Tales Of Eleutheros Read online

  Daniel quickly moved around the fire and knelt by Robert, grabbing his shoulder. It took several minutes to bring peace to the site, but eventually, Katrina's frantic boyfriend calmed and sat up to look at her face. She pulled in and wrapped her arms around his neck, embracing him.

  Robert scanned his surroundings carefully, looking at the dark tree line, the bright fire that now warmed them, and then Daniel, who sat with his legs crossed Indian style.

  Katrina freed him from her loving arms and shifted to the side, the three of them now in a small circle facing each other.

  Robert asked again, this time with more clarity. “What’s going on?”

  Chapter 2

  The night dragged on as Daniel and Katrina explained all they could to their newly awakened companion; the strange forest they found themselves in, the reason for their sudden appearance, and the bizarre circumstances around his awakening. These questions were just a few of many, that plagued their minds.

  “So, no one really remembers anything beyond the flash of light?” Daniel asked Robert and Katrina from across the fire.

  Katrina looked into the flame and shook her head, resting her chin on her knees.

  Robert mimicked her movements but stood after doing so.

  “I feel… pretty strange.” He said, wobbling a little. “We have been going over this crap for hours, and I still have a massive headache.”

  Daniel said nothing in response. There wasn’t much he could do at the moment, and their best bet was to wait until morning and find themselves then.

  Daniel also stood, about to speak, but before he said a word, he saw something strange from the fire. It burned more intensely in the moment of his realization as if reacting to his sudden resolve.

  Katrina looked up in confusion at Daniel.

  “You ok?” She asked slowly.

  Her words snapped him out of his momentary daze, and he quickly regained his composure.

  “I’m fine, I’m fine…” He shot back, shaking off his confusion.

  “Listen, you two should get some rest. There’s no sense in everyone wasting energy.”

  Robert and Katrina glanced at each other, and back to Daniel.

  “What about you?” Robert asked bluntly, Katrina nodding in support of his question.

  “Don’t worry about me. I’m used to not getting very much sleep.”

  There was silence as the two waited for more of an explanation. Daniel put his coat collar over his neck and pushed his hands in his pockets before he finished.

  “I was in the Marines for a while…” He finally said.

  “Really?” Katrina and Robert asked almost simultaneously.

  “Yeah… So, get some rest. I’ll make sure this weird-ass fire doesn’t die, and no animals get curious.”

  Although Robert and Katrina both felt uneasy about letting someone burden all the watch for the night, they did little to dissuade Daniel from his generous offer. Katrina nestled against Robert who was preparing to sleep sitting down. He looked at Daniel from across the fire, his eyes fixed on it, clearly in deep thought. Robert cleared his throat, grabbing Daniel’s attention.

  “Thanks, man… You know, for everything you did for me."

  Daniel gave only a nod in return, and with that, Robert put his head down on his forearms, that were resting across his knees, and tried to fall asleep.

  Robert shifted from one awkward position to the other trying to get as comfortable as possible, but to no avail. His head was still pounding, and he was far too unnerved to relax for slumber.

  -Should I even go to sleep? - He thought to himself. -I heard that if you sleep too soon after a head injury that you don’t wake up…- The idea caused him to lift his head with a jerk.

  He felt a weight on his shoulder; looking down he saw Katrina in a deep sleep, responsible for the now overly apparent creak in his neck.

  “How can she sleep at a time like this...?” He pondered.

  “She was crying for most of the night… Probably just passed out from sheer exhaustion.”

  Robert looked again to Daniel who sat poking the flame with a stick. Holding it into the heat to see if it would catch fire; to his great disappointment, it did not.

  Robert rested his head again on his arms and pressed his eyes shut. Hearing the faintly whispered curses from Daniel as he experimented with the fire. With that, he finally managed to force himself to drift to sleep.

  ◆◆◆

  Robert's eyes opened slowly and he groaned while arching his back, which had gone stiff and knotted due to the obscene sleeping arrangement. His body and his mind fell into numbness, however, as he found himself once again in this strange forest. Dread secured itself deep in his being.

  “Morning…” Daniel said, drawing his attention.

  “Yeah… It’s not a dream, and no we’re still not in California anymore.” He added sarcastically.

  Robert attempted to stand, in the process, waking Katrina from her slumber. Her reaction was similar to Robert's but more vocal. "I'm still here!?" She shouted after several seconds of observation. A new day had come, and with it, a world almost too overwhelming to behold. The night did little to flaunt the dazzling colors of the vegetation that surrounded them.

  Robert stood and gazed in awe at the trees that enclosed them. They were completely smooth and bore a brilliant green on their leaves. The trunks were a light beige, with blotches of golden brown or pink that dotted around it. The mud and vegetation at the forest floor were equally as outlandish, shining dozens of faint colors back at them from the bright morning light that did little to warm them. There was the overall solid color green that dominated most of the scenery, but the distinct reds and blues that captured their attention were what impressed the most. Strange flowers stood on long stems, dancing back and forth in almost a uniform motion, presenting their petals as if proud of them and eager to show their unnatural color to Robert and his companions. It was an unearthly spectacle and Katrina and Robert were left speechless at the sight.

