The Elements of Liberty: The Second Perspectiveby EODbombguyChaptersCh 1: Swirly skiesCh 2: Waking up.Ch 3: Running for your life is good exercise!Ch 1: Swirly skiesBeep beep.... beep beep....beep beep.... Ah, morning. Have I ever told you how much I hate you? As I groggily slap at my alarm clock in an attempt to shut it up, I take a glance at the time. 4:45. Just like every morning. After beating my alarm clock senseless, I finally manage to shut off the alarm. Sitting up in my bed, I rub the extra sleep from my eyes with a knuckle as I look around my darkened bedroom. Not much to look at really. Just my bed on the wall closest to me bedroom door, my dresser and desk to the right of my bed, in a corner. To the left is my brothers' bed, with said occupant still sleeping in it. Honestly, that kid can sleep through a bomb going off, so it doesn't really surprise me that he can sleep through my alarm going off, then me beating it half to death. Moving on. As I mentally monologued, I had already gotten up, and put on a random pair of dark blue pants that I had found on the back of my desk chair. After that, I rummaged through my closet, looking for a good shirt to wear for the day. I eventually decided on a simple red shirt with a shield with the words, 'USA' on the left pec, with three white stripes going up the right side of the shirt. I finished my dress up by putting on my favorite dark blue Hollister jacket. After slipping on my shoes and grabbing My backpack, I checked the time again (4:50), then left the room. After slipping into the kitchen, I almost slammed into my dad. Now, as a reference, my dad is a big man, with a big belly. My surprised gasp catching his attention, he turned around and, noticing me, smiled. My dad was a big teddy bear... Unless you pissed him off. moving on once more. "Hey Bowen, you're up a little earlier than normal, something' up?" He queried. Probably because I'm almost never up before 5:55, which is right before he leaves. "Not that I know of dad, just decided that now was a good time to get up." "Ah, that's good, you should start doing that more." He quipped. To my annoyance, he ruffled my hair at the end of his sentence. After batting the mans' paw away from my head, he walked over to his desk, grabbing his keys and coffee. "Hey Bowen, would you mind handing me my lunchbox, please?" "Sure, as long as I can have the Poptart in it." I replied coyly. "No dice kid, now go grab it." He shot back, smiling at my lame attempt to steal his Poptart. "Ugh, fine." I mock complained, grinning inwardly. I enjoyed our little verbal fencing matches, as it was our version of father-and-son bonding time. After handing him said lunchbox, he walked over to our door and, opening it, he turned back at me and said, "I'll see you later bowen, promise me that you'll at least try to stay out of trouble today, hmm?" "I promise that I'll be good, you don't need to worry." I responded, giving him my most innocent smile. I suddenly got the feeling that the promise I just made was about to bite me in the ass later, causing my stomach to flutter and my smile to falter slightly. Not noticing my falter, my father walked out of the door, leaving me alone to my thoughts. what was that about?, I mentally wondered, glancing around as my "spider sense" decided to make its fears known. Mentally shrugging, I glanced at the clock on our wall. 5:05. I grinned, knowing that I now had an hour to myself before I had to leave for school. After raiding my pantry of all it's Pop-tarts, I sat down on our dark green couch and, after grabbing the Xbox controller and the TV remote, got to business. After eating half of the Pop-Tarts and putting the rest in my backpack, I played halo until I glanced at the clock again. "5:50, better get ready." I muttered. At this point, my "spider sense" decide to act up again, causing my gut to flutter again. what, did I forget something again? I wondered, mentally grimacing as I remembered the last time that I forgot something, having forgotten my backpack before I left for school that fateful morning and, as a result, had to suffer through the school day without it. After double (and triple) checking that I had everything (my phone, backpack, house key, and wallet), I chalked my paranoia up to just me being overly cautious, And as a result, didn't notice the clouds outside my front-room window begin to act strange. I pulled out my phone and pulled out my friend Gage's number. Gage was one of my oldest friends after I moved to Florida. He was a brony, with a major crush on rainbow dash. He had even forced me to watch the entire first season of My Little Pony with him, in a attempt to make me join "the herd", as the bronies of today liked to call themselves. While he was a little slow at times, I felt that he was one of my best friends. He and I shared a lot of interests, as both of us wanted to be in the navy as SEALs. The only difference in our dreams, however, was that I had a slightly higher chance to join, as he suffered from type 1 diabetes. Another point for me was that I used to be an active kid growing up, being a former Boy Scout and taking Tae Kwon Do classes after moving to Florida. The fact that I had weight training at the high school that me and Gage attended, allowing my to retain my strength from my youth didn't hurt either. After trying a couple of times to reach him through the phone, I finally grew frustrated and ended up sending him a text that said to meet me at the cafeteria at lunch today. After sending the text, I grabbed my bookbag and headed outside, internally grumbling about being unable to reach him. Once again, my inner monologue caused me to fail to notice the world around me, as the weather took a weird turn, The clouds beginning to swirl around in a spiraling fashion above my head. After ending my mental rant, I finally noticed the wind beginning to act strange. Looking up, my heart damn near stopped. "What the..." I managed to squeak out as I finally recovered from my near heart-attack. The clouds at this point were swirling at a dizzying pace, swirling ever faster as it concentrated to a point. Right where I was standing. Looking around wildly, I immediately noticed another swirling pattern of clouds to the north-east, over by Gage's house, actually. Not taking the time to question the other cloud formation, I attempted to sprint away from he eye of this weird storm. I guess fate decided that I would be a fun target today. A brilliant light shot down from the clouds, enveloping me in seconds. I began to float off of the ground, desperately clawing at the earth in an attempt to save myself. It was not to be. I shot towards the sky, and as I was speeding towards the eye of the storm, I did the only thing that I could. I gave one of the girlyest screams i have ever heard screamed while flailing my arms and legs around wildly. As the white light enveloped me, blinding me, I had one last coherent thought before I passed out. what was that promise that I made to dad again? Ch 2: Waking up.Ow... When I finally regained consciousness, my first thought was that my head hurt. A lot. now, normally