Chapter 3: Something strange
The men have been travelling for the past 3 hours with no signs of exiting the forest. They had found a river to follow, but there was no path alongside it, forcing them to maneuver through sometimes dense greenery. Both of them knew that most rivers lead to people at one point or another, but so far all its led them to was an occasional curse from Guts.
Strider thought hard about the presence of demons in the forest. He's never seen anything like it. Then he remembered that the demons starting showing up when he met Guts, like they're following him. He was so focused on getting out of the forest that he had completely forgot to ask Guts about the strange creatures. He turned to Guts, but kept walking.
"Guts, why is it that you seem to attract these... demons," Strider questioned in his ever-present calm tone. "You have a marking on your neck that signifies nearby demons. Could it be that they are attracted to it?"
Guts was impressed again, having nobody ever figure out the brand's effect without him telling them.
"Right again, smart man," he mused, but he actually thought Strider was highly intelligent. "Luckily for us, demons don't tend to attack during the day, so we're safe for now. I'd like to ask what you know about elves, since you actually believe in them."
"Believe in elves? How couldn't you believe in elves? Only a child wouldn't know what an elf is," Strider said, confused that there were people out there who didn't "believe" in elves. Maybe a hobbit doesn't know about elves, but even that is a stretch.
"Well, Strider, where I'm from, hardly anyone believes in elves. I wish I never met one, 'cause all he does is buzz around my ear and yell at me about doing somethin' wrong, or "evil"."
Strider didn't understand. Buzzed?
"What do you mean, the elf buzzed around your ear?"
Guts looked at the river. "Yeah, you've seen them haven't you? The little bug things, with annoying voices that never shut up."
"It is apparent to me that we are speaking of different beings," Strider spoke, looking forward, mildly offended that Guts called elves "bugs". "The elves I speak of are the fairest creatures you'll ever lay eyes on. They have flawless skin, magnetic eyes, and some are even as tall as you or I. They are the farthest thing from a bug."
Guts chuckled. "Well, we're definitely not talking about the same thing, then."
The conversation ended there, as both were tired of talking. Both were tired of walking, too, but not physically. Then, they saw something that confused them both. In a clearing ahead, they saw a large, green humanoid creature, wearing a white tunic with a brown vest and brown pants. Beside him, a donkey. The strangest thing was that the humanoid seemed to be speaking to the donkey, and the donkey spoke back.
"What the hell is that thing?" Guts said to Strider, but Strider was already invisible in some shadow somewhere. Guts didn't care that he was looking at the one of the more unique scenes he's seen, he wanted answers. He went right up to the strange pair. All three stopped.
"Aye?" The beastly man said.
Even with Guts' impressive height, he was shorter than the green giant.
"Hmmm... you're no demon..." Guts concluded aloud. "What are you?"
The humanoid shifted his weight and folded his arms.
"I, mah dear boy, am an Ogre." He answered, with an accent.
Doesn't look anything like any ogre that Guts thought of.
"Ogre, what is your path? Where are you going?"
"Yer a nosey one, ain'tcha?" The ogre replied.
Then, the donkey piped in.
"Shrek, I don't like the looks of this guy, he's got a big piece of metal on his back. That can't be good for the spine, no sir..."
"Shut up for a minute, donkey," The ogre said quietly to the magic pet. The ogre looked back at Guts. "If ye must know, we're tryin' tah find mah swamp! But we're lost, and not sure where tuh go."
Guts had found others who were in the same situation as him. This was becoming very strange.
"Well, ogre and donkey, there's no swamp that way," Guts told them, pointing back to where he'd approached them from.
"You hear that, donkey? We're goin' this way." The ogre turned and walked off into the bushes, with the donkey following behind.
"Thanks, lad!" The ogre called out to Guts.
Guts turned to find Strider, having appeared out of nowhere.
"Well, that was interesting," Guts said, clearly not amused with his talk with the ogre. "They don't know where they are, either."
"Are they more creatures you're familiar with? They are of no race that I know, unless that mule is a normal donkey, but enchanted by some curse," Strider asked.
"Never seen anything like it," Guts told him.
Strider thought on it for several minutes as they sat near the river. Strange creatures appearing? A totally unfamiliar forest? These events were to big to be sorceries. Something else was at work here, and it was costing Strider precious time. He had to get to Bree, now.
Strider's heart was filled with newfound motivation, but it quickly dissipated as he remembered he was still lost deep in an unknown forest. He was deep inside his own mind when the sound of something heavy hitting the ground behind him snapped his attention back to reality. He turned to see a deer missing it's head, with Guts standing above it.
"I was hungry," Said Guts, expecting Strider to want an answer for this.
"Nice to see a man of culture," Strider joked as he inspected the gruesome sight for disease. "Looks clean enough," he determined.
The men built a fire from twigs, then transitioned to large branches. Strider found two sticks shaped like the letter "Y", and placed each standing up in the dirt on either side of the fire. He pierced morsels of deer through a pointed stick, and placed it on the "Y" sticks to cook.
The men feasted and gained their energy back. By this point, the sun was directly overhead, that was obvious, as they could see it between the leaves above them.
Once they had finished, Guts stomped out the fire, and they were off again. Only this time, they had made their last camp in this endless forest.
...
Strider took lead through the dense woods, and continued following the river. He saw sunlight through the trees ahead, which could only mean one thing...
The men burst into an open field of tall grass and bushes. Ahead, they could see hills that were free of trees, and even a mountain off in the distance. They were free!
Guts put a hand on his sword's handle, and breathed deep.
"About time! Lost in that damn forest for two whole days!" He exclaimed.
Strider was relieved to be out also, but he knew he was still lost. He had never seen the scenery that laid before him, so his best bet was to climb to the highest hill they could find.
Come," he said to Guts. "We've no time to lose."
They hurried up the hills, aiming for the tallest hill around. They spotted one that would suffice and climbed up. Strider surveyed the landscape before them, disappointed by the unfamiliarity, but pleased that there was no thick forest ahead, only far stretches of grass, flowers, rivers and hills. It was quite beautiful, but he there was no time to admire it. They had to move on.
Suddenly, the sky went dark. Guts and Strider looked up as if the sun had gone out. What they saw was harder to believe than anything either of them saw, ever. 500 feet above them soared a creature of impossible size. It's body was long and thin, comparatively. The shape was similar to that of a snake, but had massive wings that stretched out 50 feet on either side. On it's underside, which is all that the men could see, were two groups of massive inflated sacks of light-bluish color. Amazingly, the creature sailed overhead silently, appearing to glide on it's massive wings, rather than flap them.
Guts would usually say something witty at a new sight, but he was without words this time. Strider kept his usual face, but studied the behemoth as best he could. It was no creature of his world. To him, this proved beyond all doubt that he had somehow exited Middle-Earth.