Strangers In A Wood | Phan A U

A Picture Book

Dan was cold in the woods and began to feel lost. He wished even the angel would return to keep him company. It felt like days since he had left to look for food, and his stomach felt the same way as it rumbled every few minutes. The sky hadn't even changed colour since the angel had come to him and the trees hadn't moved. When Dan went to find Phil, he always became hopelessly lost and confused. The trees didn't seem to be in the same place and his feet became tired from searching and he would always end up circling back to the tree with the mushrooms.

After having a slight sleep on a patch of grass, Dan was woken by some sort of knocking. He looked around. There were no doors in a forest, so he wondered where the noise came from. It seemed to be coming from above, yet all Dan saw up there was the sky, which was still the same plain blue as earlier, with the clouds still in the same place. It looked like the sky in a painting or photograph, still and unmoving.

Once the knocking subsided, Dan heard a soft voice begin to sing. It sounded like the song the angel had sung to him, but some of the words were different. He didn't know if he was remembering the angel's song incorrectly, or if the singer had altered the lyrics. Dan then heard a slight shuffle and saw a strange hole appear in the sky above him. He had no idea how a hole could appear in the sky and tried to look up to see inside it. He could hear the occasional sound from up there, like the sound of a person turning and moving in their sleep. That was when he heard a voice. Quiet and pleading, it was Phil's voice.

"Come back, come back, please come back."

He repeated the same words over and over and he eventually began to sob. Dan was horrified to hear such a strong person cry, and tried to get up to the gap in the sky to comfort him. The closest thing to him was a tree, but he soon found it was difficult go climb as it fell downwards when he touched it. Dan looked around and noticed the whole forest was flat. It looked like a picture book with pop up pages, and Dan had no idea how to get out of these pages. He tried to climb up other trees, but they all fell over when he even pushed them slightly. Taking a different approach, Dan looked up at the hole in the sky and said,

"Phil? Is that you? I don't know where I am, I can't get out, I don't know how I got here"

Suddenly, there was more shuffling and from the sky fell a shaken up looking Phil, his hair matted and sweat coating his face. Dan fell over when Phil fell onto him and pushed him off.

"I thought you would never come back, I thought the angel of death got you, Dan. I was so worried,"

Dan interrupted Phil with a question.

"Angel of death?" It said it was just an angel"

"Angel of death or not, they're probably coming back if they can see us, so we need to get back up there as soon as possible," the put - together and collected Phil was back.

"Get on my back," ordered Phil and when Dan raised an eyebrow, Phil simply responded with telling Dan to mount him or else. With a chuckle, Dan hopped on Phil's back and clutches onto his shoulders. Phil pushed his palms together and then towards the ground, trying to push the pair of them upwards. After trial and error, the couple of them decided that there was no hope of reaching the top using the air and they fell to the ground, disappointment obvious on their faces. Dan looked around and stared at the objects around them.

"Do you think you could get rid of everything, if it's all like a picture book?" Dan asked Phil, crossing his legs. Phil looked questioningly at him and shook his head.

"A picture book?"

"It's like a pop up book. Everything is 2D and everything falls over when you touch it. Except for us - you and I are the only real things here," explained Dan, and Phil laughed.

"It's an alternate imaging area. Basically, it was created by looking at the place we were and almost drawing it. It's not exact because it was at a certain moment and they couldn't capture smells or feelings or changes. That's why the sky is the same. You didn't notice yourself being taken here when the angel was singing, but the song almost opens up a passage and distraction is how they get you here."

Dan purposely irritated Phil by replying to his lengthy explanation with,

"Yeah, so like a pop up book."

Phil tackled Dan to the floor and began to tickle him, tears falling down Dan's face from laughter. After a bout of chuckling from both, they sat up and Dan looked around.

"Can you use your power thing to make fire?" Dan asked Phil.

"In theory I can if I try, I haven't tried before. Why?"

Dan brought Phil to a tree that was still standing and pointed out how since the whole fake forest they stood in was basically paper, if they got rid of everything, all that would be left would be the hole in the sky, which they would be able to reach once the sky was gone.

"And why is that relevant?" Asked Phil, clicking his fingers against each other.

"Burn it all, I'm not kidding, just burn it. Trust me on this one." Smiling, Phil spent a while clicking his fingers in deep thought until he summoned a small flame, which he held in the palm of his hand and blew lightly on to make it become larger. Once it became a firey sphere, Phil threw it against the closest tree and watched the edges crumple and crackle into a black border until nothing was left of the tree but ashes. The fire spread and Dan huddled beside Phil on the ground directly underneath the gap in the sky, their hands joint together and both pairs of eyes tightly squeezed shut. Eventually, everything around them was in flames and Dan quickly ran upwards to where the sky was now erased to a blank white area, and jumped into the hole. Phil tripped up halfway while running and as the flames almost engulfed him, Dan outoutstretched his hands and pulled Phil in.

Once in safety, Phil picked up two stones from the circle and scattered them, immediately sealing the gap. Safe at last and in the company of another, the two walked back to camp together hand in hand, both far too tired to go on.