Chapter 3
Sera slowly lowers the hot air balloon, little by little, in case we are somewhere we won’t be able to actually land. I keep my fingers crossed and anxiously bite my nails, waiting and hoping that we can find somewhere safe to set the basket down. Then, all of a sudden the fog dissipates.
Oh my goodness. How much time has passed? The sky, it’s all pink. It looks like the color of the sky when the sun is setting. But the sun is still high in the sky. Maybe it’s just beginning to set. It can’t be that late though, can it?
I look at my watch. It is only 4 p.m. Now that’s just weird.
“What’s with the sky Sera? It’s kind of freaking me out.”
“I have no idea, but that’s not the only weird thing going on here.”
”What do you mean?” I lean over the side of the basket and gasp. “What the hell!? The grass, the trees, they‘re not right!”
“I know, I know. It's, well, creepy, but we need to land this balloon now. Then we can figure out what is going on. It looks like there‘s a good spot over there,” she says, pointing towards a field of open grass.
“Good, get us on the ground, now! Then we can try calling your uncle again.” I cross my fingers, hoping that we’ll have reception once we were down on the ground, but I’m not holding my breath. We are in the middle of nowhere. I doubt we’ll have reception.
It seems to be taking us forever to get over to the field. I can’t wait to be on the ground again. Even if the grass is blue. Yes, blue. The leaves on the trees too, all blue. It was awfully pretty though. Weird, but pretty.
Sera finally sets the basket gently on the ground. Nervously, we both climb out and step onto the blue grass. “You know, the grass is almost the same color as your hair,” Sera comments. “How weird is that?”
I stare down at the grass. She is right. It is the same color. I laugh, and reply, “Goodness, it is, isn’t it?”
I pull my cell phone out of my pocket again. Please let there be reception.
“Any luck?” Sera is looking anxiously at me.
“Sadly, no. Go figure.” We both know it was a long shot. “Now what are we going to do? ‘Cause I’m all
out of ideas.”
“Umm… I don't know. There has to be a house somewhere, right? We can try to find one and use their phone, like you said. What else can we really do?”
She is right. There isn’t much else we can do. Not that I want to spend hours trying to find a house out here. But what choice do we really have? We are lost.
Sera decides that it is best if we don’t leave our stuff in the balloon basket. Just in case someone were to happen upon it while we are gone, she doesn’t want our stuff to get stolen. I agree that it is a good idea. We take everything that we can carry and leave the things we can live without. In less than ten minutes we have the blankets and leftover food shoved into Sera’s backpack.
“Which direction should we go?” I wonder aloud.
“Does it really matter Ava?” Sera quips.
“Well, no, but we should try heading back towards town. It would help if we knew where we are, so we’d know which way to go.” Truth was, we don’t know where we are anymore. We had gotten so turned around in that fog, who knows where we have drifted to? It isn’t turning out to be such a great day. There is no way that we are going to make it home in time to go to Evan’s concert now.
He’s going to think I ditched him. This isn’t going to look good for me. I’m so screwed. He’ll never want to date me now. He’ll think I don’t care. But I do, I really do. Oh Evan, please don’t hate me.
We decide to keep heading in the direction we had taken the balloon to get to the field, just for the sake of picking a direction. We also decide that if we haven’t found anything within an hour, we’ll turn around and head back. So we take off, ambling over the indigo grass.
Wherever it is that we are, it is a remarkable place. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. The sky is a beautiful shade of bubble gum pink. The clouds, though there are very few of them are pastel yellow. The sun, which isn’t even close to setting yet, looks a strange shade of orange-ish yellow. Wherever we are, everything sure looks different.
Even the trees, flowers, and soil are weird. There are indigo leaves on all of the trees, which have silver trunks. Oh, how they shine in the sunlight! It is beautiful. The flowers look like gems. The soil, as near as I can tell, looks like gold, though I’m not getting down on the ground to inspect further. There is still no way I am going to get dirty.
I start to wonder where it is that we are, because this just can’t be home.
A science experiment gone horribly wrong? A hallucination? But both of us hallucinating the same thing? That just doesn‘t make sense.. It could be that we‘re... Naw, that’s impossible.
