“George, do you feel that?” I asked nervously.
“Feel what?”
“There is something here that I am afraid of.”
“Keep close to me. If anything is to pop out, I need you to lie on the ground and remain absolutely silent. Do you understand me?”
“Yes,” I quickly answered, shivering to the core.
We continued to stroll south, but I persistently sensed that something was out to get us. I heard rustling in the tree tops, but it was just the birds and monkeys. The grounds of Matta Shimbib were known to have the worst predators, especially at night and in the early morning. The sun had just peaked over the land when we arrived, and it had only been thirty minutes since we entered the north jungle. In my blood, a bitter stream flowed, making me lightheaded. I felt as if I was ready to pass out and I suspected that whatever was among us was keeping a close eye on us and playing with our emotions like ragdolls.
“Come out and face us, wherever you are!”
After I shouted, George dropped my arm, causing me to believe that something had come to his attention. Due to the pain shooting through my arm when he dropped it, I lay on the ground with my arm placed on my breast. I watched as George stood there and stared down at me, his eyes transforming into a dark blood-red, almost like the beast that tried to kill us back in Shi Shii. What was happening to him? Was he possessed by the devil or a lesser demon? I couldn’t tell what was wrong with him other than his eyes and the darkness within his soul that I had felt when we were about to be crushed by the beast. It was an evil presence that had no love for either of us.
“What’s gotten into you George?”
As he continued to stare at me with those horrible, bloody eyes, his voice changed to a hissing, snake-like voice and he said words that hurt my heart to hear.
“I am not George, you dog. I am the curssse that hasss taken him from birth. George isss not a real perssson and he isss cccertainly not about to fall in love to essscape me. I am hisss fate! He mussst pay for hisss father’sss sssinsss! Do what you mussst to leave him, for he shall caussse you to sssufer forever and ever, till the end of daysss! I do not worry about ssspilling the sssecret with the likesss of you. The firssst kisss by hisss true love shall be the breaker of damnation. But you will not be the one to sssever my esssenccce from this body!”
I shook my head, denying this demon curse within George and said unto him with all the power I held within me, the words of a fearless, doubtless woman in love.
“I shall defeat you, and George shall be free. You may cause George frustration, but you do not frighten me. Your dark presence will be overcome. You shall not harm him ever again! True love’s kiss will end you!”
“Bold wordsss, child, but George will never be free of me. Jussst becaussse I’m not powerful enough to alwaysss control him yet, doesssn’t mean that he isss going to fall in love with you on hisss own.”
In my mind, I could not accept that there was a demon within George, but I loved him, not this beast inside of him. As I watched his eyes slowly turn back to their normal bright, red color, he seemed to be afraid when he looked down at me.
“D- d- did you see that, Sui? I- I sometimes- ugh! I’ve always had that thing in me, ever since I was a young child. It’s because of my father. I inherited this curse from him. He was once a natural human being, but then he was warped to look like a neko by a demon. He made a deal with this foul spirit and lost. My mother was a human, so why couldn’t I have just been born as one?”
He bowed his head in shame, hating the thing his father was turned into and how he had to suffer for his father’s actions.
“I understand. I had an uncle who had similar issues. He would be okay one minute, and then, a total beast would spit words he would never say from his own mouth. We all have demons inside us, George. When you overcome them, it shows how strong you really are. Fight it, George! Fight that wretched thing inside of you so that we can be together for-”
I almost said it and embarrassed myself in front of him. I roughly caught myself before I could spell out the rest of that sentence, even though it was genuinely spoken. He knew, I knew, but neither of us was ready to speak about our feelings until the time was absolutely right. Even though George knew how I felt about him, it was not too late for the appropriate moment to be special. Together, forever and ever; the words repeated themselves over and over inside my head a thousand times. Trying to keep me on pace, George changed the subject and put his hand out to help me off the ground.
“Right then, we must keep moving, Sui. Äbaka will have to meet us back home when he’s done in there. I am sure that the old man is doing just fine against those demonic beasts. And you told me he was stuck in the woods before and handled himself well, right? The only worry we should be having is the broken bone inside your arm. Can you stand on your own or do you need me to pull you up again?”
I pushed the land with my right hand and lifted my body off the dirty muck that was all over my white gown. It was no matter; it had been torn and ripped in multiple parts. Like George’s pants, it was covered in the dry dirt of Shi Shii’s desolate streets. His shirtless body had cuts and scrapes, as did my legs, arms, and some parts of my torso. The fall from the sky was not the most pleasant thing, and as I walked, holding my dead arm, I felt the pain relentlessly spiraling through it, eating at my nerves. There were to be some hard times in the jungle, as we strolled through it without any sort of weapons to defend ourselves. To keep the time going as swiftly as a flaming fox, I thought about the facts I read in books pertaining to this jungle. When I grew tired of that subject, I pondered on deeper matters, swirling like a whirlpool in my head. Hours rolled along in a hurry as we strolled past the many regions of the jungles.
