Chapter 8: For All 6 Senses
Ixias whirled around as a scream was lodged in her throat. She choked on her own escaping breath.
Empty. Nothingness.
Vast.
There was no one behind her. Nothing. Not a squirrel, not a bird. She hadn't realized that the symphony of the birds had ceased. She was too wrapped up in her own thoughts.
Breaking into a run, Ixias bolted senselessly and wildly down the path. The stream burbled and murmured ceaselessly a few hundred yards to her left as she ran for her life. Something was following her. Something was watching her. She couldn't see them, but oh yes, they could see her just fine.
She lost her breath in ragged gasps as she bent over, huffing and puffing whilst leaning against an oak tree. Its leaves swayed peacefully, creating a soft rustle that somehow lightened her thudding heart. She looked back behind her and saw nothing but the path and the forest on both sides. Streams of sunlight cascaded nonchalantly down into the woodland, but less frequently as they had when she first arrived. The area grew darker as she neared her destination, both outside of her eyes and inside her soul.
She continued on wearily, having traveled almost two and a half miles whilst sipping her bottle of water cautiously. The silence was broken only by the rustling of the winds. Even the silly forest creatures knew better than to walk the path.
Somewhere down the path, the whisper of soft voices floated somewhere on the breeze. Ixias could barely make out the voices, but she flattened herself against a thick maple trunk and listened quietly.
".. Pollutants? .. Never . some."
Only some words made themselves comprehensible on that exposing wind, but Ixias knew it was enough to remain quiet and out of sight until the voices faded away.
". Shifts. seen it?. stars and shit. fucked up. lost his job." The distant sound of leaves crunching under footsteps slowly faded off towards the south, as did the voices. Guards were on duty in the near area to keep watch over the enigma. One guard had apparently abandoned his post to chat momentarily with a neighboring watch, during which Ixias had time to slip through unnoticed.
The footsteps stopped, and the voices took on a tone of apprehension.
". hear that?"
". no. would come here."
Ixias drew in a sharp breath, and made a split-second decision to flee as fast as her legs could carry her. No looking back.
She took off in a sprint straight down the path, all the while cautiously avoiding large piles of dead leaves and branches and twigs strewn about. Her flight was, for the most part, swift and silent.
She eventually came out of breath upon a crooked, warped sign pointing off to the north and east. Jasmine Pond, .4m it read. She was unusually close for the distance she had run, justifying the unusual tightness in her chest and the pursuit of her potential incapacitators. The sound of distant footsteps crunching through the dead leaves grew louder and drew nearer. Fuck oh fuck oh fuck! She mentally wailed. Swirling around 360 degrees several times and surveying the scene about her, a pair of nearly unnoticeable dots somewhere down the path came into view. Without an instant to spare she took off again, almost as if by habit, almost as if by force.
Twigs snapped and leaves crunched incessantly under her softly sprinting feet. Even in her panic she was fluid and graceful, lightly stepping to avoid too much noise and carefully ambling around the obstacles in her way. After a few moments, she felt the air grow thick and. different. It expanded and warmed, sank and cooled in various areas, completely defying all that she had learned in meteorology and astronomy. She slowed herself some 5 minutes later after her brisk sprint, hoping she was far enough ahead to catch a breath. Her lungs cried for mercy, and guzzling her water bottle, she decided to take a short rest. The path had curved strongly away from the straightaway, which shielded her for the time being. She leaned against a large boulder and recovered impatiently, furiously glancing at her watch. She decided to continue on after a brief 30 seconds of nervous anxiety. Ixias gathered herself together and continued at a hurried pace down the path, narrowly avoiding several puddles of muck and protruding tree roots jutting out of the ground. She was lost in her own thoughts when her foot suddenly plunged through the dirt up to her knee.
"Holy shit!" She cried, furiously tugging at her leg. Her leg was buried in what appeared to be solid earth. How could the ground give way? Had she found a sinkhole?
When she budged her foot free and brushed the clumps of dirt away from her pants, she peered curiously down into the hole. A few chunks of dust and rock tumbled down into the completely black hole. The sound of pebbles clattering against the bottom never came to her ears. It was endless. A bottomless pit.
What the. she wondered. She leaned back timidly from the hole, trying to make sense of what just happened. Just trying to figure out the physics of what had just happened made her brain hurt. Remembering the task at hand and the possibility of enemies not so far behind her, she didn't dare ask questions so soon and nerve-wrackingly continued on.
A few moments later, Ixias came upon another anomaly.
She smacked her face nose-first into an invisible nothing.
She had walked into a dead wall of air.
