Prologue
1364 Words
In NetherWorld, where shadows softly creep,
Betwixt dreams and waking, secrets they keep,
A realm mysterious, both eerie and deep,
Where knowledge and love intertwine in a leap.
Through twilight's haze, brave souls must roam,
Where darkness and light dance to the unknown,
In the heart of the night, they'll find their home,
With lessons to learn, and love to be shown.
The path may be treacherous, frightening, and wild,
But courage and wisdom will reconcile,
For NetherWorld's riddles, they're meant to compile,
In the quest for truth, where mysteries compile.
A whispered breeze, a cryptic call,
The echoes of dreams, like leaves that fall,
In NetherWorld's grasp, they must stand tall,
To decipher the language of the night's t****l.
In the depth of this realm, they'll discover the key,
To unlock the wisdom of the shadows, you'll see,
With every challenge faced, they'll become free,
To embrace the love that's destined to be.
In NetherWorld's twilight, both eerie and grand,
Where nightmares and dreams entwine hand in hand,
One will emerge with love's truth to withstand,
A guardian of secrets in this twilight land.
So venture forth, and don't be afraid,
In NetherWorld's realm, where memories fade,
For in the heart of the night, dreams cascade,
And love's eternal light will never evade.
Divina woke up completely differently than she normally did when she normally had a dream...
She woke up in a forest, instantly aware of her odd surroundings, the way her chest moved when she took a sharp breath, the thickness in the air and the uncertainty of where she was.
The only indication she had of time was her silent, dark surroundings, which suggested it might have been well past the midnight hours.
Divina got up from the awkward position where she was lying on the ground.
Even though it was not a very cold night out, the place gave her goosebumps all over her body.
Something felt off, and somehow very wrong.
Glancing around, she concluded she was completely unfamiliar with her surroundings, definitely never having been there before.
Trying to make sense of what last happened, Divina tried to dig through last night's memories of how she could have ended up somewhere in the forest.
Still trying to make sense of what was happening, she glanced down and took note of her slight nightgown and bare feet beneath the cool green grass.
The last thing she could recall was going to bed very late.
She couldn't remember going out or leaving the house at all, and nothing seemed unusual at the time.
Feeling less panicked, she sat back on her heels and breathed for what felt was the first time since she started having this dream.
Because that is what it was, Divina decided.
A dream. A very, very strange dream.
However, as she got upright and took a hesitant step forward, her foot accidentally made contact with a small, pointy looking branch which seemed to appear out of nowhere.
Divina slightly yelped as the sharp edge struck her bare foot.
Looking closer, she could definitely see that the sharp edge drew blood from her skin.
She normally had way less detailed dreams than this, but decided to indulge herself for a while and see where this dream took her.
She was about to look for something to indicate where she was, when an earth-shattering screech sounded only a few feet from where she was.
The screech was so loud that the nearby trees surrounding her shook violently, and was shortly followed by absolute silence for a few moments.
Then Divina felt the earth shake beneath her feet.
With only a few seconds to react, she fell to her knees and tried to identify the source of the sound while laying flat on the ground.
She heard the definite sound of large trees creaking, moving, then plummeting to the ground and finally the sound of hard stomps of feet and then, only a few miles away, a giant man-beast appeared.
A giant.
Divina blinked as if in slow motion, her breathing slowing down as if in anticipation of what was to come.
She was still checking it out, trying to make sure that her eyes were not playing tricks on me.
Before she could even manage a scream, she was grabbed from behind, and she was pulled backwards, deeper into the lush surroundings of trees and bushes.
"Shhh. We need to keep as quiet as we can. That guy over there is a troll and, lucky for us, he's completely blind. Unfortunately, his hearing is impeccable, so if we make as much as a sound, we are gonners," a deep voice whispered from behind me.
Troll...
The person did not wait for a reaction, just kept retreating with me in his grip until we were at a somewhat safer distance from the so-called troll.
He suddenly grabbed me by my arm and started pulling me into a jog.
Finally getting my bearings, I pulled my arm out of his grasp and put some distance between me and the stranger.
Dream or no dream, this was all too realistic for my taste.
"Who are you and where am I?" I asked coolly.
He silently raised his eyebrows.
"Snappy aren't we?" I only glared at him, not breaking eye contact until I got some form of identification.
How does one ponder an unfamiliar face that you've never met in such detail, she wondered to herself.
He motioned that they should continue walking, but after seeing my face, he dropped his outstretched hand and let out a sigh.
"My name is Jonathan. I am going to escort you back. Welcome to NetherWorld. And so on and so forth. Please, let us continue on our journey, before the troll finds us."
I scrunched up my nose.
NetherWorld?
It sounded oddly familiar, in a way I could not quite explain.
She didn't care much for the troll.
This was her dream, after all.
"What's a NetherWorld?" I asked him, still ignoring his outstretched hand.
"NetherWorld is also known as a spirit world, or a region or dimension thought to be beneath the surface of the world in many regions and mythologies," Jonathan answered in a dull voice, clearly done with all the questions.
Like that explained everything or anything, he started walking on again, clearly over the fact that she kept ignoring his outstretched hand in offer.
I folded my arms, turning slowly from where I stood to admire my surroundings.
When Jonathan figured I wasn't following, he stopped dead in his tracks.
"To put it simply, because I'm not convinced this is actually happening, but even in a dream, I feel like the story could have been laid out better. To me, this is a dream, and when I wake up I want to at least pretend that it was one of those interesting encounters," I said and put my hands on my hips.
He gave a heavy sigh and mimicked my pose.
"It is a place between dead and alive. You fall into a dream-world, but everything that happens here in NetherWorld... Well, let's just say it has a very real impact on what happens afterwards. If you get hurt, injured or... worse, the very same thing will happen in your world."
"So... I'm in my bed asleep, or so it seems, but, over here, I am awake. Any injury I get, follows me back home? So if I die..."
"Aye, just like that. So you need to be as alert as you can be."
His words started fading out, and I noticed my vision starting to blur.
"What time do ye usually wake up, lass?" He asked, looking irritated.
"I have to wake up at seven for work, why?"
"You are being woken. Remember, as your first trip to NetherWorld, this return trip to wake up is free. The next trip, you will have to pay for the trip to wake up to return to your world."
I could barely make out his last few words, but the last feeling I got before I woke up was that of panic. An awful foreboding of more to come gripped my stomach.
- Writer
