Wild Magic

It was a normal day, nothing unusual happened.  Though, I doubt that’s what you want to hear at the beginning of a story.  It was cold, I woke up in my house and it was cold.  About negative eleven degrees Fahrenheit.  I did my best to ignore the chill as I set about to get ready for the day, did I mention I was sleeping in a basement?  No?  Well then I just did.  It certainly wasn't a cave, but it wasn't that insulated either, so yeah, cold.  I begrudgingly got ready to head to school, I didn't have any time to waste cause I had woken up early.  So I bundled my ass up in all available winter clothing, coat, hat, gloves, and another coat.  I looked like a puffy red pillow, red being the color of my outermost coat.  Though it clashed nicely with the purple scarf I decided to throw on as well.  Grabbing my backpack I headed outside.  It was around six thirty eight in the morning.  I had a long ways to walk to school and by no means was I in any shape.  A seventeen year old girl who spent her time sitting at her computer drinking mainly Mt. Dew.  I certainly wasn't fat, I could stand to be a bit thinner but fuck it.  I was happy enough.  So I trudged onward to school, thoughts running through my head.  Thinking mainly about how cold it was.  And it was a special kind of cold.  My school was one of those, were not closing unless the snow is four feet high and the wind chill is negative thirty type things.  But I digress, the more interesting fact was the darkness.  I know that it was supposed to be dark at that time but jeez, it was like there was thunder clouds above me.   Not that I could tell of course, too dark.  I was about halfway to school when I heard the distinct sound of thunder rumble directly above me.  I was deafened as I screamed out.  “Holy shit!”  I would have rose my gloved hands to cover my ears, which were already covered by a dinky looking brownish hat, but do to my thick layers all I managed to do was flail my arms awkwardly before they came to rest at my side again.  As I got over the surprise of the sound I was immediately blinded, deafened, and stunned by something different altogether.  The last thing I thought as I fell unconscious was.  ‘How is there lightning in the middle of winter?’

I felt hot, not the kind of hot where you just need a drink or maybe some fresh air or some shit like that.  The humid kind of hot that happens when you wear way too many cloths.  I opened my eyes, expecting to be in a hospital, or even on the ground where I had fallen.  Nope, no such luck.  I was in a forest, the sun was just rising if the shadows were any indication.  As I leaned myself forward I began to remove my layers of clothing.  Down to just my shirt, and the sweatpants I had been wearing underneath my jeans, I took off my shoes and socks to.  Cause my feet were sweaty as pigs.  I stood up, stretched, looked around and said to myself.

“Where the fuck am I?”

Of course I didn’t get an answer back, if I did then I might be worried.  But I wasn’t going to get anywhere by just standing around and looking at the scenery.  So I reluctantly put my socks and shoes back on, didn’t want to step on thorns or anything.  And I decided to take my black liner coat, as it was light and I might need something to keep me warm at night.  Oh, and my backpack too.  There was some snacks in there, no school stuff.  I saw the sun over the tree’s from the clearing I was in, though the rest of the forest around me was pretty thick and dense.  So I started to walk away from it, at this point I was either in some kind of coma, had been kidnapped and dumped somewhere, or I was dead and this was heaven.  Either way I wasn’t to fond of the forest scene and the only way out would be to walk.    Walking is boring.  And a hassle, especially when your lugging around the stuff I am in what I think is the middle of summer.  So if I was still in the real world, I was either in a tropical place, or south of the equator.  I stopped to take a break, sitting down and leaning up against one of the hundreds of nearby trees.  The foliage cover had thickened the farther I had walked in so at least there was shade.  Thinking if I was in a coma, would my bag still have all the same things in it?  I know I never packed shit for school, but I did pack for myself.  Taking my backpack onto my lap I opened it up.  Immediately I pulled out a two liter bottle of Mt.Dew.

“Well at least I have something to drink for a while.”

