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Jeshi: Time to write up chapter 9 ^-^ I'm SOOO proud of myself! I'm getting so far with my story… T_T too bad barely anyone reads it, lol.
Larry: Meh, they'll read it. They have to in the end! ^_^
Jeshi: -_-; Ha, that's a joke. No one will read it besides Kaira-chan and maybe 2-3 other people… well, other people probably read it, they just don't review, lol @_@
Larry: O_o.. whatever. Anyway, she does not own anything from Mario.
Jeshi: Yeppers.
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Ludwig ran as hard as he could, he pushed himself so much he did not seem to get any faster. But he had to run faster, he had to save his siblings.
He did not know why he was running, or how he had known that his siblings were in any danger, but he had a feeling, a feeling like they needed him. Being the oldest, he felt like he had to help them. So he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, to rescue his younger brothers and his sister.
He was in the castle and running down a long, not so familiar corridor. So far he had not passed any other hallways or any doors for that matter. And the more he ran, the more tired he became. But he kept running.
He slowed down and then stopped after a few more minutes. He looked around. Everything was dark, really dark, and he had not come up to any turns or a door still. Where was he?
" Where am I? " he asked himself, " I seem to be going on forever in here. "
He decided to take a test. He spat on the floor. Satisfied with the little puddle of saliva he had left on the dark stone floor, he began running again. He watched the floor as he ran. He had not passed his spit again. That must mean that he was getting somewhere, right?
He stopped finally, and looked behind him and gasped. The little puddle of spit that he had left behind was still there, and just about five feet away he had assumed. He looked all around him again, completely dazed.
" I've been running in only this one spot for how long now?! " he cried to himself, " this corridor just keeps on going, going nowhere, it is never-ending! "
He spun around and looked at everything that was there, if there were anything TO look at. He could not believe this, he had been running in one spot, he was not going anywhere. It overwhelmed him so much, he closed his eyes tightly, hoping that when he opened them that he would be in another place, somewhere where he would be able to run and walk, make progress to help his siblings… somehow. They needed him, they really needed him, he just knew it. But when he opened his eyes, he had done nothing but fall forward. It was a small drop, but it felt like he had fallen from the top of the great castle that they lived in. Just as he saw the ground getting closer and quickly, he squinted his eyes tight and got prepared to hit the floor hard and painfully…
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Ludwig had suddenly jumped awake, horrified with the images hat had just projected in his sub-consciousness. He sat up and looked around anxiously, he was not in the never-ending castle hallway, but more of a desert-looking place.
The sky was a deep violet and was scattered with pure white stars. The ground was all sand and extremely dusty, a pale, grey-blue. Everything around him was misty because of the heavy dust on the ground, and everything around him looked dead. It was only lucky that he was not dead!
He slowly rose to his feet, wobbling as he got up. He still felt so drowsy from sleeping. How long had he been out?
HE stared ahead of him, then around him. There was nothing in sight for miles it seemed like. Maybe he was still in the stone castle? Or in a replica of the stone castle, only in a dead desert of… where was he, what was this place anyway?
A puzzled look swept across his face as he stared blankly in to the dark sky, then down at the pale ground.
" It seems to be… some sort of equivalent of the Star Road… but only… this place is less magical and much more lifeless, " he said, examining all the individual grains of blue-grey sand on the ground, though having some difficulty due to the dust everywhere.
He decided to start walking, seeing if he would get anywhere like this or if he was just going to start walking in one spot again forever, and waste energy again, though before it had been in his dreams. But one of his even more major concerns was walking around in circles, and in such a place it would not be very hard to do so. Luckily the ground was so dusty that whenever he took a step he left a footprint in the sand. Now it was all a matter of being able to see the footprints in the ground afterwards.
He sighed. It seemed as though there was no way for him to ever get back to the castle, if there even was a way. And what was he to do about his siblings? Though it was only a dream, he was sure that they needed him. And he did not know how he had gotten here or how to get back out. And even now, he definitely did not know if he would live here either.
He rubbed his eyes. He wondered if his siblings were okay. He left them all alone and with Melinda too, and Dad was leaving as well! They would have no one to help them. All he could do now was hope, and try to find a way back home, somehow. He opened his eyes and stared ahead in one direction. Well, he was never going to get anything done with just standing there. If he was planning on helping out his little siblings, he had to do something. So started walking in the direction he was facing, hoping that he was not going to start walking around in circles.
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He walked for maybe what it seemed like an eternity. He checked the ground often, and the good thing was, he apparently was not going around in circles. But as for walking in one spot, he was not yet sure.
