Preface (I-III)
By Glake Micole Riuno
© 2014 Glake Micole Riuno
All rights reserved. This book or any portion
thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Section I: Orientation, Scene I:
The Discovery
Autumn has always been my favorite season, here in Wudwurn. The fresh smell of the crisp leaves on the sidewalks & street corners, the cool early morning air that always creped through my window seals, and of course, the bright & vibrant colors of the leaves that greeted me from every tree, each morning I flicked open the blinds on my windows. It was a peaceful season here in Wudwurn, for most that is. For us young ones however, it meant going back to school and spending most of these perfect picture day's inside of a building for hours staring at a chalk board, or sheets of paper.
I was never for it, never will be. I was never the studious type but that had not mattered, for I was simply smart enough to get by in school. Not genius smart, to the event where I would never have to do any homework because I Aced every test, but more "lucky smart", the kind where you just happen to be "spot on" majority of the time. But despite my successfulness in the classroom, I still hated to be there, every moment. So with that said, my job here is not too tell you much about the happenings during those long hours in a classroom, but instead to tell you about the several hours spent out of school, that changed things forever.
Ever since I can remember, the colder seasons have always been my calling to enjoy the outside. I've always hated the heat; therefore, during summer days I often just stayed inside and relaxed alongside the company of my air-conditioned living room. My mother often urged me to get up and go out, sometimes even forced, but that never actually ended up changing my overall outlook on the season. But now, autumn had arrived, and nothing was going to stop me from finally being able to enjoy the beautiful outdoors, something I had longed to do since the beginning of summer. It was early October here in Wudwurn, and mid-afternoon on the first day of the season I decided to finally go out, and get some fresh air. I lived in a nice neighborhood, calm & peaceful, for the most part, and surrounded by trees that every autumn were bound to give you that colorful viewing fix you'd been dreaming off all Summer long. The actual housing area was entitled, "Wudwurn Woods", though; it wasn't as densely populated with trees, as you would imagine a place with "woods" in the title would be. But it definitely had its areas, and I was one to soon find that out.
I had just gotten out of school, right off the bus to be exact. I was still carrying quite heavy material in my backpack, books and such, so the exploring was much more strenuous than I originally intended it to be. I didn't go too far, just to one specific place that had caught my eye a few weeks earlier, on the way to school.
Our bus route was different this year, generally after picking me up from a certain corner, it would continue straight down the road, going on its way, traveling several more blocks down. But this year it changed, and for that I'm grateful. From the right of the corner I waited on every morning, lied a sort of cul-de-sac, which only a few houses reside on. Oddly enough, this cul-de-sac was now a required stop on my buses route this year, even though only one person waited at this stop. I could see why it was necessary, because the cul-de-sac was just far enough to be completely out of view of the bus stop, in which I waited at, along with a few others, to the point where you wouldn't even be able to tell if the bus was coming or not by viewing down the street; the cul-de-sac was also quite nicely completely out of view from my house, which the importance of that I will share with you later. But where I was going too, wasn't exactly the cul-de-sac, though it's entrance was in-fact on the cul-de-sac, right across from a strange empty house, which also lied on the small street. The entrance was quite small, to the point where I'm actually pretty shocked that I caught glimpse of it while riding in the bus, considering my vision is not exactly on par with average. I thought of it as a forest opening, even though, I hadn't actually went inside of the opening yet, to determine if it were an actual forest or not, but the opening, as well as the surroundings, from both sides were surrounded by trees. Not to mention the opening looked pretty dark, so I was absolutely positive beyond the opening lied nothing but trees as well.
