Reviews are down, and I'm starting to feel a little glum…
Oh well. I miss a few of my older reviewers, and I'm REALLY wondering where they've been off to.
Time to start. I'm thankful to everybody that HAS been reviewing, and now, we go.
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Darkness.
He felt as if he had ceased to exist, but, as time passed, he regained his sense of presence, and he could feel the ground beneath his body.
Link opened his eyes, and at first everything was blurry. He kept his eyes open, and everything finally came into focus.
He and the rest of the team were lying about inside of a tree trunk, but it was different from the one they came here from.
Everything was different.
Link rolled over on his stomach, then he wedged his arms beneath his body and pushed up. He stood up, and got a better look at the area they were in.
They were in another forest, but there was nothing like it across the immense expanse of Ivalice, or any other world, for that matter.
Tall, magnificent, yet terrible trees towered overhead, stretching for infinity into what should have been the sky, but it was a never-ending black abyss. The grass beneath his feet was dry and crunchy, and it was a dull, sickly green. The wood of the trees was a grayish-ash color, and there was a bit of a canopy above, but the leaves were an old, faded yellow color.
Most of the trees were fused with other trees, creating impenetrable walls of wood.
They were in a circular clearing, with no hiding places whatsoever.
The stump behind link was about the size of a very small house, with an arch opening up into the hollow inside where everybody else was.
Link stood there, looking at the place, and suddenly, a severe chill washed up his spine. He didn't want to admit it, but he was terrified.
The air in the forest was very ancient, so incredibly ancient, it felt like it had been sitting here, undisturbed, for an infinity. Looking at the trees, he could see why they would be so large.
There was something else about the air. He couldn't put his finger on it, exactly, but this world…to put it simply, it was dead.
It was dead.
Link looked back at everything again, and saw it clearly. The forest was dead, everything was. Even time had died and gone away.
There was nothing in this world.
"…Ugh…where…are we?" Ness asked.
"Beats me…" Link said as he helped the young psychic up.
By now, everybody else was waking up too. Link helped a few people up, and after everybody was properly conscious, they finally held an intelligible conversation.
"So…This must be the Forest of Emptiness Crazy was speaking of." Matt said.
"It's the only logical explanation." Fox said, tapping his head with his right hand, and holding his elbow with his other hand.
"Poyo…"
"Huh?" Paul asked. in shock. "YOU say you're not hungry!?!?"
"Poyo po poy!" Kirby insisted, flailing his stubby arms.
"Piiiii chuuuu…." Pichu squeaked in fear, clinging to Luigi's neck. Coincidentally, Luigi was shaking as well.
"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh…" Luigi moaned, looking about. He was almost white as paper.
"Nice to know I'm not the only nervous one…" Link said, smiling very weakly.
"I feel really…Odd." Paul said. "Like something very important is missing."
"I feel the same." Matt said. "It's just a feeling, but I think this place is MUCH more dangerous than it appears."
"Of course it is." Ness said. "Why would it be so hard to get here?"
"I just hope we're ready, for whatever's out there." Link said, casting a glance towards the exit. It was a breach in between two trees, about the width of a two-lane road. Out past that, was a flat plain scattered with massive trees. It was impossible to see far, with so many huge trees in the way.
The team strode towards the open space, once again tied together by the safety ropes.
Getting lost here would mean wandering for an eternity.
Alone and forgotten.
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There was no way to tell how long they had been in the forest. Matt's watch stopped working, stopped at the exact time they left the living dimension.
Link was still busy looking about, and as they passed more and more trees, it looked as if everything were getting steadily older and older.
There was no time in this dimension.
It didn't take long to discover, but here, nobody got tired, nobody got hungry.
Nobody did anything. All they did was walk, and walk.
As he thought about it, there wasn't any assurance that they'd get though this forest. They could be here, for the rest of eternity, wandering…
As Link looked up into the endless expanse above, he silently hoped he hadn't seen a gigantic, white…
"…Uh, guys?" Link asked.
"What?" Everybody that could speak echoed.
"…What's THAT doing here?" Link asked, pointing up at the huge, sprawling spider web way above. It was really old, and it hung limp, with no breeze to support it.
"…I don't know." Fox said.
"I wouldn't worry about it." Matt said. "It's just a bunch of cob webs."
