Gliding through Alien Skies
(Chapter Three)
After waking up, I found myself temporarily
lost in trying to comprehend the dream's meaning. I was unable to figure out why such a seemingly odd dream would
have come to me, as it apparently had no relation to anything. I was sure that
she had sent me the dream, I just couldn’t understand her reasons. The light and
general feel of the air didn’t feel significantly different than when I had fallen
asleep. This made figuring out how much time had passed was almost impossible. I walked
around her building taking in the vistas before me. What I saw took my breath
away. I hadn’t been able to see this
previously, but behind the mammoth machines huge mountainous rock formations
tens of thousands of feet high engulfed the land in the distance. The mountains
created an impressive fortress-like superstructure that seemed both impervious and
secure. I felt incredibly small almost lost amongst the vastness of the planet,
and very insignificant in
relation to these massive landmarks.
The air was pure clean and gentle which made breathing
and thinking much easier compared to the heavy dirty air I was used to. The
atmosphere's clarity heightened
my awareness and focus, making my thoughts clearer, which helps to explain how
vivid my recollections of the dream was, it’s impossible to describe, but the
feelings of loneliness and sadness I had sensed in her the previous night began
to internalize themselves inside me. My emotions were overwhelming me, imploring
me to figure out the source
of her unhappiness. I quickly felt that trying to help her with these emotions
was the reasons she brought me here. There was something else that was
bothering me, though it took me awhile to figure out what was
wrong.
After awakening from the dream and letting it fade away, I
noticed that something odd had happened. Even though I had already been up
awhile, it took be awhile to realize she was nowhere to be found. She had
apparently vanished and left me here alone. As I wandered around the halls, I
could sense that there was something going on. I went outside to search for her,
assuming one of two things: either that she was close by or something unknown to
me was happening.
I walked around the immediate area looking for
her behind trees, in the sacred pools, in back of the buildings, by the
machines. It was a futile effort because she had
vanished without a trace, seemingly leaving me all alone in this strange world.
As I searched for her, I watched the machines, gawking up at their huge metallic
frames, marveling at this sophisticated technology and also wondering what
exactly was going on and whether this was a plan of hers.
The only thing I knew
for sure was that despite the physical distance, she was somehow, still close to
me. Even so, I spent a lot of time entranced by the baffling devices in the
distance. I watched them as the churned with a quiet, seemingly effortless
precision and purpose. I saw a rather large tower and walked over to it sensing
this as an easy way to locate her– I climbed the stairs and reached the
viewing area which gave an incredible panoramic of this alien world - rising
before me I saw the glass structures, the machines, and the mountains behind
them From this vantage. In the sky, I could see the distant outlines of a faint blue star
in the northern half of
the sky, peeking through the atmosphere, almost imperceptibly. Unfortunately,
the one thing I had come up to look for, wasn’t here at all. A brief moment of
fear came over me as I thought of the possibility that I had been tricked and
was marooned there alone. My perceptions slowly began to change, the reassuring
rhythms of the machines began to turn into terrifying soulless robotic motions,
the shadows they cast on the ground grew darker, the mountains behind them began
to become overpowered, making me feel trapped.
I wandered back to the buildings
feeling overwhelmed by this world, I suddenly felt small and insignificant, I
made my way slowly through the corridors and hallways of the building where she
had taken me, examining each open doorway and listened through the structure’s
walls hoping to hear even a small clue that she was still there. There was
nothing, no sign of life anywhere in this quiet building. I searched several
levels of the structure, taking several wrong turns and becoming lost, the unceasing shadows of
the machines over-running the walls, a constant reminder that they had become my
sole accompaniment I returned to the room, and collapsed into the bed, a
profound loneliness spread over me. The minutes dripped by like days, I closed
my eyes, and tried to sleep, but I couldn’t. I just stared up through the
windows, watching the machines – endlessly turning, cold and uncaring in their
robotic motions, threatening with their size. The walls began to close in, I was
becoming trapped inside what had changed from a frozen paradise to a chilly
prison. The motions began to wear me down and I had to close my eyes, which
could have helped but the shadows the machines created contrasted so strongly
with the light that I could still sense them.
Suddenly, I heard a large crash, immediately
followed by another, even louder. It
shook the entire building – unbalancing the careful concentration I had built
and shattering what little serenity I had managed to regain. As I came to my
feet, another pair of loud crashes. These sounded a little bit different than
those of before, more like screams of angry creatures. I ran to the other side
of the building. Another large noise, now sounding even more frightening, like a
screech. I continued to run, when the corner of the building I was in sustained
a devastating blow, throwing me to the floor, without warning. I crawled around,
absolutely terrified, my heart racing with fear. Then another loud shout, and I
fell down again, lying on the ground, with a sense of helplessness. Another
screech, and then an audible whimper. I had no idea what was going on, but I was
terrified.
I crouched on the ground for
several minutes, absolutely still. After a while, I didn’t hear any more
screams or crashes. I stood up again, my body and mind had calmed down enough
for me to walk, so I slowly walked down the hall, towards where the terrifying
screams came from. The sole good thing about this, was that whatever it was, I
was no longer alone here, and that made me feel better despite the fact that I
had no idea exactly what form it would take. I slowly made my way to a large
staircase, and peered out the window. I could see the back of something’s
hind legs. It terrified and fascinated me so I investigated further. As I went
further down the stairs, more of the creature was revealed what looked like a
giant wing much larger than I was at least 20 feet high.
After seeing this, I felt two immediate and contradictory urges: to run away as fast as
possible – and the probably imprudent need to see more of this magnificent and
terrifying beasts. Slowly, I walked down the stairs and reached the ground
level. I stood against the wall in the hallway, trying to see more of the
creature, but terrified it would notice me, I held back and couldn’t really
see much more of the beast. I slowly opened the door at which point, I was
shocked to see not one but two of these large creatures standing there.
Surprisingly, these creatures seemed relatively calm given the roars I had
heard. I was also surprised that there was no perceptible damage to the area,
except for where the creatures stood, things looked exactly as they had before.
Each step I took was a careful and measured by fear, with the unstable ground
making each of my steps even more dangerous. As I began to slowly move further
towards the source of these terrifying noises, my anxiety increased
exponentially, building to the point of sheer terror and panic.
> Go to Chapter 4
