All around Astel, the glowing plants extended their roots toward the body of the sleeping winged beast. At first the vines moved slowly, cautiously, but as they touched the creature's body they sped up. Swinging from side to side, they broke off the creature's bone helmet and dug deep inside its skull, causing a disturbing gushing sound.
Astel's vision was extremely hazy; his head was spinning like he had just left a merry-go-round. He spun around, terrified of the whipping roots, but instantly came to regret that. A sharp, stinging migraine stopped him from moving anymore. He closed his eyes, shivering as the gushing sounds grew more intense. He huddled himself into a ball and waited — too afraid to move, to keep his eyes open.
After a while the sounds stopped. For a moment there was a sort of serene quiet.
Astel carefully opened his eyes, straightening his body. Lying on his side, he saw dozens of dimly glowing vines sprawling right above him. He instinctively whipped his arm around, attempting to chase the plant life away. The roots stopped, moving back, careful not to get hit by the boy's flailing.
Noticing that the plants feared him, he relaxed.
Slowly turning his head, he scanned his surroundings, but all he could see was the beautiful, vibrant, glowing plant life growing at the bottom of the ravine. Ever since he saw them, he had been weirdly drawn to them. Perhaps he didn't have to end up down here — but he knew that somewhere deep down, he had wanted to.
But why?
The question sat heavy in his mind. Too heavy to consider an answer. First, he needed to do something about this headache.
He pushed himself into a sitting position, but as he did, his back brushed against something stiff and slightly hairy. Out of fright, he pushed himself off the back of the winged beast, sending himself rolling down.
With a thud, he fell onto what he expected to be stone. Instead, the ground crunched and shifted as he landed. It was still hard — almost like stone — but at the same time it felt brittle. Feeling around with his fingers, he sensed smooth, rounded surfaces with holes. Many, many holes.
He tightened his grip around one of the objects and raised it up, feeling the shape properly. It was quite large, with two circular holes around the top and a larger hole down the center. As his fingers traced the shape lower, he felt it.
They were teeth.
It was a skull. Not of a human, but something big — with large, almost tusk-like protrusions.
He instinctively dropped it as soon as he realized what he was holding.
Then it dawned on him. The smell that had been here, that he had only now noticed. The tentacles that had so easily killed that flying beast. The shifting ground.
This was a graveyard.
He carefully looked around, noticing that the plants had all turned to 'look' at him. A bead of sweat rolled down his face. With panicked breath, he began crawling as far away as he could. He could hear the plants moving all around him, racing to be the first to catch the lively prey. The only thing Astel could do was whip the nearest vines away — for some reason, they didn't quite dare to attack him.
Soon he reached an edge where he could climb up and escape the pit of death running down the length of the ravine. Thankfully, the plants didn't seem to grow in this patch — but they were still closely following behind him.
He pulled himself up, dragging his legs behind him.
Wait.
His legs.
He looked down but couldn't see anything in the dark. Instead, he tried moving his stiff legs. There wasn't much feeling — if it wasn't for his mostly healthy hips, he wouldn't be able to tell that they were moving at all. For once, something seemed to be going his way, until he realized what that meant.
If the wounds on his legs had closed, how long had he been here? Hadn't he just woken up from the fall?
The fall.
A thought surfaced in his mind as he started remembering fragments of a strange dream. It was all so foggy, but there was one part he could remember clearly.
"When nothing was bored of nothing, it created something," he mumbled.
"What the fuck does that mean."
His head hurt. He couldn't even begin to think about such complex things. First, he needed to try standing up.
He grabbed onto a nearby wall for support and pulled himself onto his legs. To his amazement, he didn't immediately fall. A part of him was squealing with excitement. He tried taking a step while still holding onto the wall. The plants were watching him closely, still waiting for their opportunity.
A slight smile crept onto Astel's face as he took his first steps in so long. He slowly moved his left leg in front of his right, then his right in front of his left, moving along the wall — away from the plants and deeper into the darkness.
Just as he was beginning to feel proud of his progress, he stepped on a small bone. His leg slipped with an audible crack, throwing him back onto the ground.
He rolled around in pain, unknowingly putting his face right in front of a flower.
'Exquisite,' he thought, as the flower sprayed a green miasma directly into his face.
His head spun in circles even more than before. The whole world around him shifted, moving opposite to the rotation of his head. He wanted to puke. The colors of the world blended together — shapes molding into one and then into multitudes — familiar, but entirely new. His heart slowed down. His breathing calmed itself.
Lush forests sprawled from the ground as trees of all shapes and sizes fell from the sky, anchoring themselves into the soil. The colors morphed into a rainbow that sat above his head as the sun grew a wide grin — its eyes filled with a deep, unexplainable malice.
Wait. Malice?
The change startled Astel even in such a hallucinating state.
Suddenly the world wasn't so peaceful. The leaves left the trees. The rainbow morphed into a cloud raining blood-red water onto him. He felt something watching him. Astel tried to run, but with each step he grew smaller, more insignificant. The grass turned into blades, punishing him for every move he made.
Soon enough he was submerged in blood — most of it his. It kept flowing out of each of his wounds like an unstoppable river. Waves of it threatened to drown him. He tried swimming but couldn't move. His legs were chained to something deep below the iron sea.
Perhaps he would have tried swimming down to look for a solution — but the nature of this place kept him from doing so. In fact, the thought never even crossed his mind. He was entirely content with being drowned in his own blood.
No.
He needed to drown. He deserved it.
Then something knocked him out of his daze and a shiver ran down his spine.
Drown? Absolutely not.
He put everything into swimming above the surface, trying to resist the daze of his tired, overwhelmed mind. Taking deep breaths, he noticed something. The feeling of being watched was back. He turned his head, trying to find it.
Instead, the environment around him changed once more. He was still swimming, but now large metal walls surrounded him on all sides. The liquid started bubbling as other things appeared beside him — giant vegetables and pieces of meat making ripples as they fell from beyond the walls.
He was cooking in a soup.
The ingredients looked familiar. For a moment he was reminded of his mother's cooking. The thought warmed him up as steam rose into the sky all around him, his body slowly dissolving into the broth. A giant ladle reached down and poured a small portion of it into a bowl, which was then placed on a wooden table.
The surroundings of the table were dark — like it sat alone in a cave — except for one thing.
A faint, colorful glow peeked from beyond the shade.
Astel could sense the colors observing him, growing closer, more intense. He opened his eyes only to see a yellow flower — a single row of razor-sharp teeth lining its bud — opening slowly around his face. He could feel slithering vines grasping at his body, but this time he couldn't move to stop them.
*
Felix's eyes shot open to find the giant body of the centipede threatening to crush him. He tried moving but felt that one of his wings was hurt. Afraid he couldn't fly, he covered his head with his wings and prayed that somehow the centipede would miss him.
Then a loud roar sounded from above. The basilisk mother dove down from the tree Felix was stuck in, making the centipede twist and change directions. He had only a few moments to catch his breath, because the loud noises had attracted attention.
Beasts of all sizes surrounded the forest — hiding, waiting for an opportunity to slay one of the two kings in battle. Some simply wanted food, others shelter. They couldn't form coherent thoughts, but most of them understood where they belonged on the food chain. They also understood that such an opportunity wouldn't come twice.
Unfortunately for Felix, he was in the middle of the battlefield — completely defenseless and unable to move.