Chapter 1 - Slumber
Laying down, the feel of a comfy and warm bed enveloped him, he smiled confidently to himself "A deserved rest at last..." he thought while turning on his side. He was feeling sleepier than ever that night despite being a calm day, but somehow he felt as if he worked at a very physically demanding job all day long.
It was Saturday and he had spent all day playing video games, that was something he loved to do whenever he had the time. You know that kind of guy? That prefers to go home instead of going to parties or happy hours in the company? The kind that would easily give and excuse and run home to stay alone to his thoughts and games.
Not that he was socially awkward or anything, he had friends he went out with eventually, some girls on the side as well, but sometimes, if not most of the time, none of that matter he just needed to lay back and do what he loved to do, recharge the batteries if you want to call it that.
And now he was there, in his bed rejoicing in the thought that he would still have another day to rest, the whole Sunday to play some more, maybe even call a pizza so he would not need to loose time cooking anything.
He felt the numbness taking over his body and slowly fell into slumber.
Suddenly, for his mind was as a switch was triggered and he was completely awake and all his senses of awareness were triggered and his eyes opened wide open. To him, the sensation was that not even a minute have passed since he closed his eyes.
Then it hit him, the comfy bed suddenly was strangely uncomfortable, he felt as he was laying down on top of a very hard tree root which traversed his back with its hard and unmistakable shape.
But that could not be possible, so he moved to the other side forcing his eyes close, trying to force himself to sleep.
Soon he realized he couldn't, a stranger feeling took over his body as he could not feel his sheets, nor listen to the air conditioning noise but still the cool breeze was caressing his cheeks.
Fear forced him to open his eyes once again, but calmer now, he started to analyze its surroundings.
It was dark, too dark actually, he couldn't see a thing. Where the hell were the led lights of his computer, modem and alarm clock, but they were nowhere to be seen "A blackout?" he thought to himself, trying to reach for his cellphone beside the bed.
The smooth feeling of his cellphone was replaced by a rough surface that he did not recognized. He groped it a few times to make sense of what he was feeling "A tree!? how?!" he screamed in his mind. He was confused, but it was certain now he was indeed laying on the spouting roots of a tree, he began to smell the scent of earth and could feel it now he started to move his body. He could not see it, but he sensed that the tree seemed to be very big by the shape of its trunk he was reaching to lean his back on.
Sitting down he tried to calm down, thinking to himself "No point in getting edgy now, I need to see what's going on, I need to get my eyes used to this dark so I can see where the hell I am"
After he sat down, he lost track of time... it felt like many hours rushed through, and for many times he tried to call for help... but not even his echo could be heard back in that darkness.
A strange sense of stillness and silence was the only thing he could be certain of that night.
All that time went by, and yet his eyes were barely able to discern what was near him. There was no moon, no sound of cars, no lights... nothing but darkness.
Trying to look in the distance was completely useless, that damned darkness veil covered everything like a thick blanket.
Afraid and with his nerves on edge, he did not dare to move from that spot. All he could do was concentrate all his senses on his surroundings, the last thing he needed was to be attacked by an animal or a dangerous insect.
Eventually, the longest night of his life showed signs of ending. At the distance he noticed very slowly the first light of dawn began to rip the dark veil apart.
A short burst of relief engulfed his mind, just to be replaced by a sense of even more despair. There was nothing but trees until his eyes could see. Before him was a very thick forest, and all he had with himself was his pajamas: a very old black shirt with some holes in it and blue sleeping shorts. He had nothing on his feet to protect from the forest grounds.
He tried to look after a higher place to get a hold of his surroundings, but all he could see was what the trees in the forest.
Without direction, he wandered...
Soon his mind was trying to make sense of what happened "was it some sort of accident? A plane crash? sleep walking?"
Such thoughts rapidly stopped as his mind always came back to the fact he was still wearing the pajamas he went to sleep with that night, his feet were completely clean until awhile ago...
"this is a dream!" he thought while stepping on stones and branches for the past hour and realized he felt no pain to it, nor were his feet hurting by doing so. Of course he felt them under his feet but for a indoor person to go on barefoot hiking it surely would be a very painful experience to say the least.
He was walking for hours now, and was still not tired, after staying up all night, walking for who knows how long and still.... still he was barely sweating despite all that. The only thing he felt was a strange sense of tingling now and then over his whole body. But the more he tried to comfort himself, he couldn't shake the feeling that deep down he knew he was in a very dire situation, and that he was very much awake.
After awhile he noticed he was going uphill, "finally something different, now i can be sure I'm not going in circles"
His mind was working towards the realization he was in a very strange forest, its been awhile he was paying attention to it, but he could hear no sound aside from the leafs and branches dancing with the eventual wind. There were no animals, or insects, nothing remotely moving, or much more alive than your average tree... That realization only aggravated the eerie feeling he got whenever he stopped and just payed attention to the surroundings.
As time passed by he started to feel even more strange, it was not fatigue accumulating as he first thought.
"I barely dropped a sweat so far, and its been only half a day since dawn, it surely felt like an eternity, but the sun just now reached its pinnacle in the sky, my mind is playing tricks with me... I must be hungry or something, just a few hours that I've been walking... but all my body is getting numb, and despite how much I rest, it doesn't go away... this damn hill is not helping either... how long can this go on? It feels like I could've climbed the goddamn Himalaya twice by now but I didn't even reached the top of this god forsaken hill "
Not only the numbness was taking over his body but also the eerie feeling now also assaulted him while moving forward. His notion of time was firmly believed in what he could see in the sky. The sun could not lie, despite a mortal senses it sure to follow his course, uncaring for the troubles of a human. But that notion that kept him sane, was being greatly defied by his mind and senses every step forward, he knew something was definitely not right.
