TR: 2

Chapter Two: Off Track

Kade huffed as he reached the climax of the mesa. Most of his training had been on flat ground or in the air, so hills weren’t exactly in his repertoire, especially without his Up limbs.

Though Up required a fair amount of cardiovascular conditioning, gravity could be hedged somewhat when one had rocket propulsion on their side. Kade reflected on this fact as he walked the last several grueling steps up the apex of the hill, unassisted by any technology. At the top, he took a moment to catch his breath before his attention was averted toward the view of the land before him. Karayus nestled onto the fading line of the horizon in a fiery display, casting a golden-red hue across the mountain valley, the plains looking like sheets of liquid light. It was stunningly beautiful and, in that fleeting moment, Kade realized he had missed his classes that day.

Which also meant he missed his tryouts for the next year’s Wrifts draft picks.

This harsh reality hit him like a beet to the head; other than his mom and his mechs, Up was all he had. His thoughts became a jumble and his emotions began to overwhelm him. It would be another year—fourteen months—before the clock rolled over and the season opened again. More, Kade was in his graduating year, which meant next year would be bantam and an entirely different pool of players. Whoever the new coach was wouldn’t know him since he hadn’t played the previous year, which meant he was a nobody. And if all the others were as good or better than him… He may never play competitive Up ever again.
Kade moaned and flopped down against the trunk of the only tree which stood atop the small slice of earth. He covered his head and rocked back and forth as he brooded over his own stupidity. As he wallowed in self-pity, he heard a small thud in the grass beside him which stole his attention momentarily. He glanced up from under his arms to see a good-sized apple laying about a hand away from him. The prospect of eating brightened his mood considerably and he eagerly snatched up the fruit. Turning it over, he found the other side pockmarked with wormholes. Kade felt his blood pressure rising.

“Rotten fruit for a rotten day!”

He stood up and threw the apple off the hill with a strenuous grunt, watching it sail downwards in the fading light as it headed toward the treetops in the distance. He turned back to the tree and saw that the base was littered with fallen fruit: more ammunition for his venting. He began picking up apples and chucking them over the edge, kicking others as he let out his rage. After several minutes and many apples later, Kade had worked himself up into a tire and he slumped onto his back in the grass, sighing heavily. He watched the leaves rustling in the wind in the branches high above, seemingly without a care in the world. He lay there in silence for a long moment as he contemplated what he was experiencing.

How strange is it that two lives could be so close together but so different? This tree must have a hard life too; all the storms, bugs crawling all over it, eating it constantly… How come it doesn’t complain?

Kade meditated on the calmness surrounding him, realizing that it wasn’t life that was being difficult; it was him. The tree was proof of that, as was the surrounding countryside, the mountain ranges and the sea beyond; all of it was just as it needed to be. Even Karayus, burdened with trillions upon trillions of fusion reactions at any given moment, shone brightly and resolute as it settled toward the horizon for the evening. Kade imagined the many moons and planets in the solar system beyond that, venturing out to neighbouring galaxies and all of their planets, perhaps some with trees just the same as the one he lay under, not giving a damn about anything other than collecting enough light and moisture to survive another day. As far as he knew, the whole universe could be at peace and he could be the only one in all of it not happy with the way things were. Suddenly, Kade felt very small and insignificant, not even a grain of sand on a beach. All this, given to him by a tree. How many other lessons did he have to learn?

Suddenly inspired, Kade decided to take a closer look at the tree. He got up and walked around it, seeing if he could find any carved initials or signs that someone else had been there prior. As he examined the tree, another sight caught his eye: far down in the basin below, nestled between forest and a familiar-looking mountain range, was his school: East Atlandia Elementary. That robo-priest had been telling the truth; he was going in the right direction after all! Amidst the swathe of green a meandering road could be seen, passing by the school grounds and forking off into unknown hinterlands. Though it was likely a half-kaldar away or more, the school looked like it was right there, just out of reach, like a toy model that could be plucked out of its surroundings. Kade looked over at the setting star, Rynn’s two moons—Kort and Lema—slowly becoming visible as the light trickled away, lifting the diurnal veil which hid them.

Gets dark by about the fourth hour now, Kade thought. Coach could still be kicking around after school, marking papers or whatever. If I haul it there I might just make it in time before he goes home and maybe I can…maybe I can convince him to let me do a private try out! Yeah, I know he’ll have my back.

With newfound resolve, Kade began to make his way down the side of the cliff which was comprised of a series of earthy, partially-eroded ledges. As he took a step down from the summit, a small breeze blew up from the east and Kade heard a gentle squeaking sound behind him. He stopped and turned back to see motion near the tree. To his surprise, there was an old swing attached to the leeward side of the tree, fastened to a lower branch by an old twine rope which looked as if it would snap anytime. Kade made his way over to the swing and frowned at it.

“How’d you get here?” He asked it.

He glanced around, as if an answer was somewhere in the vicinity. Kade swore there hadn’t been anything there the moment before.