I walked slowly down the street quietly, it wasn't until I caught glimpse of the forest opening, that a very eerie feeling begin to creep over me. I walked slowly up to the opening, clueless as to what I was going to find. I had no weapons of any sort on me, so if I were even by chance trespassing the home of a fox, wolf, coyote, or even a person, they'd pretty much be able to do anything they'd like with me, for as long as I could not fend them off with my own two hands at least, and well yeah, I guess the bag on my back as well. The entrance was dark, just as I expected, not pitch black dark, but dark enough to the point where the sun sure had a hard time making its way through the thick trees. Just as I began to continue forward in, I noticed I had to carefully make my way down a very steep hill, which surprisingly was right at the entrance. "Wow, this goes way down" I said to myself. It wasn't exactly fatally steep, but steep enough to the point where if you weren't careful, you'd definitely be rolling down, maybe even face first, instead of stumbling. Thankfully, there were small sturdy trees, bushes, and branches I could grasp too make the journey down a bit easier. It took about 2 minutes of careful footing until I finally made my way down to the bottom. "Thank God, flat land!" I mumbled to myself, as I began to continue deeper into the woods, which was more of what it was now, instead of a forest. As I continued to walk, I noticed there was a ton of flat ground from where I stood, and from where the land began to rise on both the far left and right sides. It was almost as if the entire area was dug out by some sort of giant machine, or stomped on by a giant shoe. It was peaceful down here, colorful leaves lie on the ground, and hung everywhere, and birds chirping happily could be heard from the above.
As I continued to make my way down the trail, one thing came to mind. Where were the animals? I didn't spot a single deer, nor squirrel, fox, raccoon, wolf, coyote, bear, you name it. Only the birds, which I hadn't even actually now that I think of it, only heard, not saw. After roughly two more minutes of steady walking, I came across a large fallen tree, quite huge, and it lay right in the way, disabling me from being able to continue down the open pathway. This tree covered the entire wide span of ground in which I discussed earlier, the only way I'd be able to get pass it, would be either to climb over it, or travel back up the steep hills on either side. Instead, I decided to climb over it. Which now that I think of it, was a stupid idea; considering the weight that I was also carrying on my back. It was a tough climb up, and a rough jump back down on the other side. But it wasn't until I landed, did I finally realize this adventure was over. As I slowly walked forward, I began to hear the noise of something softly gliding across what sounded like street pavement in the distance. Once I walked even swifter forward, I noticed it was the end of the line for me, or so I thought at the time. The entire trail lead to nothing but another street, another cul-de-sac, to be exact. I looked to both my far left and right and also noticed on top of the steep hills on both sides, lay houses, very nice ones at that, so I began to worry. "Damn, I'm probably on their property" I thought to myself. It was at that time I decided I no longer wanted to be on that side of the tree, for if someone were to spot a kid, wearing a backpack, on their property, I could only assume they'd think I were up to no good. So that was that, I quickly hopped up on the fallen tree, and climbed my way back over. Once I landed on the other side, a gentle breeze blew through the entire woods, and not too far ahead of me a group of fresh fallen, vibrant leaves, dancing in the wind. It was at this time that I decided I wasn't exactly ready to leave the area quite yet. So I made myself comfortable on the ground, while leaning against the large fallen tree, unzipped my backpack, and began working on my assigned homework for the night.
Now, you're probably thinking, "Why exactly does it matter that you traveled into some mysterious woods, only to find nothing but a fallen tree?" And trust me you, I wouldn't blame you for thinking that at all, but that small journey wasn't even the introductory to those woods after all that happened the following day.
The next morning I woke wide awake, more awake than usual, I always hated getting up early, but today was different because of the fact that I had managed to get my homework done quite early the previous day in the woods, whereas usually, I'd find myself up considerably late at night working carelessly to finish it all. I looked forward to some early social interaction that morning on the bus, so as soon as I was picked up at my stop, I got on board and plopped down in a seat next to me friend Amy. "Hellloooo Towaile!" she greeted in a cheerful, yet dragging on tone, which made me assume she was pretty wide awake as well that morning. "Hey, how's your morning going?" I asked perk-fully. "I'm pretty tired, stayed up pretty late doing this stupid science research assignment with pennies and soda, it was pretty enjoyable until I spilled-" She cut off mid-sentence, just as the bus came to a screeching, jerking, halt. Luckily I had my legs up on the seat so they acted as support; so my body wouldn't go sliding off the seat. At first I assumed someone probably pulled out from their driveway, right in front of the bus, (which usually you should never do unless you’re some professional driver), until I peered out from over my seat to get a glance out the front window, as well as the left side windows on the bus, since I was sitting on the right side. We were on the cul-de-sac, right by the woods, and outside of the bus, stood probably close to twenty deer, all cluelessly wandering, and grazing on grass. Once the other kids on the bus took sight of the animals, they all stood up, and vision of all the deer became pretty hard to see from just sitting down, peering over the side of my seat. Much like the other I soon stood up as well, and since I was above the average height, unlike a lot of the kids on the bus, I could fully see what was going on. The bus driver honked lightly not to be too noisy, but loud enough to give the deer freight, and to have them clear off of the road. They didn't budge much, but once he jerked the bus forward a bit, they began to clear out pretty rapidly. I had never seen that many deer at once in my life, I soon began to wonder if perhaps, there was some sort of main nest nearby, but my wondering was soon put to a cease, as I watched them all, every last one, quickly dart down into the entrance of the woods, the same entrance in which I traveled into the day prior. "I went down into those woods yesterday, and I didn't spot a single deer, where did they all come from?" I asked looking towards Amy. "They were probably at the wrong place at the wrong time maybe, that's probably why they even went down there,” she said glancing out her window. I thought to myself, it made sense, but there were literally no other sort of entry-way to any other sort of woods for blocks down the road, I highly doubted all of those deer wandered the open roads that early in the morning only to reach those one woods. After all, there were roughly twenty of them.