After a while now he was walking in auto mode as he could not feel his feet touching the ground anymore. First he stopped once in a while to rub his feet, searching for signs of bad circulation, but his feet looked normal and well colored, his toes were full and pumping blood more than usual, probably because of all the exercise he was doing.
More time passed and the sun was still up in the same place, unmoving... his body felt as if weights had been attached to his every limb and body.
Continuing onward the feeling intensified, the numb sensation prevented his senses but the strength he was now exerting was far from normal, he struggled to move his limbs as if they were immersed in the water, resistance of something he could not feel, if he closed his eyes he could easily believe he was immersed in water since the struggle to move was similar. After a while in that state, the invisible water seemed to be turned into mud, and quicker than before now it seemed to be getting thicker and thicker at every step since more and more was being required for him to move, going forward was proving to be a real pain. But strangely enough he took little rest every now and then.
With great effort he was walking non stop now, he began to fear if he stopped once more he would not be able to get up again...
Suddenly without him noticing, the scenario changed, he had finally made to the top of the hill... Joy refilled his exhausted strength. There he could see a big lone tree, that similar to the one he woke up. Confident in his efforts he finally took shelter in its shadow while observing the surroundings.
Sleepiness finally caught up to him...
But now that he had finally reached somewhere different he couldn't allow himself to rest, he needed to see down the hill what awaited him next.
So about a dozen steps from the tree there was the highest point of the hill... Getting near it, he was assaulted with fear, a terrifying sense that all his struggle was in vain.
At the very edge of the hill, there a very high cliff. Even away from the edge he was able to see down below in the distance small green dots that went for a good while until the end of the forest...
Happiness filled his body once again seeing the damn forest had an end. A good clearing appeared in all directions after the forest border. His chances of finding a road would improve greatly if he was able to get there. And finding one would be easier to get help, but first he had to get there, and from where he stood... it seemed an impossible feat.
Looking behind, from where he came from, he was unable to tell where the inclination began. How much more he would have to walk to get to a lower passage? he began to ask himself trying to muster the will to keep going.
"this forest should be really high above sea level... but why is it so hot if it is this high? It should be way colder here even in the summer" He tried to make sense of what he was seeing.
Looking at that sight, from high above to the far ground below, his eyes got a glimpse of what seemed to be white smoke coming from the ground in a thin shape to the sky, it was far to his left, but definitely a good sign for the tired him.
"People!" he said out loud smiling in surprise
With hope renewed he desperately began to get on his feet again and look for for ways to get down from that cliff, but in all direction he could see, the cliff just kept on going.
It was simple form, throughout all its extension, a massive wall of sheer stones that erupted from the ground out of nowhere."There is no end to this cliff!!" he realized as all hope began to fade
Wherever he looked, it was certain death... no way to climb down as it was a 90 degree wall. Once again desperation filled him whole, "No, it can't be... there must be a way down, there has to be" he needed to see better, get near to the edge, desperately trying to find a way out of this situation, his mind was resolute in that regard.
He took another step towards the cliff's edge that was not too far away.
He felt as if stuck in quicksand, the lack of sensation of his feet touching the ground together with the effort made him loose his balance... he went down still near the tree. Not shaken by it while his mind was still focused on his goal, he kept on trying to get forward, crawling.
The weight on its body was getting exponentially heavier with every movement towards the edge of the cliff. It felt as if the weight of the world was on his back, the numbness started to affect his mind as well, unable to think straight, he struggled even to keep his eyes open... almost unable to move and barely conscious without knowing how near the edge he was... a clear sound is heard
"CRACK!"
He the sound of rocks cracking and breaking could be heard below him, he forced himself forward a bit more...
And as if a door was crossed, he felt everything that was holding him down being spread from his body into his surroundings... and as quickly everything was struck by an invisible, insurmountable and unmeasurable force.
With eyes that would not open despite his efforts, he felt himself falling... and soon after his consciousness also failed... and he finally fell into slumber once again.
He heard something... he began to awake from his sleep...
The so long craved sensation of being on a bed reached him as he felt the pillow and the sheets covering him.
"It was all a dream afterall..." he assured himself.
"Kamu... " - he heard a male voice clearly trying to awaking him. But he wanted to sleep, it was very difficult to wake up
"Kamu... zt.." - he heard again, as if someone was asking him something
"Kamuzyet..." - he heard once more, now feeling like he was waking up
"Kahn-mus?" - he spoke mindlessly trying to make sense of the words that were being said to him while still trying to get his awareness back from the sleepiness. He struggled with the light until finally was able to open his eyes completely.
"Khamus!" - The voice said again, this time he could tell its tone seemed rather surprised.
He forced himself to sit straight.
He saw the bed and sheets above him, he also noticed he was inside of a room in a wood cabin.
Talking to him was a man clad tight in full armor, he had only his helmet of which allowed his face to show. The man had a dark hair and a clean shaved face, which resembled a very austere appearance, one could clearly see he belonged to an army of some sort.
"Armor as in medieval times? And with many symbols on it as well" It was a lion standing up with two purple flags.
"Iz et kornoss lo Khamus?" - the man in the armor said, all he could make of it was the word Khamus again, that was the only thing he picked up from the strange talking, it was clearly a language he never heard before.