Rythian opened his eyes and stared into the dark woods in front of him. He knew that just up ahead, Zoey and Tee were waiting for him, so he didn't hesitate to start along the gravel path in front of him.
As he walked, Rythian regarded the strange scenery around him with a wondering gaze. Bordering the pathway he was on were trees with dark gray wood, a type he had never encountered before; and a strange mist, just a shade lighter than the gray wood itself, swirled around the trunks. This, combined with black- razor edged leaves, made it impossible for Rythian to see more than a foot or so into the woods on either side and removed any ideas he had about cutting through the undergrowth.
These were far from the oddest things about the forest, however. As he walked along, the trees began to grow into strange contorted shapes and grew branches that reached out into his walking space and grasped at his clothes. There was also a distinct lack of any sort of noise in the woods; only the quiet crunch of his shoes on the path broke the silence.
He had been traveling for quite some time, when he came across a small clearing. In it, the main road split off into two paths. A pair of white trees stood guard at the entrance to the left path and a pair of purple trees guarded the other path to the right. He stood; uncertain of which path he should take. All he knew was that Zoey and Tee were waiting for him up ahead and that he had to hurry and meet them.
He tried looking down each road to determine which one would be the fastest route, but the shifting mist obscured the view too much for him to see past a few feet.
As he stood pondering, a slight breeze sprang up and stirred the leaves on the trees, however, it only seemed to touch the leaves on the path to the left for the leaves on the right remained motionless.
Something about the motion of the moving leaves sent a shiver up the mage's spine, so he decided to take the path to his right.
As he crossed underneath the two purple sentries, he became aware for the first time of his facemask against his skin.
He couldn't quite remember if he he'd had it on before that moment, but it wasn't a big deal so he decided not to worry about it.
It was just a few minutes after he'd had this revelation that he came across a small pool of water to his left.
It was a simple pool, just a small hole in the ground really, but the water looked so invitingly fresh that all he wanted to do was jump into it. Yet, he knew that Zoey and Tee were waiting for him, so he decided to wait until he had met up with them before jumping into any pools.
As he stood looking at the water, he felt a slight tremor going through the ground and the pond began to shake.
A single red leaf broke free from one of the trees and drifted down onto the surface of the water.
It didn't look very healthy to Rythian; it was full of holes and a bit brown around the edges, so unlike the rest of the dark leaves on the rest of the trees.
He didn't have long to ponder this strange leaf, because at that moment a scream reached his ears.
It was a scream he had heard before, but never this full of terror. His blood seemed to turn into an icy mess in his veins as he turned from the pond and ran full tilt towards the horrifying sound.
He burst from the trees into a clearing similar to the one he had come across before, but this time there were no paths leading out from it and the trees had turned solid black.
In the center of the grassy meadow, Zoey and Tee stood back to back, staring in fear into the trees as strange white and brown shapes emerged and began to advance towards them.
Rythian tried to open up his mouth to say something, to let them know he was there to help, but he couldn't seem to move.
He watched in horror as one of the brown shadows grasped Tee and dragged him off into the black woods around them.
Zoey's cry of grief and fear seemed to snap something in his mind, and he found himself running towards her, trying to reach her before the white shadows.
He had just about made it to her, when one of the shadows seemed to pass through her, causing her to let loose a high-pitched scream and fall to the ground in pain.
He sprinted the last few feet to her and scooped her gently into his arms, as the shadows edged closer and closer to him.
Zoey looked up at him and Rythian saw with fear that her once bright blue eyes were turning a sickly yellow.
"Ryth," she gasped, her whole body quivering, "You came."
"I'll always come for you." He promised
"That's good," she gasped, and shivered, as pain wracked her whole body. "But I think you are too late. They already got Tee and look at my arm."
"What? There is nothing wrong with your arm…" he trailed off, though, when he looked down and saw that her arm was slowly becoming one with the grass of the field.
"I'm sorry, Rythian," she said, as the shadows began to spin around them in a dizzying circle. "You were too late. If only you had gotten here sooner things might have changed."
"Zoey, wait! Stop! I still have to tell you that I-"
A huge gust of wind ripped through the clearing at that moment, cutting off his words and stunning him as Zoey disappeared into a great pile of leaves that was quickly swept off of him and into the woods.
"No!" He cried, leaping up and trying to run after the leaves. "Come back!"
The shadows seemed to laugh and only increased their spinning as he tried to chase after Zoey.
"Zoey!" he cried, as the shadows began to engulf him "ZOEY!"
"What!" Rythian jumped as Zoey's voice cut into the dream he had been having. "What do you need Rythian? It's like 4am?"
Rythian sat up, his breathing heavy as he took in his surroundings.
The same old walls of their temporary room surrounded them and under his hands he could feel the soft wool of their blankets, nothing like the scratching leaves of the dark forest he had been in.
"Hey," he jumped again as Zoey gently touched his arm. "Rythian, what's wrong?
In the dim light from the outside torches leaking under the door, Rythian could see that Zoey's eyes were the same soft blue that he remembered and not the sickly shade of yellow he had seen them turn in his dream and his breathing began to slow as he realized that she was there beside him.
"Nothing, nothing. Just… a bad dream."
"Oh," she said, her face losing some of the tension it had been holding until that point. "Well then, go on back to sleep. I'll make sure no more bad dreams get past this girl tonight!" Zoey said, smiling his favorite smile.
He lay back down, feeling comforted as Zoey snuggled into his arms, the shadowy world of his dreams already half forgotten.
Author's Notes:
Well, I'm not really sure where the idea for this came from or where the word did either XD I just kind of sat down and wrote and this happened. I will be very impressed if anyone catches all of the symbolism that I stuffed into this thing. Pretty much everything that happens means something and some are more obvious than others.
Still not sure if I even like it, but here you go!
Thanks to Midnightlupus for proof reading~