Chapter 11
"PK Riding!"
Kevin's call echoed down the mountain, trailing after a brilliant burst of light. He felt the snake's grip on him loosen considerably. Finally able to breathe, Kevin freed himself from the beast and jumped to the ground to watch a spectacle before him.
The rainbow of light zipped around the snake, never fading and never slowing. Each color of the spectrum separated into an incredibly thin line that cackled and moved like lighting. The light covered the snake in an angular web that swirled around it. Every time a color streaked across the snake's body, it seemed to literally erase part of it.
By the time the attack finished, the snake was in tatters. Its body was lacerated all over. It didn't bleed, and it still moved even with whole chunks of it missing. The monster roared in pain, and made a pathetic attempt to charge toward Kevin. The boy ran toward the beast himself, picking his wrench off the ground and jumping into the air. Holding his weapon in both hands, he slammed it down onto the snake's head as hard as he could.
A loud hiss erupted from the monster. Its body evaporated into smoke. It plumed past Kevin as he landed, floating up into the sky and disappearing.
Kevin took a weary step back, and felt the cliff face press up behind him. In front of him, a little white garter snake slithered on top of the crushed grass where a behemoth lay just moments ago. It took one look at the boy and scurried away.
The boy stood with his back up against the cliff. He stared at the the area in front of him, which was damaged and crushed from the battle. His legs shook so much that it was hard to stand. He felt exhausted, both in body and PSI. He knew what he'd just done. He had done it once before. He had done it just now. He understood what just happened so much that it hurt.
But… now what?
Kevin let his legs turn to rubber as he slid down the cliff onto the ground. He felt strangely calm about the whole thing. He knew he shouldn't. He knew that a normal person would probably be traumatized or scarred for life if they were nearly killed by a giant snake monster. Maybe even more so if said person up and killed it instead. But Kevin didn't feel anything like that. He didn't fall to pieces or begin crying or anything like people in movies he'd seen often did. He just felt tired, and the desire to find a place to rest overpowered the thought of what just happened.
He looked out to the horizon to see the last of the sun's red glow fade beyond it, and exhaled in frustration. The forest was dark and confusing enough in the day, and he knew he'd never be able to find his way through it at night. The sky was clear, so he couldn't follow the city lights like last time, and even if he could see the town now, he'd certainly loose the direction once he got into the thick of things.
"I'll just have to camp out, I guess."
The exhausted boy stumbled on weak legs toward the river. In a stroke of sudden remembrance, he frantically whirled around to see the cliff wall. He saw his bike faithfully leaning against it, undisturbed from the battle. After a big sigh of relief, he walked over to it, and realized that his fever was gone. He put his hand on his forehead. It was cool, and when he wiped away a few cold droplets of sweat, it still stayed that way.
Right next to Kevin's bike was the hole in the cliffside. He cautiously peered into it, but saw nothing but the light on the other side. With his curiosity and fatigue overpowering his rationality, the boy took his bike and walked back into the small cave. However, before going too far, he had an idea and he backed out of the cave. He turned his bike around so he could walk it backwards through the hole. If anything else attacked him, he thought, he'd have a quicker escape.
He made his way through the cave cautiously, but without incident this time. He still had trouble understanding what he was seeing on the other side until he reached the end of the cave and it opened up to him.
"Woah." Kevin found himself walking into a shimmering oasis, surrounded by the large cliff wall all the way around to form a flat bowl the width of a football field. Trees and plants covered the area, but instead of leaves and wood, they were made entirely of crystals. Each leaf and twig, petal and stem, and root and trunk was a clear, brilliant gem that glowed softly but differently than one another in the night. A lake in the middle of the area shimmered and sparkled in the light of the thousands of crystals as it flowed into the river cutting through the cliffside. The ground was stone, but the gemstone plants were rooted deep into it in an expression of might among their beauty.
Kevin felt strange as he walked toward the lake, driven by awe and a strange yet gentle force pulling him toward it. A powerful sense of peace and content washed over him and eased his fatigue. He didn't flinch as he stepped into the water with his bike and began to wade toward an island in the middle of the lake. The water was just as warm as the air, and it made him feel weightless as he began swimming to the tiny island.
When he arrived, the water dried almost instantly as the boy stepped out of it with his bike alongside him. At the very center of the island was where the gentle push was egging him to go, but the boy didn't even notice it until it faded as he reached his destination.
Before he could question what it was, he found himself looking down at something on the ground. He saw himself looking back up, through an elongated wedge of jagged edges. It took him a few seconds of awe before he finally realized that he was looking down at a mirror on the ground. Kevin picked it up. It was shaped like a long, jagged pizza slice, with two edges shattered and angular with the third, short one being a slight, smooth curve. It was the length of his forearm, and its surface was immaculate.
With an absentminded "Cool," Kevin put the mirror in his pocket. He gazed at the beauty around him one more time before laying down on the ground, not caring whether or not this was a dream or reality. He didn't know why he decided to lay down right there all of a sudden, but the night was so clear and he felt so calm. He needed a place to rest anyway, and this place never felt safer.
Despite that it was solid stone, he felt surprisingly comfortable laying on the ground. He listened to the water in the lake as it gently slid toward the cliff wall, eager to become part of the river beyond. The light glow of the area was just soft enough not to seep through the boy's eyelids as they grew heavy and closed. The world slowly faded around him as he slowly drifted to sleep.
~α~
"…Not good! Not good! Not good!"
"What's not good?"
"Wh-what? Hello?"
"Wait… Ed, is that you? It's me, Kevin!"
"K-Kevin!"
"What's not good, Ed?"
"Sarah! They got Sarah!"
"Who got Sarah, Ed?"
"I… I don't know! But it's not good! Not good! I can't lose Sarah too! Not after… Not after…"
"Where are you?"
"L-lemon Brook. I think. I-I-"
"Don't worry, Ed. I'll come find you, and we'll find Sarah. Okay?"
"O-okay."
~α~
Daylight pierced through Kevin's eyelids as the sound of Ed's voice faded away. His eyes fluttered open to be greeted by the sight of a thousand reflections of the bright blue sky around him. He sat up and yawned as he aroused from possibly the greatest sleep of his life. Though it was too bright to see the crystals' gentle glow and the sun wasn't high enough to shine over the wall that surrounded the area, it was as beautiful as it was last night.
He stood and picked his bike up off the ground. Was that dream…
Yes, Kevin thought. It was definitely real. He could no longer hear Ed's voice, but he could feel the boy's sadness. He felt a strange tug in his mind, nudging him in a particular direction. It must be where Ed is, he realized.
"Sorry Mom, but something weird's going on, and I'm going to find out what it is."
End Part 1
