“So really we don’t have a captain. We don’t have a camel either.” I heard the words, but they didn’t make sense. I was beginning to question my sanity as an overwhelming sense of confusion came over me. Vision sluggishly crept up the edges of my mind and color lethargically made it’s way into my retina. At first it was all blurry, a web of red impairing my sight. The intricate design of hues was lost somewhere unidentifiable, but it made me think of red. In truth, I knew I wasn’t actually seeing anything at all, merely the empty oblivion of closed eyes, interlaced with the light waves my eyes picked up. The blankness slowly went away and was replaced with an odd sight. Red. The sky above me was nothing but red, with a splash of blinding white in the far reaches of my peripheral vision. No one was to be seen.
I thought it was odd that although my head was in its natural forward position, I had a clear shot of the sky and only then did I realize I was lying on my back. I must’ve fainted. I felt a dull pain in the back of my head, presumably where it had hit the ground. Throughout my lower back and legs though, I felt nothing. Mindsets of fear skittered up and about my nervous receptors as I attempted to cope with the numbness, like ants rushing to fix a broken home. Startled at the lack of feeling, I pushed up with my elbows and sat. Regardless of my lack of energy, I gave a jump when I saw what lay before me.
A barren wasteland carried on perfectly flat in front of me for eternity, with nothing remarkable except for the occasional crater and scorch marks, staining the withered, yellow grass. At the end of eternity, where the sky and ocean met, a mountain range stretched upwards, as if challenging G-d. The mountains reached the mid troposphere, with a layer of stratus clouds thundering down on their relative midpoint, the ominous darkness entwining throughout the peaks, which were struggling to get above it. To my right, the wasteland stretched out indefinitely. To my left, the field went on until it clashed with the mountains out back and abruptly freefell into a treacherous, opaque lake further to my left.
Where am I? I told my brain to lift up a leg in an attempt to find out. Why am I here? Finding that my leg would not listen, my fears were confirmed. What happened to me? IGrabbed hold of my leg with one arm. Who am I? Still I could not stand.
Where was he? For twelve days, she had looked for him and still no sign. The policemen suspected murder, but had not found a body. I looked up at her from my bowl. The news had agitated her, and I didn’t like it. She stopped caring as much about me and I hadn’t even gone for a walk in the past four days. It seemed that all she could think about was Drake. Don’t get me wrong. I liked the guy and I really did look forward to his visits, but come on! This had reached a new level. Janeth had duties and if she thought that she could just bypass my attention for some stupid Drake, then she was sorely mistaken. In fact, I’d already decided. I was going to go out of my way to find this guy.
I continued looking up at her, now totally disinterested in my beat-up aluminum container, devoid of meat. Her face had the same juvenile features, the same blonde hair that flowed like a waterfall, and the same tan complexion, but she did not look the same as before. Her eyes, once beacons of color and gaiety, were now dull and perpetually covered by a layer water coating her corneas. Her mouth had shut, with no words of praise, no nicknames, no never-ending smile. No longer would she play with me or pet me and say “Good Gambit” in a voice we both understood as being ridiculous. Even her smell changed. Not enough to be indistinguishable as hers, but still enough to be noted. In short, she was a whole other person and I missed the old Janeth. More determined than ever, I set out to retrieve her.
I took a deep breath to settle my nerves. I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die. I tried shushing the voice in my head, yet a knot formed in my throat and my eyes welled up. I felt as if I had a purpose, but my circumstances, made my goal unachievable. Dejected and distraught, I closed my eyes. I began to cave in to self-pity and desperation. I could not move my legs. I could not see any sign of civilization, yet I had a view that went on for miles on end. I could not last more than three days without water. Worst of all, I couldn’t remember who I was. What was I like? Did I have a family or was I still single? Did I live luxuriously or did I have to scrape pennies just to eat? What was my name?
I was lost in my personal lamentation when, like a bolt of lightning, it hit me. It did not matter who I had been or what I’d done. I was a newborn person. The previous me had died, and resuscitating him would be impossible. Besides, I didn’t know who I was, but I knew who I wanted to be and that was a lot better. I had no preset expectations or limits set upon myself. I could go for the moon.