Link had a feeling it wasn't the case.
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Later…Or does that even count if time doesn't pass anymore?
The team was sitting down, not because they felt a need to, but more than anything, they were just doing it out of habit.
"It feels like we've been here for a few minutes." Link said.
"It feels like we've been here for hours." Fox said.
"I think it feels like we've been here for years!" Paul said.
"I say we've been here for about half an hour!" Link pouted.
"Yeah right. We've been here for hours! I know it!" Fox cried.
"We've probably been here for years, and now everybody outside has died of old age, and baddies are everywhere!" Paul wailed.
"Oh, for the LOVE OF…SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ness screamed.
"I think I'm going insane…" Luigi muttered.
"Then we're in the same boat." Matt said.
"MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATT!" The three arguing smashers screamed so loud, Matt jumped a yard into the air.
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?!?!?" Matt screamed back.
"WHAT TIME IS IT!?!?"
Mat looked at his dead watch again.
"It's 1:05. It's been like that…oh, I don't know, maybe a few hours, or maybe even a few years?" He asked in a mocking tone.
"SEE!?!?" Fox yelled. "He agreed with me!"
"No, he agreed with me!" Paul insisted.
"He didn't even say minutes!" Link wept hopelessly.
"…Wait a second…" QUIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!!!" Ness screamed, so loud, the disturbing silence returned to the forest.
"What?" Everybody asked calmly.
Ness pointed silently at Pichu, who was frozen with a look of terror on her face.
"What did you hear?" Ness asked quietly.
"Pi…Pi Pi!" Pichu whispered fearfully.
"…" Ness's face paled, but he didn't say anything.
"Well?" Fox asked impatiently. "We have an argument to continue with!"
"…Pichu said…She heard a crawling noise…" Ness moaned.
"Wait…" Matt said, his face getting pale as well. "You said, crawling?"
"Yeah."
"I think we have a giant spider infestation on our hands." Matt warned quietly. "I scratched an arrow in the grass, so I know which direction we came from, and which direction we were headed. Draw your weapons."
Everybody nodded, and pulled out their weapons, well, tried to.
"I can't…I can't summon my sword!" Paul gasped.
"Huh!??!" Matt asked, shocked.
"My magic…All gone…I know what's happening now…" Paul said, as it dawned on him. "There's no magic here…"
Fox pulled out his gun and fired it, but there wasn't even a spark.
"My gun isn't working. It's never run out of juice before!"
"My vacuum won't turn on!"
"I can't use PSI!"
"PICHU!"
"POYO!"
"My sword's lost its power!" Link cried.
Matt looked at his unworking mecha arm with a blank look, then looked back at everybody with dawning comprehension on his face.
In the background, they could hear skittering of clawed feet.
"…We're powerless here." Matt said emotionlessly.
"What do we do!?!?!" Luigi screamed.
"I'll tell you what we'll do." Matt said determinedly. "We'll run. If we don't need to take any breaks, I think we can surpass human, and humanoid limits here. Let's take advantage of that!"
"If we live through this, and if this plan for some reason doesn't work, I'll break your neck." Fox warned.
Matt failed to reply, but he was seen tugging nervously on his shirt collar.
"Ok, let's go already!" Paul yelled shrilly. He wasn't the only one there that hated spiders.
Just as he said that, the clicking sound got really loud, and the ginormous hulk of a huge black spider appeared.
"TIME TO FLY!!!!!!!!!!!!" Matt screamed.
Everybody started screaming loudly, and they ran after Matt, who was at the head of the procession. They gained speed continually, running faster, faster, and even faster.
The gigantic spiders behind them were entirely black, all over, except for their eyes.
Their eyes were a great, crimson glowing red.
The trees were a blur now, and even though there was really no air to breathe, it felt like there was a huge breeze. The smashers continually sped up, surpassing the normal laws of physics.
First they were going fifty miles per hour…then 60…and after a few more moments, they were past 100.
The spiders were still hot on their trail, going even faster than they were.
"Follow my lead!" Matt yelled over the rush of noise. Everybody nodded as quickly as they could without distracting themselves, then Matt ran right at a tree. Everybody screamed as he hurtled towards it, then he flipped way into the air, and started running up the tree. The tug on the ropes flung everybody else onto the tree, and they continued running.
