Abandoned: New Beginnings

[Archon]

Michael folded hi sarms, not entirely sure what to make of the little display, on one hand he wanted to check if the guy was ok, on the other hand he wanted to go and smack him back into awareness. Was he hallucinating? "You're obviously not fine! What the hell is it?!" Though a little hars his patience was at an end, the last thing they needed on a nearly impossible journey was Zaire having sudden mental induces, the guy just walked into a tree! How the hell would he outrun any barbarians like that? Not to mention he seemed to not even realize where he was for a few moments, Michael was both concerned in a caring and suspicious way.

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

Zaire looked alarmed at the other's shout. He rubbed his head with a hand, massaging it as his headache continued. "I don't know!" He replied hopelessly. "So much happened yesterday, and thinking about what we did, what happened, and what we're going to do is hurting my head." He explained in a not very explaining way. A voice inside of his head seemed to laugh a bit at him, but he ignored it. He looked down. "I'll be fine." He said. "Let's keep going."

 

[Archon]

Michael simply stared as Zaire spoke, he had no idea what he should make of the situation but he was certainly going to be keeping an eye on Zaire, what had happened just then certainly wasn't normal, well... Nothing that had happened had been normal but that was something a little more concerning at the moment. why he didn't know what the problem was further confused Michael, surely he had to feel that something was up? Unfortunately, he gave up on trying to decipher the mans worries, and simply nodded. "Fine. we'll keep going, but wer'e stopping if you start acting like that again..." Michael

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

"...Alright." Zaire finally agreed, beginning to walk once again. What really happened there? He calmly asked himself. He stepped over a branch, watching Michael closely. He didn't want to worry anyone about anything. He really didn't. He gulped down a bout of guilt and continued along the path, keeping his mind calm by focusing on things like the foliage and different sorts of trees they passed. Peace finally entered his mind as he noticed the small portion of the island that still, somehow, seemed to be 'paradise.'

 

[Archon]

Michael walked with Zaire for a few more minutes, he seemed to be on edge still, and Michael couldn't place why... Maybe it was the sudden realization that they had no memory of whatever happened before this? Or, maybe it was the fact that they had both been so close to death multiple times, and suffered terrible injury. Perhaps the poison from the barbaric camp hadn't left his system? Maybe it was having side effects? He didn't know... But he soon stopped thinking about it, as the short trek through the forest led them directly to the Garden of Eden... A large area filled with bright green grass, bird-song and butterflies, the area a direct sun trap, no signs of dangerous wildlife, what seemed to be a clear pool of water... It was beautiful in every aspect... It was paradise. Michael knew that he would have to remember this area, it was too beautiful to not return to. They could literally live here... It just seemed so... Perfect.


"Perhaps... We should make camp here... For a day... Maybe a few..."

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

Dumbfounded at the beauty, Zaire let out a stunned breath. "I agree." He said. "Maybe we could stay here forever..."


The place was completely wondrous, the bright green grass, tweeting birds, and flowers round about. It seemed like the actual paradise on the god-forsaken island. He watched a small rabbit hop right through the clearing, and he smiled. Was he sure he wasn't just hallucinating? He wasn't going crazy again, was he? It truly was beautiful, more captivating than the flowers he had been studying only moments earlier. What he had been using to calm himself was nothing compared to this, and an ecstatic grin smothered his face.


"This... this place is amazing!" Zaire exclaimed.

 

[Archon]

His feet crunched across the beautiful soft grass, his eyes scanning over the enthralling environment, he turned to Zaire, an amazigly bright smile on his face. "Maybe we should stay forever... Amazing... Doesn't do it justice." He admired the nearby trees, each one seemed ancient, each one a relic of a beauty still resistant to the rest of nature. Steadying his steps he walked forward further, and then he spotted a surprising sight...


"Zaire.. There's a tent here, the fire... It's still going." He turned to his friend, Michael's inner-senses ordering him to run, to go, that this was dangerous. Yet at the same time, his body and heart couldn't make him leave, he simply remained in the astonishingly perfect environment, wanting to remain for the rest of his life. His feelings being overwhelmed by comfort. He turned once more, walking towards the tent and fire, drawn to how comfy it appeared.

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

"Are we hallucinating?" Zaire asked, dazed mind unable to do anything other than follow his comrade. "B-but.... it does seem so comforting... nothing does do this justice..."