Matta Shimbib is the largest jungle complex on the whole world of Imga I. We share a moon with Imga II. Every night, and every day, you can see the large orb of land and water over the blue, gray, or black horizon. Long ago, before I was born, there was an epic war on both planets between good and evil, which lasted for nearly three decades. In the end, the armies of good prevailed and there was a settling peace throughout Imga I and Imga II.
Due to the war, so many things in the world were wrong, and, unfortunately, so many of these things could never be corrected. It was as though the spirit of all that is evil wanted to take revenge on his vanquisher. I, some of my family members, and some of my friends were able to see the growing darkness silently approaching. There were, perchance, some others I did not know who could see the growing darkness of the world elsewhere. Conceivably, it was more than this world and even more than our universe that was being threatened. This dark cloud was looming over all existence. That was how desperate the darkness felt about vengeance.
Eventually, our feet gave in to our extreme lack of rest and it was time to stop for a moment. The sun peeking through the leaves, served as our only light. No matter what, George and I would overcome the terrible monster inside of him. How lonely we felt sitting there in the cold, faint jungle. Even though we had each other, the dull mood was causing us to grow restless in our attempt at relaxation. I was as hungry as George was thirsty. He scratched his head as he looked into the distance and said, “I think I might know the best recipe for easing the pain of bones. You stay here and don’t get up. If a predator shows itself, scream and I’ll come rushing from a mile away. These keen ears aren’t just for show, you know.”
“Alright George, be careful.”
He gave me a comforting wink and ran off to find whatever ingredients he needed to cure my soreness. Any type of skeletal pain killer would do for now. When George went off into the unknown, I was emotionally relieved and put at ease. I lay against a tree for roughly twenty minutes. In my sleep, I dreamed of past evens that lingered on my mind. They were all vague remnants of reminiscences that floated about in my subconscious. They were nothing definite and I believed that they were mostly old
fantasies that I drew myself in, that kept replaying in my head.
My forefather, Äbaka, used to tell me stories and theories that he conjured up in his broad mind. He enlightened me for a long time throughout my life. One story that he had told me, for instance, was about a man living in a castle, on a mountain, high over a dust plain. The man gave birth to a boy through his own tears. The tears were caused by the loss of his wife, who had been corrupted by a king of devils.
The man had a new son and the wife he had lost mysteriously came home to find the man holding the baby. She assumed that he had had it with another woman. Consumed with fury, she pushed him out of the window and they both plummeted to the dusty plains. The baby was saved by something unknown; something magickal. No one could explain how he survived, but the baby grew up to become a mage, and eventually, he grew to become an immortal wizard like the man who told the story. In my mind, in this foggy haze of memorial recollections, this story seemed to be the most vivid.
Äbaka had this theory that he thoroughly studied. He believed that the world as well as countless, infinite amounts of other planets and places were created by higher beings in other dimensions. He called it the Fancore. It was the harvester of mental and psychological matter sorted and formed through the brains of many people in other dimensions. He claimed that we were a shapeless dimension as there were no laws of physics or any true logic that held our universe together. I remember he once told me of how he came to learn of this theory. It was long ago when he was just an adolescent. He was going through some old books in a library and found many correlating themes that started to connect with one strict truth. A librarian told him to keep reading, as if she knew the entire time that he was destined to discover the truth. As he kept reading, Äbaka came to the conclusion that we are all the embodiment of thought and fantasy. His mind blowing discovery insisted on making me dream about them in great depth as I lay there waiting for George to return with the medicine. I even caught myself recalling a time when I believed his rubbish. I can assure you that it was only a small slip on my grip of reality that had me stray from the truth. I wasn’t at all convinced that his mad theories were true, but the longer I lay against that tree, the more I questioned what reality even was. This whole experience felt so lucid, yet it was as curious as a dream.
I sat there staring at nothing. As I tried to grab a leaf to fiddle with, I saw a white strip of paper rolled up in the dirt. It had a bit of words scrawled on it in a familiar handwriting.
Sui, I need you to be strong. What I am about to tell you is important. You are the chosen one. You have been chosen to stop an ancient evil, threatening to destroy all existence. The Fancore cannot survive if this demon is allowed to live. It is you, who must slay him. I leave this note in hopes that you will understand the events to come.
Sincerely,
Äbaka
I sat there, confused and unable to comprehend what he was trying to say. When did he write this note? How was he able to write it if he was coming to save us in Shi Shii? Was he planning on giving it to me after he saved us? It didn’t make sense, and it was something I didn’t want to show George, so I safely put it away in my cleavage. When it came to notes and letters, I was very secretive because I had been embarrassed in school for sharing them. A note coming from my forefather was something I really wanted to keep to myself. This one in particular was causing my brain to itch. What the hell was that wizard talking about?
About an hour and a half later, George returned with three flowers of unique design, a soft rock with bluish hue, and two different mushrooms. The art of alchemy was not an easy activity. To make the job easier, George shared with me a couple things that he knew about creating potions, so I could help him while he worked. He was quite the adventurer and an inspiration for me to become a voyager myself someday. He weaved a grass bowl that was as sturdy as a basket and mashed up all of the ingredients inside of it with a stick. When the mixture was turned into a powder, he found a large leaf lying on the ground next to me and put the mixture into it like a ladle. Then, he told me to open my mouth and take it in. He warned me that it boasted no pleasant taste and it was going to linger on my taste buds for a while.
