Part Three in the Prelude of The World's Over Journal, a Forever Fantasy
The World's Over Journal
The Forever Fantasy
By Juton
One morning as the light of dawn penetrated the skies amidst the haze, illuminating the world below in a deep shade of purple, as if twilight had come early, the gigantic steel crab which had rested dormant suddenly woke up. The Behemoth groaned as the ancient gears began to rotate every so slowly, it stopped when its right claw was open and aiming maliciously towards the tree. A beam of living liquid fire poured out from the claw and severed the giganitc Redwood from its roots. Then the menacing steel crab began to raise itself up, pushing hard against the tree, as it did so a wire shot out and a sharp hook on the end sank deep into one of the larger branches just above the Gallant farm, another shot out and sank its single tooth into the mightiest branch of a neighbouring Giant Sequoia and with one great pull of the wires the mouse kingdom began to plummet towards the earth.
The steel beast had calculated the beam and subsequent push to pull measurements perfectly. As the tree fell it collided with no other tree, that is until it hit the mighty branch it was being pulled towards, which did not crack or break under the weight for just as before the collision the crab shot another several wires out sinking deep into the boughs of the falling tree and the steel behemoth pulled hard and the branch acted as a leaver. Hundreds of branches exploded as the falling tree was pulled over the other side of its neighbours mighty branch. As the mangled tree began to roll over the other side it creaked and groaned the sound filled the valley as it began its second descent towards the forest floor, still far below. Most of the Boughs were gone, shattered in the explosion which sent pieces of branches in every direction, mingled in the fall amidst tiny wood chips, pulp and shredded green flakes, which were once leaves, were tears of red rain, blood. The leaf and splinter storm was blinding, much like a mid-winter blizzard amongst the chaos fell the terror frozen, the wounded and the dead.
The tree began its second descended, like a carrot being thrust back into the earth in reverse order, top first. With a tremendous thwomp, which resounded throughout the valley, the Redwood struck the Arbutus labyrinth upon the shallow slope and began to slide down towards the ravine. The labyrinth carried the weight of the gigantic Redwood as it slid, sparing the forest floor from the chaos. The savaged Sequoia quickly found the ravine, it went over the side and began a 3rd, albeit shorter, descent towards the lower side of the valley beyond. It smashed into the forests smoting down deep into the Arbutus labyrinth. The tree became one with the labyrinth upon the far side, and the forest fell silence once again.
The youngest of the Gallant family woke back into the conscious realm surrounded by chaos, which reigned over their once beautiful home. It was quite a different landscape to wake up to than ever before, Ravice found herself lying upon the ceiling of the upper most bedroom, her family unconscious underneath her, wrapped in dozens of blankets. Before venturing out she stuck her head in amidst the pillows, sheets and blankets and listened, it seemed an eternity that she lay there, she got up only after identifying all the unique heart beats of each family member, they were alive. Curiosity got the best of Ravice's fear for only a after a short search through the ruin that was the upper floor of the Hollow, where nothing of their former lives remained intact save knitted quilts and clothes, she found herself desiring to see beyond the walls of their home. Leaving the upper floors she tumbled her way around the staircase, which she manouvered sideways, down towards the kitchen and living room. Her mind still under a fog of confusion and disbelief as she fell out of the staircase, landing with a hard crash upon several cast iron pots upon the stove`s hearth, which was still scorching hot. Grasping for a happy memory amidst the searing pain she looked around and thought of how much work her neat freak mother would have to do in the kitchen to get things back in order.
After a few moments she was able to stand again, over the kitchen counter and up what used to be the outer wall she clambered amongst the chaos of books, chairs, paintings and linens. Ravice found herself staring at Hollow's green front door, which was only half there, the other half no where to be seen. She gulped hard trying to settle the fear which was swelling inside her as she began to climb through the portal. Peering through the doorway as she stuck her head slowly out, she saw the slow falling rain of shredded leaves, fear began to steal her courage as she recognized that some of them were blotted with red patches. With all her mighty she pulled herself up through the door where she sat cross legged for several minutes simply staring down at the bark of the tree before venturing a look around. Once she had overcome the fear the blizzard of leaf flakes had faded, for the wind blew as steady gusts of wind down the ravine. She stood up and began to swiftly scurry up towards the base of the fallen tree, which now lay at the base of the sloap on the higher side of the ravine, Ravice hoped to discover the demon that had pushed over their home, she also did not want to be around for the sorrow of the body count.
Almost an hour later Ravice found herself nearing the glade which had once been their home, she was no adventurer or warrior, nor had she eaten in quite some time, so she had stopped to rest whenever she found a ripe black berry, the vines of which wrapped themselves here and there throughout the labyrinth. She was out of breath and her bruised side was aching terribly from the fall, when at last she reached a vantage point on the edge of the labyrinth atop the sloap. Staring out into the open glade, from behind, the demon steel crab was dormant, resting as it always had against the side of the base of the tree, which stood as a gigantic stump yet thirty feet off the forest floor. After a few minutes she went ventured from her perch to find a berry and some leaves before settling in for the night. Upon returning to her spot atop the labyrinth Ravice, for the first time, began to actually wonder at the odd mechanical being. The body of which was surely crab like for their is no other way to describe the oddness of its shape, underneath there sat six legs and above two antenna like eyes protruded. Its right arm was a large steel barrel, like those of the guns her father used to speak of that the ancient men once carried during the final war. It's left arm though, was indeed a claw arm. Ravice guessed that this metallic behemoth had been their homes destroyer, even though it lay dormant and silent now as it always had, though she could not hold the thought, drowsiness was overtaking her eyes. Before she fell asleep Ravice witnessed the rear end of the behemoth open, as a large hatch with stairs built into it, and two beings walk down the steps to stand beside the fallen tree.
When Ravice opened her tear stained eyes she found herself nestled in between her mother's arms and her father’s back upon their bed. A smile crept over her face as she looked up into her hero`s noble white face, she was safe and the devastation had been but a dream.
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