I took a deep breath to settle my nerves. I found I was oddly calm in comparison to merely moments earlier. I tried to think. Flabbergasted, I saw my thoughts arrange themselves almost systematically. What are my priorities? I need water. How can I obtain it? There is an ocean far west, but this area- How do I know that direction is west? Strange…this area indicates odd weather patterns different to the norm. How do I recognize weather patterns? Something is going on. Average people do not recognize weather patterns. Is this perhaps a result of me remembering my past life? Is this a window back to what I left behind? A meteorologist maybe? No! It doesn’t matter. I am starting from nothing. Perhaps I will have no advantages, but I will as well have no disadvantages. If I left a life behind, I did so for a reason- Then again, what if I have a family or people that miss me? What if I did not choose to leave my life, but was instead forced out? Don’t mind that, think about water, otherwise you won’t be able to think anything soon enough. Clouds. I saw them decorating the far off mountains, but I don’t understand. How could there be water near the mountains, but not over the ocean? It doesn’t make sense. I gotta move. No water is gonna come to me here in the middle of nowhere.
I tried to stand. My legs were not weak. My knees did not wobble. My ankles did not feel as if they couldn’t hold the weight. They just sat there making me do so with them. Lifeless and limp. I could tell blood was flowing to them. That wasn’t the problem; it was nervous. I attempted imagining moving my legs, but felt nothing. I was then overcome by a curiosity. I wondered how far my spinal cord went before it stopped working. I felt ridiculous, but I experimented on it regardless.
I forced an imaginary shock down my body, beginning at my neck. It rushed downwards, where it came to a three-way fork. Down my left arm, down my core, down my right arm. The illusory current coursed through me at a constant speed, spreading in five different directions in each hand and reaching up until my fingertips. Simultaneously, the nonexistent energy ran down my spine continuing smoothly unto my lower back- Crack! The force of the impact made me jump. My sensitivity didn’t just end in that spot; instead it seemed there was a clog, some sort of a wall denying the nervous messages the privilege of passing.
I did the same procedure again, but this time, upon reaching the vertebra that had stopped my feeling, I pushed as hard as I could. Thinking back, it was ridiculous that an imaginary flow could unlock my lower body movement, but I was desperate. The shock, this time, was explosive- dizzyingly so. A sharp pain had shot across my spine, as a large part of the impact was deflected back up my backbone. I momentarily lost control, my back arching in pain. A profanity fled my mouth at an ear-shattering decibel, but before I could start another one, the pain was over, diminishing and then dying out almost as quickly as it had begun.
I was left panting on all fours, with a murderous headache and a sharp sting under my ribs. My heart seemed to beat at 400 bpm and I found that my entire body was sore and maintained a strong undulating throbbing. I placed my hand on my right temple, disregarding the fact that it was soaked in sweat. I knew that I would have to repeat this agonizing procedure if I wanted to walk, reach water and in turn, live. I did not want to, nonetheless, I did.
The pain was like no other. I didn’t think I’d felt anything like this before, but then again, I had no idea what I had and hadn’t felt. Words, no matter how powerful would fail to describe what I felt at that moment; they would not do it justice. The degree of pain had exponentiated compared to last time and its duration was considerably longer. I felt the grasp of consciousness losing hold and beginning to slip. I had reached the point where perspiration, tears and my foaming saliva had become indistinguishable from each other, coating every square inch of my face.A watermark was discernible dripping down my right pant leg only after forming a dome just beneath my beltline. I’m losing liquids far too fast. I need to reach that lake soon.
I began to direct the all too familiar current through my body again, but I could not go past my chest. Fear of what was coming was too great. Why must I harm myself more? I have no reason to live. I have no one to go back to. I have no life. I’m just a soulless body with no background, nothing in his life but the need to survive and soon enough, even that will be gone. Still, I held on to my consciousness. It is in every animal’s carnal instinct to do what it takes to live and I, at that moment, had little more on my mind than a wild beast.
A dog’s nose is truly something amazing. It will retain a scent for elongated periods of time and can trace them as far away as the distance from the Earth to Mars. My sense of smelling was no different. I did not demonstrate my abilities to humans, for fear that they find out The Secret. The very same secret I had managed to maintain ever since my arrival on Earth in my current form.
