New Friends

What started with a small shift on the ground, the increasingly relentless waves carried me further into the forest.

No no no no no no! This is getting to far from Celphi!

I drifted with the flash flood ripping underneath the forest while sitting and holding the cushion that had become my mini one-seater life raft. Everything moved up and down like I was on top of waves.

Was this a landslide flash-flood, and I was riding the whole forest? I… What?… As long as the water doesn't break through the ground, I should be fine. Maybe…

My wet boots reminded me that water was already seeping through the soil.

Uh… Where’s my bell?

I patted around my body frantically. It was gone.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I was in deep trouble. It must’ve fallen off when I jumped through the roots or when I face-planted into the cushion.

Thank goodness for this thing I am sitting on! I shouldn’t have left Celphi’s side to begin with. Wait… Would the bell even matter when this section of the world seemed to be moving and rumbling? Would he even hear me?

‘CELPHI I AM HERE!’

‘Come and take me away!’

‘Somebody! Help!’

The forest stifled my cries as I desperately called out for Celphi. My voice couldn’t cut through the tumult. I could only do my best to survive with what I had.

The cushion is non-absorbent! I can stay afloat!

I secured the cushion to my body using the vine I found. The waves kept getting bigger and more erratic. I was pushed and bumped into huge roots and trunks. 

Please! Please! No capsizing trees! Don’t fall on me!

I hurriedly grabbed a loose branch that was lying nearby. It was long and sturdy, and I figured it would serve as a good leverage point for pushing and pulling myself forward.

Will I drift toward safety? Hopefully not into further trouble.

So far on my cruise to destination unknown, I could see fifty metres ahead. I was able to see where the wave was taking me and if I needed to push myself a bit to the side to avoid an obstacle. Then came a stretch where I could barely see what was beyond.

Oh shit.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t see, well that too, but the horrific thunder of trees crashing and earth grinding rattled me the most.

Scratch that. Destination unknown upgraded to destination hell.

I squinted as hard as I could but the ground ahead rose in a wave. I couldn’t tell if it would fall normally or drop away.

Haha… Right…

I felt my sanity slipping. My gut told me there wasn’t time to think. Just go.

Until I saw it. A patch of forest to my right seemed undisturbed.

Please be a stable ground. Please! Please! Please!

It was hard to verify when I was being carried up and down. I decided to try for it rather than wait to be dropped into the unknown. I haven’t tried pole vaulting in my life and I never thought that I would ever try it. But this world seemed to take all my first times every step of the way.

Sorry and bye cushion. I have to make this jump.

I used the stick as an anchor and launched to the right. I got airborne and went farther than I expected. The stick was rubbery and flung me a good distance.

Who would’ve known!

I braced for impact and, idiotically, closed my eyes. I should’ve kept them open to judge the landing.

Ooff!

But it wasn’t necessary. By some miracle I landed back on my cushion. I’d forgotten it was tied to me. Unlucky to be drifted away from Celphi, lucky that this cushion kept saving me.

I could actually keep going!

I got flung a bit further than I expected on my first try but it seemed like the stable land was still a bit further. I catapulted myself once more. This time, with eyes opened. I landed securely on stable ground with my own two feet.

‘OUCH!!’ I screamed.

My right foot was still sore from being snagged earlier. All the rush has made me lose track of how close I was cutting it. I landed just 3 meters shy of the dropping point where the forest was being swallowed into a hellish center.

What exactly am I looking at now?

The forest ground remained intact and moved with the waves underneath the forest floor. But what happens if the water flow wasn’t just up and down? Where does all the pressure go? I guess it would look like what I was looking at.

A whirlpool? Inland? The trees and the forest itself were being eaten by ground. Circular motion that ends up at the middle where everything disappears. Gnashing and grinding of the earth. Or Meu in this situation.

And I was only a few steps away from being sucked into that. Haha...Why am I even here. I felt my sanity slipping again, but the pain of my foot brings me back to reality.

Darling hold my hand… Haha…

I ran along the stable ground away from the whirlpool as long as my foot and lungs allowed, hoping it would lead back to Celphi.

As much as I wanted to venture out, I am not just built for this world… I have to get back to him…

The pain became unbearable. I couldn’t catch my breath. My vision dimmed.

*Bang*

It.. It’s probably ok to rest now? My lungs were on overtime, legs swollen, my eyes slowly shut as I controlled my fall into my cushion.

*Darkness*

*Murmurs*

W-who is it?

