Alice…
Alice was lightly stepping along next to the pounding and scratching of the wolf-man’s heavy and long strides. Alice was paying little attention to the cave walls, who had soon became a simple image blurring together, Alice’s mind was fluttering with all kinds of thoughts, some she was unsure why they kept popping in her head.
One of these being the small frustration of not being able to remember what she had been doing prior to waking here alongside…whatever this thing was she was following, but she had snips and pieces of memories, just none that could have led to her current situation. Other things popped in her head like what had attacked her, what was she doing in the woods, and other similar questions. As she pondered more of the subject a sharp pain struck her and she stopped for a second, holding her fingers to her temples. The pain subsided and her train of thought was derailed, Alice forgot what she was thinking about.
The nameless one had stopped and looked back to where she had stopped and looked at her with an expression, unreadable to the human.
She assumed his feelings of curiosity “I’m ok, just a little headache” Alice Held a hand to her forehead and sighed before catching back up, once she did the nameless looked down upon her with its deep, aching eyes.
“I’m fine, but thank you for…your…concern” Alice started to rub her eyes for they started to burn and ache.
Without any warning, Alice felt her feet be swept up off the ground and she was hosted up into the arms the nameless. Without saying anything too him, he took her down the cave and he did not set her down, and he would have if she ever asked him to do so, but she did no such thing.
The young girl, somewhat cradled into the burly wolf, looked up past his jowls and into his eyes which were pinned straight forward with his face’s expression worn like a dog, literally. Yet passed his animal like features, he had the look of suppression, fear, and emptiness.
Alice felt somewhat heart broken, yet relived with the nameless one. Being still a young girl and having little to no memories to fall back on, she could not image what demons lying behind those eyes of his, but ironically this gave the girl a sense of security, whatever it may be, she could be protected from it while she was in the presence of this creature.
“Did we know one another for long, were we close, or knew each by face?” Alice hoped for a positive response, but was only saddened by a shake of the head.
“I wish we did…you seem nice to know” The nameless one stopped, Alice began to fear she had said something to upset him. With surprising gentleness, she was set back onto her feet and when she looked to the wolfish face, Alice caught a shimmer of something flickering in the corner of his eyes.
As he set her down, the feeling of a light breath of wind blew across her face and toyed with her hair in the wind. The smell of fresh air filled the insides of her lungs as she took a light breath of the breeze. Along with the angelic wind, the sound…birds, birds singing a light tone filled her with a twisting feeling.
“oh!’ Alice was brought back to the stone environment when she tripped slightly over a small indention in the floor. The anticipation and excitement was nulled momentarily as she stepped out from the minor concave in the floor.
The mass behind her had just lightly pressed its leathery hand, which stretched from her shoulder blade to its claws on her upper hip, over her back as she placed herself on even ground and edged her on.
Finally, the light from the outside sun was flooding over the stone, dirt, and shadow and blinded the world beyond the cave’s maw. With great anticipation, the pace was quickened even without any actual thought to do so. Before she could take the last few steps out of the opening, her vision became mostly covered with another hand from the nameless one, the feelings inside her body drowned in disappointment as she could not see what she so desperately long for.
When the light had finally dulled, the nameless removed its hand, and her eyes no longer burned from the light, a great landscape of tall, lush, woodlands with a mixing color of harvest gold, autumn yellow and auburn.
Stretching far along the hill the cave was nestled into, down to a valley and back up into a sharp mountain filled horizon, the forest was a sight of outlasting awe. The sun was setting over the mountain peaks and to the south of what she could see, a river, at the lowest point of the valley was flowing into a great oval shaped lake, the tree line distant from the water’s edge. The wind, as Alice could see, came flowing through the valley to the north east bring along a wave of aromas and sounds. There was a sound of rustling as the leaves blew about, and the wind rushing through the valley below, but there was something else that drowned all else, and it was the song of the birds.
Everything from a light chirp, to a whole song strung together from random tones of the avian’s filled the sky, the wind, the whole world to Alice was engulfed in there strange trans-like lullaby. The best explanation for her feelings was as if a man, blind and deaf from birth, finally could see and hear with his first experience is that of the whole world.
Time was irrelevant, but it was no more than a minute of gawking until a low deep howl rumbled from the wolf beside her, breaking her bewilderment. The howl echoed down the valley and into the open lake below, rolling into the distance softly.
Before Alice could rip on her companion, a howl had responded, this one hearty, and smooth but muffled from the distance.
“What was that for, what did you do?” Alice looked to the nameless who did not answer, unsurprisingly. The great beast took its long strides past the young girl and started down a trail she failed to notice before, and slowly crept into the woods. Alice started off after him.