this wouldn't be a problem, as it hasn't been the first time that I woke up with a headache. what the problem was, is what I was laying on. grass. my first attempt to open my eyes resulted in a lashing pain lighting up across my skull, and I promptly gave up on the endeavor for the moment with the assumption that I probably had a light concussion. I distracted myself from the aches in my head by piecing together why I came to be in this state. As I tried to remember why I hurt so much, I began to feel very uncomfortable. as my common sense began to function again, I realized that I was out in the sun. Getting more than a sun-tan, if the slight burning sensation on my arms and face were any indication. I decided that now would be a good time to try to open my eyes again. Upon doing so, the same lashing pain shot across my head, and I resisted the urge to moan in pain. But, not to be deterred so easily, I kept at it, managing to open my eyes just a crack, then nearly shutting them again as I stared directly into the sun. The sun.... my mind went on overdrive as I involuntarily twitched my entire body in a vain attempt to get up, as I realized that I was supposed to be in school. as I lay still, still recovering from the failed attempt to right myself, my thoughts were having a one-sided shouting match at me. I was supposed to be in school! How long have I been out? By the way, why was I out in the first place?! as my inner conscience continued to have a mini panic attack, I continued to open my eyes a little more, careful to avoid looking at the big ball of flame in the sky. finally able to fully open my eyes without nearly passing out from the pain, I got a good look at the sky, a nice pearly blue. by this point, Mr. Inner Jackass had a metaphorical heart attack due to the shock of the situation, so I wasn't going to get any help from him any time soon. I tried to sit up again, albeit a little more slowly this time, and as I finally came to rest in a semi--comfortable sitting position, I got a hard look at where I was. in the middle of nowhere. Then the realization hit me like a freight train. I finally remembered why I was sitting in the middle of some random forest for no reason. The swirly sky. The light beam. and finally, me flying into said swirly sky through said light beam. To say I had a panic attack was an understatement. To say that I flipped my shit was more accurate. I stood up (or rather, limped up) and looked around, trying to see some kind of path or road so that I could use to get out of here. after a few moments of panicking, I finally calmed down enough to think about what to do. okay, now what? I'm stuck in the middle of some random forest, with no foreseeable way out. wait, where's my backpack? as I looked for my stuff, I spotted it a couple of yards away, lying in a small patch of Dandelions. After retrieving the pack, I unceremoniously dumped it out, emptying the contents onto the ground. "alright, gear check." I muttered to myself, looking through what I had to see if anything was useful. the stuff that I had in my bag were as follows: *my school binder *5 packages of Pop-tarts *my phone *my pocket knife *my house key *my water bottle *my textbooks *my lighter (because pyromania is fun) All in all, it was a pretty shit list. I stuffed my pocket knife in my jacket pocket, and put the pop tarts back into the bag. checking my phone, I saw that it still had 86% battery left. that was good, for now at least. I got rid of my binder, figuring that I doubted that I would need it here . I kept the textbooks, though, thinking that if it got really bad, I could just use them as makeshift tinder or something. I hooked my house key on my front right belt loop, figuring that I would need that, should I actually find my way back home. home... I stopped for a moment, realizing that my brother and dad didn't know where I had gone, and would more than likely come looking for me when they found out that I wasn't coming home. thinking about them worried me, as I finishing putting the pop tarts back in my pack, keeping one out to eat now. I looked around, spotted a hill and walked toward it, munching on a Pop tart as I went. once I got to the top of the hill, what I saw made me suddenly think that my chances of survival just dropped. By a lot. forest. forest everywhere. the only other notable landmark that I could distinguish above the small hill was a mountain range off in the distance. Cursing my ever-depleting luck, I decided that the mountain rage was probably my best bet. uncapping my water bottle and taking a small sip, then rubbing a little more onto my sun-burnt arms and face. afterwards, I began my long trek into the woods, hoping to at least reach the foot of the range by nightfall. ~~~~~~~~~A few hours later~~~~~~~~~ After a few hours of walking about and tripping over almost every root and shrub along the way, I decided to see what was going on above the canopy, since I couldn't see past the thick canopy, making the forest I was tramping through seem much darker than I thought was comfortable. After climbing a fairly tall tree (accompanied by a lot of scrapes and swearing) I poked my head out of the top of the tree, then gasped. that mountain range? apparently it was a lot bigger than I thought, as it loomed over me, dominating the surrounding area. I also noticed that the sun was still around the middle of the sky, making me wonder how it's possible that the forest could be so dark, so I figured that I should continue onwards to the mountains, because I think I might actually make it by nightfall. I was about to continue on my journey towards the mountains, when my stomach decided to let me know that I was slowly starving it to death by growling extra loud at me. I've been trying to conserve my food, as I didn't have any kind of tools to hunt with. Nor did I know how to hunt. Probably should have took that hunting course back in Boy Scouts. Anyway, after wolfing down a package of Pop tarts, I mentally counted how many packages I had left. Only three packages. Well fuck. "if I have that little food left, I hope to whatever deity is listening that I find something edible, or at least someone who can lend me some food." I muttered to myself. During the long-ass walk towards the ever-closer mountain range, I seemed to have picked up the habit of muttering to myself, probably to alleviate the boredom of walking in a single direction for hours on end. After climbing down from the tree and trudging through the forest for another half-hour, I came upon a hedge. As confusing as a hedge in the middle of nowhere was, I still had to get to the mountains by nightfall (the canopy had eased up some during the trek, allowing me small glimpses of the sky as it slowly made it's way down from its throne in the clouds. Back to the matter at hand, I looked at the hedge. it stood at around 6 ft. tall, and had quite a few thorns scattered around the wall of the hedge. Well, this was going to hurt. I began to squeeze my way through, getting scratched by what felt like every single thorn in the hedge. "ow ow ow ow ow ow ouch!" I chanted as I weaved into the hedge. after finally dislodging myself from the last thorn, I turned around and felt the ground give way underneath me. well, fuck was the only thought I could form as I tumbled down the sudden decline, bashing my head into a stone, knocking me out for the second time today. ~~~~~~~A little while later~~~~~~ I was awoken from my rock-induced slumber by the feeling of something poking my chest. groaning, I lazily batted away the offending object before I heard the gasp. It was feminine, and from the way it-she gasped, it sounded surprised to see me alive. I heard whoever it was retreat a few paces, then stop. groaning again, I placed a hand to my head, calling out to whoever was standing there. "ach, hey you, where am I?" I heard it shuffle a little bit (did I hear... clops?) then answer, "what.... what kind of beast are you?" THAT got my attention. "beast?" I opened my eyes, and what I saw came very close to making me take another dirt nap. 