Insane World

  • Thread starter Lady of the Dragons
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Jaylee remembered the birds. They often flew in the skies over the lands, their large wings almost blotting out the sun. They could easily fly them over the river. But she didn't know how to summon them. Hopefully Mira would know.

"Hello." Jaylee greeted. "All right, we should go know."

------------------

The Weeping River was an expanse of water that ran through and divided the river from the Bloodlands. Many hands were already rising above the water and waving around, groping at the air. Jaylee stepped back, fearful of the being grabbed. She knew that if she was caught by the hands, they would drag her down and cling onto her body until there was nothing left to hold.

"Mira..." She murmured, worried. "Be careful, please."
 
Mira nodded to Jaylee. "Don't worry," she said. She turned to her brothers. "Do you know how to summon them?" Mira asked, gesturing to the birds.

One of her brothers nodded. "We have to wait for them to land, then we must simply ask for a ride," he replied, looking up. "But... These creatures hardly ever land."

Mira looked to her feet thoughtfully. They would have to figure out when the creatures would land. "They have to come down when they eat," she muttered to herself. She looked up at Jaylee. "Madame, do you know what the birds eat?"
 
Jaylee nodded. "Yes...They eat those six-legged creatures. And sometimes the fish...things in this river, but the fish things are almost always near the bottom of the river. That's too deep for the birds."

Then Jaylee got an idea. She quickly picked up a rock and chucked it far as she could. It flew through the air in an arc before plunging into the water's surface. The hands drew away from the rock, though three monstrous-looking fish quickly swam up to the surface to attack the intruder. They bit and lunged at the object, trying to tear it apart. Seeing it was only a rock, the two biggest ones turned on the smallest and quickly tore it to shreds. The chunks of the fish floated to the surface, staining the water red.

"That should get their attention...I think." She spoke quietly.
 
"Good thinking," Mira said, smiling slightly. She looked up as the bird-creatures screeched and slowly began spiraling down. They circled around the water for a while before, finally, they began picking up the pieces of the fish.

One flew to shore to eat. One of Mira's brothers walked over quietly. "Mind giving us a ride across?" he asked the creature.

The creature looked up at him, then tilted its head to the side. "Why, of course. But, you do realize that you will have to pay me," it said in a scruffy voice.
 
Jaylee jumped at the sound of its voice. Even though she knew it could talk, it was still unnerving in a way. For so long she had been told this world was nothing more than a dream. An illusion. To see it come to life was shocking to her.

"What?" Her mind was swimming, trying to remember what the bird would want. But the voice was now singing to her and she found her thoughts were less organized. She blinked, trying to force the voice out, but each time she did it simply sang more sweetly and louder, piercing her toughest thoughts with its melody.

Hmmm, child. You are surprised by your own world. Created from your insanity...

Jaylee simply ignored it, trying to think once more. She wasn't insane.

Child...I can give you answers you've wanted.

Jaylee ignored it again. She didn't need answers. Answers to what? She had no questions. "What do you want us to pay you?" She finally asked, not being able to concentrate with the voice probing her mind.

Remember?

Suddenly Jaylee was a little girl again, watching the blood seep out of her parents body like water filtering through her fingers. It stained the carpet red, making everything have an iron smell. Then she looked up...and saw a bright smile. It was white, contrasting with the darkness that surrounded it. There were no eyes or noses or ears or hair...just a ghostly white smile, beaming down at her. The grin, it was so vivid, so warm but so cold at the same time.

"NO NO!" Jaylee suddenly screamed. "STOP IT!" She beat at her head, trying to get the image out. The image she had driven by creating her world.

Don't you wish to know? Escape your insanity?

"NO, THERE'S NOTHING TO ESCAPE FROM!" She screamed louder at the red sky, trying to get the voice to do her bidding. "I'M NOT INSANE! MY WORLD IS REAL!"
 
Mira and the others flickered for a moment as Jaylee screamed, like the flame of a candle threatening to go out. Mira placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "It's okay," she soothed, "When we get to the castle, everything will be fine."

The creature made a growling sound, shifting his wings to bring attention back to him. "About my payment," it said.

They turned back, Mira still with her hand on Jaylee's shoulder. "What do you want?" she asked.

"Nothing much but..." the creature made a laughing sound. "It is a custom for us to ask this when we do someone a favor. The debt you must pay to cross the river is, one of you must give your life to me."
 
Jaylee took a few deep breaths and felt the presence of the voice melt away. Slowly, she began to feel more relaxed.

"Okay..." Jaylee sighed. "Okay.

At the cost of crossing the river, Jaylee became shocked. A life? To cross the river? She didn't want anyone to die just so she could get to the castle. She quickly turned to Mira. "Is there...another way of crossing? Maybe?" She quickly leafed through her mind in order to think of another way to cross the river.
 
"Not that I know of," Mira said thoughtfully. She sighed and looked around. Meanwhile, the great bird chuckled in its gruffy voice.

