Chapter 2 The Dream Part One
Verity sighed tiredly as she got ready for bed early. It had been another tiring day, she had just barely managed to finish her transfiguration homework professor Granger had assigned for the next day. And Ariadne…she had been acting weird lately and Verity was going to find out why. She yawned before moving to her bed and closing the curtains. She'd think about Ariadne's troubling behaviour later, when she wasn't so tired. Verity closed her eyes and slipped darkness.
She had been here for days she was sure, maybe years. Verity looked around but all she could see were the same bleak grey surroundings she had been stuck in for days. It was very dark here, and cold, she shivered and it wasn't just from the cold. The ground was covered in ruins as far as her eyes could see, never ending destruction. This place felt evil, and empty as if she could travel forever and see any sign of life. Verity had to get out, she didn't know how but she knew she would die here if she didn't.
Verity had been walking for a long time now and there was still no end in sight. Coming to a crossroads Verity stopped, she didn't know where to go now, she didn't know if it even mattered. She looked to the right, ruins. She looked the left, blinked then gasped. Where before there had been nothing but broken buildings now was a sea of trees. A forest! She was finally out of this place. Her spirits lifting at the sight Verity laughed as she ran . She passed the first row of trees marking the entrance to the dark woods and kept on going at a walking pace, silent now but still happy. She was free!
Eventually Verity realized that something was very wrong here, she didn't know what but the trees…they felt different. Slowing, Verity walked off the path that continued twisting at sharp angles between the trees littered with broken wood and dead branches and leaves, until she couldn't see it anymore, lost in the dark. She stared after it for a moment before moving to a giant oak and placing her hand over its heart. The feeling of wrongness increased ten fold. Usually she could feel the life of the tree, saw it in vibrant colours it was her gift, and her curse Verity realized. How could she have not noticed it as soon as she had entered? The trees were dead, their colours lost in monotonous grey. The trees were screaming in pain and despair, raging against the force that both trapped them and stole their life. Horrified Verity realized exactly why she had been feeling the way she had. The trees were warning her… to run, to escape before it got her too. Stumbling to her feet Verity started to run blindly through the trees, sobbing, her arms covering her face the only protection she had against the thorned branches that scraped and tore her skin as she crashed through the brush. If Verity had taken a moment to look around she might've noticed the path she had been following was gone, replaced by rocky ground and if she had looked harder she would've noticed that she could see the end of the path, indeed, it broke off sharply at the top of a deep crevasse and if she had continued to follow it she would have went over. She probably would have died before she hit the bottom but if she did live that long she would have fallen 5000 miles to her death.