That day, while my “master” was at work, I ran out, following my nose. Nothing more than a simple jump to open the doorknob and a bit of stealth to avoid the doorman was needed to leave the building. The big city streets were crowded, overly so, just as always. The 6 meter wide sidewalk gave way for the millions of pedestrians walking every which way. I dug out my thoughts. Almost like a faded replay, I smelled the scent of the man who had made me, for the first time in my life, take initiative. I guess it wasn’t so bad to actually do something. It just never occurred to me that I’d have to and I quite liked my life the way it was. This was why I wanted Janeth back to how she used to be. My kind doesn’t do well with change. Especially when we can’t control it.
I took a sniff. My nose pointed me southeast. I began to run in that direction, my small body racing around all the pedestrians’ lower extremities. I rushed by legs and stepped on feet. I swiveled left to right in a winding path as fast as I could. I felt like a biker in second world country traffic. I ran and ran, but all too soon it was too late. I realized that I would have to begin my return if I wanted to get back before my owner. I realized that greater measures would have to be taken.
I have to try harder! Once more, I strained, but I could not go through with it. A soft, almost inaudible sigh left my lips. I leaned back and lay there for a few seconds. Then, I closed my eyes.
Upon entering the dreamworld, I searched for him. I knew I should not have exposed myself, but I justified it with people’s having strange dreams. They would simply not understand; nothing more could happen. Besides, I was given a lot of space up here; no one would get in my way. Furthermore, I believe the council would not demote me if they found out; they would understand the purity of my actions.
I strut down Niam St., towering over everyone else. I stepped off of the road, freely hovering over the sky. I did not like the feeling. It seemed unnatural, like something I would never do in Mortamundus, the “normal” world. I stepped back onto the cloud. I kept on walking, going nowhere in particular. Why do I walk? I guess it just feels good to act normal. I closed my eyes.
When I opened them, I was in the Fields of Elysia, a place so unbelievably perfect that no mortal could ever understand it. Happiness was embodied here. All the blissful people of the world came here when they slept to be even happier. How rather unfair. Anyhow, I must carry on to The Directory. In the blink of an eye, I was gone and in The Directory.
It was a rather average building; nothing more than a large block of concrete sprouting from the earth. I always found it went against the dreamworld and it all stood for, but changing it would be much too cumbersome. It was miles away, but I was within the cool, air-conditioned walls in less than four steps. Oh! I love the dreamland, I reflected, considering my high-ranking position and all the physics bending it allowed. At my current status, I could do anything I pleased with myself, but I could not manipulate my environment. This meant that here in the dreamworld, I could take on any shape I wanted, regardless of my current mortal form. Sadly though, in the mortal world there was a scarcity of mystic energy, which impaired my ability to transmorph there. While not too difficult, reverting to my “true dream form” (one’s natural state in the dreamworld) was too risky and bound to raise human suspicion.
Quickly, I reached the Main Offices. It was a massive room, the likes of which Mortamundus had never seen. It was large enough to fit just over seventy-two football fields in. Nondescript walls painted white with a tinge of blue surrounded the outermost and therefore lowest ranking cubicles. An intricate grid of workspaces covered the entirety of the circular room. The partitions were all slightly curved, fitting in with ones beside them. In the center of the bull’s-eye was head authority, Steratus Garrney. In a tight circle around the Steratus, the top employees sat and the grades decreased as the desks move further outwards and away from the epicenter. Hundreds of thousands of tiny elves, leprechauns and fairies labored noisily, doing paperwork and other menial yet tedious tasks that had to be done. This was where dreams were made.
I had a giant fish eat me only to be converted into a banana in its digestive system and come out its rear as dust in the Overview Center. The miniscule particles of my being began spinning around, slowly at first, but quickly gaining speed until I was a controlled tornado. I then proceeded to become a pillar of twisting fire with rivets of water exquisitely spiraling around me. In the center of this awe-inspiring structure, I summoned a solid beam of light, gradually increasing it in both intensity and size. Upon reaching excessive bulk and density, the light exploded into a kaleidoscope of colors. The array of distinct shades and hues included six colors that I’d recently invented. The waves of color washed away in a fraction of a second, as I was left standing there with dust floating up around my legs and a delicate breeze ruffling my mane. A long time ago, I had grown bored of simply entering the building and had begun designing extravagant arrivals. This was my best one yet.
