I had a nightmare last night. I was in a group of five adventurer and stranded in an evil forest, surrounded by soul-sapping evil trees that wave their vines with malicious intent, the sound produced by the leave brushing against each other sounded like the whole forest is moving itself.
The sky was painted with an eerie dusk with amorphous darkness, less than a mist, more than a dream, and it appears to be lower than it suppose to be. The forest was shrouded in darkness. Calling it "nothing" lacked accuracy, as it was no absence, but a presence, a presence of emptiness made manifest.
With the absence of light, that explained why the plants feed on souls.
In the morbid environment, the plants ruled.
We manage to work together to "un-alive" a few weaker trees and be resourceful with what they left. We made ghillie suits with the parts we rent. We band ourselves together to male ourselves appear to be bigger and moved around quickly. And hope that the jerry-rigged disguise could hold themselves together until we get to a safe zone.
Sporadically, some plants seems to be more intelligent than the others, snaking their vines on us from all directions, desperately. It began to worried us how many more wicked attempt by the plant we could fend of with just sticks, which seems to be weaken with each parry, before we could get out of that god-forsaken grim forest. We were moving from one open space to another that looked safe.
Eventually, we found this open space wider than the others. In the middle of the undisturbed opening, there's three coiled serpentine, two yellowish white and a lava colored with significance bigger size in between, accentuated by the gloomy background.
Seems harmless and no time for deliberate thoughts, we moved on. Just as we passed by, the snake in the middle protrude its head to my eye level.
With a head slightly larger than my fist, it has a pair of black bulgy eyes coated with sheen, its mouth curved into an arc that seemed to be a smile from the front. Its lava colored body appealed to be more ethereal from near.
It's not a logical action, I know I'm not suppose to touch anything in the evil forest, by instinct or by reflex, I managed to grab the lava snake by its neck in one smooth movement while keeping my pace with the group, which at that moment, the best interest is to move as fast as possible.
After having the snake in hand, I hastened to the front of the group. The moment I landed the snake on the ground, the seven-feet serpent wiggled forward at a speed that managed to curl it tail around my left wrist, gently and quickly formed a loop that pulls me to its direction.
I gestured my group to follow. And they did, unanimously.
The snake took us on a meandering route in the forest. Seemed circuitous, the snake looked like it knows where it's going, with the loop still loosely formed around my hand. My only worry was the loop loosen and our navigator disappear into the blinding darkness.
Briefly, dull patterns of shape and color, very much like blots of dyes and paints not yet dried, slowly resolved themselves into a much familiar dimension.
A light forest stretched from its bed of gently waving grass toward an azure sky with gentle wind. Some hardly noticeable sounds came from a far distance, propagate from the friction between a fast moving vehicle and the air. The snake disappeared before I noticed.
We travel to the direction where the sound came from and brought ourselves to a small town. There, we told our story.
Then, I woke.
