Fallen leaves

Prologue

When I opened my eyes I was standing amongst trees so tall and strong it hurt my eyes just to look. I was clearly out in the open but I couldn't help feeling trapped inside the vastness of the foreign land surrounding me. The colors of the tree trunks were that of a brown so vibrant that it seemed almost surreal, and when I looked up the sky was the color of falling leaves.

Anywhere I looked I could see only tall trees, with their roots almost as tall as myself. And the ground was already painted yellow with autumn. The sight would have been beautiful, if it hadn't been haunting.

I trusted forward and walked, even though I was unsure as to where. But I wasn't walking for long when I stumbled upon a small clearing. A ray of sunlight bathed the entire place, and there were several moths flying lazily around. Still the scenery was painted painfully yellow, and even the sky had a sepia hue to it. That's how I knew I was in the past.

The clearing was deserted. No sing of life could be spied. There were moths and insects, yes. But nothing bigger than a fingernail. Not so much of a rabbit lingered by, and I was starting to worry.

I went to stand in the middle of the clearing and patiently waited for something to happen.

But patience was never my forte.

I started taking in everything around me. First the trees, at least twice as big as any I had ever seen. Then the weird way in which the sunlight bathed the clearing.

I hadn't been to great many forests before, but it wasn't hard for me to guess the grandeur of the one in which I then paced. I know I'd never be able to compare it to any other. I was contemplating this when I felt a rustle behind me.

I spun around casually and what I saw startled me. Right from where I had just come through, came a kid; running, panting.

He stood right in the edges of the clearing. He looked minute standing between the monstrous trees. And as he struggled to catch his breath I went to stand by him. He couldn't have been any older than four, maybe five years old, and yet his hair was but a white mop. His face was covered in copious freckles, and so were his small arms. There was a strange marking on his left deltoid, like a tattoo.

As expected, he ignored me. He went to stand in the middle of the clearing, right where I had just been standing a moment before. And there, he knelt.

He didn't look frightened at all. In fact, he looked expectant.

He let out a small sigh and I went to kneel before him.

We waited.

I don't know for how long we knelt there. Perhaps it was minutes, perhaps it was hours. All I knew was that before I noticed, the sky was turning orange. Blindingly so.

It started out subtly. Before I could fully register it, everything was tinted in bright orange light. Sunset light leaked in through the holes in the tops and trunks of trees, it seeped in through the branches, it bathed us. Within seconds the entire clearing was filled with light. And the light was soaking me too. The moths still flew, and they seemed like orange dots of light dancing.

Without a warning, millions of yellow leaves started falling, as if a strong breeze had disturbed them. But there was no breeze, and leaves still rained upon us. And light shone so bright that I wondered if I may go blind.

I was smiling like a child.

It was a beautiful scene. Magical in many more ways I had ever read about. And, like the forest, I doubted I'd see anything more beautiful ever again.

Every leaf seemed in perfect harmony with its surrounding, and the warm light that filled the scene was so pure and magical that I couldn't hold in a small laugh.

When I turned to the kid beside me, I saw his freckled face was glistering with the tears. Although I could not hear his sobs, I could see his chest angrily heave up and down as he cried. Up and down. Laboriously fighting to get air in his tiny lungs amidst his crying. Startled and completely at loss of what to do, I just stared at him, no longer enticed by the show I was witness of.

I couldn't have helped him even if I had known how. So instead I just stared at him; his tears robbing me from the beautiful scenery. Intriguing me.

But as soon as sunset had come, however, it was gone, and barely a couple of minutes afterwards we were surrounded by an ever-growing darkness. He was covered in leaves from head to toe; his bright white hair, his baby blue shirt, his dark brown pants, all covered in patches of burnt yellow. All of him covered in fallen leaves.

It grew darker and darker. And suddenly the forest around me didn't feel as peaceful and harmless as it had before. I started worrying about the creatures that may lurk in such darkness.

Still the kid cried silently. Fervently, I looked around me, hoping in vain to protect him from the dangers that threatened him. Meanwhile, it got so dark that I had trouble making out his tiny silhouette before me, or even the contours of my own two hands.

As the darkness grew and engulfed us even more, so did my worry.

I wanted to take the kid by his shoulders and shake him. Yell at him and tell him to run, to go home, right where he had come from. To tell him it couldn't be safe for him to be out here; unprotected.

But I couldn't. Instead I knelt helplessly beside him. The worry eating at me.

Somewhere not too far away my eyes caught a flicker of light.

A woman came to stand at edges of the clearing. A small orb of white light hovered over her head. And she wore a hood that shone bottle green wherever light hit it. She let out a cry, but it sounded muffled. The kid looked up with tears still streaming down his face. He said something that wasn't much more than a mumble to me.

The woman ran to him and embraced him. She too, was crying. She was speaking muffled words to the small kid and holding him tightly, as if she may not ever let him go. The kid didn't complain. Instead he cried into his mother's embrace.

The next time Iblinked everything remained black.