But something was actually very strange while he was walking. This place seemed to make him more tired than he usually would have been. He felt like he wanted to curl up and go to sleep again. As he was walking, he could feel his eye lids drooping, they wanted to close, he wanted them to close, he wanted to sleep…
He jerked himself awake suddenly. This was no time to sleep, he had to keep going. So far he had not yet found anything new, nothing but endless miles of blue and grey sand. And did this place ever show a sun? It always seemed to be dark, night time out. It was then that he decided to do the same test in his conscious mind as he had done in his dream. He had spat on the ground, and then continued walking. After some minutes, he stopped and looked back. It was not there. He smiled.
" Okay, that must mean that I AM getting somewhere… right? " he looked around. He tried to reassure himself that he would find a way to get food and water and to get back home. But until then, he was so tired, he just wanted to drift off into a doze.
He yawned loudly, and then let himself fall on the ground sleepily. Why was he so tired? Was it the dust, was it the fact that this place was always night? Or was he just… really tired?
He could feel his eyes dropping again until they just finally shut on him…
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He was back in the dark stoned castle. He looked around again, there was nothing still but the darkness and the… well, stoned walls and floors, not surprisingly.
Ludwig spat on the ground again and started walking down the hallway again. After another few minutes of walking, he looked back to see that his spit was still sitting on the floor. He growled angrily. WHY could he not get anywhere?!
He sat down, frustrated. He had gone back to sleep, and this was the dream he had again. Why?
" Grrrr… WHY?! " Ludwig yelled, then raised an eyebrow. The yell did not echo. Did that mean that he was not even in a hallway? Well, he obviously was not, because this WAS his dream…
It was his dream?! Then how did he KNOW it was his dream if he was sleeping? He looked around frenziedly.
" I know I'm dreaming… I know in my dream that I have had this dream before, I can remember it all… why? It is nothing but something in our sub- conscious minds, it cannot hurt us… or can it? " he said to himself. He pondered on this for a moment, then reluctantly took one of his claws and dig it into his other arm and scratched it. He let out a silent " ow " and then examined where had scratched his arm. It hurt, clearly in his dreams it was hurting.
" What?! WHY… HOW can it hurt?! " Ludwig exclaimed, still staring at his arm. He shook his head and closed his eyes again. When he opened them, he was again falling forwards. And just as he was about to hit the floor…
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Again, Ludwig woke up with a start. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. That was too weird. He was sleeping, he was dreaming, and he knew it, his sub- consciousness knew it. But he wanted to know how and why.
It was then that he felt a stinging feeling. He winced at it and then looked down at his arm to see the scratch that he had placed upon himself. His eyes went wide.
" But… I had given that to myself in my dream… how could it have really happened? " he asked, then looked around, " this place is weird… very weird. " He stared down at the ground again.
" And I woke up again the same way too. I fell in my dream and woke up… after I had closed my eyes? "
He was going to get up, but then just sat on the ground and gazed at the sand grains again, contemplating on about his strange dream again. Not one thing about it made sense, at least to him. Why would he have been taken back to the same dream he had had before? He looked up with a questionable look on his face.
" Could I have gone back to the same dream as before because it was still fresh in my mind? That I was so focused on it that it had taken me back? " he asked, then shook his head, " no. No, that's just being stupid. That couldn't have happened… could it? "
He had not realised it but he was actually starting to feel tired again. He was also hungry, and thirsty. He curled up on the ground and yawned loudly and closed his eyes.
" Ohhh… WHY am I so tired? " he groaned, and then drifted off to sleep yet again.
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Ludwig had yet again found himself in the same stoned hallway. He stomped his feet angrily.
" WHY DO I KEEP COMING BACK HERE?! " he growled fiercely. He started running down the hallway again.
" Come on… come on… you HAVE to go SOMEWHERE! " he repeated furiously. He ran as hard as he could, and pushed himself hard. He was going to close his eyes and continue running, but had decided not to risk it seeing as how he would just fall over and end the dream. Instead he pushed himself so hard that he was almost falling over himself. He could not remember the last time he had ever run so hard and fast, and how tired he had ever felt from running!
It was then that he had tripped over his own feet. He went sprawling and landed hard on the floor. He lay there, wincing in pain, but keeping not to keep his eyes closed for long. He painfully forced himself up and sat there rubbing his chin.
" Grrrr… WHY am I here?! " he yelled, frustrated, " WHY do I keep coming back here?! Why to this place, why?! What do I do to get out of here?! What do I do to get back home to help my siblings, what do I have to do?!?!? "
He breathed heavily and continued to stare around at the walls and floors again, even the ceiling, anywhere and everywhere for a clue… some way to get out of this hallway. He turned behind him to the wall.
" Maybe the wall is fake? " he questioned. He got up and knocked on the wall. Solid through and through. He cursed silently and looked up at the ceiling. Was there a trick with the ceiling? He ignored it seeing as how he could not and had no object to get up to the ceiling. He got to his knees and started trying to pull the stones out of the floor.
