Adventures of Oahron (part 6)

Strolling onward, just a few miles away from Futora City now, Jahru takes a detour eastbound off the dirt road into a most out-of-the-ordinary jungle type of terrain. Tons of ropey vines hang low, spreading across the stringy cluttered treetops. Some crawly things live up in those branches. The child looks around with a wide grin asking at least a dozen questions about each and every thing that meets him at eye level. Jahru places his grimy paws over his ears as the boy continues to yap on.

His mind goes off into many dark places as it focuses into nothingness. After only fifteen minutes or so into the damp wilderness, a pool of sparkling water sits in front of the two, cool and fresh. Small orbs and drops of crystal-clear water float air-bound all around this odd location, giving this place a most mystic, and even sacred, feeling.

“Wow…” the boy whispers in a still voice. His eyes glare wide at the beautiful pool and floating water-orbs dancing around his body. He reaches his arms out toward them as he feels his limbs getting damp in the air. Jahru removes his boots and takes a comforting sit in the grass as his nephew leaps up to drink from one of the floating balls of refreshment.

With his lips out, and head parched, he drinks as if he were sipping soup --- making the floaty orbs vanish one at a time. Puckering his face, he appears to be kissing the water. His lips scrunch as if he took bite out of a sour prickle-plant, slurping the water just right, into absolutely nothing. Pop! It is gone.

“Quit playing now, and fill up our danged canteens! You look like a darn bug,” he grumbles as he dampens the child’s fun. The refreshed boy feels the coolness of the water on his hand as he dips his own canteen into it. This unique, cool liquid is such a long awaited fulfillment that he closes his eyes, and gives an impractical smile as he shakes his head to make his wet hair dance across his ears.

“Come on now!” Jahru screeches while crackling his fist and shoulder. “Just hurry up, kid…”

Oahron nods slowly, "Some of these... taste like all kinds of flavors..." Creeping with his tail up high, next to the spot his uncle lays, he reaches into his large brown knapsack to yank out both remaining canteens. When filling the first canteen a little color escapes from inside of the bottle.

“Water…?” he questions. After filling both to the rim, he twists the lids as tight as his little hands can, spilling a bit onto his shirt as the wind presses against him. He turns his face towards Jahru, giving him a big sideways smile. He sees that the big lug has drifted off to sleep-land. He tiptoes and places Uncle’s canteen back in its exact position but leaves his own out on the ground next to the big water pool.

With his sharp little fingers, he deactivates his Dahzenku orb and sets it beside his uncle before stretching a backbend with a big yawn. He can feel the wild-gust, embracing him as it blows through his untamed hair. The air is very humid, yet still breezy in these parts, making his shirt stick to himself. The youngster removes his boots followed by his tunic before easing his body into the calm aqua, swaying his tail back and forth as he soothes his butt down into the cool water.

Ahh, good water. The temperature is so right out here in the jungle.

“Whoa... ” he jolts up, snapping a tree-branch into two with his big head, "What is that!?" In the corner of his eye something passes close by his cheek, very precise and quickly, almost as if to tease him. Was it a living thing, or something from nature, maybe energy? He stands up in the shallowest water and looks around his body, but whatever it was, it is gone now. He shrugs his shoulders and dips his tired body back down into the cool aqua, with only his nose and ears above the water.

It appeared like a small glowing beacon of light, like back in the dark shady woods. It couldn’t have been a water orb because they float only up and down only --- and slowly at that. Even the ones in different directions are all above the ground though, and not inside the water. I mean, you can’t feel other water inside of water... I think…

The forest finds it funny... playing tricks on a little beast again. Peddling his feet back, he lays in the water, this time floating and closing his eyes. The relaxed boy can feel the cool mist raining down on his shiny torso. He rubs his hand on his belly as he drifts along as drops of dew land across his cheeks, and the smell of the grassy forest, along with a light floral perfume, enters his nose, twitching his ear, as he enjoys every breath of the cool air from the wind.

It's the little things. His ears perk sideward as a chuckle gleams far from inside the far-out jungle. Leaves and berries fall from the treetops all around, one straight into his throat as he chokes it up into his mouth. He begins to chew as his eyes open wide, “Uh, yummy!?”

