The Reaction Diaries

Chapter 2: Far From Home

Such darkness. Pervading, never going away.

That’s the only thing I can remember after going tumbling down into that dark well. I also remember looking up into the face of my feral, demonic attacker, and wondering why the hell I never learned such things existed in boarding school back in California.
God, what I wouldn’t give to be back in Cali. It’s so cold here, and dark. That thing snapped its jaws at me for a while, and I considered attempting to crawl back up, until I realized that there was no sense in risking it. I had no desire to be turned into mincemeat, thank you very much.

Now that I was over the initial hysteria attack, I very slowly staggered to my feet. Might as well get to know the place if I was going to rot here. A quick investigation revealed nothing out of the ordinary, except for perhaps a single notch on the wall. It was round, and jutted out like a doorknob. I couldn’t discern its color or any other characteristics, because of the darkness surrounding me.

After I turned it, something very odd happened. The wall that it was on rose suddenly. It was just like something straight out of Legend of Zelda, which I always used to play as a kid.

It was even darker in there, but what choice did I have? I began walking through the dark tunnel for what could’ve been two hours at the least. I lost track. I started getting scared, for the first time in a while. I was going to die down here. There was nothing to be found as far as the eye could see.

I threw myself onto the ground and began crying. What did I do to deserve this? Was that Miss Delpay lady a witch or something, and cursed me? I wasn’t that mean to her, was I?
Just as I thought this, I noticed something behind me. It was a tiny, faint light. Instantly, I began running towards it, not caring what it was. The space around me was getting more and more cramped. I’d become disoriented from running around for so long, and couldn’t quite tell what way was forwards, backwards, left, or right, but now the walls were closing in gradually and I was more than aware I was moving forwards.

When I finally came to the light, I realized that it was forming the outline of a door! Who would’ve thought? This was quite a weird turn of events, to be certain. I felt around for a knob, and didn’t find one, so I simply kicked and kicked. The door didn’t really budge at all, and I was totally pissed. I dropped to the floor and peered out from underneath, and only saw light and what appeared to be grass. Around me were closed in walls, and I began feeling around until I felt some kind of metallic thing jutting out from the side of the wall. In fact, it almost hit me in the face.
How odd. Was it there before? Anyway, I pulled it with all my might-it was very rusty, and hadn’t been used in a while, apparently- and sure enough, the door cracked open slightly, leaving cobwebs and dust floating in the air when it did. I sneezed several times, and after composing myself, opened the door.

Well, this was a sight. I was apparently in a tiny clearing, surrounded by the greenest woods I’d ever seen in my life on all sides. Now I was out of the cave, and into the, well, woods. I turned around and saw that my estimation was correct: what I’d been traveling in was certainly a barren cave, with darkness in the distance through a cramped path. The air here smelled oddly fragrant, and the sky was more indigo than pure blue, really. Where do I go now?
Forward, of course. I started walking through the woods, which were by far the most pure, most beautiful woods I’d ever been in. Everything was green and vibrant, just like in the movies. It was still cold here, like the middle of November, and I shivered, wrapping my hooded jacket around me.

There were various birds not too unlike ones in our world (*our* world? Why did I say that? Was this really a different world?) but with slight variations. For example, there was a sparrow with a beak like a toucan’s that I’d seen, and a blue bird that had bright yellow spots on its chest. This was the only life I had noticed thus far. My big huge freaking monster friend didn’t follow me here, apparently. That was a relief.

After continuing for some time, I saw a building to the east, through some trees. Ecstatic, I ran towards it, pushing aside all shrubbery as I went. This building, however, was dilapidated. It was a tiny cottage, with an overgrown fenced-in field in front of it that I assumed was some garden of some sort. And in the back was a chicken coop that was falling apart. The cottage itself had vines growing all up and down its side, and the windows were either broken or near-broken. I walked around this cottage, looking for an entrance, and I found a wooden door that was half broken down.