“Huh, weird!”

Then he got an idea.

Kade shrugged off his bag and pulled out his Holomate. Though it was dead it still functioned perfectly fine as the multi-tool it was also designed to be. He pressed a button on its side and a three-pinch blade projected out of its end. He began sawing away at the rope but the blunt edge didn’t do much to persuade the thick rope fibres, despite their haggardness. Kade flicked his wrist and the blade changed to a serrated edge, making it much easier to work with. When the ropes were cut the seat fell to the ground, the ‘seat’ being a piece of severely aged plywood. Kade picked up the plank and turned it over in his hand. It was as if someone wanted him to find the thing. He looked around again, suspiciously, but nothing else seemed out of the ordinary. He walked to the edge of the landing, staring down at his school.

“Kade, you’re crazy.” He said aloud.

He chuckled. “This is true, but nothing good ever came out of people sitting around and being boring. Look out below!”

With that, he jumped into the air and placed the plank under his feet. He hit the decline and almost lost his balance but, quickly driving his knife into the back of the plank, he managed to regain his footing. Hunkered over, he manoeuvred his way down the steep decline, navigating ledge to ledge down the craggy escarpment. Kade hollered with glee; it was the first exhilarating feeling he had all day. Kade had many years of practising free-sliding—a popular form of tobogganing in Hollow. Freesliders, as they were known, would use whatever they could find to sled down the steepest (and only) hill in the town, a small bodega known to the kids as cat spine, due to its resemblance to its namesake. While Kade hadn’t practised on a plank per se, it was similar enough to other things he had tried and certainly not among the most bizarre things kids had used in the history of the ‘sport’. Pulling him out of his short moment of joy, a flash in the periphery of his vision caught his attention. He turned to see a lightning storm forming over the Shy Mountains. Kade frowned at the sudden backpedaling in the weather.

“That doesn’t make any sense. Just a second ago it was…”

Distracted, Kade plunged headlong over an edge and onto a face of angular rock. His groaning came out in disconnected bursts as he jack-hammered up and down over the uneven surface. He began to sway sideways and, before he could correct, the plank hit a nook in one of the crags and flung Kade off of it. He flew in a spiral through the air and landed on a matte of unadorned dirt, tumbling the rest of the way down the hill as he kicked up a plume of dust behind him. As he came to a stop he started to sit up but the plank came sliding down the rest of the hill, striking him in the side with a hard thump, knocking him back on to his side. Kade groaned and held his midsection. When the pain subsided he slowly got back to his feet and checked himself over for injuries. Somehow, he had managed to get out of the mess with only scrapes and bruises, save one fairly nasty gash on his right cheek. He wiped the blood from his face with the end of his scarf which, fortunately for him, was red. Otherwise, he was sure he would have heard about it from his mom when it came time to do laundry. He grimaced down at the plank and kicked it aside with disdain. Looking around, he found himself to in a wide open plains bordering on the edge of a forest. There didn’t appear to be any paths leading into the woods but he could make out several deer trails that would serve his purpose . Eventually, one of them would surely connect with the path to his school. The only concern at that point was time; he had to make it to his school before the coach went home. It was his only shot at getting on the team! As if urging him on, a small breeze wafted in from behind. Kade wrapped his scarf around his face to stifle the chill and ran toward the treeline, thinking of how impressed coach would be to hear that he found his way to school all on his own.  Maybe his tenacity alone would be enough to convince him to get him on the Wrifts. He just hoped coach wouldn’t tell his mom about the little…diversion.

Moms just didn’t appreciate a good sense of adventure.

***

“Okay, that sounds lovely Mary. I’ll make sure to let Kade know that Jorley’s booked in that weekend and not to plan anything for those dates. What? Oh, well that’s his problem. Kade can get over himself. I don’t care if he doesn’t like shopping; there’s so much to do at the Skymall, I’m sure he and Jorley will find some mutual shenanigans to get up to. Ooh, I’m so excited for him— Jorley will never expect it! What kid doesn’t love that place?”

Lucille chuckled. “Ah, too true. I guess if us girls end up getting ‘lost’ in a Salonza along the way, the boys wouldn’t notice. I think Kade is afraid of those kinds of places anyhow. What’s that? Oh no, I don’t think he’s into boys or anything like that. Bots maybe, but if it breathes and has pheromones, not so much.”

There was raucous laughter in Lucille’s earpiece. Lucille shared in her friend’s laughter as she leaned against her kitchen counter.

“Ah, Mary, it’s going to be so good to see you two! It’s been way too long. You know, if we had the money I would get one of those new translation chambers that you guys have and then we could just walk right into your living room, unannounced. What do you think? Oh, translocation, sorry. Whatever, you know what I mean. Clearly, I’m out of the neural loop.”

Lucille opened up a cabinet and took out a coffee mug. On cue, a shutter door slid open on the far kitchen wall and a small cylindrical mech emerged from an alcove inset into the wall, gliding gracefully across the counter toward her and taking the cup which she offered to it.