I said to no one but myself.Setting it aside I fished all the other things out.  And we had, one two liter bottle of Mt.Dew, half a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, various scraps of paper, one short pencil, my Nintendo 3DS, my laptop and charger, and the one thing I desperately hoped would be in there, and it should have considering I never removed it, my solar charger.  I may not have brought school stuff, but I brought plenty of things to distract me from school.  Any chance I got to use my laptop in school I played games on it, and since I walked to school I was collecting streetpass coins on my 3DS.  I set the food stuffs back into my bag, and the technology things.  Except for the solar charger, that I attached to the outside of the bag in hopes it would build a charge and I could use it to charge my shit.  It probably wouldn’t give much of a charge to the laptop though.  I sighed, what greater power had left me in the middle of this place, unless it was my brain, in which case as soon as I woke up I was going to subject it to hours of terrible American daytime television, that’ll teach it to go all coma on me.

So, I walked.  Walking along, through this forest.  I had no idea what time it was, so I pulled out my 3DS.  It tells time, simple enough.  I turned it on and opened it up to find that it was twelve thirty six in the afternoon.  Well, if that wasn't as good enough reason to stop and take a break I don’t know what was.  So I sat down, opened my bag and took out my Mt.Dew, took a swig of that and put it back.  I wasn’t fazed by the fact that it was getting warm, sometimes I even preferred it that way.  So I let my feet rest, figuring I was getting close to the edge of this forest.  I mean I hadn't been going in circles or anything.  I looked around at my surroundings, it was kinda pretty.  The trees were tall and they had a lot of low hanging branches, it made the light that shone through them take on a green tint.  It was calm, for some reason I didn't hear any animal life though, no bird sounds, and no insect buzz.  It was during this reflective gazing that I saw a small blue flower growing next to the tree I was leaning against.  I bent over to sniff it, and it didn't really smell at all.  It looked pretty though, it was such a vibrant blue color.  Sorta like a small blue poinsettia.  I decided to brush the petals of it, gently taking my forefinger and thumb I stroked one of the blue petals.  It was surprisingly soft.  It felt almost like velvet.  If I ever found a way out of this place, I’d like to have one of these flowers, unless it was a flower of my mind.  Oh well, enough of taking in the scenery, I have to keep moving.  I don’t want to have to spend the night in this place.  So picking up my pack I got up and headed off, marching straight along like before.  I was beginning to notice something as I kept walking, it might have been like an hour since I had stopped.  I noticed that the foliage was getting even thicker.  And there was less light coming down through them than before.  After walking for a couple more minutes it finally hit me.  I’d been walking deeper into the forest instead of walking out of it.

“Fuck.”

I shouted aloud.  Stomping about and generally just kicking at dirt and sticks on the ground as I vented my rage.  After that little episode I stood and thought out loud.

“Well, I can’t see the sun anymore.  And because of my, anger, I’ve forgotten which way I had come in.  Just fan-fucking-tastic Kayla, you've managed to fuck yourself good this time.”

After all of my shouting, at myself I heard some noises from a nearby bush and something came out of them practically flying at me.  I ducked and it went over me and as I turned around to look at it, I was stunned.  Standing in front of me was a dragon chicken thing, what was it called?  Cock-something.  Well fuck whatever it was it was staring right back at me.  At that instant I realized I had to be in a coma cause that thing was straight out of a Dungeons and Dragons book.  Though it looked a bit, silly.  It just stared at me, and I stared back at it, I felt like I was frozen, like I couldn’t move my feet.  And then I looked down to see my left foot had been turned into stone.  I screamed and fell backward, right onto my ass.  The chicken thing gave a screech.  It obviously didn’t like that I had broke eye contact wi- A Cockatrice!  That’s what it was called, shit.  Now I remember.  They turn things into stone by looking at them!  Crapcrapcrapcrap.  What do I do?  Okay, don’t panic, just an evil chicken dragon whatever thing trying to turn me into stone.  Just keep calm and don’t look at it, it can’t turn me into stone if I don’t look at it.  So, I closed my eyes, problem solved.  That was, until I felt something jump onto me.  Which then started to scratch and peck at me.  That stupid Cockatrice was trying to kill me!  It was trying to peck at my face, I supposed it thought I would reopen my eyes.  Luckily, I swept my arms into it and knocked it off of me.  Then I scrambled to my feet, as fast as I could with one foot made of stone.  Then I opened my eyes a little, making sure I made no direct contact with it’s eyes.  It was staring at me, hoping to catch my gaze.  It seemed somewhat intelligent, it knew not to approach me while I was at the ready.  I tried lifting my stone foot, it was difficult, but I could move my leg and carry the foot with almost no strain.

