thrawn
adjective Scot.
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There was something wrong with the trees. Chris had been walking through a nice, normal forest. Now he was not. The trees were bent at odd angles and twisted in weird ways. Some of them had parts that did not seem to match up with the rest of it. The path he had been on was pleasant and straight. Now it twisted and turned at erratic angles and doubled over itself numerous times. This all lead Chris to a single conclusion:
He was not in the same place he had been.
He had no idea how he had been transported to such an odd place, nor did he know exactly when it had happened. All he knew was that, somehow, it had. He turned around and tried to follow the path back in the hopes of returning, but that proved difficult. He swore the path changed every now and then.
He was about to investigate this when he heard something coming through the woods. Not on the path, but among the trees. He froze, unsure of what kind of animal he would be seeing. He was not expecting another person. At least, he thought it was another person. It was definitely humanoid, and most likely female. But she was just as warped and distorted as the trees.
Her skin was made up of several different kinds of skin, all patched together in random ways. Not all of it was human. He saw irregular patches of fur, and some groups of scales. Similarly, her hair was of irregular length and contained a multitude of different colors. Her body was unsettling as well. Her left arm bent backwards, her right knee seemed to be attached at a right angle, and her entire torso was on backwards. She moved with gait as irregular as she was.
She saw him and froze. Her untwisted arm came up and she smiled. Even her teeth were mismatched.
“Goollo.” She said. “Arow oyu dayto? Her voice changed slightly with each word she said. But that was the least of his worries. He had no idea what she was saying. It sounded like she could be using English words, but all mashed up and twisted around. Of course, that probably was what she was saying.
“Uh…hi.” He said, hoping she could at least understand him.
Her eyes went wide and she took in a sharp breath. Chris noticed that her eyes seemed to be the only consistent thing about her. That was nice. She had pretty eyes.
“Oyu unhomixed? Oyu Whompletle?”
“I have no idea what you’re saying. But maybe?”
She broke out in a wide, jagged grin. Chris hoped she was not about to try and eat him. Some of her teeth were definitely from a large carnivore. Instead of chomping down on him though, she let out a sound that was definitely a happy one. She turned and ran in place for a moment before grabbing his hand in her bent left arm. Her palm felt like leather, which did not help the feeling.
“Collow! Collow!” She said, pulling him along.
From the way she was tugging at him, he guessed she wanted to lead him somewhere. Hopefully not to him death. But, she was the only person he had seen in the forest, so she was better than nothing. Besides, she was kind of pretty once one got over the oddities.
Once he was moving, she bounded through the trees. And he was immediately grateful that she was holding onto him. Their path was nonsensical. They passed trees that should not have been anywhere near them. They crossed the path a dozen times from a dozen different angles. He saw rocks that somehow looked inside out, and plants bent at unnatural angles. He felt his head pound as she guided him through the forest.
Suddenly, she stopped. They were in a clearing. A perfectly circular clearing in the trees. The woman bounded through the space in what Chris could only assume was a happy dance. And she was dancing around the only unbent, untwisted thing he had seen so far. A perfectly straight stick in the ground. It was around two inches thick and almost as tall as he was, made of sturdy, smooth wood.
“Puraw ti! Puraw ti! The woman exclaimed. She grabbed the stick and pulled. It did not budge. She motioned him over and pointed to it.
“Okay, you want me to pull this out, right? Don’t know why, but okay.”
He pulled the stick. He felt some resistance, but it came out without much issue. It was then that he saw it was not a stick, but a spear. A good, sturdy spear with a corkscrew head longer than his palm. The woman clapped and cheered in her own way. Then she stood right in front of him and pointed at her chest. Or her back. Chris was not sure which.
“Steirce em, seaple.” She pointed at the spearhead, and then to herself, repeating her twisted request.
“Wait, you want me to stab you?” She nodded vigorously. “No way! I’m not gonna do that.” She pouted and forcefully pointed at where her heart should be. He did not want to kill someone, especially since she apparently knew how to navigate this messed up forest. But she was very insistent. “Okay, fine. But don’t haunt me or anything.”
He had no idea how to use a spear, but this was easy enough. He just pushed it forward until tip met flesh. The spear did exactly what it was designed to do. But there was no blood. Instead, the woman let out a joyous cry and began to change.
Her patchwork skin flowed and melted away, leaving a single color, the ruddy complexion of a Native American. Her hair evened out and became a solid black. Her torso twisted and turned with a bone jarring crunch, until it faced the same direction as her head. Her left arm unbent itself, and her right knee popped into the correct orientation. And he had been right. She was really pretty.
The woman smiled a normal human smile and cheered.
“I’m back!” She said. “I’m not twisted! Thank you so, so much. You have no idea what this means to me.”
She bounded over to him and hugged him. She kept thanking him, not letting him go. He thought he felt something wet drip down the back of his shirt. When she finally let go, she had clearly been crying.
“Sorry about that.” She said. “It’s just been so long since I knew what direction I’m facing. And been able to speak normally.”
“I, uh, I bet. I’m Chris, by the way.”
“Oh, right. I’m…” What came out of her mouth was an unintelligible string of syllables. Her smile faded. “Well, that’s unfortunate.”
“Huh?”
“My name is still twisted. You haven’t unlocked all the spear’s power, so all it was able to restore was my body. And with my name still twisted, that’s temporary.”
“So, you’ll turn back into whatever that was?”
“Eventually, yes. But if I start to get bent out of shape, a quick poke with the spear will set me right pretty quickly.”
“Good to know. So, uh, now that we can have a proper conversation, can you tell me what’s going on?”
“Sure thing. Come on, I’ve got a place to stay not long from here. Once we’re there, I’ll explain as much as I can.”
She took his hand and the two of them started through the forest. Chris still had no idea where he was or how he had gotten there. But now that he had some company, he could deal with it. At least, he hoped so.
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Why is it that so many of my stories here seem like the beginnings of something bigger? I guess that's just my style. Or maybe it's my subconscious mind trying to get me to write something longer. Who knows?
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