The usual, ma’am? It said in a tinny, slightly sycophant tone.

She nodded at it as her friend continued to talk into the earpiece. A hatch opened on the front of the mech’s body, revealing a small nook with a spigot attached at the top. It placed the mug gracefully into the slot and hot coffee began to fill the cup, steam spouting out of a small vent in the rear of its head. Within seconds the cup was full and the mech’s eyes changed from yellow light to green, signalling the beverage was good to go. Lucille retrieved the cup, took a sip, and gave the mech a thumb’s up. With a small bow, the mech backed away, head lowered in such fashion until it disappeared back into its cubby in the wall.  Lucille walked over to the kitchen table and sat down, cradling her coffee as she savored its radiant warmth. For some reason, Hollow had been unusually cold of late. Usually, the central heating would have kicked in but there was something systemic going and the town council had been looking into it for months now. It seemed like there was a perpetual maintenance ticket with that lot; something was always breaking down in Hollow. Lucille shivered and wrapped her cardigan tighter around her shoulders.

“Right, right. Well, I don’t blame you guys. You know how public transit can be. If you think your monorails are bad you should see the convoy. My god, it’s like they took the thing right out of the twenty-eighth century. I wouldn’t be surprised if it still ran on steam. You’d think the Energy Board would throw a couple extra dollars our way for a new one. I mean, it’s not like they’re hurting for credits. Did you hear about that salt mine they found up north recently? Yeah, I know right? With that much lithium, they’ll generate enough Glo to power half of the continent for decades. Makes you wonder who’s getting…”

As Lucille brought her coffee mug up to her lips, she turned and glanced out her window, catching a glimpse of a strange shape in the distance.

“…. all the pocket change. Um, listen, Mary, I’ll have to call you back, okay? Drank too much coffee, you know how it is. Along with a rural lifestyle comes not having the newest confabulation that pees for you. Okay, sounds good. Talk soon. Bah!”

Lucille took off her earpiece and placed it on the table. She picked up her mug and made her way outside on to the veranda. Leaning on the railing, she glanced up at the hanging baskets of plants as they rocked ominously to and fro in the breeze that had blown in. She focused her eyes across their yard and past the sloping row of rooftops to the mountains beyond, a wall of grey clouds descending in her direction. There was a small flash on the leading edge of the front, followed by a rumble of thunder several seconds later.

“That doesn’t look good.” She mumbled to herself.

She looked up at the sky above, ruminating on the sudden shift of weather. The First Rains weren’t due for another couple of weeks, so something didn’t feel quite right. Coincidentally, Lucille recalled having a dream about a storm the week prior. Perhaps one of the Thirteen–whoever the one in charge of the weather was–was messing with her mind.

“Creepy. Now, give me a dream about Kade finishing his homework and we’re in business.”

She sipped her coffee as she stared out at the army of storm-bearers approaching the small town. “Hope it doesn’t mess with his trials. I would never hear the end of it.”

A small squall blew into the yard and ruffled her hair, sending a cold chill through her bones. She shivered and made her way back into the house.

Inside, she poured herself another fresh cup of Joe–or rather the coffee mech did–and made her way into the small study down the hall. Atop her desk there was a pile of legal documents beckoning her back to work. Looking down at them she realized that she just wasn’t in the mood for the mental abuse and decided to come back to it later when she was feeling more masochistic. She rubbed her temples and considered the implications of catching up on some missed sleep over accumulating missed work. Seeing the bookshelf across the room, she decided to meet the sentiment halfway and settled on some r-and-r instead. She scanned through the robust collection until she came upon a copy of Scant Misses—a classic and one of her favourites. Basically, it was about four women who sat around at home doing nothing, though the ample drama and ingeniously interwoven romantic arcs made for a good show. Regardless of the banality of its subject matter, Lucille loved it nonetheless and had read the thing more times than she could recall. Picking the book out of the shelf, Lucille could practically feel the weight of the story in her hand; the weight of the characters and their very thoughts. In an age where most people just read things over HUD via the Link, it was a rare thing indeed to have something so haptic and real as a book. Now, you could barely find the things anymore; everything was an upload nowadays. And even then, it was like pulling teeth to get kids to read anything that they couldn’t be a part of. If you couldn’t star in your own film, unreality show or video game, well…No point in watching if you can’t be the watcher, as far as they were concerned at least.

Imagination is at a premium these days, Lucille thought as she thumbed through the first few pages of the introduction. In the hall, she passed by a mirror and half-stopped in self-examination. Why she did so she did not know but she thought it probably had something to do with what those existentialists called the absurd—how one can forget how they look, how they act, or even who they are. She had been working a lot lately, so it came as no surprise to her that she found herself at odds with the person staring back at her. She hadn’t really paid any dues to the women in the reflection, after all. Lucille tilted her head to the side and moaned as she rubbed her neck.