I stood there looking defiantly into the distance, trying to look dramatic. “The arriver arrived,” Said Rulsta The Elder “In colors colored and in impressiveness impressed. Dust dusted well.”
“Indeed, ‘twas a great entrance,” Added Traonar in his deep voice “but you cannot make such a big show every time you enter the building. You’re distracting the workers.”
“I realize that, but they love my little escapades and it raises morale. Besides, it is simply who I am. How do you think I got Level One?” I asked, indicating the markings written on my right flank. “Gambit:” It read, “Creative Processing”.
“Enough chitchat, though. I need you to look me up a certain Drake Lively.”
“Whatever you say, Mr. Level One” The centaur, Traonar answered, clearly mocking me.
With a nod, Rulsta turned around and began searching the database. Tens of millions of people come through in the search upheld in the screen that covered the Overview Center’s back wall. I looked down, waiting for the search to finish. The glass floor gave a view of the entirety of The Directory. In fact, the Overview Center, just a smidgeon bigger than an average house, acted as a roof for all of The Directory and was square, while The Directory itself was perfectly circular. Used to it as I may have been, physics bending was something that I had always found extraordinary.
“The asker asked and the searcher searched.” Rulsta, the Satyr, told us that he had found our match. Albeit fragile, senile and scarily close to his grave, you had to hand it to him. The old man-goat had skills.
Am I dead? I was lying just as I had been, sprawled amongst the dead grass. The only difference was that this time, there was no red sky, no barren desert, no looming mountains. This time, there was only just a void. It was not darkness, for light did exist in this environment, there was just nothing for it to reflect off of. I could see my body, clear as day, but nothing held it up, nothing kept it from toppling downwards. I did not fall, nor did I bobble around with no gravity to hold me down. Instead I felt as if a patch of land held me aloft. I felt soft grass providing comfortable support for my body, yet I knew that none was there.
Confused, I instinctively stood up to get better look. It took me a second to realize what I’d just done. Astonished, I looked around. I took a step. My foot landed on the feathery padding of grass. I can walk! I could not believe it. I screamed the words at the top of my lungs, and how good did they feel. The air was not stale and metallic as it had been in the only other place my mind had witnessed. This smells fresh. It must be what Spring is like, I imagined. I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with the delightfully crisp air. It smelled like grass and flowers, the weightlessness of atmosphere was almost tangible. I took another step, rejoicing in the glory of exhilaration. I had never been happy before.
I began to walk. I leisurely took a few small paces at first, but kept on speeding up until I was in a full sprint. I didn’t stop there, though. In fact, my acceleration rate itself accelerated, and I was soon going so fast that I could no longer see myself. My arms and legs were just a hazy blur, more transparent than not.
Soon, I approximated the speed of sound. I began hearing low sounds: the steady pulsing of my heart, the deeps breaths I’d take. Then I started listening to upper pitches: the whistle of the wind, the song of a bird. I heard it all, but muffled, as if on the other side of heavy aquarium glass. Still I gained speed.
Suddenly, I heard an ear shattering crash as the fish tank shattered and spilled gallon upon gallon of sound upon me. I had broken the sound barrier. Still I gained speed.
I started seeing. All around me, blue began to settle. The colors started making their way up the color spectrum, some of it remaining in its azure tone, and in other places changing to green, followed by yellow, orange and red, each color passing through every previous tone being visible as itself. Still I gained speed.
Eventually, I had a complete view of the world around me, but it was fogged and blurry, as if covered by a high intensity lens with a layer wax paper to obscure my view. No shadows were visible. Still I gained speed.
Abruptly, I hit 299,793 km/s, and I could distinguish every figure, every slight change of environment, clear as a crystalline pond.
And, oh, what I saw! It was unparalleled beauty. It was the essence of joy. It was the reflection of serenity. It was the emblem of life. It was the hellish nightmare I’d just escaped. Except, not exactly.
