The Neverending Story
by INFJ Forum
It was a dark and stormy night. Isn't it always? But this time it really was. She knew it was dark because she walked into the wall next to the window while attempting to gauge the violence of the storm. She knew it was stormy because her cat was on the ceiling.
Eventually, finding the actual window, and throwing open the sash, she leaned out into the driving rain and whipping winds, hair swirling like Medusa in a mad tangle of electrified and unbound majesty. The sky exploded into blue light above her. In the negatized afterimage on her retina, after a particularly spectacular and unduly alarming bolt of lightning, she realized a figure stood in the shadows on the far side of the old carriage barn.
Torn between countless unfolding scenarios cascading through her normally cautious mind, she made her decision. With uncharacteristic fearlessness, she grabbed the poker from the fireplace and went to the side door. A rolling trowel of thunder tunned through the turmulous skies shaking the house to the foundations. The thunder was followed by an immediate downpour of rain that hit her senses as she opened the door.
She rose to her feet, now drenched, fallen leaves adhering to her exposed flesh like so many postage stamps on an unmarked brown paper parcel, and continued toward the carriage barn. Undaunted, but with a persistent headache she reached the leading edge of the darkest shadows and... Stopped to listen. She was very jumpy, and, although she tried to convince herself that there was nothing to be afraid of, she couldn't help that her heart was being fueled by adrenaline.
The carriage barn was a towering building, silhouetted black against the deep indigo of the night sky. In the brief seconds its features were lit by the frequent flashes of lightning, the scars and irregularities from time and the elements came into focus. It groaned softly under the pressure of the storm; the wind was merciless on it old frame.
She approached it hesitantly; the lack of light and the other-wordly calls of the barn made her hair stand on end. She didn't know where the figure she had seen was; in fact, she wasn't even sure if she had actually seen someone. However, her mind was playing tricks on her, and she knew that if she was not shivering out in the storm, she'd be trembling back in the house. She was alone, now, and if she would not be able to prove to herself that there was nothing to be afraid of, then she was nearly powerless.
So, treading softly, she grabbed a fallen branch from the ground and began to slowly circle back to where she thought she saw the figure... The rain had stopped. What had been crashes of lightning had subdued to a flickering; and then to unmitigated black. The wind had died to a soft, gusty murmur, and then hushed itself with a final sigh.
The clouds parted above her, and the sliver of a crescent moon shone down upon her, through the skeletal branches above. Yet there was another flicker. And another.
Without the storm launching it's impersonal, ferocious assault, she was able to see that this continued flickering was not the blue glare of lightning at all. It was coming from behind the western wall of the carriage barn.
There was no sound.
She hefted the branch a few times in her hand, taking a more secure grip and turned the corner.
Before her lay a bizarre tableau, a vision she was hard-pressed to make sense of. Throbbing now violet, now green, a gash of seemingly liquid disruption floated in the air of the only world she knew.
It was not a door, or a portal, but something like a tear. With strands and strings of her own reality undulating along the ragged edges, as though moved by the current created by the light that emanated from the other side.
She stepped closer, and kneeled, to better see through the gash to the other side.
It was day, there. And the landscape bore no resemblance to the one she stood in now, a mere six feet away. She... crossed over to the other side.... The world on the other side was much warmer than the place she just left. She glance back hesitantly, fully aware that she probably should not trespass in such a place, but the rip hung in the air. It showed no sign of shrinking, and she was a little comforted; somehow, she knew she could always go back. A small bit of excitement began to well up in her stomach, and she turned back to survey the landscape...she squinted as her eyes adjusted to the brightness and warmth of this new place. Sunlight streamed down from between the trees and a warm breeze carried the scent of daisies from the rolling field that lay out before her. The only sounds she could hear was the rolling of a gentle stream that ran through the field and the whispering hush of the breeze flowing through the branches above. The field rolled on for miles, dusted with the white daisies like a fresh snow, untill in the distance they rose up in to a great mountain range, this place was one of the most beautiful she had seen but despite this a sense of forbodeing began to grow in her, almost as if this place was an illusion, or a trap... she turned back towards the rip and then froze, she could make out the shadowy figure drifting slowly back and forth on the other side... ... and her sense of foreboding solidified into fear. And with the fear came adrenaline.
The mountain ranged looked like the only reasonable option for cover, and a source of safety, so she set out at a measured jog, veering east in case the Shadow hadn't detected her on the other side of the tear.
She had to cross the stream, and knelt quickly to drink. She'd underestimated the heat. The shock of the glacially cold water suggested it, too, found it's source in the mountains so she continued east and then north, following the stream that had begun to widen and unfurl into a proper river.
As she crested a low knoll and looked northward, she jolted to a stop. Between her current position and the foothills of the mountain range was... a giant woolly mammoth...Amazed and now more than slightly perplexed, she slowly moved out of the line of sight of the massive animal. Despite her fear and adrenaline, that sense of awe welled up inside her again; she was shocked at the sight in front of her, but at the same time, the opportunity for adventure (and perhaps a bit of the adrenaline) made her giddy.
She skirted slowly around the mammoth and back on her path, now moving a bit more cautiously. As she continued, she came upon a path wound slowly into the distance, leading... toward a copse of trees that looked like pines, yet not like pines. "Vanilla pines" she thought to herself, inhaling deeply.
The trees thickened beside and above her, till she was in a virtual tunnel of green and black, thin flashes of sunlight broke intermittently through the branches above in hypnotic fashion. She began to feel that she was being watched. Surely not the trees? Trees don't watch, or do they?
A rustle to the left of her expanded into a crash of undergrowth as... ...a group of men came charging through the trees, they wore primitive clothing and their hair was dark and wild. The men were moving fast and checking over their shoulders, obviously fearfull of whatever was pursuing them. Instinctively she joined the fleeing men and began to move as quickly as she could through the dense trees, scraping her arms and legs on the branches and logs that stood in her way. She turned her head to try and see what it was they were running from, a group of shadowlike figures just like the one she had seen earlier were gaining quickly, something about these things seemed inhuman, they glided through the trees with unnatural floating and darting movements. Whatever they were they filled her with a dread she had not known before. Still amongst the group of men, as she ran for her life she tripped on a root and hit her head on a heavy branch as she fell to the ground, just before losing conciousness she felt a man's hand reach down and lift her off the ground as her sight faded to black...
...When she awoke, she found herself staring at the ceiling of a small hut. Light streamed through a small window, and all around the room hung warm animal pelts. However, there was no one in sight, and she didn't hear anything outside. It was a bit cooler, and, as she got up to look out the window, she noticed that she was a bit higher up the mountain.
With a start, she noticed...
... a face pop up suddenly outside the window, it was a child. The boy had long and tangled hair, his face was dirty but he wore a beaming smile. As she watched him and tried to comprehend how she had ended up in this strange world the boy turned and began to yell in a language she could not understand, his excited yells were responded with murmurs and eventually excited chatter from many people that were now coming towards the hut, she stepped outside and was greeted by many faces all of which seemed very interested in her. As the group crowded around she began to feel strange, as if her thoughts were being drowned out by some kind of noise other than the chatter of the people, she dropped to her knees, overwhelmed by this feeling before being led back into the hut by one of the men. It was quiet again inside the hut, the man looked at her intently. She began to experience something strange, she could feel what the man was feeling and then see what he could see, all of these impressions and images began to form words, yet the man did not speak. "I saved you from the dark ones..." he thought, stunned she sat back, wherever she was, in this world, she could read minds!...
