Dreamcatcher [OLD]

Anora slowly opened her eyes, her head pounding. She held her forehead with her hand, sitting up. She looked down on the ground and found herself looking at... tree roots? She spun around, and looked up a huge tree that shot up from the ground, an enormous Oak-like tree with huge leaves that filtered the soft sunlight. She sat up straight and looked around. Was this heaven??

She saw the boy who jumped lying nearby, as if sleeping, on a mossy rock surrounded by mushrooms. Anora clambered over to him as fast as she could and felt his pulse. He was alive...? "Are... are you okay?" She whispered, gently rubbing his arm.

The boy opened his eyes, blinked a few times, then scrambled to sit up. His eyes darted around the forest they were in, and he froze when he saw Anora's worried face near his.

     

"W-who are you??" He managed, scooting farther away from her. She scooted closer.

"My name is Anora. What is yours?" she said, curiously examining him. He had darker skin, and even darker hair, which was a messy mass on the top of his head. His eyes were brown, and fear shone in them.

"Tikaani."

"Woah! That's a cool name."

"...Thanks?"

He looked down at the rock he was on, at the mushrooms, at the ferns and grasses. This forest was so lush and green, not usual for a Virginia November.

"Why... did you jump after me?"

"Because...."

Anora thought hard, but couldn't really explain herself. Why had she jumped? She didn't know him. Couldn't even see him.

"Because I wanted to ...?"

He smiled a pitiful smile. "Why would you want to die? Isn't your life nice and dandy?"

"Uhm, yeah."

"So, why?"

Her bright eyes darted away from his dark ones. She started ripping the grass absentmindedly with shaking fingers.

"I wanted to save you."

"It was way too late! Look where we are now! We're both dead!"

"I thought heaven was in the clouds ?"

"Idiot."

"Why did you want to jump?" Anora whispered.

"None of your business."

"Hey, we're dead, c'mon, you can tell me!"

"No way!"

She pouted, moving on to ripping up a leaf. They sat silently for a few moments, their situation sinking in.

"Wait, actually tho, where are we??" Anora turned to a very spooked Tikaani.

"What did you see??"

"That mushroom moved. By itself. I swear." He pointed to a small mushroom, its stem cream and its top red with white spots. He scooted away, closer to Anora.

"Silly, its a mushroom. You really are crazy. Jumping from a roof, now this.."

"I swear!!"

Just then the mushroom twitched. Both high school students froze, eyes wide, and silently watched it. It started hopping over to them, and it raised its "head" up to look at them, small beady eyes and a huge nose protruding from the stem beneath the top. Other mushrooms hopped over and joined it. They made weird noises like mumbles, and seemed to be talking amongst themselves. Anora grabbed a stick and was ready to poke one.

     

"Idiot! Don't poke it!" Tikaani slapped it out of her hand.

One mushroom, a rather small completely white one with a bite taken out of its top, emerged from within the crowd. It made its way over to Anora and Tikaani, even though the boy was scooting further away.

"Hey little guy!" She whispered, reaching out her hands to the creature. The little thing spat at them with its small mouth and pouted. Anora wiped her hands and pouted as well. "I can't reason with this guy! Get over here, uhhh, Kani?"

"Its Tikaani."

"Whatever."

He grabbed the same stick as before and crawled closer to the mushroom. "What do you want from us? Where are we? What are you? Are we dead? How--" "Don't bombard with questions!" scolded Anora. The mushroom looked at them, its tiny eyes blinking absently, and turned around, hopping back to the rest. They all mumbled together in a huddle."

"What are they doing?"

"Who knows."

"I guess there's not mushroom for us in there."

"Go away."

The mushroom turned around and emerged for a second time from the mass of fungi. It hopped over to the kids and nodded to them, then proceeded to the left, a line of mushrooms behind it. Anora squealed in delight. "We're supposed to follow them!!" Tikaani groaned, but followed anyways.

As they walked through the forest, Anora looked curiously at all the strange plants all around her, at creatures hiding in the bushes. A gecko-lemur scuttled by, sticking out a tongue at Anora. She stuck hers back. A little hedgehog-like mammal ran over and snatched a mushroom from the crowd, stuck it on its back, and scampered off, a miserable wail escaping from the victim. None of the rest noticed, and Anora gulped.

Suddenly the mushroom leader stopped. It gargled out another strange noise, and the hikers waited patiently. Tikaani had been looking at the ground the whole trip. "Are you okay?" Anora asked him, kneeling to look up into his face. "Yeah I'm fine," he huffed, and crossed his hands. Finally another little creature appeared in front of the mushrooms. It was the size of a large cat, and shaped similar to a raccoon, but red as a fox with black stripes. He was a plump little guy, and looked hungrily at the bounty of mushrooms. It made a fox-like barking noise and lay down near the leader, and the mushroom whispered in his ear. Sitting up when the tiny fungi finished, he looked fiercely at the two teens and ran over, biting and pulling at Tikaani's school uniform pants.

     

"Hey!" Tikaani tried to shoo the little thing away. It started off deeper into the forest, looking back at them expectantly. "We're gonna follow him too!!" Anora ran after their new leader. "Bye, mushrooms! You were such fun-gi-s to be around," she winked, the mushroom spat at her, and Tikaani reluctantly followed.

He forest got darker as time went on. "Wow, there's night and day around here! This is so weird," Anora remarked. The creature seemed worried about the dimming light, and ran faster.

They finally arrived at a huge, thick tree. A ladder hung before them, and Anora looked up to see a log cabin high up in the tree. "Where are we??"

Their guide started frantically climbing the tree, barking as he went.

Anora turned to Tikaani.

"Up?"

"I guess."