“Hey, chicken thing.”

I called to it, it made a sort of hissing clicking noise, it seemed to understand me, and it seemed offended, sounded like it anyway.

“Alright, since you seem somewhat, aware of what’s going on.”

The entire time I began talking to it, the Cockatrice was slowly moving around me, probably hoping to take advantage of my decreased mobility.  I figured that I wasn’t going to return to normal unless I could get that Cockatrice to reverse what it had done.  I wasn’t going to last long with a stone foot.  I could hear it, it’s talons made a soft sound as it moved.  Then I heard it lunge as it’s wings flapped.  I ducked and watched the stupid thing sail over me and land right in front of me.  As quick as I could, I set my good foot down on it’s tail, hard.  Boy did it let out a screech.  It almost made me cover my ears, then it immediately turned itself and began to peck and scratch at my foot.  Fortunately my foot had a shoe on so it wasn’t hurting me there, at least, not any more than a sharp prodding.

“Hey!”

I shouted at it as loud as I could, and this got it’s attention.  Still avoiding direct contact I said to it.

“I know you can understand me, somewhat.  How fast do you think I could break your neck with a stone foot?”

I asked it rhetorically.  I’m not sure what fear might have looked like on a Cockatrice, but this might have been it.

“Turn my foot back to normal, or I’m going to step on your neck until it snaps.”

I threatened it.  I could tell it was scared, it was doing a lot of shuffling with it’s talons, trying to escape from under my heel.  Then I felt a slight tingling sensation as I looked to see my other foot was no longer encased in stone.  Being a girl of my word, I lifted my right foot up and the Cockatrice shot out from where it had been held, running and fluttering away haphazardly.  I sighed as I sat down on the grass.

“Why am I so crazy?”

I asked myself as I sat resting.  I was bleeding in a couple places where the Cockatrice had managed to claw and scratch me.  “I hope I don’t get rabies or something.  Though I guess it beats getting turned into stone.”  I said as I looked around, hoping I could regain my sense of direction and head out of this forest.  As I looked the adrenaline that had been pumping through me during the entirety of my fight.  Seriously, why can’t I gain levels?  Was wearing off, and I felt sore and tired.  And it was beginning to get dark.  I would have to find someplace to sleep.  Hm.  Quickly scanning I see a large tree, it’s roots are stuck out around it and look quite big as well.  But, the most interesting part is the hole underneath, it looks like I could fit in it.  Quickly grabbing my 3DS out of my pack I used it’s light to look into the dark hole.  There was nothing in there, maybe at one time an animal had used it as a den or something.  But for now it simply seems to be a dirt hole under a tree.  I put my 3DS back in my bag, then put my bag into the hole.  Letting it stick out a bit so I could see it.  Then I went back as far as I could get and still see the backpack sticking out.  Then I went to the bathroom next to the nearest tree.  Details not necessary.  I just didn’t want to do any business near the tree I was going to be sleeping under, animals might come sniffing for me.  Anyway, that finished up I hurried back to the large tree.  I climbed under it after moving my bag.  It was a tight fit, but I could curl up comfortably enough.  I draped my coat over myself and put my backpack in front of the entry hole.  Hopefully that would help keep me warm and prevent anything from coming into here while I slept.  After getting as comfortable as I could, it was a good thing I normally slept on a futon on the floor otherwise this might be unbearable.  My thoughts flowed through my mind as my eyes shut and I drifted off to sleep.