Hmmm? Curious Oahron moves into the pond a little deeper as the long underwater grass gently glides across his toes. This grass is all tall and tickly, still a lot better than the feeling of murky dirt-mud water!

“Oh well then, mister forest. I guess, nothing strange here after all?” With eyelids again sealing shut, he continues to peek out of a single eye to glance around. His left ear perks again as a zipping sound braises by with a zoom! Eyes jolt open wide, along with his mouth about to speak, as he hears it again nearby.

This time for sure something has topped over my head; what could do that!? A small girly laugh breaks the soon-to-end silence, and he tosses his body around like a cheetah with his paws waving in air. It is taunting him, whatever this thing may be.

“Can the trees talk out here, mister forest? Or misses forest? It is not my uncle, I know,” Oahron grumbles with tilted eyes. “Yeah, that is for sure... Uncle is still asleep over there…" he points with a single hand. "I see him under the leaves of your big tree.” He peeks around with his tail up high and his bare butt out the water, but sees nothing except a few branches falling, just floating along, some with bugs canoeing on the leaves. Perking up his interest, he follows them right into the deepest parts of the pond.

“Who is out there!?” the curious lad shouts as the bugs fall into the water. “Is anybody out here with me?” he screams aloud as he fishes out the drowning insects back onto their leafy boats. “Are you talking, mister bugs?” he asserts as they scramble away from his giant face. His uncle starts tossing and turning in the background as the brute of a man grumbles like a bear in war. In a flash of light, some odd thingy zips by his ears. A tiny sprite flies under his arm and tickles Oahron’s backside quickly with its tiny feet and wings as the trickster reveals herself within her own playground.

“He-he, hey!?” he giggles, swinging his torso fast with his fingertips grabbing towards its wings. *Splash!*

Oahron plops face forward into the water, missing catching the little bugger at every try, “Ah now, come on! Come on, thingy!” The weird little fairy-creature dives into the pond and under the boy taunting him upon tickling at every spot she can jolt to. I don’t know if she’s innocent or simply curious at this strange creature inside her forest pond. She will not leave the child alone as she flaps around like a missile with tiny wings, attacking at that big ol' giant! But he can hear a tiny laugh, knowing that likely she is not trying to slay him dead or anything mean like that.

Reaching down as if to touch his toes, he submerges --- head and arms underwater close to his feet with his bum up in the air. His fingers tickle the tiny creature’s back, making her wings flap faster as glittery sparks cover his face. He attempts to catch her like a firefly in a jar but, like a sprite, she is just too fast. She pops up with a splash behind him! Water sprays into his eyes as he turns about. He tries to wipe them dry with his wet arm, but only makes his vision worse as they tear up and she continues to laugh at him.

“Hey!” she shouts, a bit squeaky. “You know that tickled,” she now grunts. “I am a lady, after all!” The wide-eyed kid stares at her and grins as she hovers in place as he readjusts his eyes.

“A lady?” he starts off. “Like my mom? You are a fairy, aren’t you?” he questions with a chuckle.

“No!” she asserts with sass. “I am a pixie, a lady pixie at that.” This feels like a pretty strange encounter, even for a Zenroe.

“Oh? Well, I am Oahron! Your hair is long and pretty.”

Her little pale cheeks turn a glowing red, “Aww, well, I am Magenta! Come on now, follow me to a place you've never seen!” In an instant she glides away with sparkles of water spraying off of her wings into the thick jungle-like forest like in a movie.

Oahron in a heartbeat, leaps up from the waters, “Magenta...?”, grabs his clothing in a zip as he is still dripping, and chasing the little thing, almost falls to his face as he begins to pull his slacks over his leg. He leaves his Dahzenku orb behind with Uncle, not wanting it to get wet or damaged in all these wetlands. He ducks and jolts with speed avoiding the hard lumber around him, stumbling to catch his footing.

Boy, she is fast!

“Come on!” she squeals, waving her petite little hands. Oahron, breathing hard, speaks nothing, trying to fixate on her violet-colored sparkle trail.

“Now keep up here, silly silly boy,” she taunts with a smirk. With his pants over his knees, he is able to pick up speed.