Zaire let his hands trace the bark of the ancient trees, and he closed his eyes with a smile. It was wonderful. His smile reached the corners of his face as he stood in ecstasy. "Why don't we actually stay here?" He asked, all his normal feelings of paranoia disappeared into nothingness. Nothing except someone dragging him away kicking and screaming would make him leave. The nature captivated him, as he saw plenty of naturally edible plants growing around him. Oh, look... He thought. Another Sheep Sorrel...

 

[Archon]

Michael's heart and soul battled an inner-war, his heart told him to stay, enjoy the beauty, never leave and be at peace... Yet his soul it was there, speaking with a tiny voice. Pleading for him to leave, telling him that danger lingered, that it was all a trap. Yet his mind, did not hear the soul, but heard the heart. And so he didn't leave. "Zaire... The... Tent... I-I think..." He never got to finish his sentence, the overwhelming urge to sleep assaulting his senses, his willpower struggling to remain conscious, his soul's plead becoming slightly louder. He tried to tell Zaire it may be a trap, but the words didn't seem to leave his mouth.

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

"Hm?" Zaire turned around to his friend. "What is it, Michael?" Zaire asked, eyes clouded and hidden deep in the beauty. He stopped walking and looked at the other with concern. "You look tired. We can sleep very soon, don't worry."


Zaire kept a smile on his face as his own set of voices began to speak, yet he ignored them, too blinded by the beauty. It was then the desire to sleep corrupted him, and he scratched his head. "You know, I think we could fall asleep... right... here...." He yawned. It's not like anything could possibly kill us... Zaire thought. This is paradise, and there's no pain in paradise.

 

[Archon]

The muscles in ichael's body ceased to function, his physical control over his body completely gone, yet his mind now regaining full power-to late. He tried to move, tried to run and get them out of here. All of it was too good to be true... And the tent... It seemd far to perfect... hatever resided here was either not human, or a very powerful wizard. The magic was now obvious, the duo had been enchanted. Yet he was too far gone, his eyes collapsing to the sweet look of the comfortable bedroll within the tent, he tried to call out to Zaire once more, yet again no sound left his mouth. Michael's final thoughts were of how they had survived so much... Only to be killed by someone-or something-because of an enchantment. It was then, his consciousless body, collapsed in front of the tent, a deathly peaceful sleep, claiming him.

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

Zaire finally snapped out of it. "Michael?!" He shouted, standing up straighter and dashing over to his friend. The enchantment continued to fight for control of Zaire's body, and he tripped. The mugginess in his mind refused to leave as not a sound could leave his mind either. This place is beautiful... A choir of voices lulled him near sleep. This is paradise... heaven... you can't leave... but who would want to? The clear water is calling you... we're calling you...


Zaire, like his friend, finally succumbed to the deep sleep. How could he have been so blind?

 

[Archon]

Michael finall awakened... And after a few seconds of his eyes and memory re-adapting, his soul sank, he remembered the 'paradise' they stumbled upon, and how they were bewitched by it. Now, what he noticed. Was something that made his skin crawl with terror... This can't have been the same island... Could it?! The trees, they were twisted and bent, forming unatural shapes, their form portraying horror, the branches giving the illusion of claws and though he couldn't see it... He swore they leered over him... Then there was the sky, it wasn't black but... A mix of black and purple, a colour that was not natural to normal earth, much like the trees. Then the alarming matter of the cage, he was in a wooden bamboo cage... It was moving, he tried sitting but his muscles simply couldn't. He felt no pain, but instead a pure loss of control over his own body... Where were they?

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

As Zaire came to, it took him a while before he noticed what surrounded him. He was lying in a cage on his back, a dark sky peering over him. What had happened to where they were before!? Wait, where was Michael? He tried to get up so he could look for his comrade, but his muscles disagreed. He groaned at his helplessness. All he could do was look around at the terrorizing monster trees, twisted forms striking fear into his heart. He didn't even have the capability to feel the pain he had been starting to get used to. All his brain did was recount every moment of stupidity back in the clearing much like the lost Garden of Eden. It was like they had discovered it, and the angels that would guard the sacred place had taken them to a place much like purgatory.

