Saturday 7 July 2012

Patchwork, Chapter 8 - Espoir's Shame...

       The four Emotions walked to the outskirts of town and then entered the forest. The thick, tall trees loomed over head and the leaves high above made the light that filtered down slightly green in colour. They had travelled only a few metres into the dense forest but already the sight and sound of the road was gone to be replaced by an eerie silence. Roots snagged at their feet and with every step the trees became more crowded and the light became less. After only a few minutes of it was deathly quiet, except for the sounds of breathing, and the light so little you could only see about two feet in front of you. 
       "Mort," Liv's slightly shaky voice said from somewhere behind him "Are you sure this is the right way?" she asked.
       A bird crowed somewhere in the darkness above them.
       "Yeah, God knows I don't want to get lost in here." Espoir muttered.
       "Don't worry, Live, I can remember where it is." Mort said, climbing through a gap in between two trees.
       He heard Rätsel sigh as he followed and then a ripping sound. Mort turned to see Rätsel's white school shirt was now missing its right arm and part of its side. The parts of the shirt in the question were snagged on a low branch.
       "Oh, come on!" Rätsel exclaimed, exasperated, whilst wiping some blood from his arm that had also been cut by the branch. He chucked a stone at the tree in frustration then carried on.
       Mort smirked.
       "Shut up." Rätsel snapped at him, giving him a slight push. 
       They travelled further into the darkness in silence, the trees still closing in. After half an hour of walking, tripping and stumbling they reached a small glade. A small circle of sky could be seen above the middle and it showed  cold, grey clouds whipping through the air. The grass was moist, dark green and fairly long with small patches of mushroom lining the small space.
       They dumped their school bags by a tree and Mort went and stood in the middle of the glade and pressed the pad of the middle finger on his right hand onto the palm of his left. The other three joined him, made the action and waited.
       "This isn't going to be like using the main portal - it won't be a smooth journey." he said. "With the main port, it's almost instant but with this..." he trailed off.
       "If I die, Mort, I'm going to kill you." Espoir said with a glare.
       Mort was about to snap back when the symbol started to pulse slowly on his hand.
       "Here we go..." Rätsel said quietly.
       Mort thought back to when he had last used this port and remembered with a jolt that it was when him and Liv had been sent to, finally, overthrow Opstanak. Opstanak had taken Prirodni and Mort had lead hi army through this portal while Liv lead hers through the portal that was now used as the main one. 
       The pulsing started to get quicker and Mort felt he pull of Prirodni, his home dimension. The figures around him started to blur and then the pulsing became a solid glow.
       A link had been established.
       Mort felt his feet leave the floor and scatter into nothingness.  He was vaguely aware that Rätsel, Liv and Espoir were travelling with him but he tried to stay focused on where he was going. They passed other windows in the stream and saw other dimension with barren desert planets or dimensions where insects were the dominant species but they kept going for the shining white shards at the end of the blackness that is the vortex. They were almost there when Mort felt like something snapped inside him, pain raced across his chest and he was blown off course.
       He shot backwards and felt like he was falling but he had no body to fall with. It was more like his conciousness was falling. A window opened beneath him showing a rippling expanse of water and jaggard rocks rising up to meet him. He was centimetres away from the portal when an invisible hand grabbed his non-existent wrist and pulled him back. He could not tell who it was but they pushed him through the portal to Prirodni and he collapsed on the snow white grass.
       He clutched his side where pain was still stretching out across his torso. Usually, when going through the main portal, going through the stream takes less than a second and you rarely catch a glimpse of any other windows but when using a second rate portal, things are slower and can go wrong.
       Mort got up coughing and turned to thank Liv or Ratsel as he knew they would have been the ones to save him but he found them wearing matching looks of shock and they were looking at Espoir.
       Hope had saved him.
       She stood gasping for breath but seemed to be alright. She threw a glare at Mort and stood up straight.
       "Thanks you." Mort said, sincere but so shocked that his eyes were as round as plates.
       Espoir sneered. "Yeah, well." she snarled and walked in the general direction of the Hall. 
       Rätsel and Liv shook their heads to clear them of shock and followed her with Mort. 
       Mort knew Espoir hated him and would snap if he asked but the question broke free anyway. "Why did you save me? You hate me so why not just let me die?"
       She stopped, turned her head t the left and looked at him over her shoulder, her brown eyes softening slightly. "Because, I might hate you but if Survival is  back then I don't want to face him without you there." she sighed, turned to face him fully and put her hands on her hips. "I don't like to admit it, Death, but you are powerful and clever, to some extent and you're the only person Survival ever truly feared." she said. Mort was completely taken aback with surprise that Espoir had just complimented him. "So now I'e made an idiot of myself, can we get going before I die of embarrassment?" she snapped, back to her usual self.
        Mort was comforted. Nice Espoir was... Creepy, to say the least, in his opinion.




Oh my, what shall happen now...?




Lynxia x

1 comment:

  1. No, yep, I have to say it
    My favourite chapter (of course, that may jus be because it's newest, but it still counts)
    Sinne is in league with Opstanak

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