Lone Wendy: The Girl and the Forest of the Gods (10 page)

The thoughts replay in my head.

I'm nothing, I'm useless, I'm stupid

The new mantra in my mind.

I should have just died, I should die. I'll never
make it home, I don't even know where home is, or if it still
exists. Even if it does, even if I could get there, everyone would
just hate me. I hate me.

My teeth clench, as I slump over limp on the ground,
and lay there through the day and the night. Watching as giants and
massive creatures wander the plains. Their fearsome looks
contrasting their calm and gentle nature. I find it soothing to
look at them, drifting peacefully as I drift off to sleep.

I dream of home, a place as lost to me as I am. A
place I left, for a foolish dream I suffered for, only to find the
world empty and cruel. I think of my mother, I see her face as I
stare out. I think of Wil. I wonder, will they remember me for who
I was? Or will my leaving define me? How empty I feel...

A calming night beneath a vibrant sky. The stars
dancing as the branches bow and sway. The breezes gentle and warm.
Sharply clashing as they meet and rustle the soil amongst grasses
rolling over like waves in a vast sea. A sea of earth stretching
far into the distance until it fades into the void.

So beautiful, and yet lost to me. I can't think of
these things. I'm numb, I'm tired. I'm ill, and I'm alone. I've
decided not to eat. Do what I should have done long ago, and end my
journey. This is my end, to slowly fade into this peaceful place,
still and calming. Here I'll lye for all eternity beneath the
stars, until the dust swallows my bones.

I'm sorry, or, should I be...

-Wendy

I tried to go without water, but the pain was too
much. I pull myself over to a nearby spring to drink. Cupping the
cool water in my hands, something magic about it as it dribbles
over my lips, relief as I drink. As I rise, a root catches the
charm around my neck, breaking the strap, and sending the necklace
plunging into the water.

I watch as it drifts below the surface, before
turning away. "Useless thing!" I mumble.

Clouds gather suddenly over the sky as I walk on. A
thunderous boom shakes the earth, and a terrible pain permeates my
head. My ears ring, my body burns, as if my blood were on fire. I
fall, feeling a vibration through my very being. A vision of metal
and fire flashes against my eyes.

'The charm! it must protect me' I realize.

I fall back, leaping into the spring without
thinking, snapping my hands through the water, before I plunge
below its surface. The spring is deeper than I had imagined, a
clear black color, I see the charm sinking and swim after it.
Catching it as it sinks slowly into my hands. A blinding flash of
light blitzes across my eyes. I'm out of breath. Crashing through
the surface, I claw up the edge and fall onto the soil. Shocked
back to alertness by the cold water, shaking. I clutch the charm
tightly. The clouds form into a fierce storm as my pain fades.

***

That night was extra dark. I collapsed shivering,
somewhere between dreams and hallucination. Darkness, wrinkled
hands, and glaring eyes, from a mind inside my own.

In the dark a fire erupts twirling through stoney
chamber. Metal men stand idle beside a man in a robe. The fire
buries itself into the man, burning him from the inside out. His
eyes bleed before bursting into flame. Flesh melting all around
deep in the earth. I travel backward almost flying, floating upward
looking down into a chasm. Through a forest, over a hill, a
mountain in the distance. The plains?

I awaken suddenly from my nightmares to find a
beautiful morning. The vastness no longer so fearful as I vaguely
recognize pieces of it from my dreams.

I leap to my feet, a hope rekindled in my heart. I
know where I need to go, I will survive!

The Metal Men:

Come to a man in a dream,

Born a time never the same,

Crafted by a careful hand,

Men of metal forged in flame,

The master was betrayed,

And cast out in shame,

The man long gone,

Non now remember the name,

But always lingering to greet the dawn,

Soulless eyes in heartless frame...

-Unknown

I've been walking for days across endless tundra,
rocky gulleys, and flat plains. The day moves with me and the night
as well. I have to end this, I have to know, if the contents of my
visions are real.

