Death's Apprentice

34

How I ended up where I did, I didn't know. Where I was, I didn't know. There were no signs, no houses, nothing to tell me where I was. In either direction, there was only one thing within sight. Corn.

Slipping the flask from my pocket, I focused on the gossamer thread of energy. The pull tugged me down the road, so I walked. I walked and walked. With each step, I grew more convinced I wasn't making any progress. The only things keeping me from believing it were the utility poles and the trees. Every step carried me closer to and eventually past them. I passed the trees and found more corn.

In short, the things I saw were as follows: corn, corn, corn, corn, soybeans, corn, corn, cows, barn, corn, and of course, corn.

After that it was a quick trek through the woods. Well, quick in this context meaning two hours of trying to find my way across a ravine before saying screw it. I climbed over the edge, holding onto rocks and roots. Five feet from the bottom, my hand holds gave way and I fell onto the rocky bottom. I groaned and facepalmed.

"I forgot I could float. How did I forget that?" I picked myself up. My hands grazed my back and my legs before searching the back of my hea for injuries. No blood, and the pain of impact had faded, thanks being dead. I never thought I'd say that, but there I was thinking it. It took maybe twenty minutes to get out of the ravine and back on my way.

My head and body swiveled, as I walked out of the trees into a clearing. I turned in circles, barely avoiding tripping on a hose. Myriads of flowers bloomed; some lined the stepping stone pathway, other climbed up trellises. I recognized roses,morning glories, tulips, wisteria, sweet peas, and several other flowers. There were more I didn't recognize. I took a deep breathe, enjoying the way the flowers mingled. For a brief second anyway. After that it turned into a cloying scent that gave me a headache.

Bees bumbled and buzzed from bloom to bloom, legs coated with pollen. I squatted next to a flower and stared at a particularly large bumblebee. There was a different type of buzzing and I turned my head in time to see a hummingbird dart by, its ruby red throat shining in the sunlight. Another one flew by.

I smiled, enjoying being surrounded by nature. It was a nice break from the lifeless atmosphere of Death's dimension. I sighed. Too bad I couldn't enjoy it, I had a job to do and it couldn't wait. Standing up, I walked under the trellis and across a footbridge. It seemed like a different world. Fruit tree after fruit tree bore fruit, despite it not being season for half of them. Butterflies rested on the ground, on small branches, and on fallen fruit. Some had yellow wings, some had white ones, sone had their wings closed, but no butterfly could be seen more than any other. One with black and red wings flew past me, followed by two more near identical ones.

Dragonflies and damselflies joined them in their aerial dances, sun lighting their exoskeletons in incandescent splendor. Occasionally one would catch a butterfly in mid air. Whenever that happened, the butterfly would somehow escape with no harm, leaving no doubt Life had an influence on this place.

Faint humming floated on the wind. I strained my ears, trying to discover the source of the noise. It was close by, I could tell that much, but where? No trellis and no path showed a way deeper into the garden. A rough stone wall enclosed the area, disappearing behind the trees. I pressed my lips together and followed it.

Close to the wall, the branches hung low and mixed with weeds, so I found myself with several leaf cuts, which are like paper cuts but felt like Luci appeared next to me to rub salt into them. I ducked under branch after branch, whacking my head on more than a couple. I crawled under one last one, mumbling to myself about not walking through the more maintained trees. Complaining aside, I emerged into a clearing straight out of a painting. Flowers and bushes ringed it with a small gap allowing a stream to run in and feed a small pond. More flowers and hanging baskets hung from the branches of a large tree with beautiful green leaves. Part of its trunk had been scraped, chopped, or eaten away and was covered with amber glass. A worn stone bench sat in front of it, between the tree and the pond. A few bottles, jars, and clay pipes sat in a corner, some only with dirt others with plants; that's where the girl I took to be Clara knelt.