Case in point.

Seeing herself frown at the kink in her muscle, she thought she looked a tad haggard. At least more than usual. Beyond those minor temporal scars, she saw a bright, young woman, single and possibly attractive, who did little to honour those attributes. Instead, she sat at home on a Friday afternoon, reading a paperback while other women her age made a life for themselves in the city–meeting virtual prospective lovers via LoveLink channels, or in the least, treating themselves to nanite manicures and facial rejuvenations. She was aware of the fact that she was an outlier but she constantly reminded herself that she had chosen the life that she had. The life that they had—her and Kade. After Simm had left them for the war, she couldn’t by rights leave the house that her son had grown up in. One betrayal was enough in their family; leaving everything else that they loved, just to run from painful memories… It would have been betraying only themselves. While Kade would probably be over the moons to move to the city, where there were mechs and Up matches galore, she didn’t want him growing up surrounded by the kinds of things that happened there; those kinds of people. She realized she was sheltering him by doing so, but a part of her clung to the idea that to abandon their old life entirely was to admit defeat. And Lucille Allor did not lose without a fight. Yet, by shielding Kade from such evils, she inadvertently maintained that Kade grow up in a house full of erstwhile pain. In that regard, she was thankful every day that he had been too young to remember his father leaving them. Abandonment was a mask that one wore for the rest of their lives and sometimes, Lucille reflected soberly, it felt glued on.

As her thoughts meandered around her son, she wondered about him. Did he catch his ride that morning? Of course, he did. The ST would never have left him behind. Surely they would have programmed in a contingency for late-comers. Wouldn’t they have? No, surely she was just worrying like mothers were supposed to. With that, Lucille sighed and made her way back to the veranda. She put on an overcoat and slipped on her loafers, heading outside. She sat down on a wicker chair and crossed her legs, providing her with a bolster on which to rest her arm to read. As she opened her book, she went to take a sip of coffee but before the cup made it to her mouth a strong gust of wind blew up from the yard and yanked the book clear out of her hand, spilling coffee over her lap. She jumped up in surprise, cursing as she flicked the hot liquid off her hand. She looked out to the mountains once more and, this time, she gasped at what she saw: the hovering ceiling of grey had now become a veritable wall of clouds, the mountains all but engulfed. Violent electric outbursts rippled across its surface as it crept down into the valley on the outskirts of the town, as if the lightning were the veins in a living, shifting form. She dropped her coffee mug, the porcelain shattering on the planks of the deck, and ran inside to call Kade’s school to make sure he was safe.

***

There were no two ways about it: Kade was utterly lost.

His previous pride over following that technomorph’s directions was now dashed, replaced with utter embarrassment. All the paths looked the same and every time Kade attempted to retrace his steps he just ended up lost in another place. Though it was still midday by his best estimates, Karayus’s patience had worn thin and there was very little light to speak of. A dark pall began to settle over the forest, blurring the edges of shapes as the eye strained to maintain a clear picture of its surroundings. All around, the trees formed a dense border for the path upon which he walked, adding to his sense of growing claustrophobia. Kade knew he couldn’t name even half of the things that roamed in that local wilderness, and so the thought of deviating from the path, whether it was the way out or not, terrified him. Despite the dangers beyond, something nagged at Kade to find out what may lie beyond in that great unknown. As his vagaries of mind took him to far off places, Kade bumped into something hard and startled in surprise.

It was a wooden signpost.

There was an arrow pointing left that read Rebelem and another pointing in the other direction reading Bandit Lake. Kade felt a small amount of respite at being reoriented, even if he didn’t know exactly where he was being reoriented to. Gathering his bearings, he held his chin and stared at the sign.

“Well, I don’t need to go to the city, that’s way out of my way. But I don’t think Gallema’s anywhere near the lake. Well, there is that one lake we went to on that field trip once, but I don’t think it was called that.”

He crossed his arms, tapping his foot as he looked down both forks. “Was it? Hmm… I don’t remember the name. Isn’t Bandit Lake the one that girl drowned at years ago? That wasn’t the same one. But if it’s not either, then which…”