We continue to walk along in silence for quite some time, mostly just taking everything in. Just when I think it is hopeless and am about to tell Sera that maybe we should head back to the balloon, we happen upon a sign.
Well, it is a bit crude, but a sign nonetheless. It is obviously a stripped tree branch because it is silver, stuck in the golden dirt. There is another piece of wood formed into a wooden plank hanging from the top of the tree branch. Carved into the plank are the words ‘Indigo Palace,’ with an arrow pointing in the direction we are already headed.
“Indigo Palace,” we say in unison, somewhere between a statement and a question. Neither one of us knows what it means, but we both know that there is no such thing as the Indigo Palace where we are from.
“I wish we knew how far away this palace is. It’s starting to get dark. I’m getting tired, and hungry. Not that we have any shelter or much food left,” Sera says, being the worry wart that she is.
I have to agree with her. I am getting worn out and hungry too. I sure hope it isn’t much further, but we can’t see anything up ahead. Certainly not a palace. You would think you’d be able to see that from some distance away, right? So we have to assume that it is still a long way off. It is now getting dark. I start to worry.
What are we going to do? Sleep outside? In the wilderness? There could be wild animals, wolves or bears or something. They’ll eat us alive.
“Maybe we should find some sort of shelter. What do you think, Sera?” I ask, in hopes that we can find somewhere safe to sleep.
“Where are we going to find shelter out here? All we’ve seen is trees. No caves or anything. And it’s not like we have a tent we can pitch. I’m not too keen on sleeping out in the open. Lord knows what’s out here.” She’s right.
“Well, we can take turns sleeping. You know, like in shifts or something. I know we won’t get as much sleep that way, but it’s safer than if both of us sleep and end up getting attacked or killed or who knows what else,” I suggest.
I shudder at the thought of being attacked by a wild animal.
We decide that’s what we’ll do, sleep in shifts. We find a spot that we think will keep us well hidden, on the off chance people might stumble upon us. We lay one of the blankets on the ground. We sit down and eat just a little, since we don’t have much food left. The chances of finding anything edible out here are slim to none, which sucks, because my stomach is growling like crazy. Rationing isn’t something I think my body is capable of, but it will be better than starving to death somewhere down the road. I don’t want to even think about that at the moment. I contemplate asking Sera if she has any matches or a lighter, so we can have a fire, but do I really want to burn that gorgeous silver wood? It almost seems wrong, you know? I opt against it, at least for tonight. A fire might attract unwanted attention. We don’t need that.
Being the good friend that I am, I let Sera sleep first and take the first shift standing guard. I tell Sera I will wake her in a few hours to trade. It is full dark now, so I pull my cell phone out for light. I don’t have anything else to do, so I mes
s around with it for a while, but it doesn’t really hold my attention. I anxiously scan the area, looking and listening, in case something has found us. A breeze blows through, causing me to shiver, so I pull the hood up on my hoodie and tie it tight, trying to find even just a little bit of warmth.
I really hope nothing finds us. I’m not nearly as brave as I pretend to be. Sera is so much better at that than I am. She’s the strong one, the outdoorsy type. And me? I’m the city girl. I don’t do camping. I don’t do hiking. And now, I have to do both, all in one day. Why me? Oh, shit! What was that? Maybe I’m hearing things? Please, oh, please let it just be my imagination.
No such luck though. First, it is the sound of a tree branch snapping. Then the sound of hooves, and then voices. Yes, voices.
I better wake Sera up, before they find
In a Fantasy World
Yvonne K. Anderson
In a fantasy world
everything is twisted.
Everything is magical
adventurous and wonderous.
You never know who you'll meet
what creatures you'll see.
In a fantasy world
your wildest dreams
become reality.
In a fantasy world
nightmares follow you
stalk you in the shadows.
In a fantasy world
you will have many adventures
winding paths
and dangerous foes.
A fantasy world though
only exists in your mind
and in books.
Acknoledgements
By Bree Vanderland
First, there are so many people to thank, but in this edition, I would like to thank everyone from the Facebook group “Writers Aroundthe World” for participating and helping this anthology possible. We hope to continue with the monthly themes for your enjoyment!
Thank you!
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