"Hello honey," Matilda's voice was just as sickeningly sweet as the aforementioned pet name. Theo caught himself and stared blankly at his mother, his incredulity freezing him not unlike a statue. His voice was swiftly lost, and just as swiftly found.
"Hey mom," Theo whispered with a quivering voice, fearful primarily of what his mother would do with Nicolas.
"What are you doing so far away from the house?" Matilda was growing closer, but Theo stood his ground. Her smile was an illusion that faded quickly as she twisted herself closer, her dark dress dragging across the dirt. "You should come back home with me... It isn't safe this far in the Wood."
Maneuvering himself at a constant rate of exchange, Theo created a space of equilibrium between himself and his mother. Not taking the hint, Matilda continually glided along the grassy ground, a wistful spirit in the dark, cerulean wood. Finally, Theo stopped and stood his ground, and Matilda embraced him maternally, an affection better left un-given.
"I can't come home yet," Theo whispered in his mother's ear.
"What do you mean?" Letting go, Matilda stared in her son's stormy eyes.
"I have to help Nicolas find the Queen of the Fairies."
"I can't let you," Matilda shook her head calmly, looking away from her child. She stared at the ground for what seemed to both like an hour; though in reality it was less than a second. "I've told you about the conditions in Fairy Ring Major, with the Angelus-Daemon war. It's too dangerous, and besides, no one's seen Queen Iris Titania in years; the border of Fairy Ring Major is barricaded by the Dryad Guard of the Great Maple's Queen Sirop anyway, and no one's getting in or out."
"We'll find a way," Theo whispered, the tone of the conversation changing as the last syllable. Matilda then began to recede into a defensive state, looking incredulously and disappointingly at Theo. "I'm not a child anymore..." He muttered softly, out of earshot.
"I'm not going to force you," Matilda whispered, lying through her teeth. Theo panted slightly from the tension alone, the cool winter air blowing softly on his earthy skin. "But it's dangerous out there. I'll ask you one last time; please come home."
***
When Nicolas awoke, he was alone.
Disoriented and stumbling, gravity seemed like a million-pound weight on Nicolas' chest. The world around was confusing and uncertain, as if an M. C. Escher painting came to life in the distribution and placement of the forest around. Barely standing, Nicolas watched the trees stretch and shift around, the ground and sky on all sides of Nicolas.
When he looked down, he noticed that he was standing on a particularly thick tree trunk that was stretching under him. To the left, was an abyss of tree and branch, stretching in almost any way imaginable, and to the right, was a wall of grass, tree trunks, and leaves. He began to carefully maneuver his dizzied head along the trunk and into the sea of trees.
Ducking under other trunks and branches, as well as a ceiling made of grass and ground, Nicolas trudged through. Finally noticing the leaves and grass on his sweater and pants, Nicolas wiped them as he walked and stared with both blankness and amazement at the sight.
Looking forward, a curtain of leaves covered the rest of the trunk's path.
Sliding slowly through it, a new path stretched ahead; one of a canopy of branches, leaves, and a floor of moss, not unlike a tunnel. It seemed to expand indefinitely, and every once in a while as Nicolas slumbered through he would find both a small marigold and carnation growing, which seemed to him out of place.
YOU ARE READING
Star Child
Paranormal"I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim," - Frida Kahlo. In the middle of the night, Nicolas Tsukino spots a shooting star that seems to be approaching the nearby woods. Overcome with a numb curiosity, and against his bett...