'she' was a blue unicorn with white hair, with what looked like a large cart behind her. "....oh." was all I could manage to say before my old friend Mr. inner Jackass decided to make a comeback. oh my god... is that... a UNICORN!?!? I had to keep from fainting at the sight of the one person-err, pony I'd thought never existed. as I stared dumbfounded at the unicorn, she shifted uncomfortably. "Do you understand what Trixie is saying, creature?" Snapping out of my stupor, I replied, "what? I-I mean of course I understand you, I just..... huh?!" I couldn't get over this. if I'm sitting here, talking to a freaking unicorn, then I'm either dead, or I hit my head much harder than I thought. I was once again brought out of my shock by here poking my chest with a stick. "did you hear a word Trixie said?!" she said crossly. "w-what? oh sorry, no I didn't, I just have a lot on my mind... right now..." She huffed indignantly. " Trixie had asked if you were injured" she stated. "oh.. uhh...I think so, I mean my head hurts a little, but it's fine, I guess" she nods. "Trixie sees. then Trixie will be on her way then." I was about to let her go on her way when something popped into my head. "hey, wait!" she stopped pulling her cart and stared at me, eyebrow raised. "I uhh... was wondering if you could, you know, help me out or something? I mean, I'm a little lost, and I need to find a way home." she stared off into space for a moment, as if thinking. she looked at me for a moment, and then smiled, like she had an idea. "Trixie supposes she could help you, but you will have to help her in return." she stated. in return? what's she getting at....? "what do you mean?" I asked. "Trixie has come into a bit of a.... slump, recently. Trixie requires an assistant in her act." she said. "your act, are you a magician or something?" I replied. "of course Trixie is a magician, do you not have eyes??" she nearly shouted, point her.. hoof at her hat and cloak. "okay, okay! I didn't notice, I'm sorry!" I quickly said, cringing at the volume of her voice. she huffed again, before she said, "Trixie forgives you, now are you coming or not? Trixie wants to get to an inn and she is instead standing around, waiting for you!" I took a second to look around, noticing that it was nearly dusk. "alright, I guess..." I said as I slowly stood up. "then come along, already!" she said as she walked to her cart. "alright, alright, I'm coming!" I said, slightly annoyed at her pushy-ness. "you may sit on the back of Trixie's cart, just don't touch anything!" she said, patting a spot on the bench of her cart with her hoof. "alright..." I mumbled as I sat where she indicated. "now sit tight, creature, and we'll be at an inn soon." she said as she began to trot to the front of her cart. "hey!' I called to her. "what is it now?!" she huffed, turning around. "the name isn't creature, it's Bowen." I stated dryly, annoyed that she kept calling me 'creature'.. "Fine, crea-Bowen." she replied, sitting in the seat of her cart. "thank you..." I mumbled, slipping off into sleep as I heard the cart begin to move. Ch 3: Running for your life is good exercise!I was sitting in class, staring at the clock as though it was the one speaking instead I the teacher . It was the last day of school, and it was the final period of the day. As I continued to have a staring contest with the clock I heard a voice grab my attention. Tearing my attention way from the object hanging on the wall, I turned to my right facing my best friend Gage, who had been trying to snap me out of my stupor. "Huh?" I asked, blinking at my friend in confusion. "Were you even listening at all?" He asked, staring at me Like I was an idiot. "Yeah.....maybe....not really" I admitted, turning back to the clock. "I said what are you doing after school? I was going to ask if maybe you wanted to play Halo 4 later, after I got home today after rifle practice" he said as he scratched some more notes down that the teacher has written on the board. "Sure, sure...." I replied, once again wandering back to the world of what I would do when school ended. "Cool, so when will you be online?" He asked me. "Huh? Oh, sometime around... 4 o'clock I think" I said as the clock once again became my main focus. Gage was just about to say something else when the bell finally rang, signaling my freedom from school for the rest of the summer. Tossing the paper that I was pretending to write on into the air, I stand and, grabbing my bag, speed walk to the door. But the second I open it, I hear the scream that causes my blood to run cold. The scream threw me from the safety of sleep, and into the world of the awake. Bolting awake with a start, looking left and right, searching the dark for the source of the noise. Then I hear the scream again. Hopping off my makeshift bed, which was the bench at the back of Trixie's cart, with my jacket as a pillow. Throwing on my jacket as I got off the bench, I suddenly felt the ground begin to rumble. The I hear a very loud roar. Whatever it was, it sounded close, and it sounded PISSED. I was only just able to look to my left before the mysterious creature tackled me to the ground like an NFL linebacker. With the wind temporarily knocked out of me, I looked up at my assailant, and nearly shat myself. Looming above me, was what looked to be a giant lion with red spikes for a mane, and it looked hungry. And then it roared at me, sending spittle all over my face. And I responded like any true man would. I screamed like a bitch and punched it right in the snout. The lion, obviously surprised by the sudden fist in its face, recoiled back, giving me enough room to place my right foot on it's chest, and push it off me. But what I didn't know, was that the lion had placed it's right hind leg on my left leg, in an attempt to pin me, and as I pushed it off of me, the beast's claws tore into my leg, causing me to cry out in pain. By now my autopilot mode had been engaged, an my fight-or-flight response was telling me that now was a good time to hightail it out of there. As I stumbled to my feet, a smashing sound was heard behind me, and turning around revealed that I had just