This was probably a quaint little place to live at one time, but now it was no longer quaint and happy. It was falling apart at the seams. Inside the building it was just as fallen apart as the perimeter. There was a kitchen, with a refrigerator and counters and a stove and utensils, and a living room to the right which had some kind of ball-like contraption. A sofa was ripped to shreds but still intact in front of the metallic ball thing, and there was what looked like a hall leading into other rooms to the left. Curious, I began walking through the ripped up tiles and debris that littered the place. One door was what looked like a young girl’s bedroom, totally torn up with a pink bed in the middle and a half-shattered mirror. I walked in cautiously, not wanting to disturb anything. In the mirror was what looked like a yearbook picture of a younger girl. She couldn’t be any more than 13, at the most. Her hair was done up in a tidy bun and she was wearing a checkered dress that looked to be from the 50’s or a similar era. Her closet still had clothes (and mold), along with various figurines and dolls. Disinterested, I left the room and turned down the hall. A bathroom without a door was in front of the girl’s room. I stopped in front of the mirror to fix up my hair, and then continued to a door at the end of the hall.

This room had a double-bed with a blue spread, and a trunk at the foot of the bed. I noticed much of the plaster and wallpaper was ripped off. Why was this house so destroyed? What had happened to its occupants? I knelt down carefully and opened the trunk. It wasn’t easy, and dust flew up in my face after I did so, making me sneeze.

Inside the trunk was an old blue, polka dot dress that was folded neatly up, some shiny green sneakers, and a book with ripped edges on its pages.
Interested, I pried the book open. There was a locket, but it was off and wouldn’t close to lock again. Oh, it was a diary. Even more interesting.

The first page said, “PROPERTY OF MARY SOMMERS.” Maybe she lived here at one time. The writing was old and faded, and in fancy cursive writing, and I had to squint to make out words here and there. It was all uninteresting stuff, actually. I expected there to be something like “OMG IM BEING ATTACKED BY BIG SCARY MONSTERS”, or “WELCOME TO NARNIA” or something else. Not, “Today Mother and I pickled cucumbers we got out of the garden. Something something Aunt Tessa came from Esora today, talked about the musical called ‘Fairies and Airstrikes’, can’t wait to visit her this summer.”
That’s why I jumped fifty feet in the air when I heard that loud “Bawk!”
”Bawk! What are you doing in my houseeee?”
I threw the diary down and jumped to my feet. All the blood rushed to my face and I felt as if I was going to pass out.

“Wh-what? Who’s there?”
I looked around, but couldn’t see anyone near me. Not in the doorway, not behind me, not anywhere.
”Look down, genius! Down at the ground!”
I obeyed, and standing there with her clawed feet on the blue carpet was a rooster. I was so confused.

“Yes, that’s me! Ain’t you ever seen an Aanimal before?”
The way she said it sounded just like “animal”, but with a prolonged “a” sound. It rhymed with the sound in “canine”.

“You can talk?! Holy shit!”

“BAWK!” She flapped her wings madly and started pecking at my feet. That’s when I realized that I only had socks on. All of the excitement, and I had forgotten to put on my shoes.

“Ow! Hey, that hurts!”
”Apologize!”
”I-I’m sorry, I didn’t know, I’m sorry-“
”Bawk! You should be. Now, answer me: why are you here?”
She flapped her wings again impatiently.
”I thought this house was abandoned. I’ve been wandering in the woods for hours, and I hadn’t seen anything else except for this house in the longest time. Sorry if I startled you. Oh, you gave me a huge scare.”
I felt so awkward talking to a rooster like that. The rooster flapped her wings again and jumped up onto the bed. That was slightly better, at least now I didn’t have to look at the ground and talk to an animal.

“You were ‘wandering’ around in the Scandevian Forest? Are you nuts?”

“I think I may be, yes.”
I nodded sadly, and buried my face in my hands. I was exhausted. I just wanted to go home and lay down.

“You-you could’ve gotten yourself killed. Or worse, if it was nightfall. It will be nightfall in about half an hour, speaking of which, and I refuse to let you ‘wander’ around to your doom. Where are you from?”

“Wisconsin.”
”Bless you. Bawk.”
”No, that’s where I’m from. Haven’t you heard of it?”
”I can’t say I have. Is that in Esora? ‘Cause Esora is nearly four hours walk away from here, easily.”

“It’s in America, actually. What’s Esora?”

