Arrows of Acid

Chapter 1

When Noah White Weasel was a young boy, he had a fantastically peculiar dream, a dream that changed his path and shaped his future into what it is today. That dream went a little something like this:

The boy drifted aimlessly through the forest. His throat was raw from yelling for his parents. He had only gotten up from his tent in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, but he became helplessly lost in these unfamiliar woods on his way back. Noah felt himself verging on the edge of panic, but then he thought of his Grandpa to steady his nerves. His grandpa was, like his ancestors before him, and so Noah after him, a proud Kiowa, and wanted to instill in his grandson as many stories and traditions of his people's rich history and culture as he could. Noah pretended to be a Kiowa brave like one in his grandfather's stories.

There was light up ahead. His heart pitter-pattered as he scuttled to what he thought was his camp. He came upon an unfamiliar campsite with a cheery fire blazing away in the center, but not a living soul was in sight. He sat down on a log to wait for the occupants to return.

He let the fire warm his mahogany skin while he remained vigilant for whoever made this fire to return. After what felt like hours, the fire was dying down and he realized no one was coming back. He sighed and began to stand, but then saw something shift unnaturally in the fire's embers. He blinked rapidly a few times and stared in awe. A fiery glowing snake slowly slithered up out of the ashes, pushing coals and embers aside. Its tongue flicked out and the snake came toward him. It coiled back and forth across the ground, leaving tiny pockets of fire in its trail. A drum began to beat softly from somewhere in time with the snake's swaying back and forth, hypnotizing Noah. Frozen to the spot, he watched the snake inch closer and closer and the drums beat louder the closer it got. Its red-hot tongue flicked out to touch Noah's shoe, at which point he finally snapped and scrambled backward over the log. As he untangled himself and peeked up over the log, the fire snake slithered up into the air and turned away from Noah. The snake swam in mid-air, as if in a lake; twisting, turning, somersaulting until eventually turning itself in a slowly spinning ring of fire. The snake spun its ring faster until it was just a fiery blur, red hot ashes floating in and around it. Then suddenly, there was a loud POP! And the snake vanished. A few ashes glided gently to the ground. The drumming had stopped along with the snake disappearing, so Noah was left holding his breath in the empty clearing.

He sat there in amazement for a few moments, then he shifted his body to get ready to stand when he came face to face with a young girl about his age and gasped. She was kneeling beside Noah and stared at him with sad eyes. She was clothed in a sweet, flowy gown, and her skin was sheer and see-through and slightly tinged blue, like a turquoise filter on a photograph. She bent and scooped up a delicate flower into her palm and held it up for Noah to see. It stood upright and began to glow warmly with vibrant colors. Then a jovial face appeared and smiled up at them in the center of the petals. It grew a set of leafy arms and legs. The flower began to dance merrily upon the girl's outstretched palm. Noah was transfixed by this spectacle.

Just then, he heard a loud crack and an enormous tree branch dropped with a heavy thud to the ground just to their side. The trio looked up. The forest was still the same, but it was very much different.

Although it was still night out, it was no longer as dark as before. The forest was alive with color and magic.

The immediate surrounding trees bent slightly toward them, and each one seemed to have a face as well. The faces were frowning grumpily down at them with hollow empty holes for eyes. The trees shook their branches and big fat leaves drifted down. As soon as a leaf became detached from a branch it began to glow softly in the same manner as the flower, so that soon it was snowing pale electric green snowflakes.