"There's no other way," one of Mira's brothers said.

Mira turned to him. "There has to be!" she half-shouted. While they argued, the beast chuckled again, but said nothing. Mira ignored it and thought. "There's a... Bridge, is there not?" she asked the bird, turning to him.
 
(Aaagh, sorry for late replies x_x)

Jaylee, in frustration, threw a rock at the Hands reaching up towards the surface. The Hands drew back and began to flail around the assaulting object, trying to grab onto it and rip it into shreds. But they weren't able to, since it was...well, rock. Suddenly, Jaylee got an idea.

"I wonder..." she said slowly. "If we could make a boat out of a material that can't be ripped?"
 
((it's okay ^^))

"That's a fantastic idea," one of Mira's brothers said. "But from what?"

Mira nodded and looked down. "It can't be from rocks, it'll sink immediately," she joked. "But aren't there some leaves in the forest that are really solid and can't be torn?"
 
Jaylee turned towards where the Dark Forest was. Most of the trees didn't have leaves...but she thought she saw a leaf or two on some of the trees. Anyways, it was worth trying, seeing as they had to choose between killing one of their group members or swimming across the river. Both would get at least one of them killed. Jaylee began to walk towards the Dark Forest again, though she was scared of the creatures, she still had the sword Mira had given her.

Slowing down a bit, Jaylee walked besides Mira and whispered to her quietly. "May I ask you something?" She paused, then continued even more quiet. "When the therapists in the other world were talking to me and telling me how my world wasn't real...were you there? Here? Listening?"
 
Mira nodded. "Yes," she replied quietly. "We all heard it." She gestured to her brothers and two the bird-creature, who was now flying off again. Her brothers were already pulling off the few leaves that there were on the tree.
 
Jaylee walked around, listening for any creatures that might try and harm them. When she heard nothing, she thought about Jaylee's answer. So, they were listening to all of the nice men and women from a "special place" that always told her the same thing. Your world doesn't exist. It's just imagination and you need to realize that. Jaylee always nodded and pretended to understand, all while grimacing inside at the idiotic nature of the therapists. They're just blind and don't know how to see what's beyond their understanding. Humans were all like that. If you don't understand it, it must be bad or stupid. That's what she was always looked upon as. An idiot because she understood things other couldn't.

She wondered how it felt to Mira and the others, constantly hearing that they weren't real. Jaylee almost asked but for some reason, it didn't feel right.

"The therapists were all idiots." She said angrily, kicking a large hole in the ground. "They just don't understand me. No one in that other world does. They think I'm a freak. I hate it. Sometimes I wondered what death would feel like. I used to think that if I died, I'd come here. Sometimes I wish death would come and take me. But...I'm here now. Maybe I could tell everyone that you're real. Then they would stop saying I'm insane."

Jaylee swung the sword a little, pretending one of her therapists was right in the blade's path. "Because I'm not."
 
Mira smiled a little as Jaylee swung the sword. "Wouldn't it be nice if you could bring all those people here and let them be eaten by the creatures they thought didn't exist?"

She shook her head. "No, but Jaylee, you shouldn't be too mad at them. It's not their fault they can't see what you see."
 
Jaylee began to draw in the ground with the tip of her sword, drawing the castle she wanted to reach so bad. "Yes...that would be nice..." She murmured gently. It would be nice payback for locking her up in those white rooms for 5 years. At Mira's statement, she turned around, surprised.

"It's...It's not?" She repeated, confused.
 
"No, because they don't realize how naive they're being," she replied. She nodded a little. "They'll realize it soon though," Mira said. "Someday soon."
 
Jaylee thought silently about that for a few moments. What would happen if people realized that she wasn't lying? It definitely would get her out of the asylum...but with a sudden jolt, she realized something. After the asylum, she would have nowhere to go. Her parents were dead, all her other relatives lived somewhere cross the country or across the world...she didn't want to end up in an orphanage. Not after what she had seen in them.

"Mira...do you think I could live here?" Jaylee looked up at her with eyes of a distant forlorn expression. "I have nowhere else to go but here."
 
Mira smiled gently. "Of course you can." She laughed gently. "You'll always have a place here," she assured Jaylee.

Meanwhile, Mira's brothers were tying together a make-shift raft.
 
Jaylee relaxed and smiled. "That's really great! Because even with the monsters...I want to live here. It's better than the other world, anyways."

She then walked over to the brothers, looking at the raft. She tested it by trying to cut it with her sword. Surprisingly, the leaves didn't tear at all. It was like trying to shred iron. "This is great! Now we can cross the river and hopefully not die." Though the idea of crossing a river filled with grasping hands was still a but unnerving to Jaylee.
 
"Don't worry madame," one of Mira's brothers said. "We can smack away any of the hands that try to grasp us." The other brother nodded and smiled encouragingly. They picked up the raft and began heading to the river.

Mira smiled and put a hand on Jaylee's shoulder, starting to follow them.
 
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