One might argue how hard it is to sleep on the ground, outside, under a tree.  But those people are stupid and need to keep their opinions to themselves.  Waking up, was not fun.  Miraculously I hadn’t been killed in my sleep, which I guess is another possible point for the coma theory.  But damn, was I a wreck.  I opened my eyes, my throat was all closed up and shit for sleeping under a tree on the dirt ground.  I felt so fucking itchy from numerous bug bites I now had.  Quickly I removed my pack outwards.  Light streamed in, blinding me a bit, but I got over it.  Pushing my head out into the world showed me that it was daytime.  But with the thick foliage I had no idea what time.  So after crawling out and spending the next five minutes or so coughing my lungs out, I sat down and opened my bag.  Pulling out my ever trusty 3DS I took stock of the time.  It showed 11:37 A.M.  Well, all things considered I guess I deserved a good sleep, even if it was in a dirt hole in the ground, under a tree.  Okay, at least I got to sleep.  I felt so cramped though, I needed to stretch all of me.  And during my stretching I went back over to the designated toilet tree and took care of that.  Then, I took stock of what stuff I had to eat still.  I took out the Mt. Dew and the chips.  I had about two thirds a bottle of Mt. Dew left, so I took a swig of it.  Alright, about half a bottle of Mt. Dew left.  I didn’t even bother with the chips, I just put everything back.  I didn’t feel like eating anything right now.  I had no idea which way to go.  Compass, was not something I carried around, but apparently a sackful of electronic shit is.  Whatever, I went over to the big tree I had slept under and tried to climb it, as it had the most low hanging branches and therefore the highest chance of me being able to climb it and figure out where the sun was.  I tried about four times, well maybe four and a half but the last one was kind of half assed.  The branches were too high for me, and for anyone wondering.  I’m five feet, three inches tall.  So, after much consideration I went to the other side of the big tree.  The side without the hole entrance.  And I just began walking forward.  I didn’t know what else to do other than to walk, I had grabbed all my shit, and all I could hope was that I had chosen favorably.  Otherwise I’d need to solve my dwindling supplies problem, you know unless this was a coma.  Shouldn’t be able to starve in one.  I let my mind wander as I trudged along the forest.  Walking sucks.  Wish I had my bike.  This forest is so boring.  Why did I even, wait?  I hear something, a river?  Yes!  It sounds like a river!  I raced towards the noise, something besides tree’s and greenery was welcome to me.  I ran out into what was a slightly clearing of sorts.

Well, there was the river, and it’s immediate banks seemed to be devoid of tree’s.  Though it was nice to see, I always liked swimming in rivers.  But I could see the sun!  That was important, it was directly in front of me, well not directly, but it was in the same direction I was facing.  Which meant I was heading west.  I could either turn around and walk all the way back to where I started, which would be boring.  Or I could keep walking west to get out of the other side of the forest, but then I’d have to cross this river.  Or, I could just follow the river.  That’s a sound way to travel right?  Hm, what to do, what to do.  I sat near the edge of the river, pondering what to do, it didn’t look shallow, so I couldn’t just wade through it.  I looked down the river, I could see it stretch a fair ways.  Then my head swiveled to look up it.  Hm?  What was that in the distance?  It looked like a grey lump, maybe it was a house or a shack by the river?  Maybe someone lived there!  Ignoring all scarey movie senses, I got up, and made my way upriver.  Hoping to find someone, anyone.  As I walked the object came into view, it started to look more like a grey line.  Then more like a rock bridge.  And as I walked up to it, it was a stone bridge.  Rather old looking, it was broken in the middle.  “Well, this is rather disappointing.”  I said out loud as I walked on the bridge, not really thinking that it might just crumble out from under me.  I stood next to the gap in the bridge, looking across to the other side.  I saw something that put hope into me once more, a path.  Not a very well used path, more like a slightly worn trail.  Something that was once a path, but with this bridge broken I guess no one uses it much.  I wonder where it leads?  So, a bit of a backup, and I running start, I went and leaped the gap, easily landing on the other portion of bridge.  Since it didn’t break and I didn’t fall in, I took it as a good sign and then I continued my journey, down the path and into the woods.  It was a lot easier underfoot, as there was no old roots or small bushes to dodge.  But it was overgrown with plants, even the small blue ones I had passed earlier.  This was starting to seem like a really good choice on my part.  Everything seemed to be going my way now, hopefully this path would lead to a town or a house or anything really.  There was a lot of tree’s, not that I cared, tree’s is tree’s, they don’t do nothing.  After what seemed like an eternity of walking, I have the worst sense of time passing, I came to a clearing, and it was kind of foggy.  But since the sun had yet to dip into the evening, the fog didn’t hinder my sight that much, which is how I saw that rickety bridge so easily.  I guess I had to cross it.  Going over to it I thought it looked solid enough.  It was a wooden rope affair, it seemed a little old, but it figured it would be alright.  Though the gaping chasm below it didn’t offer any courage.  So, I tested the bridge, and by tested the bridge I mean I grabbed onto the rope rail and shook it a bunch.  Listening to it squeak and creak until it finally settled after my vigorous shaking.  Well, none of it fell apart.  So, grabbing both rope rails this time, I put one foot, my left one, onto the first wooden plank, and then I put my other foot upon it.  The bridge swayed slightly, I assume as most rope bridges will, but it held my weight and didn’t break.  I looked straight forward to the other side and walked across, not too fast, nor too slow.  A fair pace.  Soon enough I was on the other side, that was easy.  I totally thought it was going to break or maybe the ropes would start snapping or something.  Meh, I played too many video games.  Oh well, the fog had seemed to magically disappear and low and behold what do I see?