“Where are you taking me, pixie lady?” he shouts as his wet clothes swash. Short on breath he stumbles next to a large brown tree that is covered in vines from top to bottom like a mop. The boy and pixie have not gotten far, but the unnaturally rugged terrain wears a Zenroe out in an instant. It is much thicker than the forests around Koru, or Magenta's bush, where she lives, and the air is much more humid and thicker. The little fairy has now left him completely out of sight.

“Magenta!” the young Zenroe calls numerous times as his arms reach all around him. “Where did you go!?” He keeps waddling forward along the tall grass but constantly runs into that same darn tree. But what is this in front of his eyes… a red shiny ball of some sort, small, and is glowing around the tree’s top?

Urgh! I passed this up already. Am I going to have to climb this darn thing after all? I am going to be in so much trouble with Uncle.

“Magenta, are you way way way up there? Is that you!?” he echoes with his little hands cupped around his lips. The glowing sphere swoops at the boy within a whistle of wind, then disappears leaving a mischievous laugh echoing across the treetops. Catching his breath, the boy pulls his way upward to follow wherever that thing may have traveled off to.

It takes less than ten minutes of time to get up high on the big tree. Oahron glances at his fingers as they blister against the hard bumps. Another small hole in a tree, how convenient… “No squirrelly creatures this time though. Urgh now, come on…” he murmurs with downcast eyes.

“Oh, no... no... no... Uncle Jahru is going to hurt me real real bad this time again if I am gone when he wakes up from the dream world.” Gazing his large orange pools into the tree-opening, the kid sees nothing but emptiness. This rounded hole might actually fit Oahron’s whole head; now there's an idea! Moving his head close, another glowing orb dashes forward fast --- almost into his forehead! It is a bright yellow one, shining against the boy's eyes like a flaming fire, he sees a flash of himself bigger and larger in the future, holding up but five fingers. It makes a quick pull northbound, and then disappears into the clouds like a flying spaceship.

So very strange, this seems like something said from the great foreseer from the human world named Yehzeek. The kid looks up for only a moment and then back into the hole. His hands tremble a little, knowing that another one of those things might spring out, therefore, he creeps his head in with great caution.

“Mu...Magenta...” he whispers as he peeks in like a slug. Heavy echoes of laughter bounce throughout the dark hollow. The sound dives downward continuously down, down, down into the deep nothingness. These surely are not ordinary orbs below. Oahron eyes can barely adjust even into the paler darkness in all its rings and shades of dark and darker color…

Gaining their sizzling spark, pixie orbs float from all directions brightening the darkness. Some of them seem too far in the distance to be in such a narrow twisted tree --- it is strange, yet in a way, charming as their wings hum a pleasant buzzing melody. Forcing his arms forward into the bark he places his hands against his mouth, cupped like a microphone. He feels like a silly old bear half-way stuck in a tree. This tree feels like a portal to a massive darkened dimension far below himself as his head feels dizzy and he hangs with a churning upset feeling deep inside his tummy.

Upon a plan to shout, the tree transforms, becoming as slippery as slime, and the little Zenroe boy loses all balance and plummets into a long long drop far down into deep nothingness! The surroundings feel like another world as his body shakes from the winds pushing against him at all angles, feeling like it is compressing and then stretching his body. His heart is thumping, and he can hear it in his ears --- a long buzzing sound of a sizzling flame all around him. He can no longer only feel but also see the air passing through his chest. White winds glow against him as it consumes his body and he spins and is wrapped up tightly like a cocoon.

His head itself now feels hollow, like emptiness has been created where no emptiness could ever exist before. Everything turns black within the sound darkness of nothingness as it becomes tangible in its own strange way. Even as a child, he knows that darkness is simply the absence of light, therefore making this place beyond fearful since it requires something sinister to take away all the light to create such a solid state of darkness of which he can even feel between his fingertips as they tremble around it like a twisted web.

“Urgh!” he shrugs his elbows as he sits within the shadows that surround him like a circle of druids. At first glance, the weary boy does not realize that he has even hit bottom. The small lights from before start lingering upon him once again --- their multiple colors of beauty float high in the air, yet feel even closer as they reflect warmth against his skin amidst the cool breeze. The kid shakes his head and takes hold of reality as best as he can, releasing the web from between his fingers, but none of it makes any sense.

