the forest between worlds

"Wait, you mean this is where you had the dream?" I inquire.

"Well, it didn't start out here, but yes, I was here, and like I said, so were you," she responds.

"Well, that certainly explains why it seems so familiar," I remark.

Suddenly, her face lights up. "Wait a second, I listened to a song about dreams once, and one of the lines was 'and remember your dreams are always real, within your memories,' and I was thinking maybe..."

"You think that maybe it wasn't a dream at all but a memory?" I finish her thought.

"You may actually be onto something, but it still doesn't explain where our necklaces come into this," she reflects.

"Yeah," I agree. "Speaking of the necklaces, where did you get yours?"

"Well, the thing is I don't actually remember. All I know is that it was given to me by someone very close to me," she answers.

"Hmm, odd."

"You know," says Shane, "as glad as I am to be out of that mineshaft, at least it was warm. It's cold out here."

Sky chimes in, "And what about food? I'm getting hungry."

"Yeah," agrees Shane. "I think that we should focus on getting food now that we're in a forest. There's actually a chance."

As much as I don't want to agree with Sky, Shane does have a point. "Alright, let's split up. We'll cover more ground that way. If one of us finds anything, we'll bring it here and wait for the others to get back, okay?"

"That sounds like a good plan to me. I'll go with you, and Angel can go with Sky," Shane suggests

I want to say no and go with Angel, but then I realize that since meeting Angel, I had been completely ignoring Shane, so I decide to go with him.

"I wonder if it ever gets dark here?" I ask, trying to start a conversation.

"I don't know. This isn't a normal forest, so anything could happen," he responds.

Here he pauses before continuing, "So what's going on between you and Angel?"

Seeing the look on my face, he continues, "You can't tell me that something isn't going on. Before, you seemed to be mortally afraid of her, but when you came back from exploring the mineshaft, you were holding hands like you've been best friends for years. So spill it. What happened back there? Why are you suddenly so close to her?"

I hesitate. Should I tell him or just lie? In the end, I come to the conclusion that if I can't trust him, I can't trust anyone. "Alright, I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to tell anyone, especially not Sky. I can't have her making fun of Angel," I say.

He replies, "You know I wouldn't tell her or anyone else for that matter. You can trust me."

I sigh, "Okay, so while you were asleep, I first went out alone but didn't find anything. When I got back, I found that Angel was awake, and she was pissed. She blamed me for all of this. When I tried to tell her to calm down, she just broke down crying, and I didn't know what to do, so I just sat down beside her and tried to comfort her by promising to get us out of here and reunite her with her family."

"But then she revealed that she doesn't have a family," I continue.

"What? Then why is she going to school?" Shane asks.

"I don't know, but it gets worse. She doesn't have a house either. That warehouse that we followed her to was where she was living. But now that the floor caved in, she has nowhere to go," I explain.

"Wow, I never would've thought..." Shane trails off.

"Yeah, I don't know what to do. I guess I'll figure it out later after we get out of here. Right now, we need to find food if there's even anything edible here," I say sadly.

But as it turns out, we actually got lucky. There was fruit on the trees. They looked like plums but neon green in color, and after trying one, we found out that they tasted amazing, like cotton candy mixed with chocolate and vanilla. "These are so good. We need to get these back to the others," I say, grabbing a handful of the green plums.

However, after getting to the clearing that we were supposed to meet Sky and Angel, they aren't there.

"I hope nothing happened to them," I say worriedly.

"They're probably fine. They just got caught up doing something. Let's give it a bit before we worry," Shane suggests.

So we sit and we eat some more plums. But even after waiting for a long time, they don't come, and we start to get worried.

"Alright, we have to go look for them. They should be back by now," Shane agrees.

"Yeah, we need to go in the direction that they did and see if we can find them."

Since they went the opposite direction we did, it takes us a while to find any sign that they were even there, but eventually, we come across footsteps. But the thing is, there are other footsteps too, ones that are at least 10 times larger than Angel and Sky's.

"Do you think that whatever made these footsteps did something to them?" I ask.

"Well, obviously something happened here, and whatever it was, it can't be good. We should follow the giant footprints and see where they lead."

Of course, I was terrified at this point, but I tried not to show it. So I pushed on ahead following the footprints in a strange forest where I had no idea what was lurking. "Wow, they must've gone pretty far," I said after a while of awkward silence.

"Yeah, at this point, we couldn't find our way back even if we wanted to. Well, at least we have food now," Shane comments.

Shortly after this conversation, the sky starts to darken as if it's getting close to night. I mention this, and Shane says, "Well, if it is getting nighttime, then we should probably find somewhere to rest safely. Who knows what comes out here after night."

"I agree, but where will we go? There's nothing but forest for as far as I can see," I say.

He looks up. "No way," I say before he can even suggest it. "I'm not climbing trees. I hate heights."

"Well, I'm not, and if you want to stay on the ground where you can be eaten by whatever lives in this forest, suit yourself," he says. Then he grabs ahold of the nearest tree and hoists himself up. Seeing no choice, I follow him. Once at the top, we soon realize that it is quite comfortable. The tops of the trees are nice and flat, and they form a surprisingly solid ground for us to lay on.

"You see," exclaims Shane, "nothing to be afraid of."

"Yeah, for now. When did you get so brave anyway? I've never seen you climb trees at home. In fact, you would be too afraid of hurting yourself to do that," I say.

"I don't know. For some reason, since coming into this forest, I've been feeling confident, like I can do anything, and all of my old fears seem to have disappeared."

"I've noticed that too, actually. Normally, someone who's gone through the stuff we have would be absolutely terrified, but once I got into the forest, I started to feel calmer, like nothing can harm me as long as I stay here," I add.

"Hmm, it appears that something here has a calming effect on us. Let's ponder more about it in the morning. It seems to be fully nighttime now," Shane observes.

He was right. As we were talking, the sky had slowly darkened until it was completely black. Pondering on all that happened since I had that dream, I eventually fall asleep.