barely missed being impaled by a... Scorpion tail? Looking down the length of the tail showed what I had previously thought was a lion trying to pull its tail out of the wall of Trixie's cart. wait, where is trix--, I couldn't complete the thought as I was once again knocked to the ground with all the finesse of a large rag-doll being hit by a freight train. after regaining my senses, I peeked at my new assailant, revealing another of the weird lion-scorpion hybrids. The abomination of nature grabbed its brethren's tail with it's teeth, and pulled the tail out of the basketball-sized hole in the cart. Now I had two freaky lion-scorpion creatures looking at me like a starving man looks at a five course meal. This was going to hell really fast, and I was just about to turn tail and test my track skills against the freaks of nature, when I was stopped by a voice that called out in fear, "BOWEN! HELP!" Turning towards the cry for help, where I saw Trixie on top of the cart, carrying what looked like saddlebags, using her magic to fight off three other arachni-cats that were fighting to get on top of the cart. Now I was faced with a decision: leave Trixie to her fate and book it to the nearest town, or risk my life to save her, and probably get eaten in the process. By now, my bleeding leg was really beginning to hurt but, thankfully, my adrenalin allowed me to push the pain down to somewhere that I could ignore it, and most of the arachni-cat group, save the two that were snarling at me and inching ever closer, seemed to be focused on Trixie and the cart. Deciding that I had a better change to walk out of this alive, I was preparing to leave Trixie and race the freak hybrids to the closest town, when I heard another scream. Sparing a glance in Trixie's direction, what I saw made me reconsider abandoning Trixie. One if the Arachni-cats had slammed into the cart, misbalancing Trixie, causing her to slip off of the cart and onto the ground. Shakily standing up, she stared in horror as the devil-cats strode around the cart and approached her, obviously relishing an easy kill. It was then that my mind was made up, and I did one if the bravest (and dumbest) things that I had ever done in my short life. I sprinted towards my attackers, throwing them off as they sidestepped to get out of my path. I then raced over to Trixie as she was backing away from the demonic felines and, scooping her up in my arms (she was strangely light for a unicorn that came to about mid-chest level, she must've weighed like, 70 pounds), sprinted away for all I was worth towards the dim glow over the horizon. the Demon-cats, finally getting over the shock of the strange creature out-smarting them, gave chase. And so it began.I would run as fast as my athletic legs could carry me and Trixie, and the demonic felines would chase me, occasionally taking flight in an attempt to catch me off-guard. However, my reflexes were thankfully on point, and i would dodge or sidestep these attacks. Finally, after what seemed like hours, the spawns of Satan eventually gave up the chase, falling back into the woods for protection from the growing sunlight on the horizon. at this point. the road that I was running on had gained a considerable incline, making it all the more difficult for me to carry Trixie, who had started to fidget while I was running, and she constantly checked over my shoulder, making sure that the evil beasts weren't still following us. by now my lungs felt like they were on fire, my throat and mouth felt like someone had zealously rubbed sandpaper all over my throat and mouth. finally, after making sure that the arachni-cats weren't coming back for round 2, I put Trixie down and promptly fell on my ass. "Are they gone?" Trixie asked, looking back to where we ran from. "hopefully not..... because..... if they do, i seriously..... doubt that.... I'll be able to .....outrun them again... heh heh... heh...." I manage to pant. "Are you alright, Bowen?" Trixie asked, looking at me with worry. Truth be told, I felt further from fine than i even thought physically possible. I could barely stand, my injured leg is now extremely pissed at me and is most likely infected, I felt extremely light-headed from both exhaustion and blood loss, I desperately needed a drink and something to eat, and to top it all off, I lost my bag when we escaped the Arachni-cats. "just....peachy...." i wheeze. "you don't look fine to Trixie, you're hurt!" she replied, trotting over to me and examining my leg. "stay still, Trixie will try to heal you. It looks bad, but give Trixie a moment and she will have you up and running again." "If i have anything to say about it, that's the last time I'll be running for a while." I replied as her horn begins to glow a light blue. Then something pops into my head. Gage, being the brony that he is, forced me to sit with him and watch the first two episodes of my little pony when I had come over to his house once as an attempt to "Convert me to the herd". of course, i never watched past the first two episodes before declaring that I will never watch the show, but I've watched enough of it, (as well as studied enough basic mythology) to guess what we were nearly eaten by. "were those... Manticores?" I ask in a slightly pained voice, as the unicorn attempts to bath my leg in the same blue glow as her horn. "why yes, they are an indigenous species in the forest here. have you never seen one before?" she asked, looking at me in confusion. "no, never before in my life." I replied, my breath hitching in pain as I feel the wound try to close. "Celestia curse it! Trixie must've used more magic than she needed to on those manticores...." Trixie exclaimed as the glow on her horn and my leg both disappear. "what?" I said. "what's wrong?" "Trixie can't seem to close your leg wound all the way, as she wasted too much energy fending off those flea-ridden beasts" she explained in frustration. "If Trixie only had a little more magic, she would be able to heal you all the way" "hey, don't sweat it, I'm sure it isn't as bad as it looks, just give me a sec to rest, and we'll keep going." I said. I was lying through my teeth, and from look she gave me, she didn't believe me either. But I wasn't about to risk spending another second longer out here than I had to. After taking a few seconds to regain my breath fully, I eventually struggled to my feet, muttering obscenities under my breath as my entire body heavily protested against me moving. "See? Nothing to worry about" I said, smiling. "Now let's hurry, I think I see a town over that rise" "wait just a moment, Bowen" Trixie said quickly, "Trixie doesn't want your leg to become infected, so at least let her bandage it" she stated, pulling out a roll of bandages out of her saddlebags. "Where did you get those?" I asked. "What are you talking about? Trixie always carries first aid in her saddlebags in case she gets hurts performing" she replied, wrapping my claw wound in the bandages. "Okay, I guess" I said, and when she finished, she hefted her saddlebags back on, and she began to walk towards the top of the rise, with me limping slightly behind, wondering what was going to happen next in this weird adventure.