“Bawk! Esora is the most highly populated province! What’s a matter with you? Poor kid, you must really be crazy. Where is America at? Is it on Kelp Continent? Or some obscure island somewhere?”
My heart sank. Where the hell was I at?
”It’s…on Earth.”
”Where’s that?”
A tear welled up in my eye, and fell to the ground. I never cried, ever. Not since my dog died two years ago, at least. But this was my second crying spell today. This was just too much for me to wrap my mind around today.”
”I don’t know. Oh, God, I just don’t know…”

The rooster looked at me inquisitively.
”You’re leaking. Why you leaking?”

“Crying, actually. It’s ‘cause I’m sad. I don’t know where I’m at, my parents are probably worried about me, and I am just so far from home. I just don’t know anymore. I think I am nuts…”
”There, there… it’s not so bad. I would offer you a cup of tea, but as you can see, this house hasn’t been in proper working condition in several years. Come, let’s go into the sitting room, the couch is somewhat in working order…”
She jumped off the bed and waddled into the room with the sphere thing and the ripped up couch. I sat down on the cushion that wasn’t destroyed, and she perched down next to me.

“What’s your name, anyway?”

“Davey Nestor.”
”Well, Davey Nestor, I am Cluckabell. My family has gone away, as you can see. I haven’t heard from them in ages. Perhaps they’re dead.”
This was a casual observation, as if she were predicting that there may be rain later. I patted her on the back hesitantly, and she looked down.
”It’s quite alright. I just miss having a family to do the housework for. The place was ransacked by ogres a while ago, the brutes, and hasn’t been the same since. I’ve been meaning to leave to go to Esora for almost three years now, ever since the night the house was trashed.”

I nodded, not sure what to say. I looked out the window above the sphere, and noticed movement in the bushes, but didn’t give it a second thought.

“Aren’t you afraid they’ll come back?”
She clucked several times, which I guess was her way of laughing.
”No, probably not. They don’t ransack a place twice, and plus they left the Holo-Sphere in working order, so I get all the latest news from around Kelp Continent. And all my soaps, too. I’m a big fan of All my Elven Offspring.”

She clucked again, and I laughed to be polite. I suppose she was referring to the sphere. I guessed it worked as a television of some sort, but with holograms. Just how advanced was this place? The house itself appeared to be a cottage from long ago, but it certainly had modern technology.

“I came from a cave. I was pushed into a well at my house by a monster, and ended up in the forest. Weird, huh?”
”Well,” she said, after thinking for a while, “you couldn’t have been from this place. This very cottage is only a few miles away from the Edge.”
She shivered as if it was something creepy.
”The Edge?” I repeated.

“The end of this world. Everything just juts off into the Pit of the Never-Ending Darkness from here. Don’t you have an Edge where you are from?”
”No, our world is round.”
”That’s quite curious. I wonder how that works? Do you all fall off the sides?”
”No, gravity holds us down.”
It was utterly surreal explaining this to a…well, alien. Wasn’t that the word for Cluckabell? She certainly wasn’t from Earth, that’s for sure.
”What’s a gravity?”
”Never mind.”

We sat there for a while, not sure what to do. I guess we didn’t have much to say. Many questions, but no way to phrase them. Until Cluckabell spoke suddenly. It was so sudden, it made me jump.
”Bawk! I have an idea. I’ve wanted to go to Esora for quite a while, now. We could head to Onionville, or Trist, or even the Capitol City. Someone will be bound to know you there! What do ya say we head out to Esora?”

“I don’t see why not,” I said. I really didn’t see any reason not to. There was no turning back now. I’d taken way too many turns in that dark cave to possibly find my way back, and I wasn’t even sure if my house would be there for me when I did go back. I had no choice.
”It’s settled, then. To Esora! But, first, you may want some shoes.”
I nodded, looking down at my socks. They were filled with holes now, and ripped up. My poor feet.

“Stay here, bawk.”
She jumped off the couch and waddled into another room. After a while, she returned with the sparkly green shoes. They looked just like Converse did, but without any white.

“Put these on. They are enchanted, given to Mary by a traveling wizard. I don’t know what they did, exactly, but they were her most prized possession.”

