Burning Tale (concluded draft)

Chapter Four: Crickity Woods

Beams of light splash in their faces like a tidal wave, as they descend deeper into the mystical portal. One seemed to be screaming laughing as they fell, whilst the other, was in complete panic, trying to turn themselves to break their inevitable fall. The lights became more consistent and clearer, as the sky formed around them. They were falling. Down below were huge patches of green and brown, zooming in closer hastily. The brothers braced for impact.

They both slam against the tree trunks, grunting as they descend down chaotically, hitting and clonking tree branches from different angles. As they fell, they managed to chip away a few thin branches and leaves, creating a mess from behind. They finally slam into a thick tree branch, and they slide off from it, and smashing into the dirt path below, soil patches splashing around upon impact. A collection of tree branches clatter alongside them, along with leaves gracefully descending down on top of their heads. They both lie there, moaning from the pain, the series of a million sharp punches from tree branches have worn them out.

Tom sluggishly stands on his two feet, stars dancing around like a musical inside his head, as he tries to adjust his vision to the forest. Jack does the same, though it looked like he didn't want to get up, so he just sat there, taking in the events of what just happened.

"A pit of spikes would have been better..." groans Tom, wiping the leaves off of him.

"Or a cushion." mumbles Jack, cracking his back. "Where are we?" They pace the area, stumbling and tripping as they feel the trees, looking up at the sight of the sky, ruined by the branches that hung above them

"I think... I think this is..." Tom mumbles, grabbing the map out from his pocket, as he spreads it out widely, to the point where it touches the ground. He drags his finger across the map, before slowly letting it go, deep realisations kicking in. "I don't know."

Jack grabs his face in panic, stretching it about as he flees around the woods, screaming and exclaiming, flailing his arms around. "WE'RE LOST!" he shouts, "WE'RE GONNA DIE, WE'RE GONNA DIE!" He collapses to the floor, punching at the ground, before sighing. He sounded defeated. Getting up from his dismay, he dusts himself off and shoots a finger at Tom. "This is all your fault!"

"What? Waaait, no, no, hang on." says Tom, stepping back.

"Yeah!" shouts Jack, "I told you and told you and told you to not wander off and find a basement to find a talking book where it tells you a clue to a mysterious second basement full of books where we get thrown into another world, and what did you do?" Tom shrugs.

"I'll tell you what you did." begins Jack, taking a deep breath, "WANDER OFF AND FIND A BASEMENT TO FIND A TALKING BOOK WHERE IT TELLS YOU A CLUE TO A MYSTERIOUS SECOND BASE-" Tom cuts him off, slapping his mouth.

"Shush." he says, "Look at that." He points to an opening between two trees, where the light calls to them. It looked like it already led to the outside, of the woods. He slowly approaches it, pushing the branches and bushes off to the side, as Jack exclaims and stutters behind him.

"Where are you going!?" he shouts, waving his hands up and down. Tom treads closer to the morning light, as the sun sizzled on his skin. His eyes hurt a bit from the sun at first, but he quickly gained sight again, and was met with quite possibly one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen. Onfield was already beautiful enough but this was truly something.

He stood tall near a cliff, which allowed him to gaze upon the stretch of open field, and a wide wave of sunflowers dancing in some patches. Mountains sat in the horizon at a grand scale, with snow snuggling on their heads and the birds chirped majestically, singing their gift of song to nature. He breathes in, taking in the moment before him, watching the waves of grass near the edge of the cliff. Before he could take another breath, Jack comes following and does the same, only a little more dramatically.