“Whoa! These are… so beautiful,” the child whimpers in the wind as if not to upset their pattern. The orbs do change. They become smaller, and at the same time, much brighter... They glide up higher and higher into the dark horizon high above himself with the echo of a rumble.

Oahron’s eyes widen as the lights explode in a great shatter across the perceived sky, collapsing within this unseen world by merely a small voice in the distance! Pebble-sized white sparks rein down from the heights as light expands farther within the darkness beyond him. The boy can feel the heat upon his cheeks as the sparks sizzle like glorious fireworks of a cool new-year’s night --- like a night when you’re lying next to your pals atop a small green hill in an empty park as the meteors zoom by. It is eerie, yet strangely beautiful in this hollow place alone.

“Where am I?” he questions somberly in the echoing rooms of his mind. “This place is strange, and my family is not in here. How did I get to this dark place with all the colors of the light? This isn’t the same world Uncle is in, is it?” The echoing room is now engulfed by multicolored shines from the big bang as he speaks, making resemblance of a village. While still dark, the lights flicker vibrant colors upon the walls like a fantasy movie gone horror. On and off everything appears, but then… it vanishes again, and he is sitting all alone.

An entire village in such a regular tree, did I shrink small? Am I still alive? Is this the place I go after I die, like Uncle tried to tell me? Small wooden pyramid-shaped structures (that first appeared as shrines) circle around him in the middle of a heavy fluorescent stone-bricked road as his words seem to form life. There has to be at least thirteen houses. Each home has a long-stalk lantern greeting the left side of its doorway. They all had lit up at the same time of the elucidate explosions in the sky as they flicker on and off into existence. Warm and cool flowers decorate the rooftops and window-seals of each small home --- some with color, and some just dark and grey.

Every door upon every house along the faded road opens at the exact same precise moment, each releasing its own dainty little pixie lady. Different colors and different glows… each with her own beauty --- green and blue, and red and orange. There is no doubt we have left the real world into an uncertain boundless environment beyond a normal existence. Everything is strange, just like a dream for a young trekker, except without a wolf companion beside him to tug along at his hand.

Ohhh... hmmm… Well I did doze off at the pond back there. Is this place really for real now? This strange region beyond the realm is quite cultic in its stature of harmony. All the pixies float simultaneously to form a wide circle around the big-eyed child as he sits upon his rear-end with his tail flopping upon the dark-grey grass. He follows them with wide and friendly eyes as he slowly backs up as they flutter closer towards his nose.

“Uh… hello there,” the little guy stutters, a bit dazed from all the settling chaos. His head is still light, and the scent of flower-perfumes and chemicals make him feel like there is some form of laughing-mist burrowing itself deep into his brain.

“Do any of you know a fairy-pixie named Magenta?”

“I have one of those,” one of the pixies smirks in a chuckle as she glances around.

“…?”

They all halt and gaze the odd boy-creature with downward heavy sideways grins. He swallows nervously as they all stare and begin to smell him, lifting his arms and examining his figure. A small yellow sprite flies up to his eyes, “Magenta? What business do you have with her? Have you scheduled an appointment today?”

“Well she…” he starts with a stutter.

“Yeah, why do you want her?” another interrupts rudely.

“Well…”

“No pixies here in Fairy Village as far as I can see!” a little woman squeals.

“Do you see any?” another sprite bursts to him with a side-swaying wrist.

Taking a breath, he starts again, “She led me here,” he explains softly as his hands tremble by his side.

“Well that is typical” the red sprite stops the boy from speaking --- running her little fingers over his lips like a harp as he can taste her berry-flavored skin pressing against his face as his stomach grumbles.

“Pixies are full of mischief,” one groans and gripes, “and that is all there is to it.” Standing with her chest out, a little fairy follows the little Zenroe at eye level as if he is a giant that is soaring atop a mounted palace in the sky. She looks at him, up and down, enjoying the maturity of his Zenroe stance and stature. Taking a minute to think, he realizes there must be some big difference between the two: pixies and fairies and all.

“All you little thingies don’t look any different,” he says to the tiny lady, quite puzzled. “You know, the pixies and the fairies?”

