World Leapers Book I: The Forest

The Darkness

Want the audio version? Simply click on the image of "The Forest" book above to listen to me narrate this chapter!

Also...as you read (or listen) feel free to leave your own comments, thoughts and suggestions, and I promise to reply.

Finally, press the star button to vote for this chapter if you like it!

----------

It was the needles pressing painfully into his cheeks that woke him.

Terran slowly regained consciousness. His mind began humming, sensing, and scanning.

His first realization was that his head was pressed firmly against the ground, mashed up hard against what felt like some kind of dense debris on the forest ground. He could smell the unmistakable scent of evergreen, and knew the sharp pinpricks against his face were pine needles.

His second realization was that his legs were incredibly stiff and felt bruised, as though he'd fallen from a great height to land there where he lay motionless on the ground.

And finally, he realized that everything was dark. Very, very dark.

Terran's first thought was that he must be inside the dark shed. He knew that normally when a human steps outside from the light into the darkness, eyes gradually become accustomed to it. In his science book, he'd read about carrots and night vision, along with night vision photoreceptors in the eyes called "rods". These rods act as light detectors, even in the presence of extremely low levels of illumination, and are able to respond to a tiny, single visible photon of light. In a dim environment, through a process known as dark adaptation, these rods slowly increase their sensitivity to light. But if a human has a shortage of beta-carotene, found in orange foods like squash, yams and carrots, this mechanism that allows for dark adaptation is inhibited. And so for the same reason that he practiced owl eyes and fox walking, Terran had lately been very careful to eat his carrots.

So he lay there, eyes wide open, waiting for dark adaptation to slowly set in. Waiting to see where he was. Listening, watching, smelling, and sensing for his brother River.

But everything remained black.

He raised himself up to one elbow. He couldn't see a single shadow. Not a tree. Not the outline of a bush. Nothing.

He looked up toward the sky. No stars. No moon. No light.

He'd heard of people fainting, passing out, and even getting their head hurt in a way that caused "black-outs". Was this a black-out? He'd never lost consciousness before. Never lost sensation of time. This was a completely new phenomenon, and he wasn't quite sure what was normal.

"River."

Terran's voice was a harsh whisper. He was not quite sure why he was whispering. It just felt like the right thing to do in the complete darkness.

No reply.

"River."

This time he said it in a louder, monotone voice.

"RIV!"

Terran shouted. Still no reply.

----------

Terran propped himself up on both hands, then into a crawling position. It still seemed so strange that it was so dark. So black. Normally, even at night, he'd be able to see just a faint outline of a tree, a bush, a star, something.

He felt for his foraging bag of mushrooms. It was no longer at his side, nor anywhere on the ground around him. He crawled forward.

Thunk.