  “Now, you know…” Daniel said poking a strange stick into the ashy remnants of the fire. “I watched as the morning came. And trust me… I looked just like you do now.”

  There was a cold chill in the air, and the many hours spent exposed to the elements made them uncomfortable. Daniel had managed to stay awake all night but was unsuccessful in his mission to keep the fire burning. Katrina massaged her arms and shoulders for warmth, mumbling disbelief to the two men. "How...? I can't believe this is actually happening." She turned to Daniel still nonchalant about their situation. "What are we going to do now? We are going to freeze or starve to death out in this weird ass forest!" There was a fire in her eyes now, as confusion turned to anger.

  "Calm down Kat," Robert said putting his hands on her shoulders. "We'll figure something out; we can't be far from civilization."

  “No!” She screamed tugging away from him. “Have you ever seen anything like this before!? We could be--”

  Her silence came abruptly, and her eyes widened. Robert noticed she was looking just past his right shoulder into the tree line. He turned to see a strange creature perched on a low hanging branch, several yards from where they were standing.

  Its eyes were a dismal yellow that had a dull glow, and it looked slightly humanoid, with arms and legs, but with a long tail dangling below the branch. It also had large wings pressed close to its back, and a monstrous face with several sharp teeth exposed from its lips. The creature's fur was short and grey, and you could clearly see muscles sculpted beneath it. The sight startled Robert, and he quickly turned around to face it with his body.

  “What the hell...?” He said out loud.

  Katrina was frozen with fear, and Daniel moved in front of her facing the creature. It remained still, studying them for several minutes; until it turned its back and spread its massive wings to fly. There was a great gust of wind as it ascended through the canopy of the forest into the sky.

  “Oh my God…” Robert said in
relief. “I thought we were goners...”

  His eyes moved to Daniel, the most levelheaded of the three. His face mirrored that of his own; disbelief, confusion and mounting fear.

  “We have to start moving guys…” Daniel finally said, regaining his composure.

  “We don’t know what that thing was, and I don’t want to stick around to find out.”

  It didn’t take much convincing to persuade the others that it was time to move. The three gathered what little they had and picked a direction to move. Daniel had some sense of where to go based on the position of what he thought was the sun, but little to go on other than that.

  "Where are you going, Daniel!?" Katrina yelled as Daniel began to walk into the tree line where the creature had been perched.

  “Wait here guys, I’m going back to where I woke up. I need to see if I can find my sandals.” Daniel said, turning around to them.

  “That’s crazy! That creature could still be out there somewhere, we need to go this way!”

  Daniel shrugged off her complaints and advanced into the thickly vegetated area.

  ◆◆◆

  As they moved, Daniel couldn’t help but wince at each step he took, he cursed at not finding his footwear. Before, his feet had been spared by the cool and soft mud of the clearing. It seemed the farther they traveled, the more the terrain disagreed with the pale and thin skin on the bottom of his feet. Small rocks and strange twigs pricked and stabbed with every step, slowing him down. Katrina turned around to see him every so often. Cursing and muttering something about his experiences in the military.

  “We can stop and take a rest if you like? We’ve been walking for hours now… If your feet get any worse, it won’t be good.”

  “I’m fine… Believe it or not, this isn’t the worst thing I’ve put my feet through.”

  Regardless of Daniel's words, Katrina stopped and sat down against a tree. He did the same reluctantly but secretly welcomed the rest. Robert was further ahead and stopped only when Katrina called to him.

  “I don’t know why, but I just have so much energy now.” He said as he briskly approached. “I don’t really understand it, I’ve never felt this alive before.”

  Robert sat down beside Katrina, fidgeting.

  She looked at him with her eyebrows slanted up, with small wrinkles folding her forehead and clearly annoyed.

  “You must have finally done some damage to that thick skull of yours. Why do you have so much damn energy now?” She asked sternly, but Robert just scoffed it off.

  “There doesn’t seem to be an end to this forest” Katrina finally said, looking out into the trees. Her words seemed to go perfectly with the rumbling of Roberts’s stomach. The three looked at each other; Robert smiled, and Katrina shared it, but Daniel saw it as a dangerous warning.

  “We need to find food and water.” He said before attempting to stand.

  As he groaned, his eyes caught a glimpse of a familiar shape hanging in the trees.

  The Gargoyle like creature from earlier that morning was perched on another branch, its same stoic stare piercing to the soul. Their eyes locked, and a terrible fear came over Daniel. Its eyes were a dark yellow, small and squinted, but clearly intelligent, and studying him very closely.

  Robert and Katrina were still talking to one another, bickering about the direction and what they were going to do about food. But as Daniel peered into what he feared to be a dark and evil soul, their voices began to fade away, becoming muffled and slow, until there was silence.