“Don’t look any different!?” she bursts aloud as her skin-tone turns red. “Of course we are different!”

“What nonsense is that!?” another one growls, spitting upon the dirt patch below the sparkling flowers as they fade back down into darkness under a mat.

“No!” Oahron interrupts, shaking his palms as the creatures dodge his large fingers. “I didn’t mean like that... you don’t… look any different…” He pauses as they sharply wait for an answer with the harsh glare of many eyes against him. “I just mean I can…” he begins with caution.

“Can? Can’t what?” she growls like a wildebeest. “I can read you just like a book here little mister, every one of your smelly butt pages.”

“There is not any not-respect, miss fairy person. I just mean I… umm… well... cannot see a big difference [if one exists], that is all. Is that wrong? There really is not that much of a difference in all of us at all either!”

“No difference?” a little lady gasps, the others cease to chuckle.

“I don’t think he is playing with us.”

“How can there be no difference,” a smaller fairy squeaks. “They are pixies; we are fairies! See!?”

“Those mischievous little sprites are nowhere near our kind!” one to Oahron’s side responds as she pokes him in the rib with a wand, seemingly intelligent, not angry, using her hands in explanation. “A typical human to not know the difference! Right?”

These things are really strange, the boy considers. He feels like he is in a dwarf village, and all these little ladies just keep talking, and all at once; it is very overwhelming.

“Fairies are pure and beautiful with a vital wingspan, while pixies are tiny deviant little… little... little... IMPS WITH WINGS!”

“We do not trust them, nor should you, okay now!?”

“B…but,” the innocent child starts again. “Magenta is nice and she is my new friend since my wolf isn't here!”

“Friend?” a littler sprite hisses. “She tickled you and played you as a fool. Yes, played you as a fool! She is not your ‘friend’ as you so call her in your big words you use. That was a lie so she could get what she wanted from you --- just like we would want if we were bad too.”

“But what does that…” he starts off… A little saddened, but it all makes sense now, maybe she did deceive him, but how do they know all this, again he ponders. Maybe she lured me out here just to get lost, to make a fool of me in front of all the smart creatures of the forest like these lady-people who built this beautiful village inside a big tree. That would take a real smart brain in a little pixie to do that.

“Quiet in your head. There-there sad son... It has been a rough day, would you like some tea sweetie?” a small red-cheeked fairy of older age smiles upon him, flying from one of the small little houses with a tiny tray of the smallest round baked treats and warm glass of Chai. He could hear her speaking before she even neared him.

“Take one, my dear," she insists with tilted puffy eyes towards how the other fairies treated him, glancing their way meanly, then back at him. "Do not be shy now, you large little one.” Many ladies fly away. He smiles childishly as he reaches onto the tiny ceramic plate trying not to knock everything off with his big fingertips.

“Treats like this don’t exist on Zenron, son,” she tells him proudly. “Using a little fairy dust,” she giggles with much exaggeration, “can bring you gifts from all the worlds, even those of the human.” After biting into one, he grabs another quickly!

“These are so yummy! Oh good gosh, it is hard to believe the goodness of their taste! This is what humans eat!?” he asks as the little lady grins a sideward smirk.

Before realizing it, the boy rudely piles his hands, finishing the whole plate and washes it down with an unholy slurp of the foreign tea-type drink. The dark horizon flashes a bright violet code. A purple light races far in the distant sky towards the mystified village, railing its way down the remote ends of the floating roads. Smokey white clouds pile up, coming from the ground behind it all as everything shakes and moves around the boy.

It feels like the sky never ends in this place, surrounded by everything so mysteriously. Which of this place is solid, and which of it is merely seen? Oahron’s fingers unleash the white tea-glass, and he falls slowly to the ground with heavy eyes as the world around him turns in slow motion with a hiss of a serpent-sound. The fairies grin menacingly towards each other as they cup hands and huddle closely into a circle.

“Take the child away!” one fairy with fixed slanted eyebrows orders in a heavier voice than before. The houses turn gray and all the lamps turn a blood-red tone as the world around them flickers in and out of existence, along with the child. A squeaky scream echoes in the distance of his mind.