Braden and the Gifted Queen

Act 1: The Eternal Battle

I closed my eyes and began to feel the sleep wash over me. The darkness inside my eyelids wavered and ran like a stream over a riverbed... and after a few minutes, I began to get used to it's wavering patterns. And I then sat up and opened my eyes. A city was standing in front of me, tall and bustling. People were walking about, mindlessly and quietly, their destinations different yet all the same. I stood up from the hard concrete sidewalk I had just been laying on, looking curiously to everyone around me. No one had stopped for me, no one had reached to help me up. Everyone acted like I had not existed... I look down onto my clothing; black suit with a red tie, black formal dress shoes with black khakis. At my side I saw a suitcase lying on it's length on the ground. I looked right and left for a claimer, an owner. But none other than myself noticed it. So I grabbed it by the handle and it came with me as I walked the sidewalk, looking for the purpose of this vision.

In the distance, a giant silver bridge expanded across a flowing river. The flow of people all walked that way, everyone dressed in the same formal wear as the other. I began to approach this structure through the traffic of men and women walking through streets and sidewalks. I finally stepped onto the bridge, walking side by side with these mindless people. But a woman had caught my eyes... jet black flowing hair falling past her shoulders wearing a brown leather jacket and blue jeans. I started to pick up my pace, pushing past the voiceless men and women to gain on her. She looked troubled, and her head shot from left to right searching the unending masses of humanity. I approached her gently, but spoke not... my voice was hidden from me. Around her, I could barely move. Around her, I felt weaker. I began to look ahead, a trance consuming me. But I felt her hand scrape against mine... I had felt life mistakenly wash over me. I looked down onto my left hand, the one she had grazed over, and I stared. Then I felt her gaze upon me... so I looked up into her eyes... she was stricken. And her skin... it was a dark orange. I stared hard but I felt something grip my hand. Life flooded through me, and I accidentally said, "Well, hello!". She giggled and smiled, dragging me through the sea of lifeless organisms after I had dropped my suitcase.

I looked at her cheek for so long. When we were running, that was all I could look at. My thoughts could not come to me, she was the center of all my attention. It wasn't until what felt like an eternity of looking at her that we approached a house. She let go of my hand, and I looked behind me. No one was around. I stepped after the strange woman happily through a small iron gate. The house was white with a navy blue concept with a large window in a dome-like room. Inside the window, a woman sat on a chair in patience. I stepped up onto the porch and to an open door. I peaked briefly inside, then I stepped into the darkness of the threshold.

I heard footsteps all around me. No, I FELT them surrounding me. I looked around me, but the door had closed. There was not any light inside the room I was in. I reached my hands out to feel what was around me, to touch a wall or maybe someone who was around me. I wanted to call out, but fear had devoured my voice. So I knelt. I knelt because I knew nothing else was a better idea. I closed my eyes and tilted my head downward as I sat motionlessly still.

I heard wind brushing past me, flowing through my hair. I stood up to feel the wind and I faced it, arms wide. I sighed deeply and I opened my eyes, smiling. I was alive again... then I heard a voice shout, "You! Listen to me!" I leveled my head evenly and saw a strange sight ahead of me... men made from the bark of trees. They pointed these long, skinny sticks toward me and they all were glaring. They slowly approached me as I put my arms to my waist, slowly looking to each of them. There were maybe twenty creeping along my way. The voice rose again, "Why are you here? Why did you wander this way?" I looked down on the man, a confused contortion shrouding my face. "I wandered here?" I asked curiously. "But I did not walk... I knelt down onto my knees." The tree-man looked at me, confused as well, coming within a foot's distance between me and him. He studied my body, but when he saw my left hand, he stopped. He grabbed it and studied it like it was a page on a book.