Kade stopped as a sound caught his attention. He wasn’t sure where it was coming from but he thought he heard a voice calling to him, coming from somewhere deeper in the forest. It seemed to be coming from…beyond the treeline. Beyond the path. Amidst the rising sense of fear that boiled up from within, Kade felt a familiar presence around him, but not like a dead ancestor or a guardian angel; more like a nostalgia that was long forgotten, slowly resurfacing. He couldn’t place the feeling but he knew what it wanted him to do. What he should do. Or even…what he would do? How was that possible? His curiosity got the best of him and, taking a deep breath, he approached the chaparral. As he stood with his ear turned to the forest, sure enough, he could make out a soft pealing coming from somewhere just beyond. He parted as much of the greenery as he could, forcing his body through the briar and branches of the thick bramble. He continued to trudge his way through the condensed mass and, eventually, a light began to shine through from some unseen source ahead. Several moments later, Kade came into a clearing. It was a small area, perhaps only about ten or fifteen stride across, and it appeared to be a natural formation. There were no signs of any recent cren activity, as one would expect in a logging slash, but there were also no saplings or second growth as one would expect from a fire. Fires weren’t common that far north but they did happen from time to time, if the summer months took a particular dry turn. Regardless of the reason the trees refused to grow there, Kade sauntered out in the clearing to investigate for himself. Other than the fact that the forest had receded away from the place, there didn’t appear to be anything out of sorts. And there was no sign of where that voice had been coming from. Kade stood in the middle of the field, listening, but all that he could hear was the soft breeze blowing through the treetops surrounding him, mingling with intermittent chirping of birds and other uneventful forest sounds. He did a slow three-sixty of the area but it appeared that his caller had moved on.

Kade sighed and made a move to head back the way he came but, before he could take a step, a glint in the distance caught his eye. At the edge of the treeline across the way there was a massive deadfall that had fallen backwards into the forest proper. It appeared there was something glimmering at its base. Kade approached the fallen tree which looked to have been upturned from a storm long past. The tree itself was huge—so huge in fact that most of it extended out of sight into the forest on which it had fallen. The root system stuck up in the air like gnarled fingers reaching for their last grasp at the sky. Hard-packed earth clung to the base and formed a sort of wall which extended well above Kade’s furthest reaches. A collage of lichen and moss had collected all over the base, leading Kade to believe the tree had not taken a tumble anytime in the near past. Kade ran his hand over the dirt and as he did a patch of it gave way to his touch.

Old indeed.

Strangely, the hole that formed in the place that gave way had light shining through it from the other side. Kade guessed that must have been the flash that he had seen from across the clearing, though he had never heard of a tree with light in it before. Why would a light be shining from within a fallen tree? The only answer that made any sense was that there was another side and that the tree was hollow. Maybe someone had hollowed it out long ago and made a home in it? The notion seemed strange to Kade, though fey folk were known to frequent the woods, and they were said to live in strange places. Kade hadn’t ever met anything like that, though some of his friends growing up had claimed to have fought off goblins and the like with nought but a branch for a sword and harsh words. One of his classmate’s even claimed to have run into a dwarf taking a piss in a pond once but everyone knew that dwarves weren’t real. Not anymore at least. As far as Kade was concerned, they were all just fairy tales. It was probably just some homeless person’s hideaway.

Kade began to peel away patches of dirt that surrounded the hole. As the hole began to grow larger, more light began to illuminate outward. Kade reefed on a root extruding from the dirt and a large chunk of the base fell to the forest floor. The hole was now big enough for a small person to fit through.

And Kade was a small person.

Kade peered inside and could see that the tree was indeed very big. In fact, it appeared endless. Kade could not see where the tree ended, just that a bright light shone from deep within. He hesitated for a moment but knew that if he didn’t at least check it out that it would bother him forever. Seeing no angry vagrant–or fantastical creatures–he squirmed into the hole and stepped onto a soft mossy surface covered with a thin layer of condensed water. The diameter of the tree was large enough that Kade didn’t  have to stoop over, which wasn’t saying too much since he was fairly short. As he began to slowly wander towards the light, he noticed that the inside of the tree was very humid, water droplets forming on the surface above him. The tree seemed to be perfectly hollowed out and there was no sign that a tool or a machine had ever been used to do so. It was as if the tree were naturally hollow. A small rodent scurried across the path in front of him, disappearing into some unseen crevice. Kade made a disgusted face at the creature.

Well, that answers the question of whether I’m alone in here or not. Kade thought.

As Kade’s footsteps sloshed in the moist moss underfoot, the light on the other side gradually seemed to be getting closer. Kade heard himself yelp out loud as he stepped onto a rotten spot on the floor which collapsed beneath his weight, sinking him up to his thigh. He stumbled for a second but managed to free his leg. He looked back down the tunnel from where he had come and realized that if he were to get stuck in the tree, no one would likely find him. Ever. The more he thought about that the more he realized it was probably a bad idea to go exploring in a veritable tomb. This drove Kade forward at a brisker pace and he made his way hastily toward the other side, doing his best not to step on any more soft patches. A cold draft blew past him and Kade zipped up his jacket. At first, Kade thought the air must have been coming in from the opening ahead but as he trudged on he noticed that it was coming from around him. He glanced over to his side to see that there were small perforations in the trunk which allowed air through. While that in itself was not strange, Kade did a double-take when he saw that the walls of the tree were shifting, as if they were alive. He wasn’t sure if he was hallucinating from all the darkness—the shadows playing tricks on his eyes—but it was enough to make Kade question whether he had fallen asleep back on that hill, and whether or not he was in another surreal dream. He stopped and leaned toward the wall. He raised a finger and poked the tree but nothing strange happened. The strange shifting shadows continued to move about on the wall but Kade couldn’t make anything out of it. He thought that he could make out shapes of people, maybe faces with contorted expressions, but just as he was sure he saw something it had become something else, melding in with the darkness around it. Kade shook his head and continued on.

