The Realmwalkers: Intro Part 3

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The Realmwalkers: Intro Part 3

Jaya huffed as her posture relaxed. For someone like her, seeing magic is pretty rare, and seeing him disappear in a blip was something else to which she would have to become accustomed. She couldn’t help but smirk at the idea of her newfound situation. From the information she was given, this seemed like a lazy job.

After looking around, she lifted her head and closed her eyes as she took a big whiff of the strange, but comforting air. She let out her breath in a relaxing sigh, but her equanimity was interrupted as a large, shiny blue bee buzzed close to her ear. The buzz of its wings was strong enough to lightly tickle her inner ear. She smiled as she watched it land on the purple flower to begin collecting its pollen.

She immediately understood and remembered that these are The Bee Keepers. They collect the pollen from the perennial flowers so that they can continue their cycle. Being a Bee Keeper is the penultimate step to life–the life of one’s spirit. She even understood that the bee was grateful for her presence, feeling safer with her around. It made her feel proud to be The Gladewalker.

Without thinking, she was able to know the location of the glitch, even though she couldn’t see it. It was then that she truly understood her connection to The Glade. When she focused, she could feel a slight tingling, almost a prickling, in a spot along the skin of her scalp by her right ear. She wanted to scratch it, but knew that that would accomplish nothing. She knew it to be the glitch, or how her connection to this place allowed her to sense it. It was a strange feeling, but it got her to stand and face that direction. Unlike before, however, she would need to walk.

For some reason that she couldn’t explain, she didn’t feel the need to rush. It was as though she somehow knew that her movement rate wouldn’t impact her distance traveled in a place without space and time. She couldn’t really explain it to herself as she began to walk, but it felt like an instinct she didn’t know that she had.

The breeze gusted a bit as she began to walk. She could almost feel the pollen in the air, and she knew that her cousin Efir would have a horrible time here with his severe allergies. She smiled again, knowing that some of the flowers don’t need pollinators, and that the breeze is here for them. A breeze that blows every which way throughout the day; an eternal day as no spirit wishes to sleep in The Glade.

As she came to the apex of a hill, she spotted a dark, almost black flower that was the same color throughout. It was tall and its stem was gnarled and crooked, and she knew that it droops the way it does from being full of pollen. A black pollen that she could see was continuously falling like powdery rain, except when the breeze blows strongly enough. She also knew it to be a Nether Willow, but The Leywalker had omitted the knowledge of which universe to which it’s native. She sighed and curled one side of her lip into a frown, before moving on to the next interesting flower.

There were so many kinds, tall and short, wide and skinny, singular and multiple, and every color one could imagine. Some had complex, geometrical petaled patterns, while others had asymmetric petals painting a different picture. As much as she didn’t want to dilly-dally, she ultimately knew that it wouldn’t matter.

While coming over another hill, the tingling in her scalp became sharper, almost hurting, but she knew, and could now see the reason. The glitch was so much bigger than she imagined, plus the sounds of the red lights fizzling out was louder, sounding like a crackling whistle that fades out almost instantly into an explosion of flying sparks that more slowly fade. Jaya could now get a better sense of its amorphous shape, ever so slightly growing as more and more red lights come through. She was fascinated for several moments until one of them didn’t fizzle out. Instead, it shot into the ground like a meteorite, but without the explosion of dirt and debris.

Her brow creased with concern and a bit of confusion. The Leywalker didn’t give her any information about this type of occurrence. She wasn’t sure what to do, and it spiked her anxiety enough to make her sweat a little. Jaya never panics, but she is familiar with trepidation. She held her breath for a moment until she saw movement in the grass. Before long, a child-sized hand appeared, gripping at the blades of grass, and then the other hand appeared. Of all the knowledge he gave to her about The Glade, she couldn’t understand how there could be another presence here. She felt like this too was a type of glitch.

She gasped when she saw the young boy’s black-haired head pop up. He looked to be about 8 years old, and looked similar to her cousin Efir when he was that age. This sent another spike of anxiety that gave her chills, and also the sense that, despite his innocent look, this may be evil. In fact, the tingling in her scalp intensified the more she could see of him as he climbed out. By the time his feet touched the ground and he stood looking around, the tingling had become a burning sensation. It was strong enough to make her wince a bit and put a hand to her head.

Even though they were close enough to each other, he didn’t acknowledge her at first, first looking down upon a deep red flower with a cobalt blue, daisy-like stamen. She bated her breath as she watched him pluck the flower to smell it, but it quickly withered and faded into ashes that flew off into the breeze. Her brow creased heavily, but she remained still as the boy shrugged and went to pluck another flower which did the same. She couldn’t understand why she feltl paralyzed and unable to speak up while she watched him start a plucking frenzy, now throwing the flowers into the air to watch them disappear.

Jaya knew he was killing those spirits, utterly destroying their existence. Just as she felt a slight rumbling under her feet, she went to speak and tell him to stop, but as her hand went out to him and her mouth opened, she suddenly felt like she was mid-faint in the Unrealm, then back to The Glade, reaching out her arm and going to speak. She began to slowly oscillate between each instance of her existence, and then it began to oscillate faster and faster. Before long, it was making her feel sick, and just as it got to fractions of a second between them, she could suddenly see the true nature of the boy. He was not human. She doesn’t really remember the body, but its face was terrifying.

Every facet of it was the same grey color, and the skin, eyes, and pointed teeth were shiny, almost sparkling in The Glade’s light. It spiked her anxiety further, causing her to feel a bit of panic just as it all came to a stop. She was back in the Unrealm and suddenly finished her faint. She barely noticed The Leywalker doubled over in pain holding his hands to the right side of his abdomen before everything went black.

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