Dimokre Chronicles Book 1: Crossed Paths

Chapter 1 - Don't Be in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time

The first thing that Sarah noticed was how eerily calm she felt at being in an oversized, unfamiliar room. After she peered her eyes open, the second thing she noticed was the overwhelmingly vibrant colors drifting down to her, from way up high somewhere. She squinted and found herself spinning in slow, careful circles to take every detail in.

The room itself must have been thousands of feet tall, as the ceiling disappeared into a distant fog. Lined with bark, the walls were a smooth, beige color with the grain running gracefully down. She reached out a hand to touch the wood, and it felt so soft to touch that she couldn't help but snuggle against it. It looked and sounded like wood, but felt soft like a bed.

Still leaning against the wall, Sarah scanned the room. Stained glass windows centered on each wall, high above to flood the floor with a sea of colorful light. The grain of the wood blended so seamlessly with the glass windows that it was almost difficult to tell where the wood ended and the glass started. Vivid purples, blues, greens, and reds bloomed in the light.

A peacock showed off its feathers in one window. A fox snuggled sleepily into its tail in the next. The third window showed a wolf howling at a bright, white moon, and a black cat mischievously stared down from her window at Sarah with piercingly bright red eyes. When Sarah drew near, all four animals seemed to shine with life. Almost like they could come out of the windows as real, touchable animals that she could interact with. She couldn't take her eyes off the wolf and had to pull herself away, convincing herself that the wolf didn't actually turn his head away from the moon towards her.

She stared down at her feet, blinking the light floaters away from her vision. Rings radiated from the center, showing the tree was certainly thousands of years old. Sarah looked at the banded pattern and balanced on one of the thin rings as she walked forward. She sat down on the soft floor, tracing the grain near her with her fingertips and looking up at the windows. What she thought was dust shimmering in the light shining through from the windows announced its presence as fireflies. Light radiated from the fireflies and gleamed excitedly when they neared Sarah.

Sarah reached an arm up to catch one. It landed on her index finger, and she coddled it close to her. It felt warm like a candle, but didn't hurt. It glowed like it was happy to be around her. She set it on her lap, where it stayed for a few moments before flying away to go find a mate.

An old staircase grew from the farthest wall. The bottom steps flailed out in such a way that reminded her of the palace steps from her favorite princess movie. She airily drifted over to it and put a hand on the railing. She walked up onto the first step before looking up at the staircase. It wound around the walls, seemingly going on forever.

She managed to climb up the stairs until she was about eye level with the mischievous cat, before her panting and tired legs reminded her to consider how long this would take, where this would take her, and why the hollow tree wanted her to go. Before she managed to get too calculating in her thoughts, something bright crashed with a shattering crack from high above and sparked on the floor as it landed.

Sarah rushed to the railway of the staircase and stared down, her hair falling over her shoulders as she peered. Tiny at first, flames from the destructive, intruding object soon grew into a fierce inferno. Her hands flew to cover her mouth as she gasped. Thriving on its new power, the flames danced eagerly as it spiraled around the ringed floor. The tree couldn't seem to sate the fire as it blazed and greedily searched for more food. Sarah knew that soon the tree couldn't last much longer, and the colorful, glass animals and the tree's history would die with it.

Tree branches fell and crashed around her. She screamed and ducked as the realization of danger overtook her instincts. The pressure shattered the glass into shards overhead. Glass fell and sliced into her skin as she threw her arms over her head. Her blue dress stained with red. Smoke clouded the room too fast for the broken windows to release it. Sarah needed to leave, but she had no idea how she got in here or how to get out. She sank low to the stairway, and her eyes darted around, looking for an exit. Sarah panted as the fatigue and adrenaline took its toll.