Ch 1: Swirly skiesBeep beep.... beep beep....beep beep.... Ah, morning. Have I ever told you how much I hate you? As I groggily slap at my alarm clock in an attempt to shut it up, I take a glance at the time. 4:45. Just like every morning. After beating my alarm clock senseless, I finally manage to shut off the alarm. Sitting up in my bed, I rub the extra sleep from my eyes with a knuckle as I look around my darkened bedroom. Not much to look at really. Just my bed on the wall closest to me bedroom door, my dresser and desk to the right of my bed, in a corner. To the left is my brothers' bed, with said occupant still sleeping in it. Honestly, that kid can sleep through a bomb going off, so it doesn't really surprise me that he can sleep through my alarm going off, then me beating it half to death. Moving on. As I mentally monologued, I had already gotten up, and put on a random pair of dark blue pants that I had found on the back of my desk chair. After that, I rummaged through my closet, looking for a good shirt to wear for the day. I eventually decided on a simple red shirt with a shield with the words, 'USA' on the left pec, with three white stripes going up the right side of the shirt. I finished my dress up by putting on my favorite dark blue Hollister jacket. After slipping on my shoes and grabbing My backpack, I checked the time again (4:50), then left the room. After slipping into the kitchen, I almost slammed into my dad. Now, as a reference, my dad is a big man, with a big belly. My surprised gasp catching his attention, he turned around and, noticing me, smiled. My dad was a big teddy bear... Unless you pissed him off. moving on once more. "Hey Bowen, you're up a little earlier than normal, something' up?" He queried. Probably because I'm almost never up before 5:55, which is right before he leaves. "Not that I know of dad, just decided that now was a good time to get up." "Ah, that's good, you should start doing that more." He quipped. To my annoyance, he ruffled my hair at the end of his sentence. After batting the mans' paw away from my head, he walked over to his desk, grabbing his keys and coffee. "Hey Bowen, would you mind handing me my lunchbox, please?" "Sure, as long as I can have the Poptart in it." I replied coyly. "No dice kid, now go grab it." He shot back, smiling at my lame attempt to steal his Poptart. "Ugh, fine." I mock complained, grinning inwardly. I enjoyed our little verbal fencing matches, as it was our version of father-and-son bonding time. After handing him said lunchbox, he walked over to our door and, opening it, he turned back at me and said, "I'll see you later bowen, promise me that you'll at least try to stay out of trouble today, hmm?" "I promise that I'll be good, you don't need to worry." I responded, giving him my most innocent smile. I suddenly got the feeling that the promise I just made was about to bite me in the ass later, causing my stomach to flutter and my smile to falter slightly. Not noticing my falter, my father walked out of the door, leaving me alone to my thoughts. what was that about?, I mentally wondered, glancing around as my "spider sense" decided to make its fears known. Mentally shrugging, I glanced at the clock on our wall. 5:05. I grinned, knowing that I now had an hour to myself before I had to leave for school. After raiding my pantry of all it's Pop-tarts, I sat down on our dark green couch and, after grabbing the Xbox controller and the TV remote, got to business. After eating half of the Pop-Tarts and putting the rest in my backpack, I played halo until I glanced at the clock again. "5:50, better get ready." I muttered. At this point, my "spider sense" decide to act up again, causing my gut to flutter again. what, did I forget something again? I wondered, mentally grimacing as I remembered the last time that I forgot something, having forgotten my backpack before I left for school that fateful morning and, as a result, had to suffer through the school day without it. After double (and triple) checking that I had everything (my phone, backpack, house key, and wallet), I chalked my paranoia up to just me being overly cautious, And as a result, didn't notice the clouds outside my front-room window begin to act strange. I pulled out my phone and pulled out my friend Gage's number. Gage was one of my oldest friends after I moved to Florida. He was a brony, with a major crush on rainbow dash. He had even forced me to watch the entire first season of My Little Pony with him, in a attempt to make me join "the herd", as the bronies of today liked to call themselves. While he was a little slow at times, I felt that he was one of my best friends. He and I shared a lot of interests, as both of us wanted to be in the navy as SEALs. The only difference in our dreams, however, was that I had a slightly higher chance to join, as he suffered from type 1 diabetes. Another point for me was that I used to be an active kid growing up, being a former Boy Scout and taking Tae Kwon Do classes after moving to Florida. The fact that I had weight training at the high school that me and Gage attended, allowing my to retain my strength from my youth didn't hurt either. After trying a couple of times to reach him through the phone, I finally grew frustrated and ended up sending him a text that said to meet me at the cafeteria at lunch today. After sending the text, I grabbed my bookbag and headed outside, internally grumbling about being unable to reach him. Once again, my inner monologue caused me to fail to notice the world around me, as the weather took a weird turn, The clouds beginning to swirl around in a spiraling fashion above my head. After ending my mental rant, I finally noticed the wind beginning to act strange. Looking up, my heart damn near stopped. "What the..." I managed to squeak out as I finally recovered from my near heart-attack. The clouds at this point were swirling at a dizzying pace, swirling ever faster as it concentrated to a point. Right where I was standing. Looking around wildly, I immediately noticed another swirling pattern of clouds to the north-east, over by Gage's house, actually. Not taking the time to question the other cloud formation, I attempted to sprint away from he eye of this weird storm. I guess fate decided that I would be a fun target today. A brilliant light shot down from the clouds, enveloping me in seconds. I began to float off of the ground, desperately clawing at the earth in an attempt to save myself. It was not to be. I shot towards the sky, and as I was speeding towards the eye of the storm, I did the only thing that I could. I gave one of the girlyest screams i have ever heard screamed while flailing my arms and legs around wildly. As the white light enveloped me, blinding me, I had one last coherent thought before I passed out. what was that promise that I made to dad again?