A fucking castle.  No joke, it was a castle.  It was old, decrepit, and sort of torn apart.  But the main structure part was there.  I went up to the door and opened it with ease, entering the building I saw a large statue.  Shutting the door behind me I looked closer at the statue, it had six little sconces.  They were obviously meant to hold something, probably torches or another type of lighting.  I sighed with disappointment.  I had been hoping for some semblance of civilization, well, I guess I got something like it.  I sat against the statue as I rested my feet and contemplated my hunger, and my thirst.  Soda was great to drink, but it wouldn’t serve as an adequate substitute for water.  I could get some from that river, but the idea of drinking water straight from a river worried me, maybe there was something I could use to light a fire with?  Possibly old torches in this castle?  I took out what little amount of chips I had left and began to eat them.  I would explore this place further when I felt less like a giant sore.  It took about fifteen minutes.  In which I ate the rest of my chips, drank some soda, and generally got my stamina back.  Standing up, I stretched a little bit as I looked to see which way I should go, there was two ways, a hall of sorts and another large door.  Figuring the large door would place me back outside, I then followed down the adjacent hall, looking for anything that might be useful.  Mostly it was just old walls, and dust, dirt, cobwebs, and other such things depicting an aged building.  This hallway was long, there were windows.  And by windows I meant holes.  If there was any glass in them, it was long gone by now.  Only little splinters of colored glass remained in some of the window holes, leaving me to imagine what might have been there at one point.  I was starting to think that this castle might have been completely looted as I came into another large area.  It was somewhat similar to the first, except it had less holes in it, and no big statue in the middle.  As well as more hallways, and what looked like a stairwell.  I headed towards the stairwell, going down it, things got steadily darker as I progressed.  But I came to a small room off of it, hardly a seven by seven foot space.  But there were chests in it, there was just enough light to allow me to see.  I went over and tried to open the chest in the right corner.  Locked, I should have figured.

“Stupid Chest.”

I said as I kicked it fairly hard right on the lock.  And well, the lock didn’t break, but the wood surrounding it gave way.  I pulled my foot out of the chest and then opened it up.  What I saw inside was several sticks, and the lock I had just kicked in.  I took one out and examined it in the dim light.  It looked like a torch of some sort.  I thought about how I could use it to light up the room, and then suddenly I was almost blinded as flames burst from the top of the stick.  In my surprise I dropped it down onto the floor, where it continued to flicker brightly like any torch would.

“Holy shit.”

I exclaimed to no one in particular, how did I do that?  I picked it back up, feeling heat radiate from it like any normal torch.  Was it magic?  Was I going insane?  Either way, it was cool.  And I liked it.  I left the rest of the torches there as I headed back up.  Knowing they would be there later if I needed them.  I wonder if I could just stay here, I mean, I hadn’t seen any signs of life, or any other people, and by this point I was convinced I was in some kind of coma.  Torches do not just set ablaze at will.  At least, not to my knowledge.  Or, this was some kind of different world of some sort.  But, that would be preposterous.  Right?