‘Is she going to be ok?’

‘I saw her throw the poisonous succulent to the ground and then she threw herself at it! She could be trying to kill herself!’

‘Depends on the poison. Could be not life-threatening.’

‘Do we save her? She is reasonably distanced from the hungry kettle’s center but we don’t know the land here.’

Three distinct voices held a heated debate.

Is it about me?

’She was trying to end it all! Why should we meddle in her choices? Maybe she doesn’t love her… husband! See! She’s got a serpent looking promise bond.’

‘That’s only a brotherhood bond. It’s not vivid enough to be a spousal mark.’

Who’s got what now?

‘They’re not good pairs for romance, say the elders. Maybe she was forced into a partnership.’

‘Well her clothing is fluffy and clean so she must have another husband who loves her. Search for another mark to identity her.’

*Smack*

‘Don’t touch her.’ A sweet voice ringed.

‘Why is she here alone then? In the second most unstable part of the world! She’d have better chance surviving with the violent scorpion tribe.’

‘Who cares. We found her so it wasn’t time for her yet.’

’So you get to decide her life? If she lives or not?’

’And you get to decide that we must leave her to die?’

’SHUT UP THE BOTH OF YOU!’

That sharp command stopped the bickering. Even I, shot up from the faint.

What are those small blurred figures hovering a few meters away? Was I seeing Tinkerbells?

‘Aargh.’ I clawed at my head. I hadn’t had such headache since falling off the orphanage balcony.

Other than Celphi, the only other creature I’ve encountered was the spider. I just assumed everyone else would be huge too! He never told me that the other inhabitants of this world could be these small!

‘Are you fairies?’ I asked after I’ve taken a few seconds to orient myself to what I was seeing.

This comment garnered exchanged knowing looks between the three.

Uh-oh. I’ve offended them right away.

One small humanoid creature, three inches in length estimated, with beautiful different shades of ruby red butterfly wings cheered upon seeing my face.

‘Yey! You are alive after all!’ She sang.

A shy mothlike creature with dirty white, brownish fluffy wings, roughly the same size, hovered back. The biggest of the three, with golden hair covering its body, had noisy buzzing wings I couldn’t see. He was glaring at me like I did him wrong.

’Y-Yes?’ I croaked at the third fairy.

‘What’s your deal? Who are you?’ He asked. Or buzzed.

Ah! So this one is supposed to be a bumblebee!

‘Oh. I got caught in the waves, landed on solid soil, and ran until I nearly fainted,’ I said.

‘Then why did you throw yourself at the poison succulent?’

‘What? Where?’ I looked around in panic.

‘That thing you’re hugging.’ The cute butterfly fairy pointed at my cushion.

I stared at my innocent giant red-blood-cell cushion.

It can’t be. I was saved by this. Well, accidentally.

‘Maybe it isn’t harmful? I had it on me for a while,’ I said as I pushed it aside gently.

Wait how long is a while? How long was I surfing to my final destination? How long was I passed out?

‘It’s a rare, endangered succulent. It poisons creatures and sucks them dry,’ the shy moth fairy said, landing a meter away. His wings looked heavy and warm.

‘I found it cushioning my falls and didn’t realise it was alive. I hope I didn’t hurt it.’ I admired the thing at a distance.

‘Any bleeding?’ the bee fairy asked.

‘I don’t think so.’ I checked myself. ‘I have a swollen ankle from the roots. Probably when the forest started moving.’

How I could’ve been so careless! I can’t be injured in a foreign world. Well, I am the foreign one. Anyhow…

The bee fairy grabbed the other two and began a mini meeting. Its tiny hand lingered on the butterfly fairy. The moth hovered to swat the bee off, but the bee let go before any slugfest.

I’d thought only magical beings took human shape. Do tiny insects count as magical people too? I wish there’s a manual.

I looked around and studied the area as they huddled. The forest floor in the distance was slowly levelling and the waves appeared to be lessening in magnitude. I was still on dry, secure ground.

My face was on the plant multiple times and I did not feel any harmful effects. I plopped the succulent on my head as a ridiculous cap.

No effects. Must be safe enough for me. It’s my broken foot that’s the problem.

The fairies giggled. They whispered while eyeing me.

‘What type of animal are you exactly?’ the bee demanded, flying closer. His tiny arched eyebrows made me want to grab and pet him. Behind him followed butterfly fairy, giggling at my new cap. Moth fairy drifted off.

Am I in trouble again?