As he came out into the light, Kade took a deep breath of air and looked around. He had come out onto a path again, though he didn’t recognize where he was. But a path was certainly better than being inside that tree.  He glanced back over his shoulder and span around when he realized that the tree was no longer where it had been moments before.

“Whoa!” He exclaimed.

Kade slowly walked over to the place where the tree had been. At least, where Kade thought it had been. Now it was just another nondescript wall of forest, like any other. Nothing unusual about it. Kade frowned as he looked back upon the new path which trailed off through the forest. He glanced up at the fading light which filtered in from above and then back to the trail.

“What am I supposed to find here?”

***

The town grew silent. The last of the boatswains returned from their daily runs and families gathered ’round their tables for their evening meals. The streets, now bare of children, saw not even a sparrow a-playing in a bird bath; nay, nary a sign of life could be found outside. Karayus sank slowly toward the skyline, its light refracting ominous shades around the cascading black clouds that had begun to envelop the small village. Winds began to howl and chimes chattered on porches. Potted plants rocked with foreboding as they hung from their eaves, like empty cradles guided by the hands of ghosts. Inside, the holovisions announced the impending weather conditions as the images played out on the wall; apparently Hollow wasn’t the only one affected. A little boy looked from his second story bedroom window to the street below and watched as shadows began to engulf the roofs of the houses and the yards of his neighbours. He listened as the wind whistled shrilly by, announcing itself as the uninvited bard.  It brought with it the smell of the ocean, though it was violent and salty and none of the splendorous parts of the great vast.

And then began the rain.

At first, it fell in small amounts, then it was a full-blown downpour. The dirt of the road spattered about as Kearn street turned to mud. Shingles pittered and pattered with the noise of the droplets and rain barrels began to collect from the soon overflowing gutters. The schooners in the cove rocked violently in their slips as waves crashed against the retaining wall of the harbour, sending spindrifts spraying onto the causeway in liquid applause. A blast of lightning pealed in the distance, cueing the symphony of destruction to begin. A tympanic drum roll of thunder and the plangent call of the wind, and thus began the overture to what was beginning to sound like a threnody for the poor townsfolk of Hollow.

***

Kade hated to admit it but, once again, he was lost. More than that (if it can be said there is something that is more than lost), Kade wasn’t getting anywhere. That is, even one who is lost eventually arrives somewhere, even if that somewhere is not where they had hoped to go. In fact, he was pretty sure he was going in circles. He wasn’t sure how that could be since the paths he took never seemed to curve around quite enough, but several times over he had passed landmarks which he recognized. Despite the seeming hopelessness of his situation, Kade persevered. He figured it was a trait he inherited from his father since his mother rarely found her way out of the house. Yet, the more he wandered the repeating paths he began to wonder if it was less perseverance than it was futility. Maybe his mom had it right and he should have just stayed home.

No, he had to get to the trials.

Looking overhead as he walked, he guessed that it had to be have been about the sixth hour since the light barely hung in the sky. While it was unlikely that anyone was left at his school, he clung to the hope that he would be able to convince his coach to allow him a pass on the first level. After all, it’s not like they didn’t know each other well. He’d vouch for him. Wouldn’t he? As Kade lost himself in imaginary Up scrums, he nearly walked right by the doorway.

Wait. A doorway?

Kade turned back and, sure enough, there was a door interwoven into forest itself, In specific, it was just a battered old door frame, overgrown with moss and ivy which had nearly consumed it over the likely decades that it had been there. Kade figured that must have been how he missed it since it looked otherwise inconspicuous, outside of being a door frame in the middle of a forest that is. Upon a cursory glance at it, one might suspect that it was nothing more than several branches forming a bower. Kade couldn’t make out what was on the other side of the frame—whether or not there was any kind of structure that it belonged to, perhaps collapsed or degraded away. But it was too tempting of a question not to investigate. After all, Kade most likely missed his trials, so what was another five minutes anyway? As he parted the bushes beyond the frame, another light source revealed itself. Kade frowned and glanced back up at the sky. It was nearly dark. How was it possible there was something so bright just beyond? Maybe there was a house after all and the light was coming from there. Kade perked up at the idea of finding another life form since they would, in the least, be able to guide him in the right direction. Assuming it didn’t belong to a troll of course. Yet, the last light he had followed had only gotten him more lost. Maybe there was a pattern there…