Ch 2: Waking up.Ow... When I finally regained consciousness, my first thought was that my head hurt. A lot. now, normally this wouldn't be a problem, as it hasn't been the first time that I woke up with a headache. what the problem was, is what I was laying on. grass. my first attempt to open my eyes resulted in a lashing pain lighting up across my skull, and I promptly gave up on the endeavor for the moment with the assumption that I probably had a light concussion. I distracted myself from the aches in my head by piecing together why I came to be in this state. As I tried to remember why I hurt so much, I began to feel very uncomfortable. as my common sense began to function again, I realized that I was out in the sun. Getting more than a sun-tan, if the slight burning sensation on my arms and face were any indication. I decided that now would be a good time to try to open my eyes again. Upon doing so, the same lashing pain shot across my head, and I resisted the urge to moan in pain. But, not to be deterred so easily, I kept at it, managing to open my eyes just a crack, then nearly shutting them again as I stared directly into the sun. The sun.... my mind went on overdrive as I involuntarily twitched my entire body in a vain attempt to get up, as I realized that I was supposed to be in school. as I lay still, still recovering from the failed attempt to right myself, my thoughts were having a one-sided shouting match at me. I was supposed to be in school! How long have I been out? By the way, why was I out in the first place?! as my inner conscience continued to have a mini panic attack, I continued to open my eyes a little more, careful to avoid looking at the big ball of flame in the sky. finally able to fully open my eyes without nearly passing out from the pain, I got a good look at the sky, a nice pearly blue. by this point, Mr. Inner Jackass had a metaphorical heart attack due to the shock of the situation, so I wasn't going to get any help from him any time soon. I tried to sit up again, albeit a little more slowly this time, and as I finally came to rest in a semi--comfortable sitting position, I got a hard look at where I was. in the middle of nowhere. Then the realization hit me like a freight train. I finally remembered why I was sitting in the middle of some random forest for no reason. The swirly sky. The light beam. and finally, me flying into said swirly sky through said light beam. To say I had a panic attack was an understatement. To say that I flipped my shit was more accurate. I stood up (or rather, limped up) and looked around, trying to see some kind of path or road so that I could use to get out of here. after a few moments of panicking, I finally calmed down enough to think about what to do. okay, now what? I'm stuck in the middle of some random forest, with no foreseeable way out. wait, where's my backpack? as I looked for my stuff, I spotted it a couple of yards away, lying in a small patch of Dandelions. After retrieving the pack, I unceremoniously dumped it out, emptying the contents onto the ground. "alright, gear check." I muttered to myself, looking through what I had to see if anything was useful. the stuff that I had in my bag were as follows: *my school binder *5 packages of Pop-tarts *my phone *my pocket knife *my house key *my water bottle *my textbooks *my lighter (because pyromania is fun) All in all, it was a pretty shit list. I stuffed my pocket knife in my jacket pocket, and put the pop tarts back into the bag. checking my phone, I saw that it still had 86% battery left. that was good, for now at least. I got rid of my binder, figuring that I doubted that I would need it here . I kept the textbooks, though, thinking that if it got really bad, I could just use them as makeshift tinder or something. I hooked my house key on my front right belt loop, figuring that I would need that, should I actually find my way back home. home... I stopped for a moment, realizing that my brother and dad didn't know where I had gone, and would more than likely come looking for me when they found out that I wasn't coming home. thinking about them worried me, as I finishing putting the pop tarts back in my pack, keeping one out to eat now. I looked around, spotted a hill and walked toward it, munching on a Pop tart as I went. once I got to the top of the hill, what I saw made me suddenly think that my chances of survival just dropped. By a lot. forest. forest everywhere. the only other notable landmark that I could distinguish above the small hill was a mountain range off in the distance. Cursing my ever-depleting luck, I decided that the mountain rage was probably my best bet. uncapping my water bottle and taking a small sip, then rubbing a little more onto my sun-burnt arms and face. afterwards, I began my long trek into the woods, hoping to at least reach the foot of the range by nightfall. ~~~~~~~~~A few hours later~~~~~~~~~ After a few hours of walking about and tripping over almost every root and shrub along the way, I decided to see what was going on above the canopy, since I couldn't see past the thick canopy, making the forest I was tramping through seem much darker than I thought was comfortable. After climbing a fairly tall tree (accompanied by a lot of scrapes and swearing) I poked my head out of the top of the tree, then gasped. that mountain range? apparently it was a lot bigger than I thought, as it loomed over me, dominating the surrounding area. I also noticed that the sun was still around the middle of the sky, making me wonder how it's possible that the forest could be so dark, so I figured that I should continue onwards to the mountains, because I think I might actually make it by nightfall. I was about to continue on my journey towards the mountains, when my stomach decided to let me know that I was slowly starving it to death by growling extra loud at me. I've been trying to conserve my food, as I didn't have any kind of tools to hunt with. Nor did I know how to hunt. Probably should have took that hunting course back in Boy Scouts. Anyway, after wolfing down a package of Pop tarts, I mentally counted how many packages I had left. Only three packages. Well fuck. "if I have that little food left, I hope to whatever deity is listening that I find something edible, or at least someone who can lend me some food." I muttered to myself. During the long-ass walk towards the ever-closer mountain range, I seemed to have picked up the habit of muttering to myself, probably to alleviate the boredom of walking in a single direction for hours on end. After climbing down from the tree and trudging through the forest for another half-hour, I came upon a hedge. As confusing as a hedge in the middle of nowhere was, I still had to get to the mountains by nightfall (the canopy had eased up some during the trek, allowing me small glimpses of the sky as it slowly made it's way down from its throne in the clouds. Back to the matter at hand, I looked at the hedge. it stood at around 6 ft. tall, and had quite a few thorns scattered around the wall of the hedge. Well, this was going to hurt. I began to squeeze my way through, getting scratched by what felt like every single thorn in the hedge. "ow ow ow ow ow ow ouch!" I chanted as I weaved into the hedge. after finally dislodging myself from the last thorn, I turned around and felt the ground give way underneath me. well, fuck was the only thought I could form as I tumbled down the sudden decline, bashing my head into a stone, knocking me out for the second time today. ~~~~~~~A little while later~~~~~~ I was awoken from my rock-induced slumber by the feeling of something poking my chest. groaning, I lazily batted away the offending object before I heard the gasp. It was feminine, and from the way it-she gasped, it sounded surprised to see me alive. I heard whoever it was retreat a few paces, then stop. groaning again, I placed a hand to my head, calling out to whoever was standing there. "ach, hey you, where am I?" I heard it shuffle a little bit (did I hear... clops?) then answer, "what.... what kind of beast are you?" THAT got my attention. "beast?" I opened my eyes, and what I saw came very close to making me take another dirt nap. 