The spiders were distracted for a moment, then they shot up the tree after the smashers.
They hit the top of the tree, and Matt kicked off the tree towards another. He and the others skipped between trees, still going even faster. The spiders clumsily hopped from tree to tree, and by the time they got to the tree the smashers were on, Link and the crew were already running down the trunk in a screw-like fashion.
The spiders kicked off the tree towards the ground, and when Matt and the rest got to the bottom, the spiders landed at the same time they did, and surrounded them.
A spider rushed at Matt from his right, and he jumped at it and slugged it right in the face. He failed to wound it, but it still stunned it and knocked it backwards.
The rest of the spiders jumped, and everybody jumped into the air. Link drew his sword, and Kirby drew his scimitar. They spun around, back to back, and shot into the air like a helicopter, with everybody else underneath getting whirled about. The spiders hit their heads, and they lost their prey amidst the confusion. They quickly got back up and sorted themselves out, and watched the heroes fly away.
All of the spiders turned around, and shot gigantic rope-thick webs like cannons.
"Incoming!" Paul yelled in a slurred voice, due to excessive spinning. Link and Kirby maneuvered through the crossfire, going left, right, up and down, just barely avoiding the sticky webs. The webs continued on, and hit a tree and caught fast. The spiders used the webs as grappling points and shot up into the trees after the smashers.
Link accidentally flew too close to a web, and slashed right through it. The spider sticking to the web screeched as it fell to the nearly invisible ground below, and it was a long time before the terrible screech left the ears of the smashers, and their minds.
One spider stuck to a tree nearby, and aimed a web right at the two spinning smashers, and it happened so fast, there was no time to react. A thick, gooey web shot and stuck on Link's and Kirby's back, and stopped them from spinning right away. They still spun from the momentum, and they were wrapped up in webs.
Link and Kirby hacked the lead web off, and the 'cocoon' fell to the ground like a bomb. Link hacked away at the webs while kirby blew them away, and by the time they were close to the ground, they were free from the webs. Link and Kirby spun around a bit more, and landed nicely on the ground, and spiders shot more imprisoning webs from above. They avoided the webs and took off again, and lost the spiders for about thirty seconds.
Thirty seconds later, as they were running super fast, the noise of angry clicking appeared again, and the spiders thundered after them.
Matt lowered his head, and pumped his last bit of effort into his body. He rocketed ahead, and the other smashers did the same. Slowly, the spiders fell behind, but ever so slowly.
Link kept going faster and faster, and slowly inched his way past everybody. He was in the middle of the rope, and he forced everybody into a V formation he was going so fast. He aimed at a tree again, and shot up it so fast the bark peeled off the tree as they ran.
Below, the spiders attempting to climb the tree were slowed down by the falling debris, but they continued, undaunted.
Link continued shredding his way up the tree, and when they got to the top, he leapt off with such force, he jerked everybody clean off the tree after him. They landed on another tree, and they landed sideways on it, and then they all kicked off together, going twice as fast as they were on the ground. They shot between trees, one by one, jumping harder and faster each time.
They landed on a somewhat thin tree in comparison to the others, and they kicked off it so hard, it fell over and smashed the spiders that were crawling after them on the tree. They landed on an even taller tree than the rest, and spiraled up to the top, into the black sky. When they reached the top of the tree, they kicked off their hardest yet, and flew off into the blackness at unbelievable speed.
The spiders gnashed their mouth parts angrily, and a few shot webs after the smashers, but even then, they were too far away.
The smashers flew above the grey rush of color below, with their arms spread out. They soared above the forest, and everything seemed to slow down to them as they drifted on, floating through the air like wraiths in a world frozen in time.
Ahead, the bulk of a giant black mountain loomed in front of them…The Black Crag.
Beyond that, there were huge plains, and beyond that stretched the black sky. On the horizon, was a grayish light, all around.
The world below was strange and foreign, but they were one step closer to finding the forest of origin.
The final task that stood between them and destiny was the cursed mountain they hurtled towards.
The Black Crag.
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So…what do you think? Next chapter will be a big battle, but against what?
YOU, my reader friends, get to find out some other time. Sorry, but this is as far as I go:O
Today, THIS chapter, at least! I'm going to work and write some more, but don't expect another updatie today.
See ya!
With that said, Adieu, and Review!
-Shining Riku-