The bus eventually continued on its way, but my mind, from then, during the school day, all the way until the end of the school day, drifted in and out, thinking about the deer from earlier that ran into the woods. I wondered if they'd maybe still possibly be there; it was unlikely however, considering more than seven hours had passed since that encounter, but somehow, I still remain convinced that I were to discover some sort of nest, or remains of a nest later that afternoon after school. Unlike the prior day, I made a stop at home to unload my heavy backpack. I figured any loud noises would scare any living creature away, and since the materials in my bag where both quite heavy, and noisy, as I noticed the day prior, It was in my best interest to leave everything behind. "Where are you headed too Towaile?” my dad asked on the way out. "Just headed outside for a short walk, probably down to the park, and maybe the gas station to get some snacks", I lied right through my teeth. I hurried out the door, and quickly walked towards the cul-de-sac, where the entrance was. It was right at that moment upon my arrival at the entrance, did I feel a bit uncomfortable considering I didn't have a weapon on me once again. Unlike yesterday, this time was a bit worse, considering the fact that if I were to come across a deer nest, I'd more than likely be seen to them as a threat. But it was too late; besides, I thought to myself, that if I were to go back, and grab a knife, club, pole, or something, my dad would think it to be a little fishy. So I gathered up my courage, and began carefully making my way down the steep entrance once again. As I made my way halfway down, I heard several very loud chirps not too far from behind me. It startled me to the point where I ducked quickly and lost footing, I began sliding down the steep entrance uncontrollably, panicking to grab hold of any branch or tree near me, eventually, I caught balance by putting my hands on the ground, they were a little scuffed up due to the quick impact, but nothing even a tad severe. During the entire stumbling session, I managed to look up and notice the loud chirping that came from behind me was in fact a cluster of extremely bright green, vibrant birds, which flew further into the woods. I found it strange that they would be flying so close to the ground instead of making their way in from above, and not only that, but also the fact that these were very vibrant, bright, green birds, in which I've never seen before in Wudwurn, let alone in my entire life. I walked more cautiously down the trail this time around, looking from both sides, carefully, in case I were to perhaps miss glance of any signs of animal life, or nests around. It was so still, for probably the next 3 minutes; no wind, no birds chirping, nothing, my hopes of finding any sort deer, or even a nest had quickly vanished once I spotted the fallen tree once again. I leaned up against it and sighed, disappointed to not find anything out of the ordinary after the encounter with all the deer outside the bus earlier that morning. I climbed to the top of the fallen tree and lay on my back, staring up at the tree-covered sky, and just thought to myself. It was an awesome feeling to discover a place so peaceful and quiet, and I quickly considered it all my own. But as I soon learned, that was all too soon. Several minutes had passed as I daydreamed, just staring up into the above. But suddenly, out of my amazement, several more bright green birds darted out from the direction of the entrance to the woods, swooping low past me, further into woods. I sat up, and looked towards the direction of the end of the woods where the other cul-de-sac lies; I squinted my eyes, but did not see it from that distance. I thought maybe the nest these birds were perhaps headed too, were in fact in that direction, so I hopped down from the top of the fallen tree, and made my way.
