A Place Beyond The Map by Thews Samuel

Author:Thews, Samuel [Thews, Samuel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy
Published: 2011-07-09T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

‘Pixy-led’

An adventure in a book and an adventure in person are altogether a different sort of thing. Phinnegan found that he preferred the former.

He had felt no pain when the guardian’s cloud of light touched him. Nor did he meet his death, which was certainly something that flashed before his mind as a possibility. Instead, there was little for him to feel at all; nothing in fact. But he was afraid.

Everything was gone. The Faë, of course, were gone, as was the stone. So, too, were the great domed chamber and the guardian, Howard. Everything that had been around him only moments before was now, simply not. There was a disturbing pattern in this world in that quite often things, and people, simply up and disappeared. Including oneself. The question now was, where exactly had Phinnegan disappeared to.

Looking around, nothing was familiar to him. He was outside and it was dark. The ground was soft and cool to the touch, though there was little grass, most of the ground being dirt and a scant few rocks. Although a thick, dark cloud approached from one direction, the sky directly above him was dotted with a billion stars, the Milky Way arcing across the nighttime sky. It comforted him to see something so familiar. Even here in this strange world, the same eyes looked down upon him from the heavens. It was as close to home as he had been these past few days.

The sight was so comforting, in fact, that Phinnegan sat on the ground for some time gazing upwards. For once, he was completely alone, with no one to tell him where to go, but neither was anything chasing him or trying to kill him. At least not at this very moment.

As he gazed at the stars, the dark cloud moved closer to him, slowly at first, but with increasing speed. When the cloud was nearly on top of him, Phinnegan rose to his feet and began to trek in the direction that the cloud was moving, trying to stay ahead. He had no idea where he was going, but perhaps he would find some kind of shelter.

After walking for some time, Phinnegan noticed that the area around him began to slowly fill with trees, first one then two and then ten. The open expanse of land was giving way to a forest, and in short order, Phinnegan was indeed within the borders of a dark and brooding wood. The trees became closer together and began to crowd around him. There was a path, but it was narrow and overgrown, and weaved amongst large trees such that a group would have needed to walk single-file to stay on the path.

When the first drop of rain fell on his head, Phinnegan shivered, both from the sudden chill of the rain and the wind that rustled the leaves about, as well as the memories of Darkwater forest and the Faolchú.

He walked on for perhaps half an hour more, always following the winding way of the path deeper into the wood.

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