A colorful meadow carried on perfectly flat in front of me for eternity, with nothing remarkable except for the occasional flowerbed and roaming animal, dotting the vibrant, green grass. At the end of eternity, where the sky and ocean met, a mountain range stretched upwards, as if hugging the sky. The mountains reached the mid troposphere, with a layer of stratus clouds fluffing up the relative midpoint of them, the fleecy cloth weaving throughout the peaks, which were shooting up above it. To my right, the pasture stretched out indefinitely. To my left, the field went on until it merged with the mountains out back and gracefully smoothed into a welcoming translucent lake further to my left.
How ironic. I’d been so keen on leaving that godforsaken place that I never realized that it was the place I wanted to go to. I wonder what this all means.
“Nothing!” Traonar stomped his front hooves and smashed his fists concurrently to demonstrate his displeasure. “I would do nothing risky for those I love! I realize that there are greater things at stake here”. He had inquired about the reason for my search, and judging by his response, he had not liked my answer.
“I guess that is where we differentiate then,” I reacted, putting most of my bodyweight on my hind legs and keeping my cool, “Besides, what greater a motivational force than love?”
“Life. Every being has the instinct of survival. It is in their primal core,” Retorted the partially humanoid horse.
“Ah. That is where you are mistaken, my friend. For few are the men who’d give up the life of that which he loves in opposition to his own. Furthermore, what do you think drives me?” I said, gloating in my immortality.
At a loss for words, Traonar just stuttered a few times before giving up and merely taking deep breaths. I knew it was all he could to stop himself from punching me in the face. Inside, I smiled. Goodness! I love my authority.
Then the wise Rulsta drove me out of my boastful thoughts with something that mattered much more to me. “Drake Lively. Age aged, 27. Location located, Gobi Desert. Display displayed.” He said, bringing up an image on the screen of a man sleeping, collapsed across the floor. He was neighboring demise due to dehydration, it seemed. In the distance, mountains loomed and a body of water was apparent to the west. That’s him. There he is.
Here I am! I just stared up at the beaming sun and grinned like a fool. I could stay here forever. I ran in circles with my arms in the air; like a child who had not yet been beaten down by the cruelty of the world. I closed my eyes and lay down. Inches behind me, a seed sprouted and developed into a full tree, in just a few seconds. The hundreds of arms made a canopy above me like a mother’s embrace: firm and protective whilst comforting and welcoming. For a few hours I lay with my back held up against the trunk, my skin protected from the sun by the leaves. This was all wonderful, but sure enough after a while, I got bored. At first, it was little more than irritating but after long enough, I’d thought I’d go crazy out of insufficiency of activity.
I tried walking away for weeks on end. Over multiple trips I went towards the lake and the mountains, but it seemed that they were mirages, just drifting farther every time I got close. Actually, every time I’d turn around, I’d see the tree not more than 100 meters away, anchoring me to the very spot from which I’d entered this twisted version of an even further twisted world.
For years, I was locked inside this picturesque nightmare, doing nothing but despairing. Eventually the day came where I lost it. I realized the utmost truth. I am alone. Nothing I do, nothing I say, nothing I think will matter because no one will be here to respond. As the philosophical discussion goes “If a tree falls in the forest, but no one is there to hear it, will it make a sound?” if I fall in this wasteland, but no one is here to hear it, will I make a sound?
A sonorous thud was barely audible every time my hooves hit the floor. I was moving quickly enough to make the banging of my foot against the floor more like a sustained note than a string of crashes. My legs moved quick enough to be indistinguishable from each other.
I was currently in Mortamundus. I was also, at the moment, in my true dream form. I was certain I’d be penalized, but I was also certain that no humans would spot me. Even if they did, I was moving so fast that they wouldn’t have enough time to register what they saw and if they did, then they’d either think they just imagined it or would, in the worst case scenario, reveal the truth and not be believed.
In less than six hours, I had run halfway around the world. I had already reached the Gobi Desert and was closing in on the target. Drake Lively. I hope I make it in time, he didn’t seem all that lively to me.
Many times, I tried suicide. The tree that had once, long ago, given me comfort and warmth had now been turned into the Grim Reaper’s amusement park. Dozens of makeshift nooses hung limp on the branches. I’d fashioned the finer tree limbs into spears with which I had skewered myself repeatedly. I had even tried jumping off the top, hoping I wouldn’t get up, perfectly unscathed, after I landed, but every single time, I did. Every. Single. Fucking. Time. At this point, the tree, which had once stood straight with beneficial leaves and a sturdy trunk, which could support my weight, was now sickly and dying. The branches were droopy. The trunk was withered. On the entire tree, a single leaf remained.
