Modern Imagination

Chapter 2

Dora opened her eyes when the car stopped moving. It was bright now, it seemed like it was suddenly morning but Dora could not hear the constant nagging that came with her mother’s voice. Confused as to why it was suddenly morning, she got out of the car.

          Pale green trees stood tall and spaced in what should have been a forest; the ground was lined with pale purple grass and bright purple shrubs standing oddly on their own. Dora squinted, she had always suspected that she was color blind but seeing green trees and purple grass and shrubs was something that seemed far fetched…imagined. She thought that even though the colors were strange, there should at least be some animals in the woods, like the birds that usually woke her up in the mornings but there was no such thing. The woods were silent. Still trying to figure out where she was, Dora locked the car and move deeper into the woods.

          “Jade Cloff was swinging ari’…”

Dora stopped in her tracks, was that somebody singing? It was the sweetest masculine voice she had ever heard. A shot of hope bloomed in her chest; it meant someone else was in the woods too. Cupping her ear, she tried to listen some more.

           Jumped up when something amis’

           But then the prince saw her…”

Dora followed the voice, hoping to find a boy or man sitting in a patch of sunlight on the grass but Dora’s eyes nearly popped out when she reached her destination. There basking in the sun, stood a tree or rather moved a tree. Its glorious green bark shimmied in the sun as it walked. The head seemed rather strange though, it had no eyes or any obvious sense organ instead its head was yellow, round and wide. After having a long stare, Dora finally decided she was hallucinating. Turning back to go, Dora noticed that the singing had stopped. Looking back at the tree, she noticed an insect flying close to it then very suddenly, its head split into two and the insect was gone. A tongue came out from what she assumed was the plant’s mouth and snatched the one wing that was left in the insects place.

         Dora gasped. She had not been hallucinating after all, where really was she? The plant turned and now seemed to be looking at her. Dora swallowed, it had heard her gasp. She hoped it would not attack her; she was not an insect after all and even if she had been praying for death, at least not by the branches of a plant. Unfortunately the tree had other plans and with a loud roar, it charged towards her. Dora followed with a loud shriek, and ran off with fright, the plant chased, swaying awkwardly so as not to step on other little plants. Without warning, a large branch flew past Dora, almost striking her on the head. She turned back to see a bigger tree preparing to throw another branch at her. Maybe it was true what her mother said, she was crazy. She ducked in time and the branch flew over her head. She increased her speed, she ran so fast, she thought her heart would burst. She did not know where she was going, she had forgotten where she left the car and as it was, that was her last abode. The ground started shaking, making Dora to fall over her own foot. Landing on her back, she watched in shock as the larger tree removed its roots from the ground. After the roots, a pair of legs followed. Dora thought she would faint, in all her five years of being a scientist she had never heard of trees with legs. Yes, the smaller tree was quite strange but at least it crawled with its roots. She jumped on her feet and ran to what she thought was out of the woods. The trees continued their chase and Dora continued to skirt pass more trees hoping to escape them. The ground suddenly came to an end at a trench and Dora skidded to a stop. She was scared and out of breath but the rumbling ground beneath her feet told her that the trees would soon catch up with her. Looking around, she quickly hid behind the purple bush that stood on its own and prayed that it was not alive too.

The two plants soon reached the shrub. Dora shuffled further into the shrub and prayed that she would not be noticed. The trees looked into the trench to search for her but it was too deep, they assumed that she probably fell to her death. Moving away from the trench, the two went off to their homes in the soil.  When Dora peeped from her hiding place to see the back of the retreating trees, she sighed in relief.

“Why are you hiding?” Dora almost let out a scream but she stayed still. She was sure she had not seen anyone when she dove in here but now someone was talking. Her blood ran cold…or rather something. Dora jumped away from the shrub.

          “Was that you?” with all she had seen in the two hours, the question did not seem foolish at all. When no reply came, she started to believe that she had imagined the voice.

“No, it was the tea you drank this morning.” The male voice came again. Dora looked around this time.

“Hello, is anyone there?” she called out in a low voice in fear of waking more trees.

The woods were still silent.

Maybe it was the stifling emptiness of her stomach, she thought. She looked at the purple shrub again, tasty looking blue mangoes hung from it. Just one or two, it won’t hurt.

“You would not dare.”

Oh, so it is the shrub.

“No, dimwit. You are still hungry, so you are just hearing things.”

“You can talk?” No reply came

“So you would not reply when something is being said, you just decide to reply when no one actually says something.” No reply still.

“So what were you replying to, since I did not say anything.”

“Actually you did say something.” The shrub replied.