As I continued to walk further down the trail, a very odd feeling began to come over me, a feeling as if I were being watched, the trees began to stir up, as a quick breeze blew through the entire woods, I looked all around me only to find nothing. The breeze landed a feeling on my skin, so eerie, I immediately gained Goosebumps, but during this entire time, while all these thoughts and fears were stirring through my head, I had not realized how much further I had actually been walking. The trail began to go on and on, and I swore to myself I should have reached the end by now, where all the houses lie on top of the hills, as well as the cul-de-sac, which actually was the end of the line, as far as the woods were concerned. But none of it came to sight at all. I immediately thought I had to have taken a wrong turn, unknowingly, or perhaps carelessly entered the woods through a different entrance, but that wasn't it. Despite all the thoughts stirring in my head at that moment, I continued down the trail, which went further, and further down. The entire wide open ground, began to bend into more of a hill, and, and the terrain on both of the steeper hills that lie on both my far right and left sides, began to fill with large trees, all covered with bright orange, red, and yellow leaves. I started to continue down the path slowly. I turned for a second just too see how far I've gone, it seemed to have been several minutes since I hopped down from the fallen tree, and it was also nowhere to be in sight. But it was at that moment, that it all began to happen. I took only a few steps more, until I heard a loud sharp snapping noise from one of the trees on my far right. It was loud enough to give me a pretty good startle, so just by natural reaction I quickly darted forward, but that only lasted maybe five steps total until I heard a sturdy voice yell "Take one more step, and this arrow goes right through your heart!" My heart stopped for a few seconds, and so did my body, it remained frozen. I threw up my hands quickly in surrender. I immediately assumed it I was trespassing on another neighbor’s property, and I was absolutely done for this time around. But as I glanced up, hands still in the air, my eyes fixed upon a group of men, lined in array from tree branch to tree branch, holding in-ready-position, giant bows & arrows assembled to shoot at any second. I slowly turned around to my left side, hands still in the air, and noticed from the trees above, even more men standing in array on various tree branches holding Bows and Arrows as well, ready to fire at any second. "You have no right to be wandering down here!" the same man yelled from a tree branch on the far right, "State your business right away!” “I was just exploring, I swear! I had no idea I was on your property!” “I was just trying to reach the cul-de-sac at the end of the woods and-,” "cul-de-sac?” “There is no cul-de-sac here! Lies! Lies! LIES!” The man shouted, as he was quick cut my explanation short. "I beg of you, I wouldn't lie, I was here yesterday and I swear to you, a cul-de-sac marked the end of these woods!" I shouted at the man, I was getting desperate, and those bow and arrows looked awfully dangerous, all of various shapes, sizes and color, they all looked of such great complexity, I could only imagine at that moment the immense pain it would cause me once that arrow reached my skin. The man in the tree glanced towards his fellow, yet smaller comrades, they all nodded at him. He quickly turned his head towards me once again straightening out his back, and sharpening his focus with this bow. I was almost for certain, at that moment, it was over for me. "We cannot allow even possible threats on our land!" The man exclaimed as he rose his bow and arrow, "therefore.” "Now hang on just a moment general!" Shouted a softer voice from somewhere nearby within the woods. I kept my hands up in the air, yet while glancing in all directions, until I noticed a woman in a bright orange dress, with long golden silky hair, and bronze skin, peering out from behind one of the nearby trees. "Milady!?" The tall man in the tree gasped, who in which, I now knew was in fact, some sort of general. The lady calmly raised one hand, and softly demanded "Lower your arrows boy's" And they did just exactly that, I at first didn't even have to look, because I heard the loud sounds of clicking, and shifting on their weapons, all in unison, from both directions. This lady, whoever she was, was obviously of a much higher rank compared to all these men.