Some object blowing in the wind, maybe a leaf, hit my face. It seemed lonely, drifting to who-knows-where on it’s own. I closed in on Drake. There he was, lying on his back. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought him dead. I bowed my head, horn pointed forward. I wondered what he was dreaming about and how long he’d been in that dream. Thdreens, or near death dreams, had been known to last for weeks, or even months inside the person’s head, while only lasting as long as a nap in real life.
After some time, I had come to the conclusion that I’d been asleep all along. All of it was just too crazy, but I wondered how I had still not died. It had been years since I’d given up out there in the wasteland. By now, I would’ve dyed of myriad reasons. Perhaps this is a dream within a dream. Perhaps, I have already died and this is my punishment for living incorrectly for that day that I had or maybe it’s purgatory. Perhaps a better fate awaits me.
I took a look around. That wasteland, which had once had me trapped, was again here. Over the years, the green grass had wilted, the scenic lake had become murky gray and the bright clear blue sky had turned a bloodied crimson, adding an ominous backdrop to the threatening mountains. Why me? Why?
I was on the verge of another mental breakdown, when something caught my attention. Far off in the distance, I heard the sound of a hundred horses rushing in my direction. I could see above me the red making way for blue; ahead of me, the lifeless grass regaining color; to my left, the waters clearing away the muck, dissipating the repugnant goop in itself.
My mind dissolved all it’s fear upon approaching Drake. I saw he was rather profound in his dreams, nonetheless alive. A few hours later and he may not have woken up. I slowed down to a full stop less than one hundred feet away from him. I walked the rest of the way up. He was in for a treat. I stepped up and nudged him with my muzzle. He did not move. I got closer still and gave him a small shake. Comatose.
The mysterious horsemen appeared in what seemed like an infinitesimally small amount of time. A unicorn! I was stunned. I knew I’d heard of unicorns from back before I could remember, but I did not know that I had considered them to be so outstanding. It strode towards me with the dramatic air of a hero, who had nobly come to save the distressed victim. I felt my heart do summersaults. I could not stop myself from smiling. Happiness, life and all that’s good in the world radiated from this magical being. It continued walking towards me. It’s stride made my stomach flutter, and I felt unworthy of its presence. It continued approximating until I could hear it breath.
It was no bigger than a large horse, but exerted a warning of such strength and speed as had ever before been surpassed. Thick, muscular legs covered by dense, silky fur bent as it knelt before me. It stuck its head out and pressed its horn softly against my chest.
Memories flooded back. My entire life passed before me in a second and I knew who I was. At home, my wife, two sons and daughter waited for me. I’d been on a business trip when I’d heard my calling. I knew that it was my duty to stop the world’s impending doom. I could not let the bio-nuclear warfare that had destroyed Mars take over Earth. So I stepped in, decided to save the world.
There had been the intense training given to me by the ninja leader himself, Ozzketa Yesnek. It was followed by learning how to control the world around me, even without having The Magick within me. Soon after, I was sent off on my mission, officially commissioned to me by the Ninja Unicron, master of the world and its vicinities. I had teleported to Mars. There, I’d been on the verge of discovering what had started the Last Great War, when I was captured by surviving Martians who called themselves The Luxori. They seemed to have begun it all. Something bigger was afoot than I’d originally thought.
I had managed to escape, and I had run far before a Sting Masker, an animal kept as pets by the Luxori, bit me. The poison must’ve made me faint and it probably had bitten my lower back, blocking nervous signal beyond there. They must have assumed that the poison killed me, but I was a ninja of The Order. In short, I lived, but lost my memory and ended dehydrating in excruciating pain. I assumed that after that, the poison had distorted my dreams and I had been trapped in some anomaly in the dreamland, to which I owe a large part to my Thdreen. Now, I presumed, this unicorn was here to get me out. We both knew what I had to do.
I had to save the world.