'she' was a blue unicorn with white hair, with what looked like a large cart behind her. "....oh." was all I could manage to say before my old friend Mr. inner Jackass decided to make a comeback. oh my god... is that... a UNICORN!?!? I had to keep from fainting at the sight of the one person-err, pony I'd thought never existed. as I stared dumbfounded at the unicorn, she shifted uncomfortably. "Do you understand what Trixie is saying, creature?" Snapping out of my stupor, I replied, "what? I-I mean of course I understand you, I just..... huh?!" I couldn't get over this. if I'm sitting here, talking to a freaking unicorn, then I'm either dead, or I hit my head much harder than I thought. I was once again brought out of my shock by here poking my chest with a stick. "did you hear a word Trixie said?!" she said crossly. "w-what? oh sorry, no I didn't, I just have a lot on my mind... right now..." She huffed indignantly. " Trixie had asked if you were injured" she stated. "oh.. uhh...I think so, I mean my head hurts a little, but it's fine, I guess" she nods. "Trixie sees. then Trixie will be on her way then." I was about to let her go on her way when something popped into my head. "hey, wait!" she stopped pulling her cart and stared at me, eyebrow raised. "I uhh... was wondering if you could, you know, help me out or something? I mean, I'm a little lost, and I need to find a way home." she stared off into space for a moment, as if thinking. she looked at me for a moment, and then smiled, like she had an idea. "Trixie supposes she could help you, but you will have to help her in return." she stated. in return? what's she getting at....? "what do you mean?" I asked. "Trixie has come into a bit of a.... slump, recently. Trixie requires an assistant in her act." she said. "your act, are you a magician or something?" I replied. "of course Trixie is a magician, do you not have eyes??" she nearly shouted, point her.. hoof at her hat and cloak. "okay, okay! I didn't notice, I'm sorry!" I quickly said, cringing at the volume of her voice. she huffed again, before she said, "Trixie forgives you, now are you coming or not? Trixie wants to get to an inn and she is instead standing around, waiting for you!" I took a second to look around, noticing that it was nearly dusk. "alright, I guess..." I said as I slowly stood up. "then come along, already!" she said as she walked to her cart. "alright, alright, I'm coming!" I said, slightly annoyed at her pushy-ness. "you may sit on the back of Trixie's cart, just don't touch anything!" she said, patting a spot on the bench of her cart with her hoof. "alright..." I mumbled as I sat where she indicated. "now sit tight, creature, and we'll be at an inn soon." she said as she began to trot to the front of her cart. "hey!' I called to her. "what is it now?!" she huffed, turning around. "the name isn't creature, it's Bowen." I stated dryly, annoyed that she kept calling me 'creature'.. "Fine, crea-Bowen." she replied, sitting in the seat of her cart. "thank you..." I mumbled, slipping off into sleep as I heard the cart begin to move.
Ch 3: Running for your life is good exercise!I was sitting in class, staring at the clock as though it was the one speaking instead I the teacher . It was the last day of school, and it was the final period of the day. As I continued to have a staring contest with the clock I heard a voice grab my attention. Tearing my attention way from the object hanging on the wall, I turned to my right facing my best friend Gage, who had been trying to snap me out of my stupor. "Huh?" I asked, blinking at my friend in confusion. "Were you even listening at all?" He asked, staring at me Like I was an idiot. "Yeah.....maybe....not really" I admitted, turning back to the clock. "I said what are you doing after school? I was going to ask if maybe you wanted to play Halo 4 later, after I got home today after rifle practice" he said as he scratched some more notes down that the teacher has written on the board. "Sure, sure...." I replied, once again wandering back to the world of what I would do when school ended. "Cool, so when will you be online?" He asked me. "Huh? Oh, sometime around... 4 o'clock I think" I said as the clock once again became my main focus. Gage was just about to say something else when the bell finally rang, signaling my freedom from school for the rest of the summer. Tossing the paper that I was pretending to write on into the air, I stand and, grabbing my bag, speed walk to the door. But the second I open it, I hear the scream that causes my blood to run cold. The scream threw me from the safety of sleep, and into the world of the awake. Bolting awake with a start, looking left and right, searching the dark for the source of the noise. Then I hear the scream again. Hopping off my makeshift bed, which was the bench at the back of Trixie's cart, with my jacket as a pillow. Throwing on my jacket as I got off the bench, I suddenly felt the ground begin to rumble. The I hear a very loud roar. Whatever it was, it sounded close, and it sounded PISSED. I was only just able to look to my left before the mysterious creature tackled me to the ground like an NFL linebacker. With the wind temporarily knocked out of me, I looked up at my assailant, and nearly shat myself. Looming above me, was what looked to be a giant lion with red spikes for a mane, and it looked hungry. And then it roared at me, sending spittle all over my face. And I responded like any true man would. I screamed like a bitch and punched it right in the snout. The lion, obviously surprised by the sudden fist in its face, recoiled back, giving me enough room to place my right foot on it's chest, and push it off me. But what I didn't know, was that the lion had placed it's right hind leg on my left leg, in an attempt to pin me, and as I pushed it off of me, the beast's claws tore into my leg, causing me to cry out in pain. By now my autopilot mode had been engaged, an my fight-or-flight response was telling me that now was a good time to hightail it out of there. As I stumbled to my feet, a smashing sound was heard behind me, and turning around revealed that I had just barely missed being impaled by a... Scorpion tail? Looking down the length of