" C'mon, c'mon… one of you MUST be some kind of trick switch, right? "
After a few minutes of no luck whatsoever, he fell backwards and sighed irritably. His stomach rumbled. He was hungry now, very hungry. He groaned.
" Oh, great. Now I'm hungry too… " He complained. It was then he turned and looked to see something… odd ahead. What was it? It was against one of the walls. His eyes had suddenly gone wide with astonishment as he jumped up.
" A door?! " he cried. He ran ahead to it. He stopped in front of the door and stared at it. It was quite a large door, a polished wood, sort of like a dungeon door. He looked around and then cautiously turned the dark doorknob. With a loud creak and a small shove, the door opened, revealing… the desert he had been outside of his dreams.
He stopped as soon as he had gotten outside the door.
" What? Hey, why am I back out here? " he asked. He turned back to the door, but before he could go back in through it, it had closed shut on him. He went to go open it, but it had just vanished into a purple mist that gently floated away.
" The door… it just disappeared!! " he said, wide-eyed, " could that mean… that there is no way out of here for me? Did that hallway really end? Or did it just do what I do when I close my eyes too long? Maybe… I can't touch the doors either? "
He then turned around to see a tree a few ways in the distance. A tree? What was a tree doing out there? He ran over towards it, then stopped and stared. There was a tree there, and it seemed to have some a fruit of some sort growing on it. Beside the tree was a little pond what it seemed like, only without living things in it. He walked right up to the tree and put his hand on it. Staring up at it, he did not know what to do, all he did was stare.
" So… now what? How did I get here? Why is there a tree here, and water? " he asked, and continued looking up at the tree. He then looked down at the water, and took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and let himself fall again…
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He awoke yet again and sat up sleepily. He rubbed his eyes and then slowly opened them up. What he saw amazed him.
He was still in the dark, dead desert, but just some feet away from where he sat was the same tree he saw in his dream, and the little pool of water too.
" How did that… how could that have happened?! " Ludwig scrambled to his feet and ran to the tree and the little pool.
He smiled, it was just like in his dream. The tree grew, what it looked like, some kind of food, a kind of fruit he assumed. At least, that's what he had guessed it was in his dream. And the water was there too, of course. He looked at his reflection in the water. He thought he had looked somewhat different. How, he could not explain, nor did his mind even know how he had changed, but he felt like he had in some way. He shrugged, then got to his knees. Cupping his hands, he dipped them in the water and then guzzled it down. Wow, it was drinkable! Satisfied, he fell back and laughed.
" I don't know why I'm laughing… there is no need, and this is not the time to be doing so either! But it just… the thought of a pool of water, drinking water for that matter, and a tree with another growing plant on it in a dead desert is just absurd! " he rolled around, closed his eyes and continued to laugh.
He opened his eyes with a sigh and fixed his eyes on the deep violet sky plastered with the many bright burning stars. He felt so calm with this sight, he was tired again unsurprisingly, but he did not let himself fall asleep again. He just stared up at the sky and smiled contently, the sky made him feel happy, and carefree for some reason.
It was then that he had remembered his siblings and had jumped up, shaking. What was he doing, just laying around here laughing, having fun, when for all he knew his siblings could have been dead at that time! He then again had set his brain to work in order ( a/n: Hey, look. I made a joke ^-^… sorta.. ) to devise a plan that would hopefully get him back to the castle and before something had happened… or before anything else happened for that matter.
He then remembered his grumbling stomach, and gazed hungrily at the food up in the tree. But how did he know if it was edible or not?
" I wish I would have tested it in my dream, " Ludwig said aloud to himself, " but I don't see how that could be possible. "
He thought more about this as he continued to watch intently as the fruit hung by its thin stem. It was only seconds later when he looked down at the pool of water again.
" I should be able to eat it, right? I mean, I was able to drink the water… " he slowly explained to himself, though he was having quite a few problems trying to convince himself this being possible.
He resumed gazing at the foodstuff up in the tree yet again. It looked okay, but he was not sure about it still. This food seemed to be in the shape of a pear, only orange.
He had slowly come in reach of the tree and put his hands on it. He looked up and down the tree, examining the shape and thickness of it.
" It does not seem to be very big… I should be able to just shake it out, " he muttered. He gripped the tree tightly and gave a hard and steady shake to the tree. The strange food object had shaken madly, still clinging onto the stem on its top by what it seemed like just a thread. So Ludwig tried to shake the tree again, yet it did not come out.