 

[Archon]

Michael tried to speak, but felt a piercing in his mind as he attempted to speak, the pain was great and made him want to scream, then it suddenly subsided, all pain left and he regained complete control over his body and voice, sitting up he panted heavily... And froze, as he noticed what was carrying him. Huge gray skinned humanoids, at least nine feet tall, huge black cloaks wrapped over their heads and down their backs, yet the rest of their skin left mostly bare, with only key clothing their private areas , feet and wrists. Yet he couldn't describe it properly...He could literally feel them speak silently, he heard in a strange language the words they spoke, and their voices... They were deep and ancient, they carried a darkness within. But for some reason, Michaek knew they did not intend to kill him... Why he could not say.

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

Zaire's mind spun around and around as he used one defense he had gotten used to: screaming. But that seemed to prove everything as false, since his voice seemed to have disappeared, leaving nothing but an aching throat. Now even more panicked than before, he struggled, and to his surprise: he could move! He quickly sat up and looked around, pupils dilating when he saw the beasts carrying the cage he now sat in. They spoke hushed words as a whole, but even then he couldn't decipher what they said. Sweat dripped down his face as he couldn't help but fear the cloaked humanoids. He sensed the darkness within them, a small voice in his mind wondering if he might be able to control them.

 

[Archon]

Michael's gaze was immediately drawn to the huge towering totem in the distance, and beside it, wooden walls, torches lit at either side. The flames contorted with blackness, like the sky, they were not red. But black, and purple. He sensed magic here... Since when could he sense magic? Michael did not know, yet he did know he could sense magic. However, his vision was then taken aback as he studied the surroundings more closely, nothing seemed right... Nothing felt real. It felt fake... Almost like, a dream? This was vastly sickening, the realization that he may be in another world hit him hard. This couldn't have been earth. Yet if it was on earth, he still classed it as an other world. Nothing like this was right. The beastly figured, the sky, the trees, the voices, the ground, the totem, the flames... He felt fear be replaced with curiosity... He felt no pain... His injuries were just... Gone? These figures... They healed him? Unless... No, Michael dared not say the other possibility, it may just make him throw up of confusion... Yet it crept into his mind... Was this not his body? Was this a dream-like world?

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

Thoughts of horror crept up Zaire's spine, traveling along his membranes and into his brain. He felt disconnected from himself, very similar to the feeling you have during an OBE, or an Out-of-Body-Experience. He dared look down at himself, and he was surprised to find every scratch, cut, and bruise had disappeared. What the heck? Zaire wondered. This wasn't right. This wasn't normal. Was he on a different plant? A different dimension? He wondered. The possibilities seemed to be endless, and as he continued looking around, his fear slowly began to subside.


This place is just like you... A voice said, sounding like it came from the shadows surrounding the nightmarish trees. An illusion, wrapped in shadows. A place that is never... quite right.


Chills covered his body as the voice finished, the feeling that everything was an illusion overwhelming him. Or... maybe this was a different sort of illusion? Was he trapped in a dream? Unknowing of where he gained the strange knowledge, he lifted his hands up and began to trace the lines with his eyes. He then tried to force one hand through the other with his eyes closed tight. "I am lucid, the world is vivid..." He whispered, but he doubted any voice actually came from his larynx and to sound. He continued to press his fingers through his hand, waiting a few more moments before deciding it wasn't a dream. Inwardly, he believed that his fingers would truly pass through his palm.

 

[Archon]

The gates opened, the beasts carried Michael inside the twisted camp, his questions only getting longer, as the caravans that seemed fashioned as homes were also twisted, in a similar fashion to the trees, everything reeked of strangeness... The residents of the camp, all looked identical ro one another, same skin, sake cloaks, exactly the same sizes... As if this wasn't unnerving, every single one was staring at Michael, each one of them statue-still, and he swore he felt them within his very mind. His gaze looking forward one more, he noticed the throne up ahead, looking at the thing sent a wave of distortion through Michael, the thing - like everything else, was twisted in a horribly unnatural position... Though far worse than everything else... The thing made his mind swim with haziness, once more, he questioned where he was, and why?


Though then he remembered... They had fallen asleep in the 'Garden of Eden'... What if there bodies were still there... Yet this was still very much real, a real place another world, another dimension of reality. But they still were here, just not in a 'physical' form. It seemed bizarre, but the whole environment gave him that impression... However, he was now certain these people did not wish him harm. He didn't understand their language or words, yet they seemed... He could not say... Yet they made him believe no harm would come to the duo.