She approached me slowly, "Where do you come from my dear?" she asked me in a gentle tone. "I..I'm from Wudwurn, I live right up the street,” I answered honestly, pointing towards the entrance of the woods, even though it was nowhere near in-sight. The men in the trees snickered as I answered, the lady quickly looked up at the general with a more serious look on her face, and the entire army put a cease to their snickering almost immediately. "Milady, why follow us here? We were simply searching food for the big feast and came across this trespassing peasant on the way here, he could be a great threat you!” "Hush Lance!" The lady demanded, "The birds just so happen to inform me of his arrival, but unfortunately not soon enough for me to be able to beat you all here". “The birds!” I thought to myself. I could only imagine she held some sort of gift to speak to animals, and just so happened to speak to the same bright green birds that startled me earlier, as well as flew past me as I was resting on the fallen tree. The woman turned to me once again and put her hand on my shoulder, "Since you are on our property, we are able to do what we'd like with you, until you return back to your world." My eyes widened in shock, "My...world?" I questioned quietly, tilting my head towards her. The woman smiled calmly, while staring at me square in the eyes. This bothered me, for she knew things I did not know at that very moment, and I was sure that close to an hour had passed since I had been gone. I hadn't exactly given a specific time frame as to when I'd be back, but generally walks to get snacks had only taken me close to half an hour at most. The woman looked up at the general, Lance, who now stood quietly in the tree. "We shall take him to my sister, Clarity! She will then decide what we shall do with him!" the woman explained. All the men in the trees made a giant leap down, and landed on both sides of us. Ten of them made their way behind us, and ten in front. I then realized they were doing nothing only but escorting me to the destination the woman had desired to go, keeping an eye on my every move. I couldn't have made a run for it, not without being severely injured, so I made my way along with them, as we all continued to follow the path, as the ground took and even steeper turn, deeper into the woods.
"Preface" Section I: Orientation,
Scene II: Intro to BlueEarth
We all walked down this spiraling path for maybe a few more minutes until a small town came into view. The dirt path I followed earlier, and had been following at the time of the confrontation with the men with arrows, eventually turned into smooth cobblestone road, decorated with gas-lit lampposts on each the sides of the path. Not all of them were lit, but that only made me realize how quickly sundown was approaching. “If I were to perhaps be held hostage here, my family would flip!” I thought to myself. Despite my worries, I didn’t make a fuss, for I did not want to cause any more danger to myself, than of what I had already put myself in. As I followed deeper into the town, I noticed more and more houses, these in which, were actually on flat land, owners peered out from the windows, and the ones outside looked at me curiously and bowed as the woman in the orange dress came more into their view. “What in the world is going on here?” I thought to myself as I witnessed the villagers bowing before her. I was now pretty certain that she was of some high status or importance, which just made me even more uncomfortable.
After spending several minutes gazing around, I hadn’t noticed that the “caving in” of the path vanished, and we were on flat land once again. I also noticed the town was not as small as I first pictured it to be, compared to the distance we were walking from before making the entrance. Extremely tall trees towered around the area we were currently in, but the cobblestone path continued on and on, until a large building came into view. It was extremely large and circular, at the top; a golden dome could be seen. At first I was for sure it had to be some sort sports stadium, but then I reminded myself, that I was apparently in a different world, it would be nothing but foolish to assume the same kind of activity, from my world, happened here in this different world.
After noticing the dome, I was for sure this is where they were taking me, it looked to elegant, fancy, and majestic, to be some sort of place where they would take harmful beings. With that in mind, a sort of calmness came over me. But it wasn’t until the woman in the orange dress spoke to me again, after arriving at the entrance of the circular building, did I begin feeling nervous yet again. “We are here, the home of my sister Clarity, and the Sanctuary to us all!” The woman announced as she smiled at me then turned towards Lance, “Please escort him directly to Clarity, and do not leave him alone unless given order too, understood?” Lance nodded and walked to the entrance; I followed as expected and kept close behind him. He slowly opened the door, and too my amazement lie a large, fancy, dining hall, almost as if Balls, or even weddings, of some high stature where held here on a daily basis. Men in Suits, and Woman in dresses immediately stopped their socializing as I came into their view. “An outsider!” I heard a few of them hiss as I walked by. At that moment, Lance grabbed my arm and quickly rushed me through the crowd of people as it began to thicken, it was hard to see the remainder of the building, but once a clearing in the crowd began to open up, I caught vision of an extremely large staircase, which we were headed for, and two very lar