In Control

Chapter 6

The bells rang gently in the distance with a soft tune. Not one I had ever heard before, but still it seemed so familiar. It sent a series of chills down my spine, though not once while listening to it did I ever feel uncomfortable. Ever so softly the dust turned golden and gently fanned out away from the four of us. The owl was nestled in the crook of my leg while the squirrel was still on the smokey figure.

The figure was no longer black, but a blinding white that gave a feeling of purity while the eyes gave a much darker feel to her than they did when she was all black. As I took a closer look at her form, I noticed that the white faded into a sunkissed gold at the tips of the little whisps. Some of these whisps resembled hair and framed the face with fainter rosy gold tips. The look on her, its, face was soft and filled with a proud, mother-like love. She struggled to sit upright as she glanced out at the landscape around us.

We weren't in Kansas anymore...

I was astounded by all that I saw. We were no longer in the forest that surrounded my new home. We were currently sitting in a misty grey field of grass that felt insanely cool to the touch under what looked like a Weeping Willow. The tree was massive, almost three times the size of a normal Willow. Little balls of multicolored lights glided down and gave a very tranquil feel to the look of the tree. The light emitting from the little balls were simple pastel colors that glowed gently. None ever touched the ground, but all fell around us in a welcoming embrace that left a warm feeling within and around me. The sky was a series of mellow colors that you would find in a painting of a galaxy. To top it all off, a gentle breeze blew across us, rustling the grass a bit.

I guess that at some point I had my mouth open because when I looked back at the smokey figure she had a very amused look on her face.

"...You like it?.."

The soft voice, exactly the same one from mere minutes ago, resonated around me with a distant echo. 

"...I remember the first time I created this place, which I now consider home..."

Home? So this being lives here? She looked at the tree and raised the same hand that had the white cybernetic circle on it to the willow. In moments the glowing orbs started to swarm around her and her wounds, covering it completely and then some with pastel beams of pure light. Some stayed on the wounds while the rest fluttered away and dissipated. The ones that stayed turned from a rainbow of colors to a minty green and dusty rose that seemed to be moved by the gentle breeze, swirling it into intricate patterns.

"Y-you're hurt." The being nodded and settled a bit, letting my two little woodland friends snuggle up next to each other in her, it's lap. "What hurt you?"

The eyes went from wide and endearing to slitted slivers of black.

"... One of my own creations... That shadow mass that you saw in the forest running..."

"That, did that to you?" Again, it nodded and sighed, looking off into the distance. "Why would it try and hurt you?"

"...Why is not important to you for now. We have other matters at hand to deal with..."

I tilted my head out of confusion and her slitted eyes lifted up a bit as if she was smiling.

"... You were the only one I could reach in time before you too were corrupted..."

"Corrupted?"

"... The way your mother was corrupted in an attempt to get to you... Physical contact has to be made with IT to happen... But here you are safe from IT because it is stuck in that realm..."

"Why is it after me?" A little hoot from the friendly owl calmed me down a bit.

"... Because you are able to take my place AND be corrupted at the same time..."

Before I could say anything about this, she continued explaining what she meant by that.

"... For as long as the Universe itself has been alive, even before that, I have been here. I have watched it grow in size and change shape before time was even a thought in the head of any species. I am definitely no God, far from it, I am the Guardian of the Realms. I protect the realms from merging and their complete destruction. Though I grow weary of this same routine, for it's truly been so long. For a while now I have been curious as to what it would be like to live the life of a mortal..."

Where is this going?

"... I wish to leave and live a mortal's life but to do this someone would have to take my place. Safe Guarding this realm as well as others from any outside harm. That, Luna, could be you. I would help guide you through everything you would ever need to know and then I would give you my immortality..."

Holy shit.

"... With my immortality is the guaranteed protection from IT and the ability to find a way to save your mother. It may take more than a few hundred years to find a way to get her cured and then you could cure the rest of the other corrupted as well..."

"So you are asking me to take your place? Live here and help protect multiple realms from some great evil? This all sounds like something you would see in the movies! This all can't be real! Isn't there someone else that can do this that isn't already corrupted?" She shook her head and I huffed. "So I'm the only one who can help you?"

"...You don't have to accept. This is merely an offer that you are being given this one time. But keep in mind if you refuse, you are liable to be corrupted anyway. My offer guarantees your safety but you will have to deal with IT. In the process, you can also find a way to keep your friend safe, the one you had called in a desperate attempt to get help..."

Casey! I pulled out my phone and checked to see if he was still on. The phone wouldn't go any farther than the home screen and the pictures. I tried to email, texting, calling, and even facetime. What was I thinking though? This is some alternate realm apparently, so why would I be able to contact him. It's not like there was any way for me to get a signal in here, there's no cell service.

"Casey... He's going to the forest to come get me! He's gonna get corrupted by that, that THING!"

"... There is no need to worry. He cannot be touched by IT because they are both frozen..."

"Frozen? What do you mean by frozen?"

"... While you are not in your own realm, the realm itself is frozen. Think of it as a mother looking for their child. She will drop everything until said child is found. And if I recall, you call Earth Mother Nature. 'She' is looking for you and will wait until you are returned home safely, but until then everyone is frozen waiting for your return..."

I sat there dumbfounded by all this new information and the offer. The offer seemed crazy and I couldn't wrap my head around it completely. Somethings just weren't clicking together and it was driving me up the wall with the stress. Though it's not like I'm being timed, Casey was in no immediate danger, nor was anyone else on Earth. I needed to think, and as if she could tell what I was thinking.

"... I don't expect you to answer me immediately! Not with all that I have said to you, that would be low of me. You can take as much time to mule over this as you need. Feel free to explore this place while you do so. Though you shouldn't go alone..."

She picked up the owl and squirrel and held them out to me. I took them both with a smile and nodded. 

"I will have to think it over, thank you. I don't want to say no because I want to help, but I don't want to say yes because of how intimidating it is."

The being nodded again and looked at the tree as I quickly started to walk away.