Into my mouth, George, the doctor, poured the substance. I nearly regurgitated it all on him. It was one of the vilest tastes I had ever consumed! But after an hour more of sitting there, I saw that what George had created was surely affective against the pain that was within my humerus bone. The pain was still present, but it was not as violent and cold as before. The medicine had worked and it was time for the two of us to press on toward Rïdeneer, where I planned on seducing him for a warm, sweet kiss in the night, finally breaking his curse. Thankfully, my arm was feeling better; my legs were well enough to walk, and George was unharmed by the fall. Of course, the memories of my forefather’s stories and theories still swam in my brain, twisting my imagination as though there was actually something about them that made more sense than I had realized.
We weren’t even close to the southern part of the jungle, and still, we continued with naught but each other and our half-nakedness. The demons were being dealt with back in Shimbia, but what was happening in Rïdeneer? Well, that was anyone’s guess. I had to prepare myself to see death and destruction all across the village. I had to prepare my eyes to see my family, who could very well be dead or wounded. George Goodwill and I, Sui Ozborn, ventured down through the jungle to ascertain the fate of the home we were taken from. It was the home that George was beginning to call his own. The two of us could only hope that the goblins only rushed in for us and left Rïdeneer with minor casualties. I remembered the screaming of my mother and of my father, repeating over and over again the same thing. I wanted to believe that they were just afraid, not harmed in anyway. We would find out in due course.
Chapter 2
The beauty of the world is impossible to understand without the ugly. Without the dark to teach us of the harsh truths in life, we would be forever ignorant of the definition of evil. It is the magnificence we seek to behold, but so often we forget that the wretched is what makes us see the beauty. Without it, who would know the difference?
~Sui Bane Ozborn
Does the stench of death not ever leave this wretched place? So many foul smells lingered in these jungles. It had a healthy ecosystem; however, the death rate of its wildlife was not appropriate. I couldn’t count how many lifeless beasts and insects lay upon the ground. There was something killing them; something evil was lurking in these jungles.
“My nose is far more sensitive than yours, so you should consider yourself fortunate enough to be unable to smell it as I can. I can barely breathe here,” George said, when he noticed me covering my nose with my sleeve.
“What could be causing these animals to die in this area?: I asked, “The plants are fine.”
“Probably a scrounger; they are a nasty type of worm that sense body heat and attack the internal systems after entering the anus.”
I stopped and looked into his red eyes and saw that he wasn’t joking. I shuddered at the thought of something crawling into my backside. I scoffed in disgust, “nice.”
“Just cover yourself. They aren’t too small to see, but they’re pretty tiny.”
I immediately tightened my rear muscles and continued walking. George was well aware of the monsters lurking in the depths of the jungle. He was capable of discerning the difference between frog species, which was definitely one reason I was still alive in this mad rainforest. He practically grew up in this environment. The trees seemed to be mourning the many deaths of the wildlife, as they gave off cheerless energy from their dark leaves. Keeping away from the worms in the air, I let my mind wander to the note I found in the dirt earlier; it had given me a peculiar feeling that I couldn’t let go. I began to feel as though the words scrawled across the page were true, because I knew the wizard who wrote it wouldn’t joke in our time of need. Something about it
was genuine and urgent.
I kept brushing it off, not allowing the words to get to me. Soon thereafter, the edge of the southernmost jungle was visible and the two of us beamed widely at each other, cheerful to have escaped the jungle’s tyranny with our bodies intact. The wide open space of Rïdoranna called us home to Rïdeneer. The village waited further south. We followed a cool breeze flowing in that direction. I knew the first thing I would do when my arm was healed would be to give my friends and family the tightest hug that I had ever given a person before. That is, if they were still alive.
Over the many steep hills there were few animals because they hadn’t any hiding spots from predators. The only creatures known to live on the Crosscc plains were burrowing rabbits, gofers, tortoises and a mystical avian variety known as the crossicute. They were majestic, huge, neon-orange feathered birds that stalked the skies looking for animals to prey upon with one graceful swoop. It was a brighter day than we realized when we emerged from the trees and descended down the ancient stairway. But the sky was not as bright as it usually was in late fall. Crossicutes had been known to hunt animals as large as humans, and I had no desire to be swooped up by a crossicute’s mighty talon. I stayed close by George, hoping to make a bird think that we were one large beast they would be unable to feed to their young.
White clouds brushed the skies in front of Imga II and light green grass roofed the soil of Crosscc. The plains were never any different, except when it rained. I could tell by the grass’s wealth that there had been a long, drawn-out storm last night, after the goblins invaded. We walked side by side for a long while, and eventually, I saw the old wooden houses in the distance. Instantly, I knew that we were home. George and I broke away and sprinted toward the village. I took care of my gimp arm by holding it stiffly to my side.
The Spark Page 3