It’s not as if I were to decide the fate of the world. It’s just one person, I can forget about him. Comatose. This is gonna drain me. Never mind that! I’m doing this for Janeth! FOR JANETH! With a Proose (the iconic sound a unicorn makes), I thrust my forehead towards Drake. A beam of gold shot out of the tip of my horn straight at Drake’s heart, illuminating it and then refracting the glow, enveloping his body in light. Drake looked like a shining body-shaped illumination, shooting light in every which way. I gave a push of energy as hard as I could. Light exploded. It was so bright that nothing was visible.
I looked at the unicorn. I did not know its name. I did not know who it was or what it did outside of the dreamland. I didn’t even know what sex it was. But I did know why it was here. I stared at it eyes and it stared back, in mutual knowledge of what I going to do. The atmosphere of uncontrollable joy had suddenly become bittersweet. Like saying goodbye to relative, never to see them again. It still lay with its horn gently touching my ribs. I saw a single tear go down its cheek. A unicorn without a is horn no unicorn at all. I’m sorry. I spoke in mind, but I knew it heard me.
I leaned back a little for impulse and then thrust my heart in towards the horn. I did not bleed. It did not hurt. I heard a snap as the unicorn pulled back its head, no longer with a horn attached to the end. I wanted to thank it, but before I got the chance, a rainbow colored swirl had sprouted from where the horn now was in my heart. Soon my entire body was an alteration of light. Before my eyes too could fade back into reality, I caught a glimpse of the unicorn’s right side. I didn’t have time to see its name, but I did see, “Level 4, Special Ops,” before my eyesight was no more.
The lights show had stopped. Drake was beginning to wa\ke, but I didn’t want him to suspect what had happened. Tired, I bit his arms and swung my head throwing him in a full arch over my body and landing him rather precariously on my back. I was very, very exhausted. My eyes were drooping and my mind would drift off. I wanted nothing more than to sleep, but each time I’d near dozing off, I would remember why I was doing this. Janeth. I love her so much. It was the hardest thing I’d ever done. My legs were sore and wanted to stop more than anything else in the world. I could not get enough air. All the while, I had to make sure that Drake wouldn’t fall.
After giving of enough energy to wake a man from a coma, I was no more fit for running with a person on top of me, than a malnourished street dog was. I could barely walk and every step was even harder than the previous, but every step was also one step closer to Janeth than the previous.
I did not stop running until reaching a city. At this point, I was so worn-out that I could not see or smell and my internal “GPS” was malfunctioning. I had no idea where I was, but I gave that extra push and left him on the streets, knowing that he’d be able to get back home. I left before anyone saw me, as it was in the early hours of the morning. I ran off, hoping that I too would be able to get back home.
I had ran 1247 kilometers.
I opened my eyes. I felt as if I had just sprinted six laps around the universe. I was literally dying of thirst. Before me, stood the same thing that had been in front of me for years now: Red sky, distant mountains, hazy lake, dead grass. But I did not see the same petrifying panorama I had been seeing for years. I saw a challenge, an obstacle keeping me away from my family. As I had before, so long ago, I channeled all my inner energy to the spot that stopped me from walking.
The impact was worse than I’d remembered it before, but before I could even get over the pain, I pushed again, harder. I screamed. I shouted. I cried. I kept on pushing. I was surprised that my body had not shut itself down yet to stop the pain. I kept on pushing. With every push it hurt more. I was by now lying crumpled on the floor. This had to be at least ten times worse than the most painful thing ever felt by anyone before. I stopped and took a breath. I do this for them. I charged myself up. Nothing can stop me! A barrage of at least ten blows, each stronger than the previous seized up my body and blew me back a good ten meters.
Catlike, I landed in a crouch. I’m back. My legs were weak. My knees wobbled. My ankles felt as if they couldn’t hold the weight. Even so, I directed myself towards the water, towards the hope for mankind, and towards my family. I ran.
My name is Alex Reizt. I fight for the survival of the human race. They don’t know it, but the Luxori are out to destroy them. I write so that if I fail, the world can at least know that someone was looking out for them. I am just a normal person, like you; and you, just as well, can do what I have. I’m signing out for what may the last time as I run towards a monster-infested lake in hope resolving this wasteland’s mysteries and in hope of survival. In hope of my survival. In hope of your survival.