Kade shrugged the thought away and, with little regard for whose home he may be about to be barging into, Kade hastily ripped away the ivy and growth and forced himself through the frame. The light grew and grew as Kade parted the foliage around him and, finally, he made enough room to slip through. He shielded his eyes and walked out onto bare yellow earth, wondering if he had somehow emerged into the desert. He cocked his head away from the glaring sun and scanned his surroundings. Not a desert: a cliff face. He had come out on the edge of what appeared to be a steep mountain side. A gentle breeze blew hair into his face and he pushed it aside as he found himself looking out on an amazing vista, a soaring mountain range in the background and forest far below, stretching as far as the eye could see. Kade walked over to the edge of the cliff and scanned the horizon. In the distance he could see…what was that…the ocean? Kade frowned as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. Surely he hadn’t circled back around to the coastline. Had he? But he didn’t recognize any of the landmarks that he was used to seeing there. Plus, Karayus’s position wasn’t right if he were at the seaboard. The sun should have been…

And then Kade realized that their local star wasn’t right at all. In fact, Karayus was high in the sky, as if it were barely past noon time. So had he gone in circles and back in time? Kade was so confused. Unless Atlandia had suddenly lost a lot of weight in the middle, there was no way he had walked to the other side of the continent. So what exactly was Kade looking at? Just moments before, Karayus was near ready to settle in for the evening. By Kade’s best estimates, it couldn’t have been any later than the first hour.

“What on Rynn is going on…”

Kade swivelled back around to look at the frame and found that it had disappeared, just like the deadfall. He was all alone on the face of the strange cliff, with nought but his thoughts.

“…here.”

Kade’s heart began to rev up as his thoughts went wild on him. The only way he could make sense of what he was seeing was that he must have been in a dream.

Yeah, that has to be it! What else could explain this?

“Wake up Kade!” He said to himself, slapping himself hard on the cheek.

To his surprise, the smack smarted and no rude awakening followed. Just pain in his face. He smacked himself again, then two more times, before the pain was too distracting and he withdrew. Holding his face, he looked around in awe. If he wasn’t dreaming then…what was he doing? He leaned over the cliff and peered down. It was a very long drop. He crouched down, observing the scene far below. He looked down onto a valley which he did not recognize and surveyed the land before him. Kade knew something wasn’t right, as there were no mountains anywhere near the coast that got even half as high as he now was. None that he knew of, anyway. There was the Shy range, of course, but that was tens of kaldar off. Though he had been hiking most of a day by that point, there was no way he had come even a tenth that far. As his brain scrambled to make sense of what it was seeing, something caught Kade’s eye. It was a good distance off so Kade couldn’t be sure if he was seeing right but he was fairly certain he could make out the rooftop of a structure. It looked like it was built into a crook near the forest perimeter, where it adjoined to a series of cliffs leading to higher plateaus beyond. At first Kade though it could be Gallema, since the town was ensconced by trees, but he soon realized there were no other buildings near the one he was seeing. It was just a lone structure, not a town.

As a breeze blew up on him, Kade stepped away from the ledge and wrapped his arms around his body. Shivering, he realized how badly he wanted to go home. There he would have warmth. And food. His stomach growled at him, reminding him he had not eaten since that morning. But he wouldn’t find any food just standing there being cold, and he certainly wasn’t a hunter. So that left one option. Kade wandered along the edge, peering down to see if there was any feasible way down without splitting his skull open. While he wasn’t afraid of heights (which would be a silly phobia for an Up player to have), the ghastly drop was enough to give him a slight sense of vertigo. He cursed the damned door frame for bringing him there and wondered why it couldn’t have just opened up on to a tropical beach somewhere. Assessing the descent, Kade figured it was likely several leaves to the foot of the valley and the face appeared to be vertical so there would be no scaling without proper equipment. And as capable as his Holomate was, it was no descender nor a piton, so he wouldn’t be rappelling down. Kade leaned out further to inspect the underside of the ledge. Much to his elation, it appeared that there was an assemblage of narrow rocks proceeding down the side of the mountain which seemed to form a stone staircase of sorts. He tried to position himself to see where they were coming from but he couldn’t manage without putting himself at risk of leaning too far. As he craned his neck out as far he safely could, he noticed a formation just below him; it was another ledge and it appeared that the stone steps led to it. More, it looked possible to climb down to it if he could get onto one of the outcroppings. And there appeared to be a way:

About three blades down there was a small extrusion, no wider than a half-dozen hands itself. Kade didn’t like the thought of jumping off a mountain, let alone jumping off a mountain in the hopes of grabbing on to something so small, but it appeared his only hope if he were to find a way down. Kade rubbed his hands together to warm the muscles in them and he amped himself up for the jump.

“Okay, okay. Think of it like the game. You’re diving for the beet. That’s all. All you have to do is get a hold. From there, it’s open field all the way.”

He frowned down at the pidley ledge and swallowed.

“Or open air.”