In the black I found hunger, murder, and pain. I
suffered, but I was not alone. There with me, lost dreams and
broken hearts. The Kennel Master, a sad monster, Charles. I guess
that's what his name was, I found it when I searched him after the
hounds left. Amongst the rotting flesh and leaking oil, held close
to his steel heart, a letter written he could never send. Regret
for his actions, sorry for the fate of his wife and children.

It described the great cataclysm of the war as the
Gods lost their minds. He followed the God Boro. Even after the
Gods killed their own followers, he kept true to his vow. His
family begged him to leave with everyone else, but he stayed. He
went to his master's shrine, and as a reward for his loyalty, his
body was butchered by the insane God. Vital pieces replaced by
machine so that the God's last servant might live forever. But
worse yet was his family. Caught fleeing, they were tortured until
the brink of death, when their souls were ripped from their bodies
and trapped within the newly created, twisted hounds.

He lived through centuries of suffering and regret. A
want to die, but unable to leave the ones he loved.

When he died, when I killed him, he had already
succumb. He threw himself between me and the beast. Sloppy
movements, weak blocks, emotion took hold. He only thought of
losing the hound, and the soul of his loved one inside. The scream,
the moan of agony as he died, hand outstretched towards the dying
beast, it was real pain. As he fell, himself dying, his last and
only thoughts were of losing the ones he loved. Love is what made
him continue his unnatural life, and love was what killed him.

I felt it, as I lay defeated. The pain of how this
world can take all that you love, and swallow your dreams.

After many days of walking and reflection, finally I
see a mountain rising from the flat earth, slowly drawing larger
and nearer. A forest in its shadow growing from wind swept hills.
Walking down a slope through a gulley I come upon a river, and, a
bridge? A good thing maybe, but what's it doing out here?

I hesitate before crossing it. I feel afraid, but it
also feels right. My foot falls on the worn stone brick unleashing
a tingling of memory. A sense of whimsey as I continue, confusion
and longing following. The sun streaking through the trees across
my eyes brings peace, a certain serenity, though an ominous
shadow.

Glancing through the trees like gazing upon still
water, concealing death just below its surface.

Across now, my foot kicking up dust as I step almost
through a portal to another world. An heir of fate, a feeling as
though I’m expected. I feel like I am meeting a life long lost,
like a friend seeing you again for the first time in ages. A
warmth, though a distance.

A road leads deep into the forest. Broken and aged
wooden fences lining certain parts of it. Coming to an intersection
I see the path I must take, a narrow trail calling to me. As I
enter it, I'm pulled back from my body into my mind, a deep breath
drawing into me. This part of the forest is strange, almost creepy.
I feel deja vu.

A tattered and decaying rope twirls in the breeze as
I exit the canopy. Broken blocks and fallen boards, buried wagons
and derelict machines, sunk into the earth. The ruins of a long
abandoned camp.

Standing among the remnant memories of a foregone
era, I don't feel alone, and I'm not. The whispering of ghosts in
the pine. The eyes of those who cannot forget gazing through me. I
feel their steps as I step, gaze upon the world as if remembering,
and feel chills as I touch what once belonged to another, as they
lament. This place is truly old, a portal to an ancient time, kept
as it was by those who died here. In a way still living, never
leaving, and wholly fearful.

This is the place.

Empowered by the fires of carnage. Thriving on
hatred, fear, and sorrow. The infernal machines, driven by hungry
ghosts, to devour us all. And we leap willing into the mouths of
them. Caught up in the moment with not a thought of the
consequences. We see the fire of their eyes, these steel
contraptions. More so capable than we are, stronger, faster,
immortal. And they bow to us, ours to use. What power we must have,
that these things would kneel before us, do as we would command of
them. Yet we use them for their purpose, to devour, and destroy. It
is our words, but their will. And when at last we feed them
everything, we will find ourselves, too, eaten.