She peered straight through the air, and could see absolutely nothing blocking her way. The path veered off to the left up ahead, and she could see all around her without a problem. But something was in her way. Something she couldn't see, but could definitely feel. She rubbed her nose in confusion and pain, and pressed her hand up against the invisible barrier. It was solid nothing. Not cold, not hot. She couldn't explain the texture, but it felt like. like nothing. She could feel the air all around her, and she could feel the solidity of the. object. but she couldn't feel it.
Like a mime, she felt her way around the wall. Finding an empty pocket, she plunged her hand through the air along the side of it. The consistency of the air mess resembled watery Jell-O. She pulled her hand back as if she had been given a nasty electrical shock, and her eyes widened at the prospect.
"What the fuck is going on?" She cursed to no one in particular, feeling offended, disturbed and intrigued at the same time. Looking around cautiously to see if anyone had had heard her, she pushed her hand through the air around the right side of the barrier and again felt as if she was thrusting her hand through Jell-O. The air was a solid, runny texture.
She stood for a few moments, pondering what to do. The wall extended beyond the full length of her arms for goodness knows how high. There was no opening on the left side, and it extended horizontally for an unknown length. She had been lucky to find an opening. Knowing she had no choice, she sucked in a deep breath and plunged into the abyss. Her body instantly felt an altered sense of pressure and gravity - she slowed the moment she made contact with the substance, hardly able to move. Her body was almost anti-animated as she struggled to move through the area. It was like trying to run on the floor of an ocean - nearly impossible, unbalanced and erratic. She pushed herself through as the mass, clawing frantically at the end. It pushed itself against her skin, slapping and sliding against her bare flesh and clinging to her clothing, holding her back and applying physical forces in the opposite direction of which she was traveling. She was almost unable to breathe as her lungs constricted in defiance and protest against the new environment.
With a desperate surge of strength, she was finally birthed on the other side of the amass. Her hair stuck together in messy and frizzy clumps, gobs and chunks of nothingness clinging to her clothing. She checked her entire body twice over feverishly, looking for any signs of change or mutations. None. She was fine.
Ixias shook herself free of whatever remained of the air that clung to her. The air released itself from her clothing and she breathed normally again. She would never again experience such a new and frightening feeling. She nervously ran a shaky hand through her hair, which had the consistency of bone-dry and soaked at the same time. It took her a few moments to get it back to its usual straight and beautiful nature. After regaining her nearly lost composure, she stood for a moment and pondered just what in the high holy hell had happened.
Ixias whirled around as a scream was lodged in her throat. She choked on her own escaping breath.
Empty. Nothingness.
Vast.
There was no one behind her. Nothing. Not a squirrel, not a bird. She hadn't realized that the symphony of the birds had ceased. She was too wrapped up in her own thoughts.
Breaking into a run, Ixias bolted senselessly and wildly down the path. The stream burbled and murmured ceaselessly a few hundred yards to her left as she ran for her life. Something was following her. Something was watching her. She couldn't see them, but oh yes, they could see her just fine.
She lost her breath in ragged gasps as she bent over, huffing and puffing whilst leaning against an oak tree. Its leaves swayed peacefully, creating a soft rustle that somehow lightened her thudding heart. She looked back behind her and saw nothing but the path and the forest on both sides. Streams of sunlight cascaded nonchalantly down into the woodland, but less frequently as they had when she first arrived. The area grew darker as she neared her destination, both outside of her eyes and inside her soul.
She continued on wearily, having traveled almost two and a half miles whilst sipping her bottle of water cautiously. The silence was broken only by the rustling of the winds. Even the silly forest creatures knew better than to walk the path.
Somewhere down the path, the whisper of soft voices floated somewhere on the breeze. Ixias could barely make out the voices, but she flattened herself against a thick maple trunk and listened quietly.
".. Pollutants? .. Never . some."
Only some words made themselves comprehensible on that exposing wind, but Ixias knew it was enough to remain quiet and out of sight until the voices faded away.
". Shifts. seen it?. stars and shit. fucked up. lost his job." The distant sound of leaves crunching under footsteps slowly faded off towards the south, as did the voices. Guards were on duty in the near area to keep watch over the enigma. One guard had apparently abandoned his post to chat momentarily with a neighboring watch, during which Ixias had time to slip through unnoticed.
The footsteps stopped, and the voices took on a tone of apprehension.
". hear that?"
". no. would come here."
Ixias drew in a sharp breath, and made a split-second decision to flee as fast as her legs could carry her. No looking back.
She took off in a sprint straight down the path, all the while cautiously avoiding large piles of dead leaves and branches and twigs strewn about. Her flight was, for the most part, swift and silent.