“Thank you very much,” I said, slipping them on. My feet tingled as they went on, as if they had suddenly fallen asleep. However, the feeling soon subsided, and they fit my feet perfectly despite looking too small. It was weird, but still cool.

It was like somebody had shut off the lights. Instantly, the sky went from being bright as can be to being pitch dark. I gasped.
”What’s going on?”
”Nightfall.”
”Just like that? It’s not gradual?”
”Why would it be?” she asked, sounding puzzled at the prospect.
”I dunno.”

“Either way, let’s go into the master bedroom. You can sleep in there until morning.”

I followed her into the bedroom, and she nodded her head towards the bed. It looked old and dusty, but still comfortable. I nodded and lay down, letting my head hit the pillow.
”Don’t you ever get cold? It’s freezing in here. I can almost see my own breath.”
”Sometimes. It’s cold everywhere anymore. I’m used to it.”

She was moving around quickly, with a bag in one beak. She left the room and waddled back in, with stacks of something in her beak.
”Here, put these in this backpack. I have about seven hundred ungats saved up,” she said impressively. I had no clue how much that was in USD, but from the way she sounded it was quite a lot.
”Don’t you have to pay bills?”
”Nope. I don’t live in the city.”
”Where does the plumbing and electricity come from, then?”
There was a tiny lamp casting its glow on the otherwise dark room.
”Magic, of course. We had a Home Wizard come and enchant the house. Everyone does that. What, like you don’t have wizards and magic? You guys really must be in the dark ages, huh?”
”I guess…”
How different was this world? I’d find out once I got to this Esora place. It seemed to be fairly heavily populated. Would it be futuristic, almost science fiction-y? Or would it be more of a high fantasy type of place? I guess I’ll just think of that while I fall-
ROARRR.

“Bawk! What the heck was that?”

I bolted upright in the bed, and took a look at the window. It was ajar slightly, and something scampered away as soon as I looked. I could hear it making tracks in the grass.

“Quick! Grab the bag!”
I threw myself out of bed and picked up the backpack, being careful that the money didn’t fall out.

“What was that?!” I asked anxiously, moreso to myself. I could hear a weird clicking noise that seemed to be fairly close, if still off in the distance.

“I’m afraid to ask. In the closet.”
I hurried over to the closet, pushed the door aside, and crept in. The door slid back and I could still see through a tiny little crack in the side. Cluckabell was by me, standing like an automaton in front.

“I don’t ever have any trouble, there were enchantments put on the house to prevent Nightfall beasts from coming in. I hope it didn’t wear off, or we are so cooked…”
”I thought you said-“
”Ogres are day monsters. Nightfall beasts are much, much worse. Some have died from sheer fright wandering through these woods and elsewhere on Kelp Continent at night…”

Something sauntered in after a few minutes. I peeked out cautiously to get a better look. This…thing looked like a lion with wings. It was bright, glowed, and had the face of an eagle. Very majestic looking.

As soon as Cluckabell saw, also, she started shaking. Violently shaking.
She very slowly moved over to my ear, and whispered something to me.
”It’s a sun beast. An agent of the Light. I’ll explain later, but bottom line is we do not want it to find us. Whatever it wants. Understand?”
I nodded numbly. Agent of the Light? Was it looking for…him?

That’s when it turned, and looked me right in the eyes. Oh no. It had eyes that looked like polished diamonds, and bright white angel’s wings. It was beautiful, and looked deadly, with its lion-like golden body.

It walked slowly forward. I didn’t know what to do, and was paralyzed with fear. I flailed my hand to my right, and picked up a can of some sort. As I moved it, I found out it was paint.

I grabbed Cluckabell, swung the closet door open, and sprayed the thing right in the eyes. It roared, and the whole house shook as it stumbled backwards and into a wall. Cluckabell was bawking and flapping her wings angrily in my arms. I grabbed the lamp on the desk and thrust it through the window with all the might I could muster, and did a sort of running jump out of it.
If you asked me later, I would never know how I fit out that window. My body must have contorted in some way to fit. Either way, it gave me an advantage, as the sun beast thing could only get its head out the window. Its once beautiful diamond eyes were surrounded with a ring of green paint, and blood lined them.