  “You…” A harsh and raspy voice echoed in his mind.

  “What are you...? It continued.

  There was a sharp and intense pain that flared from Daniel’s temples. He winced and put his hands over them.

  “Why have you come here…?" Daniel's eyes opened again, and he glared at the creature, as this was clearly it's doing. Fear began to turn into anger as the pain continued, but he could not look away. There was some strange force keeping his eyes locked with the creature until suddenly their connection was broken by a loud shriek. Katrina had noticed Daniel and turned around to investigate, and upon seeing the creature again her body reacted as it normally would.

  Daniel stood immediately and grabbed Katrina by the sweater, lifting her to her feet.

  “Let’s get the hell out of here!” Robert yelled, trying to get up.

  The humans scrambled to escape the imposing creature. Daniel’s head still ached from the strange interaction, but he endured it as best he could.

  “Daniel!” Katrina shouted, but the man was focused on moving, what he didn’t notice was the fabric of her sweater tearing.

  The three of them ran as far and fast as they could into a part of the forest that was thicker and darker than before. Now only small streams of sunlight pierced the canopy above, and even the air had a heavy feel to it. They panted in the midst of this new scenery, gasping and sucking in air that seemed to move slowly into their lungs.

  “What…?” Katrina said between breaths. “What the hell is going on here? That thing is just following us around!” She looked down at her sweater, now torn and stretched. “Great, my sweater is destroyed now.”

  "Sorry about that," Daniel said, wincing as he sat to tend to his feet again. "I just grabbed you and started running."

  Robert said nothing. He wasn’t even paying attention to the menial conversation between Daniel and Katrina. He stood facing the direction they had come from, scanning the forest for any signs of the creature. They then sat in silence for several minutes, the adrenaline starting to fade, but the tension still clinging to their minds.

  “It… spoke to me.” Daniel finally said. “I heard it in my head, it asked me what I was. Like it had never seen a human being before.”

  Katrina looked at him, her face puzzled and twisted. “What does that mean?” She asked, a quiver in her voice. “What are you talking about?”

  Robert finally sat next to her with an expression of worry. “Where the hell are we?”

  Daniel shook his head, pulling a small splinter from the bottom of his foot. “Listen, there are lots of questions we have, but I don’t think that creature is going to harm us. It didn’t sound hostile to me… just curious. We might be able to speak with it, find out more about where we are.”

  "Well, I'm not going anywhere near that thing. You can try if you want." Robert said.

  Daniel started to stand to begin walking back to where the creature was when there was a deep rumble that shook him to his core.

  All seemed to shake as a booming voice shattered the chaos into silence.

  “Stop…” It said, echoing in all their minds.

  The three humans were frozen in fear, and again there was a sharp pain in Daniel's head. This time shared by his two companions. He looked back wincing to see if the creature was perched again, but it was gone.

  “You wish to leave my forest?” the booming voice continued, each word bringing forth another wave of pain.

  Katrina looked at Robert, then to Daniel in confusion, her head clearly in pain and her eyes wide, full of uncertainty.

  “Yes.” Daniel finally said, after mustering his courage.

  “We need to find food and water!” He called out to the forest, not knowing exactly who or what he was talking to.

  “Forget that!” Robert said in a panic. “Where the hell are we!? And how did we get here!?”

  Katrina quickly put her hand over his mouth, silencing him. She feared making whatever it was they were talking to angry.

  There were several seconds of silence, and each one ticked by as an eternity. Daniel held his breath, continuing to scan the surrounding area.

  A faint rumble broke the silence, first just the sound, then the ground began to shake. Katrina clung to Robert and started to scream as shaking turned into violent thrashing. Daniel braced himself against a tree as best he could but lost his balance when it started to become more intense. He stumbled to the ground only to see hundreds of trees before him
uproot themselves and clear a path. Roots pulled from the soft ground like dozens of legs and relocated to the side. His eyes widened in both awe and terror; he had never seen anything like this before, but almost as quickly as it began; the shaking ceased.

  “This path… will lead you out of this forest…” The booming voice said. “Now go…”

  There was once again silence; the forest floor was still, and in the minutes following the strange event, the three lost humans regained their bearing.

  Daniel stood slowly, keeping his eyes on his surroundings. Weary and confused, they made their way out of the forest; first at a slow walk, then as they progressed, they started to pick up speed. Daniel soon neglected his feet dashing for the exit, pushing the pain aside; they could see it now, the light from ahead bled through the opening of the trees, welcoming them. Robert was the first to break through the edge of the forest. To his amazement he saw rolling hills covered in what he could only guess was a type of grass, shining back numerous colors of green, blue and red that blended together perfectly. They were in a small valley surrounded by mountains and patches of trees; it was unbelievably beautiful. As Daniel and Katrina exited the forest, their jaws gaped with astonishment, both because of the immense splendor of their surroundings, and the further realization that they were not anywhere they knew.