All Shall Fade (LOTR-Wattys 2014)

All Shall Fade - Chapter 2 - Double Take (LOTR)

All Shall Fade

Chapter 2

Double Take

  “Bloody hell…” I groaned, rolling onto my side and clutching my throbbing head. I’d blinked awake a few seconds ago and had only just realised what had happened… Trust me to run into a tree and knock myself out.

  I swore under my breath as I sat up and winced as I lightly touched the egg-shaped lump on my head. I wouldn’t have been surprised if my collision had caused me to lose half my brain cells. I looked up at the tree that had caused the whole fiasco and glared at it. “This is your fault.” I muttered, and then realised that I was talking to a tree. I also realised that it was morning. Claire and Toby would probably be worried about me.

  I felt a dull pain in my chest as I thought about Toby, but I decided to push the thoughts about him away. Priority number one was to get back to the campsite. I scrambled to my feet and then grabbed the tree as I was hit by a bout of head-rush. “Ugh…” I mumbled as it slowly cleared and I was able to see straight again. I turned back in the direction of the campsite and started walking. I hadn’t really registered how far I’d run into the forest last night, but I figured around five minutes of walking would get me back. I was slightly peeved that neither Toby nor Claire had come looking for me… Ok, to be fair, Jess had tried to follow me, but she was a dog and wouldn’t have been able to help much… Unless she was secretly Lassie. I highly doubted it.

  After a good few minutes of walking, I still hadn’t found our campsite. I frowned to myself and looked around. I couldn’t see a single sign of there being a clearing anywhere. I downright refused to believe that I was lost, go I struck out in a different direction, being careful to drag my feet through the leaves that littered the ground so I left a clear path.

  Wait…Leaves?

   I looked down at the ground, and then up at the trees that were coated in leaves that varied from pale green to a deep golden brown.What? No… That couldn’t be right. We had been camping in an evergreen forest. Evergreen… It should have been all pine needles and fir cones. Not leaves.

   And for one thing, it was the middle ofsummer… Not autumn. This made no sense.

  I turned around and quickly followed my rough path back to the tree I had started at, and I had to stare at it for a few seconds, just so I could believe that I was actually seeing it.

There was a pine tree in the middle of a deciduous forest.

There was a deciduous forest where there should have been and evergreen one.

What thehellwas going on here?

I walked up to the tree and poked its rough bark. Yep, it was definitely there. “This is impossible…” I whispered quietly, before turning away. “Toby?” I cried, “Claire? Guys? Are you out there?” The only answer I received was my own echo bouncing off the trees. Nothing else… Ok, now I was officially creeped out. I rooted in my pocket for my mobile phone and smiled as I realised that I had it with me – and then groaned as I saw the massive crack across the screen. I gingerly turned it on and smiled as it beeped to life – singing out the familiar Nokia tune. The image of its background was warped, but I was still able to see that I had no signal, and my battery was dangerously low. I glanced at the blurred image of me, Claire and Toby on last year’s trip that served as my screen wallpaper, before turning off my phone to conserve the battery. I shoved it back into my pocket and looked around. Right, so by the looks of things, I was lost in a strange forest. That definitely wasn’t good. Before I could start panicking, I took a deep breath and told myself to wise up. “It’s only a forest.” I muttered, “You’ve probably been here before, so you just need to work out where you are so you can get back to the campsite.” I smiled a little after I’d reassured myself. Common sense told me that I should start walking. Ok, so the forest mightn’t be familiar to me right now, I just needed to find some sort of landmark. None of the forests in the Mournes were particularly big, so if I just kept walking in one direction, I’d make it out and find somewhere recognisable. “Sounds like a plan.” I said out loud, trying to cheer myself up by filling the silence. As I picked a random direction and started walking I wished that I had my iPod with me, it was eerily quiet in the forest. To distract myself from the fact that I was lost and alone, I sang to myself, belting out the lyrics of my favourite songs as I tried to keep going in a straight line.