What is it with everything in a dream world being mysterious and questionably dangerous?" I questioned. Though I was falling for this world, I questioned which part was the actual dream and which could be the nightmare.

"How is that any different from your own world? You call it the real world and yet everything seems fake," Colik asked, but another voice interrupted us both.

"HARSH WORDS FOR A DREAMER." Slowly but surely, a face emerged from the exact stump that I had just grabbed onto. It was as if the bark and daggered foundation of the silver and black stump twisted and turned into a discrete face with a voice. Its leaves were fanlike, shielding it of its current appearance, its stomach hollowed out and its color faded among its surroundings.

"Whaa..."

"A Silver Gink, the silver fossil of the Broken Woods," Colik whispered, his voice betraying his unease.

"NOT MANY HAVE HEARD ME, NOR SEEN THE UNSEEN," the Silver Gink said.

"Why is it you came about now?" Colik asked slowly.

"YOU KNOW MY FATE, THOUGH YOU ASK ILL OF IT." Colik nodded and looked at me. I stared, still shocked to see a talking stump.

"They are good creatures, though stubborn as they come. They only answer the right question, their sophistication their strongest suit," he explained, then turned back to the Silver Gink.

"What is causing the darkness in this world? For humans to be walking in this world?" Colik tried again.

"THE ANSWER IS WITHIN YOUR QUESTION." Colik paused for a second.

"Why is Piper dreaming into this world?"

"THE ANSWER ABIDES WITHIN." The mystical stump answered.

"You try, Piper, this is useless." Colik griped and stepped back.

"What do I ask?"

"Anything you want. There is a reason why it is speaking to us."

"What is this world to me, a human?" I asked, the words coming out before I even realized what I was asking. It was the question I had been asking myself over and over again for months.

"THE ANSWER IS YOUR OWN FALLING OUT'S DOING." I stared, mind boggled at such vague answers we were receiving. I turned to Colik.

"Really?"

"There has to be something, Piper. They used to appear when there was a threat in the Broken Woods or one was lost, but none have heard from one since all this darkness began. Dreamers have become dreamless, without warning, and it appears these ancient, mindless creatures have quit doing what they were once so honored to do," Colik finally explained, anger in his voice. Finally, he told me something. I don't think he even realized, but I was sure not going to tell him that. I watched as he folded his fists before approaching the Silver Gink once more.