She eventually came out of breath upon a crooked, warped sign pointing off to the north and east. Jasmine Pond, .4m it read. She was unusually close for the distance she had run, justifying the unusual tightness in her chest and the pursuit of her potential incapacitators. The sound of distant footsteps crunching through the dead leaves grew louder and drew nearer. Fuck oh fuck oh fuck! She mentally wailed. Swirling around 360 degrees several times and surveying the scene about her, a pair of nearly unnoticeable dots somewhere down the path came into view. Without an instant to spare she took off again, almost as if by habit, almost as if by force.
Twigs snapped and leaves crunched incessantly under her softly sprinting feet. Even in her panic she was fluid and graceful, lightly stepping to avoid too much noise and carefully ambling around the obstacles in her way. After a few moments, she felt the air grow thick and. different. It expanded and warmed, sank and cooled in various areas, completely defying all that she had learned in meteorology and astronomy. She slowed herself some 5 minutes later after her brisk sprint, hoping she was far enough ahead to catch a breath. Her lungs cried for mercy, and guzzling her water bottle, she decided to take a short rest. The path had curved strongly away from the straightaway, which shielded her for the time being. She leaned against a large boulder and recovered impatiently, furiously glancing at her watch. She decided to continue on after a brief 30 seconds of nervous anxiety. Ixias gathered herself together and continued at a hurried pace down the path, narrowly avoiding several puddles of muck and protruding tree roots jutting out of the ground. She was lost in her own thoughts when her foot suddenly plunged through the dirt up to her knee.
"Holy shit!" She cried, furiously tugging at her leg. Her leg was buried in what appeared to be solid earth. How could the ground give way? Had she found a sinkhole?
When she budged her foot free and brushed the clumps of dirt away from her pants, she peered curiously down into the hole. A few chunks of dust and rock tumbled down into the completely black hole. The sound of pebbles clattering against the bottom never came to her ears. It was endless. A bottomless pit.
What the. she wondered. She leaned back timidly from the hole, trying to make sense of what just happened. Just trying to figure out the physics of what had just happened made her brain hurt. Remembering the task at hand and the possibility of enemies not so far behind her, she didn't dare ask questions so soon and nerve-wrackingly continued on.
A few moments later, Ixias came upon another anomaly.
She smacked her face nose-first into an invisible nothing.
She had walked into a dead wall of air.
She peered straight through the air, and could see absolutely nothing blocking her way. The path veered off to the left up ahead, and she could see all around her without a problem. But something was in her way. Something she couldn't see, but could definitely feel. She rubbed her nose in confusion and pain, and pressed her hand up against the invisible barrier. It was solid nothing. Not cold, not hot. She couldn't explain the texture, but it felt like. like nothing. She could feel the air all around her, and she could feel the solidity of the. object. but she couldn't feel it.
Like a mime, she felt her way around the wall. Finding an empty pocket, she plunged her hand through the air along the side of it. The consistency of the air mess resembled watery Jell-O. She pulled her hand back as if she had been given a nasty electrical shock, and her eyes widened at the prospect.
"What the fuck is going on?" She cursed to no one in particular, feeling offended, disturbed and intrigued at the same time. Looking around cautiously to see if anyone had had heard her, she pushed her hand through the air around the right side of the barrier and again felt as if she was thrusting her hand through Jell-O. The air was a solid, runny texture.
She stood for a few moments, pondering what to do. The wall extended beyond the full length of her arms for goodness knows how high. There was no opening on the left side, and it extended horizontally for an unknown length. She had been lucky to find an opening. Knowing she had no choice, she sucked in a deep breath and plunged into the abyss. Her body instantly felt an altered sense of pressure and gravity - she slowed the moment she made contact with the substance, hardly able to move. Her body was almost anti-animated as she struggled to move through the area. It was like trying to run on the floor of an ocean - nearly impossible, unbalanced and erratic. She pushed herself through as the mass, clawing frantically at the end. It pushed itself against her skin, slapping and sliding against her bare flesh and clinging to her clothing, holding her back and applying physical forces in the opposite direction of which she was traveling. She was almost unable to breathe as her lungs constricted in defiance and protest against the new environment.
With a desperate surge of strength, she was finally birthed on the other side of the amass. Her hair stuck together in messy and frizzy clumps, gobs and chunks of nothingness clinging to her clothing. She checked her entire body twice over feverishly, looking for any signs of change or mutations. None. She was fine.
Ixias shook herself free of whatever remained of the air that clung to her. The air released itself from her clothing and she breathed normally again. She would never again experience such a new and frightening feeling. She nervously ran a shaky hand through her hair, which had the consistency of bone-dry and soaked at the same time. It took her a few moments to get it back to its usual straight and beautiful nature. After regaining her nearly lost composure, she stood for a moment and pondered just what in the high holy hell had happened.