The woods weren’t actually as dark as I’d thought. Overhead, there was a huge, red cratered moon, and another smaller one. The red moon took up around 60% of the night sky here, and the other one was about half that sized and eclipsed the bigger one.
The rest of the sky was utterly gorgeous. It was as if someone had taken a jar of stars and glitter and thrown it, and the stars were streaked about in clusters. Earth’s night sky couldn’t even compete. This made it actually slightly brighter, but still very dark.

I ran and I ran, not caring where I was going, and after a while stopped and threw myself against a tree trunk. I looked down at the stinging pain on my leg and noticed I was bleeding. Damn it. It wasn’t that big, just a smaller wound, but it was still obviously there.

“What was…” I panted.

Cluckabell bawked in anger and flew up on top of the back pack.

“That was a griffin. One of the servants of the Dual Gods.”
”The Dual Gods?” I asked, confused.

Cluckabell bawked again, this time very slowly, as if she were sighing.

“The Time God and the Sun God allegedly live in a far-off location, on top of a huge mountain called Mount Loki. They are worshipped by the Light Church, and called the Dual Gods. Once the Church ruled all of Kelp Continent with an iron fist, instituting oppressive and harsh policies as according to the Sun Gospel. They persecuted many minorities and suppressed such knowledge, technology, and magic over the two thousand years we were in superstition and light, labeling those who disagreed as ‘heretics’. The Grey Queen organized an uprising four hundred years ago, and overthrew the churches, setting up herself as the Supreme Ruler. Since then we have advanced a thousand-fold in technology. There are still bigots and backwards idiots, mostly in Quagis to the far East, that follow the Light Church devoutly but if one group or individual gets too powerful or loud they are silenced by the Queen’s Royal Army. We are more blessed by one of our own kind than we are by the dictator Gods, and yet some still worship them. Isn’t that awful?”

“I agree, that is terrible. But why would the Dual Gods want me?”
”I don’t know, but you’re in big trouble if they do. Though they are scared of the Grey Queen, they still have much hold over this land, especially in Quagis as I said. We’re in Greater Scandevia, so I don’t know what one would be doing out here.”
I sighed. Now I pissed off the Gods. Great.

“Sssh,” I said, hushing her down. She stopped moving, and we heard a rustling.

“It’s probably a ghoul or a zombie or something. Oh, great,” Cluckabell said.
Whatever it was, I didn’t want to stick around to see it. I picked up my bag, and went running. After turning to look over my shoulder, I noticed it was the griffin. That was just beautiful.

Pretty soon, it tackled us, and we were on the ground. I was holding its beak, which oddly enough had razor sharp teeth, from snapping at me. It was no use, and I had to move my head to prevent it from biting it off. Cluckabell was pecking at its thick, lion-like legs, but it was no use.

“Hey, bird brains! Look, I’m an Aanimal! Fuck the Gods!”
That got its attention.

“Howww darrreee youu blassssspheeeemmmeee,” it hissed and sounded like a snake when it talked, and it sent shivers down my spine.

I got up, and looked for something, anything, as it turned on Cluckabell.

That’s when I saw him. At first, I wasn’t sure what I was looking at- it was almost fuzzy and out-of-focus. It was a young man, about 18-19, pinned to a tree. His arms and legs were askew, shirtless, beige ripped pants, and no shoes. He had a twelve-pack and greasy black hair, with tattoos and symbols ascribed all over his body. He had to be at least 6 and a half feet tall.

A sword jutted out of his chest. A long, shiny sword. It was my only hope.

I ripped the sword out like a knife cutting through butter, and his scarlet eyes…

They flew open.

“But of the demons, woe! They saith, ‘We have been borne of Darkness, and we shall destroy the Light!’ But of the Sun and Time, they are doubly afraid, for theirs is the Pit, the pit of the everlasting sorrow, which feeds the gnashing and the crying of the Damned. Fall not victim to their lusts, and fall ye not victim to their false promises: for We are the Gods, Sun and Time reign eternal. For in two, all are one.

The ending of the words is SHAOL.” –The Sun’s Gospel