-Wendy

I stumble through the ruins, a breath taking feeling,
when my foot knocks against wood and steel. An old chest half
buried in the dirt. I don't know what's inside, but it emanates
memory. I dig the box out enough to pry it open, and sort through
the chests rather bland contents, it looks like someones luggage.
Then among the junk, I find a book, tied and leather bound. My
fingers twitch as I grasp it. I feel the energy of the life that
last held it, pride, and conviction. I untie its cover and look
through. It appears to be someones journal, filled with notes and
insane ramblings. I skim its pages:

[a satellite] – [machine] - [orbiting the heavens] -
[a false God]

- [alien]

The last page catches my eye:

[I am the master. My hands sway fate. With a wave of
my left, I doomed mankind. With a wave of my right, I shall bow the
Gods.

Maison,

High sorcerer]

Sorcerer? A word both foreign and fearful. The
wielders of magic are a rare and forgotten thing. They say that a
sorcerer founded the machinists long ago. I wonder if this 'Maison'
could actually be him?

I look around the camp in shock. A gentle and hollow
howling from under the trees at the edge of the camp cuts my
curiosity short. As I investigate, I discover a hole into the
bowels of the earth. A dilapidated stairway and scaffolding falling
and rotten leading into it, too old to use. The drawing darkness
calls to me. I take one last look at the world, and with a heavy
breath, begin my descent. Slowly crawling along the rocks on the
side of the structure, the black once again taking me.

Nearly slipping a few times, I finally reach the
bottom. Pale darkness engulfs the place like a fog. I can hear the
distant sounds of drifting water and shifting stones. Who knows
what could be in here, animal, demon, or man. The embers in my
roughly crafted torch take hold, and give birth to a guiding light.
Comforting and yet dull. The subtle sparkle of daylight above
leaving me as I creep forward. My breath grows more shallow with
every step. I stop with every sound and wonder. The darkness ahead
of me in the tunnels almost moving, stretching, pulling me in.
Staring into me more deeply than I stare into it.

The tunnels a different world. A void like interior
that shakes my confidence to the core, it's like it is winter
again. The phantoms of freezing endless night fly freely through my
mind. I shake, knock kneed, the memory almost too much, I feel
myself about to crumble. But a faint light in the distance catches
my eye. Soft and flickering, it looks like a gaslight. Stumbling
forward to investigate, I find that it is a gaslight, tied into
pipes bolted into the walls. This is no ordinary place. The taint
of evil haunting the air. I follow the pipes, growing more and more
numerous, until I enter a tunnel almost completely coated in them
running along a metal walk way. Exiting the other side, a huge open
cavern with a hill of rubble in the middle, a massive machine sits
humming with energy atop it.

I look around the hollow empty place barely lighted
by gas lights all around. Slowly I make my way up the pile of
rubble towards the machine. The force of the thing pulls on me,
intensely bright, and emanating heat. Gazing upon it in wonder,
carefully crafted, my eyes spot symbols carved into the metal. And
then the name, Maison, carved into it as well at a point in the
middle. Atop the point, a shard of glowing stone.

'This is the shard, this is the God Slayer...' I can
barely comprehend.

That's what the journal meant, this "Maison" built
this machine, and drove the Gods insane...

Just as I realize, a light pulses behind me. Before I
can react, the rubble crumbles under my feet and explodes. I go
flying through the air with chunks of rock. I land hard near the
base of the rubble and roll to the bottom of the hill. Recovering
myself, I look up to find a strange ancient looking mecha charging
up another shot. I bolt into cover as the rock behind me is blasted
into molten chunks. Hearing its metal gears whirring, and the hard
crumbling rock beneath its feet, I pull my spear and try to hide. I
grip my spear tightly as I ready to ambush the thing, but another
light flashes from around a corner. Multiple blasts tear into my
hiding spot as more come, and I’m forced to retreat into the
tunnels.