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

Zaire finally got to see further than the humanoid that had been walking in front of his cage when they dispersed to walk through what seemed to be a camp only seen in nightmares. The people that stood around the mind-bending camp all looked like clones to one another. Zaire gulped, dropping the hands that were trying to prove that he was dreaming. The voice in his head that he was all too used to at this point cackled, finding everything funny. But Zaire saw nothing of this funny. Were they going to hurt them? Kill them? Harm them in any way? The reasoning part of his mind went on. He gulped, watching as a tree seemed to curl in upon itself even further. Nope, nope! There's absolutely no way this can be real! He thought, feeling as if he might lose his sanity once more in the place of twisted bodies, each resembling his mind to a degree.


As they passed by a house that seemed almost upside-down, Zaire attempted to distract himself by searching for Michael. Two people against the craziness instead of one seemed like a good idea.

 

[Archon]

Movement stopped, Michael gulped as the cage was lowered, and the freaky towering 'people' walked towards the cage, each one walking in perfect synchronization, they were humming... The humming got progressively louder each step they took, and soon it began to hurt his mind, as if a high pitched frequency was being pushed through his ears. Yet when he thought he may pass out the footsteps stopped, the sound stopped. And the throne... Moved, the twisted arm rests twisted outwards further, more distortion surging through Michael's very being by simply looking at the thing... Then he noticed. Zaire was not in another cage... Where was Zaire? What did they do to him?! Michael tried to speak but felt the sharp pain from earlier, it was very clear, he would not speak unless they wanted him to speak. Yet, what did they want from him? What could he possibly tell these.... These things! His mind went blank at looking for an answer, such a question could only be answered by them. Hopefully they would answer...

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

Zaire finally got a glimpse of his friend, but it was only for a moment, as they took him a separate route. They entered some sort of frightful castle, passing through the lobby and to wide oak doors. Something of humming began to fill his ears as they continued to walk away from where they had taken Michael, and he gulped, feeling uneasy. It got louder, and louder, and louder! The laughing in his ears seemed to be encouraged by the painful frequency, and the laughing increased. Zaire grabbed his ears and winced as the noise continued, the humanoids continuing to take him down a dark hallway leading elsewhere. A small branch grew at an alarming speed along the wall, following him perfectly. He scratched at his skull, wishing for the nightmare to stop. It was insane! He had no answer that could possibly explain the vexing appearance of everything. Then, at once, the noise stopped.


Zaire warily opened his eyes and took his hands from his ears. They seemed to be coming up to a turn in the dank, smelly hallway.

 

[Archon]

As if out of nowhere, Michael felt himself fall onto the ground, the cage previously holding shattering into a million splinters, he peered up to the surrounding masked-creatures and in a large expulsion of flames, another one appeared directly before him, looking down on him, judging him, weighting his soul, his sins to heroics, he felt this thing invading his mind, examining him. Michael was powerless to do anything, his muscles and mind not responding, he was merely 'aware' as his conscience was violated... Panic built within his system, what did this thing want with him? What was it? Where was he? All previous questions that had been asked, yet still no answers had presented themselves to Michael.

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

As they carried Zaire deeper down the hallway, panic began to etch away at his system. He tried to speak; to resist in some way, but his voice never formed into the bits of inflections and syllables that dared become words. He felt his body come with a sudden shiver when they finally turned the corner, carrying him further and further into castle of horrors. Hands shaking, something inside of him cracked, soon to break altogether. The humanoid creatures continued marching in sync, heading towards a brown splotch at the end of the hallway. Soon enough, he got a better look at the splotch, as it turned out to be dark wooded doors, engraved and designed with swirling lines that seemed to move on their own. They continued to wriggle and squirm as Zaire wondered fearfully what exactly might be next.

 

[Archon]

Michael raised his head the moment the pain stopped, still not understanding anything about the ordeal he had been forced into, he stared at the humanoid creatures around him. "What do you want from me?!" He screamed, more confused than worried at this point, he could only hope Zaire was alive and well, he feared this was a mess of problems that might prove inescapable...


Suddenly, a dark shooting pain shot through his head once more, but this time it was different... The voice spoke English, yet sounded identical to the earlier whispers. Had they needed him to speak to understand him? 'We want nothing. You magi come here.' Michael stared at the many humanoids, bewildered. Magi? What was a magi, he thought as much to the creatures, as for as he knew he was a normal human. Now these things were saying he had been pulled to this twisted impossible place because he wasn't?