An Imagination Most Unladylike

Chapter Two: Bittersweet Sixteen

"Aja. Aja, Wake up." someone whispered. "AJA!" I sat up, knocking my head on something hard. 

Douxie groaned, rubbing his chin. "Sorry, Doux," I mumbled, taking in our surroundings. We were in a forest, much like the one at home but slightly different, and there was a narrow, bumpy pathway leading away from where we were. We were no long in the clothes we wore to sleep, these were more country clothes, and everything felt strange, but wonderful, as if there was some sort of magic drifting around in the air. 

"I'm dreaming, right?" Douxie asked, taking in his surroundings.

"If you're dreaming, how am I having the same dream?" I stood up slowly. It was a big fall.

"I don't know, maybe you're just saying that because you're in the dream and I'm not meant to know that I'm dreaming?" 

"Doux, if you were dreaming, you wouldn't know you're dreaming." I said in a way that lets him know the conversation was finished. I hesitantly walked down the pathway, Douxie following closely behind. If we were going to get out of there we needed to start somewhere.

~ ~ ~

"Can we just stop... for a moment?" Douxie panted. 

"No," I replied, brain whirring about where we go next. It was a cross road, and no signs of any sort.

"Please, let's just sit down," Douxie moaned.

"No." 

"Of course," was the reply. "Where even are we? China? Are we still in Canada?"

"I don't know!" I cried out, irritated.

"Aja, what was in that book?" he asked carefully.

"My ancestor's stories and imaginations starting with my great, great, great- you know." 

"Where you in there?"

"Only my name," I answered, still trying to figure out which way to go.

"Aja, I think- well, we fell into the book... I think- I think we're actually in it." Douxie blurted out.

I stood rigid, rooted to the spot. 'This book holds every single one of your ancestor's stories,' I remembered my grandmother's words. 

"Doux, I think you're right." I realised. "This isn't real," I turned around. "It's happening in our heads! Wait. If we're in the book... Oh no. This is not how my birthday was meant to go! We're stuck in a book, we can't get out, we don't know what to do, we're gonna die and I've never been kissed..."

"That's what you're concerned about?" Douxie smirked, much calmer than he should be.

"Oh, shut up," I snarled.

"So do you know what happens?" Douxie asked.

"No, I didn't read anything," I said. "Let's improvise. What do we do now?" I felt faint at this new idea. I did have an imagination, and it was from a family of people who could create whole worlds with their minds, and now those worlds had been passed down to me. 

"Climb one of these trees," Douxie suggested. "There's bound to be a village or something around here. We can get directions from up higher."

"Right," I agreed. I had always wanted an adventure, but it was so much scarier now that it was actually happening. 

Douxie walked over to the tree and reached for a hold, pulling himself upwards. "You aren't concerned at all?" I questioned his emotions vigorously at this current moment in time. 

"Not really," he thought for a bit. "I find it hard to be, I suppose. I'm finally away from a terrible world of diseases and gloom and now I'm in a world of fantasy, with my best friend, where anything can happen, I'm no longer concerned about being late for work at the café, and plus, I'm about to climb this tree. Goodbye." he then turned and leaped up into the tree's branches. I shrugged and smiled slightly. He was right. So far, this place was ok. I followed him up, easily grabbing at the the thick tree bark and refusing to look down. I had grown up in the forest, this wasn't too hard. Maybe we could find a village or a house by dark. 

I counted us as the luckiest people in the world at that hour.

The forest stretched across the earth, a darker green than the look on my mother's face after my grandmother offered her a seventh glass of wine. In the distance, the beautiful lights of a small town lit up a messy square of the woods. The sun was beginning to set. Douxie and I had to move fast if we wanted to be there by nightfall. We scrambled down the tree and started running in the direction of the lights, not looking back once at where we came from.