Faerie Apocalypse by Franks Jason;

Author:Franks, Jason; [Franks, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: IFWG Publishing International
Published: 2018-01-06T10:05:23+00:00

3. The Star Below

The inside of the tree was black. She had not specified any features or sources of illumination inside its trunk, but there should still have been light shining in from behind her. When she turned around, she found that the aperture was gone.

She grunted and added a small, asterisk-shaped beacon to her avatar. It hovered a foot above her virtual head, casting a blue-white light about her in all directions. The ground beneath her was flat, hard stone. No ceiling or walls were visible.

She started walking. Her virtual feet were soundless on the virtual stone floor. Presently she saw a small light in the distance. A tiny flame, such as a candle or a match might give off. Or a small, silver lighter.

She went towards the flame. “Hello, Uncle,” she called. “It’s me.”

The light moved on and she followed it for what seemed like hours, but was probably only minutes. Her Head Up Display showed the date and time in characters she did not recognize. The on-board maps refused to recognize that she had travelled any distance within the Tree of Indeterminate Species.

The flame-light went out.

She stood there, staring towards the place she had last seen it. Soon she heard footsteps; heavy boots clocking towards her on the hard stone. Her uncle’s boots, she supposed. She opened her mouth to call out to him again. To her strange uncle, who had gone travelling in an imaginary world, seeking to destroy the most beautiful thing in the world.

Panic seized her. Although she knew that her avatar could not be harmed, she turned and fled. The footsteps followed her, beating out a measured and steady walking gait, neither gaining nor losing ground as she pitched headlong through the darkness.

The asterisk.

No wonder she could not lose her pursuer: he was following the giant glowing star she had set above her head. She extinguished it and turned, and ran on…but not for long. She had gone less than a dozen steps when she spotted a light. It was the aperture in the wall of the tree through which she had entered.

She jogged through the gap and emerged in the sunshine of another land. This was not an environment that she had programmed herself, though she immediately recognized it from her uncle’s confabulations.

She stepped down into Faerie Land and wondered, for the first time, if she had actually gone mad.

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