the tail showed what I had previously thought was a lion trying to pull its tail out of the wall of Trixie's cart. wait, where is trix--, I couldn't complete the thought as I was once again knocked to the ground with all the finesse of a large rag-doll being hit by a freight train. after regaining my senses, I peeked at my new assailant, revealing another of the weird lion-scorpion hybrids. The abomination of nature grabbed its brethren's tail with it's teeth, and pulled the tail out of the basketball-sized hole in the cart. Now I had two freaky lion-scorpion creatures looking at me like a starving man looks at a five course meal. This was going to hell really fast, and I was just about to turn tail and test my track skills against the freaks of nature, when I was stopped by a voice that called out in fear, "BOWEN! HELP!" Turning towards the cry for help, where I saw Trixie on top of the cart, carrying what looked like saddlebags, using her magic to fight off three other arachni-cats that were fighting to get on top of the cart. Now I was faced with a decision: leave Trixie to her fate and book it to the nearest town, or risk my life to save her, and probably get eaten in the process. By now, my bleeding leg was really beginning to hurt but, thankfully, my adrenalin allowed me to push the pain down to somewhere that I could ignore it, and most of the arachni-cat group, save the two that were snarling at me and inching ever closer, seemed to be focused on Trixie and the cart. Deciding that I had a better change to walk out of this alive, I was preparing to leave Trixie and race the freak hybrids to the closest town, when I heard another scream. Sparing a glance in Trixie's direction, what I saw made me reconsider abandoning Trixie. One if the Arachni-cats had slammed into the cart, misbalancing Trixie, causing her to slip off of the cart and onto the ground. Shakily standing up, she stared in horror as the devil-cats strode around the cart and approached her, obviously relishing an easy kill. It was then that my mind was made up, and I did one if the bravest (and dumbest) things that I had ever done in my short life. I sprinted towards my attackers, throwing them off as they sidestepped to get out of my path. I then raced over to Trixie as she was backing away from the demonic felines and, scooping her up in my arms (she was strangely light for a unicorn that came to about mid-chest level, she must've weighed like, 70 pounds), sprinted away for all I was worth towards the dim glow over the horizon. the Demon-cats, finally getting over the shock of the strange creature out-smarting them, gave chase. And so it began.I would run as fast as my athletic legs could carry me and Trixie, and the demonic felines would chase me, occasionally taking flight in an attempt to catch me off-guard. However, my reflexes were thankfully on point, and i would dodge or sidestep these attacks. Finally, after what seemed like hours, the spawns of Satan eventually gave up the chase, falling back into the woods for protection from the growing sunlight on the horizon. at this point. the road that I was running on had gained a considerable incline, making it all the more difficult for me to carry Trixie, who had started to fidget while I was running, and she constantly checked over my shoulder, making sure that the evil beasts weren't still following us. by now my lungs felt like they were on fire, my throat and mouth felt like someone had zealously rubbed sandpaper all over my throat and mouth. finally, after making sure that the arachni-cats weren't coming back for round 2, I put Trixie down and promptly fell on my ass. "Are they gone?" Trixie asked, looking back to where we ran from. "hopefully not..... because..... if they do, i seriously..... doubt that.... I'll be able to .....outrun them again... heh heh... heh...." I manage to pant. "Are you alright, Bowen?" Trixie asked, looking at me with worry. Truth be told, I felt further from fine than i even thought physically possible. I could barely stand, my injured leg is now extremely pissed at me and is most likely infected, I felt extremely light-headed from both exhaustion and blood loss, I desperately needed a drink and something to eat, and to top it all off, I lost my bag when we escaped the Arachni-cats. "just....peachy...." i wheeze. "you don't look fine to Trixie, you're hurt!" she replied, trotting over to me and examining my leg. "stay still, Trixie will try to heal you. It looks bad, but give Trixie a moment and she will have you up and running again." "If i have anything to say about it, that's the last time I'll be running for a while." I replied as her horn begins to glow a light blue. Then something pops into my head. Gage, being the brony that he is, forced me to sit with him and watch the first two episodes of my little pony when I had come over to his house once as an attempt to "Convert me to the herd". of course, i never watched past the first two episodes before declaring that I will never watch the show, but I've watched enough of it, (as well as studied enough basic mythology) to guess what we were nearly eaten by. "were those... Manticores?" I ask in a slightly pained voice, as the unicorn attempts to bath my leg in the same blue glow as her horn. "why yes, they are an indigenous species in the forest here. have you never seen one before?" she asked, looking at me in confusion. "no, never before in my life." I replied, my breath hitching in pain as I feel the wound try to close. "Celestia curse it! Trixie must've used more magic than she needed to on those manticores...." Trixie exclaimed as the glow on her horn and my leg both disappear. "what?" I said. "what's wrong?" "Trixie can't seem to close your leg wound all the way, as she wasted too much energy fending off those flea-ridden beasts" she explained in frustration. "If Trixie only had a little more magic, she would be able to heal you all the way" "hey, don't sweat it, I'm sure it isn't as bad as it looks, just give me a sec to rest, and we'll keep going." I said. I was lying through my teeth, and from look she gave me, she didn't believe me either. But I wasn't about to risk spending another second longer out here than I had to. After taking a few seconds to regain my breath fully, I eventually struggled to my feet, muttering obscenities under my breath as my entire body heavily protested against me moving. "See? Nothing to worry about" I said, smiling. "Now let's hurry, I think I see a town over that rise" "wait just a moment, Bowen" Trixie said quickly, "Trixie doesn't want your leg to become infected, so at least let her bandage it" she stated, pulling out a roll of bandages out of her saddlebags. "Where did you get those?" I asked. "What are you talking about? Trixie always carries first aid in her saddlebags in case she gets hurts performing" she replied, wrapping my claw wound in the bandages. "Okay, I guess" I said, and when she finished, she hefted her saddlebags back on, and she began to walk towards the top of the rise, with me limping slightly behind, wondering what was going to happen next in this weird adventure.