Ok…this definitely tops the list of crazy things I have seen today.

“Oh dear, I’m blushing.” It said in a sarcastic tone.

“Whoa, can you read my thoughts?”

“You tell me genius, what is your next amazing discovery?” The shrub replied.

Dora went silent for a while.

“This one actually thinks.”

“I’m sorry, if the question seemed stupid.” Dora said genuinely.

“Don’t worry; you don’t exactly look like the smart one in this relationship.”

Dora thought she would explode with anger. Here she was stranded in a strange place, trying to be nice to a plant but the only thing it did was give rude comments. She wanted to tear some of its leaves and stuff it in its invisible mouth but she was tired and hungry.

“Alright…alright, don’t get all angry eyes on me. You can take one mango…”

Dora’s ears perked up at that, “You are serious…”

“I have changed my mind.”                    

“No wait.” Dora said and quickly plucked a mango. If it were a human, she was sure he would be rolling his eyes now.

“Thank you.” She said with a mouth full of sweet juicy mango.

“Yeah sure, whatever you say.”

Dora got the feeling that the plant was bored and probably was tired of paying attention to her, she wondered what other things the plant had to do and it seemed less busy than a lizard basking in the sun. Standing up, she moved to pluck another mango from the shrub; a vine came out and slapped her hand.

“Shoo, you’ve had enough of my juiciness for one day.”

Dora cheeks flamed up and she moved away from the shrub.

“Well…thank you.”

 Wandering off, she wondered where she would go to now. Her hunger had been satiated for now but she was thirsty. Turning back, she wondered if she could ask the shrub for directions to any stream but decided against it. Dragging her feet forward, she decided she would just look for a stream herself.

Dora was sure she had been walking for two good hours when she finally heard the soft patter of water from a distance. She walked as fast as she could towards it and soon the saw a stream. The water sparkled under the sun, like it was blushing each time the sun paid attention to it. To her pleasant surprise, the water had the normal clear color and it looked clean enough. Not that she cared.

Bending down, she scooped the water in her palms and drank it. She closed her eyes as a feeling of pure euphoria wrapped her mind. It was as if the water had turned to sweet wine in her throat, she felt as if she was in her another heaven. A chilling sensation went down her back and Dora could have sworn that she felt angels dancing around her. The feeling lasted for a moment. Dora opened her eyes, her back felt heavy and laid back from exhaustion. When her back touched the ground, Dora expected to feel the grass caressing her back but all she felt was soft leather. She quickly sat up to see what was there but when she turned back, she saw the oddest thing. She had wings. Real huge wings.

She squinted her eyes, afraid that the wings might disappear if she shut her eyes and opened them again. Pushing her weight off the ground, she wondered what she was going to do with this new found ability. Of course, that ability would be to fly but what if they were just decorative wings, Dora thought. Deciding to test out this theory, she took a deep breath and thought about the fantasy movies she had watched at home. A wave of confidence surged through her, it was strange but she was willing to test the boundaries of this newly found confidence. Spreading her wings, she decided not to waste her time admiring the feel of the air moving between her wings. Pushing herself forward, she closed her eyes and imagined her self above the ground. She thought she felt something; she thought she was finally above the ground but when she opened her eyes, her feet were still planted firmly on the ground. She groaned in frustration. Closing her eyes again, she willed all the strength she had into her wings. A gust of wind blew past her and she opened her eyes to see that her feet were finally above the ground. The view was incredible. The trees that had chased her now looked like a tiny stone on the ground, the forest looked like an amazing blend of colors: purple, green, brown, red and some other trees that had a mix of all the colors. She went higher, her new ability in creased her desire to explore more, she wanted to see more. Her euphoria did not last long as seconds later, a big creature, the size of a whale crashed into her, sending her back to her place on the ground. Dora landed on her bottom, she had expected death, at least some broken ribs and blood running down her nose with a concussion maybe but it seemed the water had given her more abilities. She sat there dazed for three minutes before finally getting up. Of what use was it to carry the extra weight of wings if she could not fly properly with them. Stomping her feet on then ground, she turned around to go, she was tired and the heavy wings on her back seemed to be mocking her as they got heavier with each step. After taking ten steps, she settled as far as she could from any tree and shrub, she was not sure that all the shrubs here were as nice as the last one she saw. Lying on the grass with only her wings as shade from the yellow sun, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. Sitting two feet away from Dora on a tree branch, a little man watched her in awe. It has been a long time since a human dared step foot in Winbugry, he thought. The neck of this creature could make a rich man all his days and even put his picture in the Hall Of Warriors.