“Oh my God.”
I recognized the flower. Aunt Katia had always given it to me already dried, or even grounded into a fine powder. In truth, the plant was tall, with round leaves and round, plump petals that came in different colors – red, purple, yellow. I didn’t know if the color meant anything, so I just started gathering flowers in all three colors, making a bouquet that grew and grew until it filled my arms. We ventured pretty far from where we’d initially landed. I followed El, as she seemed to know the way. When I was done picking Akkadia Aeterna, we were still surrounded by water and soft, mushy land.
“I need a bit of soil, but it has to be dry,” I said.
“Okay. Follow me.” Before she led me out of the marshes, though, she turned to face me. Her tone became very serious as she spoke again: “Promise me you will not stray from the path I choose. You might hear things… Ignore them. You might smell, or sense things. Ignore them and keep your eyes glued to me. This place is not safe. We have to stick together.”
I nodded. I had every intention to follow her lead and behave. So far, she’d been beyond helpful. She’d done everything, and all I’d had to do was tag along and be good. And, of course, I wasn’t going to risk losing the huge batch of Akkadia Aeterna I’d just managed to collect. My arms had started aching, and I had to remember that they weren’t my real, material arms. I was going to carry what I’d just looted from the Great Old Ones’ universe back home, no matter what. I just needed a tiny bit of dry soil, and then we could leave.
We walked for a while, and when I could finally feel solid ground under my feet, I let out a sigh of relief. I looked down and tried to figure out how I was supposed to grab what I needed when my hands were so unbearably full.
“Could you… get some for me?” I squeezed the multicolored flowers to my chest and made a grabby motion with my right hand. “And just place it in my hand. I know you can’t carry it back home.”
She crouched down and proceeded to scratch at the ground with her long, dainty fingers. As I waited, I couldn’t help but take a look around me. We were in a deep, jungle-like forest. The trees were so tall that they almost touched the heavy clouds above. There was some light at the edge of the forest, enough for me and El to see each other’s faces. Inside the forest, though, it seemed like night ruled eternal. I took a few steps toward the nearest tree. Its thick trunk was fascinating. It was as if the bark itself moved constantly, the ridges and dents in it forming symbols that changed every few seconds. I took another step, and another, until I found myself in a grove of such trees. I looked up at the sky, and a chill run down my spine when I realized I couldn’t see a thing.
“El?” Oh, I was so stupid! I’d done exactly what she’d told me not to do. “El? Where are you?”
“I’m here.” Her voice seemed to come from a significant distance. “Don’t move. I’ll come to you.”
I breathed in and out. Okay. All I had to do was wait. Normally, I wouldn’t have been so damn scared, but I knew that the last time I’d jumped to the cosmic beings’ universe, something had driven me insane. I was doing so good. I had what I needed, and El was going to bring me the soil. No, I wasn’t going to mess up now, when I was close to getting what I needed from this place. So far, it actually didn’t look scary at all. Okay, night had fallen quicker than I would’ve expected, the swamp seemed to be endless, and the trees were impossibly tall, not to mention the strange symbols that were carved into them.
“I will not move from this place,” I said to myself.
My anxiety must have been at fault because I felt like I couldn’t breathe properly. Like there wasn’t enough oxygen. I also felt like the trees had started to close in on me, which was ridiculous. Trees didn’t move. This wasn’t the Lord of the Rings.
“El?”
I waited for a minute or so, but she didn’t answer. I listened carefully, hoping I’d hear her steps. Nothing. The wind started blowing harder. It seemed to bring sounds and noises from afar on its invisible wings. I thought I heard whispers. I turned on my heels, studying every inch of the forest around me. I couldn’t see very far, since darkness had fallen completely. My eyes had adjusted, though, and it helped that when I dream traveled, all my senses were enhanced. There they were… whispers, again. Someone moaned in the distance, and a chill ran up my spine when I realized it was a moan of pain and distress.
“Please,” they whispered. There were many voices, some sounding young, others old. Men, women, maybe children. “Please.”
I swallowed hard. I took a step in the direction I thought they were coming from, and sure enough, they became louder and clearer.
“Please, I can’t bear this anymore,” a feminine voice pleaded.
“Make it stop,” a man said.
Someone was crying.
I couldn’t stay away. Not when people were suffering, not when they were in pain and I was the only one who could hear them. Maybe I could help them. I made my way between the trees, careful not to trip, hugging the flowers to my chest for dear life. No matter what happened, no matter what I was going to discover, I would not lose them. As I walked, it seemed like the trees were parting before me. I thought it was strange, but then again… I couldn’t see very well, so maybe it was all in my head.
“Help us.”
“Release us.”
“I want to die. Please let me die.”
I was shaking, and not because I was cold. The whispers had turned into loud, clear voices, and the moans and cries rose to the sky and echoed through the forest. I should have turned back. El had specifically told me to ignore anything I might see or hear, but this was impossible to ignore. I couldn’t leave and abandon people who needed my help. I picked up the pace, wanting to get this over with. I couldn’t hear anything but the voices. My head was filled with them. If El had called my name now, I wouldn’t have heard her. There was no going back. I’d already made my decision, and those people who were calling to me knew that. They could sense I was close, because I could swear they were addressing me directly all of a sudden.
“Come closer,” they said. “Closer. Let us see your face, dreamer.”
I stepped into an open clearing. There was light here – green, neon light that came from a mighty three in the middle. I hid my face behind the oversized bouquet of Akkadia Aeterna.
“Dreamer.”
“Dreamer, come closer.”
“Dreamer, run!”
Something clicked in my head when I heard that harsh, deeply masculine voice tell me to run. Blinking fast, trying to adjust to the powerful, fake light, I walked toward the tree, trying to understand where the voices were coming from. And I saw them… Dozens upon dozens of people stuck inside the tree, their limbs like branches, their legs one with the thick trunk, leaves growing out of their torsos. My mouth dropped in awe and terror. They were all crying, pleading, moaning. They were all in excruciating pain. And they were all… human. Or so they seemed. I hadn’t expected to find other humans or hybrids where I knew only the Great Old Ones existed.