" That doesn't seem right, " he said, " it should be able to just come out of there… I wonder why it won't fall out? " He looked around the trunk of the tree. There was no way for him to climb up even. And if there were, he would not have wanted to climb up there anyway. He silently growled and continued to study the tall structure of horrible nature. ( a/n: take note that at this time nature DID actually seem horrible to Ludwig at that time. Why? Well, YOU tell ME why!! Lol ) After another few minutes of staring up at the tree yet again, he gripped the tree tightly yet again and gave the tree a mighty shake in anger. Instead of being difficult again, the food actually had fallen out of the tree and landed with a soft thud. Apparently proud of himself, he walked over to it and picked it up. Now all he hoped was that it was worth it, could he eat it?
He dug his claws into it, it felt quite squishy inside. He tore it open and saw that the inside was a deep red-orange, and very juicy. It had also had a very very sweet scent to it.
He ran his finger along the inside of it, hesitated, then very cautiously licked the red substance off his finger. It had not also smelled sweet, but he had found that it also had tasted very sweet as well.
Ludwig smiled, happy with the fact that this "fruit" would not kill him. He decided to call it a fruit, seeing as how it tasted very sugary, but not real sugar, natural sugars - like fruits.
He sat down and rested his back on the tree, and slowly ate the fruit. Another thing he had found out about this fruit was that it was also very sticky, like watermelon when it is very runny itself. That was no problem though, he could just rinse his hands in the water afterwards.
He gobbled down the rest of the fruit, washed his hands and face ( it had become such a mess when he was eating it ) and then curled up against the tree again. He was no longer hungry or thirsty, so that was a problem solved, two problems solved for now at least. Ludwig had then looked up at the sky.
" When did the sun set? Does it even set here? Then again… where is the sun!? Is there even a sun here?! Why am I blabbing on like Morton?! " he cried.
Ludwig had then jumped up.
" I need to find a way back to the castle and quick!! Before something happens to them! " he yelled, and then started running. Dust flew into a cloudy, dense mist as he frantically ran, his legs flying everywhere.
What was he going to accomplish by running like this? He really did not know actually. But he did as he had done before so many times, and kept running as fast as he could. It was after that he had looked back. The pool of water and the tree were gone. So, he was getting somewhere, just as before. That served as a relief to him, but also a panic. Because where was he, he STILL did not know!
He stopped and fell tiredly to his knees. He had ran away from possibly his only chance of survival. He was so angry with himself that he let out a fierce growl and collapsed on his back. He then sighed and stared back up at the stars.
Still staring at the stars, he realised that he had met his match. He could not think of a way out of this… or could he? If he could, it could be an eternity before he came up with the answer he was looking for, and by then it could be too late.
" So… what do I do now? " he slowly asked himself, and again let himself drift off into another crazy dream.
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Jeshi: OH GOD!! OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD!! * *kicks herself, then glares at her fic, then at her calendar, then at her homework, and then at everything else that has kept her from writing her story (ies)* _ That's it…. REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY!!! I WILL TAKE AS LONG AS I WANT TO WRITE THE NEXT CHAPTER!!!
Larry: O_O!! I think you've gone insane…
Jeshi: Maybe I have, and maybe I haven't, either way… I AM MAD!!!! * *sigh* I've had school, ENDLESS amounts of homework, work, basketball scorekeeping, I have to STILL get my Learners' License validated before the 17th, CATERING CATERING AND MORE CATERING AT MY MOM'S RESTAURANT!! @_@ Dude, I can't WAIT for the Christmas ( "Winter" for you people who do not celebrate Christmas) holidays!!! T_T I'm gonna need the break... BADLY.
Larry: O_O… wow, you've been busy.
Jeshi: T_T Yeah, * Yet my dear mother seems to think that I've been living on my computer and drawing for the past 2 weeks! Now honestly, WHEN HAVE I BEEN ABLE TO GO ON THE COMPUTER?!!? HUH?!!? Sure, I've been on, but I have not been "living" on it, I mean, HOW can someone live on their computer if they've been on for only TWO AND A HALF HOURS IN THREE DAYS?!?!! O_O* OH!!! And the LAST time I have actually drawn something was at the beginning of November, or the end of October!! ONE WHOLE MONTH! @_@ Blegh… I'm starting to not have a life… and Kaira-chan and I haven't gone to Khafon in the LONGEST time!! T_T Kaira-chan! He's gonna think we died or something!! Lol
Larry: *sneaks away*
Jeshi: _ FINE! FINE, GO AHEAD AND LEAVE, I WILL JUST WHALLOP IN MY OWN SELF PITY!! Jkin, I won't do that. @_@ ^-^ Actually, I'm lucky that I have even HAD just the LITTLEST amount of time on the computer!! O_O At least I was actually able to get my chapter done… *glares at fic which she will now use reverse psychology in hopes of getting the next chapter done faster* and I'll just take my sweet-ass time getting the next chapter done, so don't hope on reading it for another month or two!! *laughs* hehehehe…that'll do. XD
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