A Dreamer's Worlds

The Earth Rolls in Its Sleep (Part 2 of Eyes of the World)

Still think me mad? I understand why. The tale I told you was certainly one that madmen would tell. A tall tale, you might call it. No? It was short? It was, wasn't it. I promise, this one shall be longer. No complaining about its length this time.

You remember that watch, correct? The one the wind gave me. It didn't want to. The earth made it. That doesn't exactly matter. The watch, you see, was very important. In my youth, I thought it a mere trinket. It didn't even work.

But really, it did. It was a fine watch, working even after being buried for so long. It kept perfect time. It just wasn't my time it was keeping.

Sometimes I'd pull it out and listen to the tick-tick-ticking of its second hand beating out time with the gears. It was a soothing sound, and one I was glad to have.

I grew up. I still played in the forest, but my havoc play calmed into peaceful walks. The wind would howl around me whenever it found me, but it never spoke after that day.

I think it was mad. It hadn't wanted to give me the watch, but the caves made it.

I found out what time the watch kept when I was sixteen. See, that's how I knew the wind spoke before I was sixteen.

But anyway, I was sixteen when I stood above the caves. Bored, I rolled rocks down the hill, trying to cause some sort of rock slide.

I was extremely bored. Nothing had happened lately. It was summer, so no school. My parents were both working and we had no pets besides the spiders that always made it inside somehow.

There was simply nothing to do, unless I wanted to garden like my mother wished me to. Being a teenager, the thought of doing anything a parent wanted was worse than simply doing nothing.

So I stood on a hill and threw rocks at other rocks. When I was finally bored of that, I sat down and listened to the watch tick.

It made me realize how little I had to do. It was either garden like my mother wanted or wander about the forest with little idea of what I was actually doing.

I didn't go in the caves anymore. I knew that they didn't wish me harm, but I couldn't shake the feeling that the wind would take its revenge as soon as I went inside.

It was as I was leaving the hill that the watch began sounding an alarm. It was as if I'd walked in a way it didn't agree with. I tore it off my wrist, trying to discern the alarm's purpose through the watch face.

And then the earth began to shake. The trees, so strong and tall, swayed. I shoved the watch in my pocket and ran home. Beneath me, the ground bucked and trembled.

An earthquake. The watch sounded an alarm when the earthquake began. Given how powerful it was at that moment, I thought that it would only get stronger. I wasn't sure if I could make it home in time to save my parents.

The earth dropped from below me and I was airborne. I threw my arms from my sides, like a bird violently thrown from the best. A scream formed in the back of my throat, but was caught between my teeth when I dropped back to the dirt. I took a moment to gather myself before continuing my mad dash. All around me the forest spasmed with the earth. A tree gave up its fight and fell to the ground. I heard the falling behemoth and pushed myself even more.

The wind howled, the funeral dirge for the forest's inhabitants.

I made it to the path out of the forest, still recognizable even after the earth had torn itself up. I clambered over the shards of what had once been a nice little path, no longer wary of the sharp stones that had surfaced.

In hindsight, going to my house had been the wrong choice. I should've ran past it to the town beyond, or even in the caves if I believed that the caves themselves would stand strong for my safety. Yet I didn't, and so the sight of my house battered to the ground by the careless earth was too much. The ground was still acting like a horse at a rodeo.

I stopped resisting its attempts to throw me to the ground. A crack formed near me and I could hear the tree of the forests falling as the earth they'd once tamed roared up in rebellion.

The wind's keening and the thunderous call of the earth filled my ears, yet my thoughts were full of naught but the need to mourn.

The watch, in the end, saved my life. It burst into sound once more. Though at the time I thought it a death knell, the watch's sound was a call to action. It certainly called me to my feet.

The watch urged me on as I started towards the town. It was a few miles from my home and with the earthquake it would take even longer.

Yet that didn't seem to matter as I stepped in time with the watch's bell. Every time my foot met the earth the watch would sound out again. It was a pattern that gave me the strength to carry on.

The earthquake stopped when I was perhaps halfway to the town. The watch let out one more ring and fell silent. I lost my rhythm and sat down at the side of the road, or what was left of it.

I was tired. Exhausted, even. I'd run from the forest like a bat out of hell, and now I finally had the time to rest. I would need strength to return to my home and find out if my parents had survived. I would also need strength to continue to the town. At that moment, I had strength for neither. All I had the strength to do was cry out for justice, for safety, for a shred of hope that I wasn't an orphan.

The watch's ticking grew louder and louder and I took a moment to secure back onto my wrist. Even through my tears I could see well enough to do that, and then look at the watch face. The minute and hour hands had never moved in all the time I'd have it, but now they matched up to point at six o'clock together.

As I watched, the second hand began ticking faster and faster, louder and louder. The hour and minute hands began to glow with an ethereal light. It consumed me, and I knew no more for quite some time, which happens to be the same amount of time I'll make you wait for the next part of this story.