He swallowed a dry lump in his throat as his nerves went haywire. Before he could psych himself out further he hopped off the mountain, aiming for the small protrusion. He landed smoothly but the momentum from his fall caused him to sway forward. He flailed his arms to regain his balance and managed to throw himself against the wall, letting out a long sigh of relief.  He watched several small pebbles that weren’t so lucky say their farewells as they took a suicide dive into the forest far below. He turned his head and looked at the lower ledge which was now nearly level with him. He wasn’t sure if he was seeing right but it appeared that there was a…stone well on the hidden platform. As if that wasn’t weird enough, the well itself was on the underside of the upper platform, upside-down and pointing to the lower platform beneath it. It made absolutely no sense to Kade since the ledge clearly didn’t have any kind of groundwater in it; it was just a simple ledge. What was a well doing there? And why was it upside-down? Regardless, Kade’s curiosity was piqued once more. He gingerly stepped out onto one of the stone ledges that looked like steps and, making his way across them, arrived at the platform where they terminated. Kade glanced up at the steps and saw that they led upwards, back to the clifftop, but instead of connecting the two levels, the stairs wound around the face and onto the underside of the ledge above, as if leading toward the well. Kade walked around the platform, staring up at the stairs as he followed them with his eyes, tracing them to the base of the well.

“Who could ever do that?” Kade mused to himself.

Directly under the well, Kade stared up at it, fascinated by what he saw. Instead of the dry, empty base that one would expect, there was a sheen as black as night just inset from the lip, reflecting his image back at him. Kade gawked at himself in that ebony pool, unsure of what he was seeing. He couldn’t be sure if it was some kind of liquid, or maybe glass that he was looking at, but he couldn’t reach it to find out. He wasn’t so sure he wanted to anyhow. As he continued to gawk at the strange structure above, there was a small glint in the reflection which showed Kade there was something of interest near his right foot. He looked down and saw that, sure enough, some kind of metallic object had been driven into the platform. He squatted down and examined it, discovering that it appeared to be made of some kind of polished metal. He dusted it off with his hand and an enormous red gemstone glittered in the light. It was the most beautiful piece of jewellery Kade had ever seen. And his mom wore some pretty nice stuff.

“Whoa!” Kade exclaimed. “Treasure!”

He quickly set to work trying to pull the thing out but it appeared there was more to the object and that it was literally embedded into the bedrock. After several failed attempts at prying it out, he huffed and took off his bag.

“To hell I’m not coming back from this nightmare without some kind of trophy. Man, Jorley’s gonna be so jealous!”

Kade pulled out his Holomate and flicked a couple of switches, turning the two prongs of the device into makeshift pliers. He fastened the ends of the Holomate around the metallic object and pulled with all of his might. There was a loud crack from the stone in which the medallion was embedded and the object lifted out of the stone, plopping onto the rock. Kade grinned at his success, pocketed his Holomate and picked the object up. His expression turned to confusion as he discovered that the object was not jewellery at all. Instead, there was a long white blade protruding out of what Kade now realized was its hilt—the piece that had been visible whilst in the rock. The blade was shattered and all that remained of what was likely once a full-length sword was now but a palm’s width of white jagged metal. Still, the piece was much heavier than it looked and Kade nearly had to use two hands to hold it upright. He raised it to his face and peered into the ruby-like stone in the centre of the hilt.

In the stone, Kade saw a sea filled with blood–a sea made of blood, and it and the stone were one and the same. Kade gasped as a surge of emotions coursed through him. There was joy-unending, coupled with a kind of torment he had never even imagined. There was greed so consuming that he thought he would break, followed by a sense of humility that made him feel as if he were the only one alive in a cold universe. There were triumphs and failures and countless aspirations toward things beyond the furthest reaches of possibility. And then came the sense of purpose. It was, above all, the most powerful of all the feelings and Kade almost dropped the relic.

Before he could process anything further, an enormous bellow erupted from the mountain above, like the deep groan of an ancient beast awaking from within the earth’s crust. Kade jerked towards the source and gawked in terror as he watched the mountain above him begin to collapse, sending an avalanche of rocky debris cascading toward him. Paralyzed with fear, Kade watched as tullers of stone came careening down the sides of the mountain in every direction, pouring down around the platform. Larger slabs of stone, from ledges like the one he was on, began to disconnect from the mountain, dislodging and causing others to do the same. Amidst the pandemonium, a huge stone came hurtling down onto the ledge where Kade stood. He screamed and jumped from the ledge, the piece smashing the platform into innumerable fragments.

As Kade fell from the mountain, time seemed to slow. He gripped onto the hilt of the weapon fiercely and hoped he would still have it when he awoke from whatever nightmare it was that he had been cast into. Spinning around in the air, he caught glimpses of the dismantling cliff as it rained down its contents onto the forest below. During one rotation, he saw something impossible: everything on the cliff was crumbling away except for a single ledge that seemed to float in free space.

It was the ledge with the well. That strange, upside-down well.

What did it all mean?

Kade fell and fell as the dream continued. He was not waking. As he spun around to face the trees coming up at him, his adrenaline began to surge as he realized he had just inadvertently committed suicide.

This was no dream.

He felt his body go rigid as he lost control of his executive functioning and his mind went wild. He was going into shock.

Kade blacked out.