Mythical Short Stories

A

My eyelids felt as though they were stuck together and when I tried to pry them open, all I could see were colours, mixed up in a sparkling haze, as though my pupils had somehow transformed into a pair of kaleidoscopes. I heard the faint murmur of crashing waves all around me and I shielded my eyes from the sunlight as they began to adjust to their surroundings. I looked up at the blue sky, scattered with slowly, rolling clouds and dug my elbow into the earth to flip myself over. Before me, was a monstrous lighthouse.  I slightly jarred my neck as I tried to see all the way up to its top, where a beacon of light shone out from the depths of one of these white, fluffy clouds. I then rolled myself back around and stared at a vast expanse of forest, filled with trees and vegetation, bursting with life across the landscape.

Pushing myself up into a sitting position, I then thought about the previous day’s events and how I came to wake up here, but my mind couldn’t focus on anything but the lighthouse behind me. I slowly stood up and wavered slightly on my own two feet. I then found my balance and turned around, to start walking towards the open doorway of the lighthouse.

Dull groans echoed throughout the damp hallway as my feet hit each cold slab of the spiralling staircase. Climbing up and up all I could hear was the deep sighing of my breath accompanied by the pounding of my heart. I felt the sweat on my palms as they brushed across the smooth walls around me and I gulped, squinting into the darkness. I pressed on, as I knew there was some significance as to why I was there, within that lighthouse. Closer and closer I got to the light at the top and the anticipation boosted the speed of my ascent. Adding pressure onto my knees I pushed forward with each step. Only a couple more metres remained as the frame of the doorway crept around the cylindrical curve of the wall before me.

But something stopped me as still as a deer, listening for the click of a hunter’s gun.

An eerie blue glow flickered in the corner of my eye and they both revolved around to try and get a closer look at its source. Without being able to see what was behind me, I focused my hearing towards its vicinity and a loud clicking erupted into my eardrums. I panicked and clasped at my ears, whipping around to face a large being with tentacles lurching from each of its sides.

An array of what almost looked like crystals shone around a split that opened up its blue skin at the front of its bodice, joining back together at a point where a row of slithery, green spikes stuck up along its spine.

Then, in the blink of an eye, it had gone. And I ran. The adrenalin took hold of me and I bolted down the stairs, almost falling down every step to escape the claustrophobic darkness of the staircase. A slow moan, decreasing in pitch, seemed to follow me as I sprinted for the door and as I erupted through it into the daylight its hinges shrieked shut. I had fallen in my haste and scrambled backwards on all fours, panting heavily as I watched the wooden door stand silent and strong.  

“A Bao A Qu.” Slipped like a whisper from my lips as I turned and ran into the dark woods.

Beads of sweat rolled down my forehead as I pushed obstructive branches from my path. My clothes stuck to my skin as thorns and brambles brushed at their threads and I stopped for a moment, doubling over to catch my breath. The amber leaves on the forest floor rose up towards me and then fell away again with each breath I took. My hands were shaking and my throat was dry. I swallowed as an acorn rolled towards me and tapped one of my toes.

I picked it up and looked above me, towards the canopy, to see if it had fallen from a tree. But no oak trees seemed to grow in this forest.

A sudden shuffling then arose from some shrubbery close by and I darted my attention towards it. The slow footfall of hooves was heard against the ground below and a sleek, black eye peered towards me through some overgrown branches. I caught my breath as the dark eye sparkled and my own followed its now visible snout, with a small crooked horn at the end, up to the point of a larger horn that was also black and crooked. I rubbed my thumb and middle fingertips together and kissed the air as I try to coax this beautiful creature out of the shrubbery. It then tapped one of its hooves into the soil and swished its long, brown tail around, blowing some air out of its nostrils.