The path was just an ineptly made. The trail was more of an old path of dead vegetation surrounding a pale girt of earth. The trees, bushes, and shrubs were all conformed to something of similar size to the great beast in front of her. Leaves, acorns, twigs, and pebbles also littered the earthy floor, making the walk uncomforting and awkward on her bare feet.
The shift in air was noticeable even from her stand point, Alice could almost fell the dreading sense the nameless carried over himself. Alice nagged on the desire to at least try and comfort him, but she could not find anything suitable to tell him, nor did she have a clue why he became so different, so sudden.
The walked in silence, they made it down the incline before the area started to flatten for the river. The path had arced to the left into a small clearing no more than 3 meters in diameter, but the trees branches had interlocked over them. Before the duo continued the path another howl, this one higher in tone than the others, filled the forest. Alice stopped before the nameless who had halted as well. He stood hunched over slightly, and howled like he did before.
The wolf lowered his head slowly to the girl, making full eye contact with her, raised his arm to point down the path that lead on before them to the river bank, but he would not be going with her.
When Alice looked back to the nameless, he already had his back to her and was skulking back to the cave.
“Wait!” He did not “No please, wait a moment!” Alice started for him, but as she did, in an instant he spun around and snapped his jaws at her. Alice stopped.
The wolf stood to his full height and looked down angrily at the girl, turned his back to the broken expression of Alice and quickly made his way back up the hill.
She was afraid and broken…she was alone again…
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Alice took light steps alongside the river, flowing with a lazy, sleepy pace. The path was a small arm’s throw to her left. She had been following it for a while until took a turn and flowed some distance heading in the direction of the lake.
Alice had come some distance from the clearing but it felt as if she never moved, walking in place forever. Eventually she became tired and walked to the edge of the river. There was a large, grounded out rock that was nestled half-way into the river, the other into the green covered bank.
Alice, gingerly set herself on top off the rock, and swung herself around so she would to be facing the river. Other out cropping’s of thick large branches, rounded stones and boulders filled the water. Having actual interest in it, Alice guessed the distance was roughly 10 meters across, but the water became too dark in the center to guess its depth. A slight draft of wind rustled the trees, prying a hand full of leaves of most of the trees. Alice followed one of the leaves as it’s twisted, as the wind spurred it into the river with a small ripple and drifted away.
Alice watched the leaf mix and disappear like the rest of those who drifted into the water, before swinging her legs over and into the river. The hair on her legs stood on edge from the cold, but she was relax as the dirt and smears washed away.
Alice Looked down and could hardly see the reflection of herself looking back to her, but she could still make out the great matted mess of her hair. She leaned over and with one hand scooped up some of the cool water and poured it over her head letting the water run off her face. A few drips had made their way down her back, or past her breasts, giving her goose bumps.
Using her fingers like a comb, she pulled out the knots and cleaned out the dirt. As she was doing so, Alice noticed the white gown she had been wearing, was no longer white, it was mixed of dirt, dust, and blood. Alice pulled her hair back, before sliding of the rock into the water.
The murk was soft and slimy as it filled the crevices between her toes. Alice walked a few more inches into the water stopped, and repeated until the water rose to just below her chest. Alice was only a feet from her perch. Her gown was being pulled in the direction of the water flowed. The body of the young girl was slow to adjust to the water but as it did, she submerged her head and quickly came back up.
Alice spent some time rubbing the stains from the gown, she would use her nails, her hands, or even the other parts of the gown to try and clean her attire. Eventually she worked her way up to her shoulder by pouring water over the blood stains. When she tried to rub the stain, she felt a strange ridge in her skin, unnatural almost.
Alice had an uneasy feeling as she pulled away the tattered clothing. She pulled away and screamed. She revealed a wound that looked as if she was stabbed though the shoulder with a stake. The skin inside and around the wound was cracking and had gone completely black, large pulsating veins lurched all the way over her back, down her, arm, and across her sides. Some kind of sickly pus had made the whole wound stick and her gown covered in flakes of black.
Alice screamed and fell backwards into the water, and sank, she started to struggle and fight her way to the surface but it floated away in the darkness, eventually it was gone, any hope to save herself was gone, water filled her nose as she sank…
One last effort she pushed the inviable binding and fought until the burning sensation overcame her and she inhaled…air.
In a moment she was flying forward back into reality, the forest, out of the water. Alice’s heart was nearly bursting out of her chest for every beat it took, her lungs inflating and dilating with air. She was alongside the bank looking up into the sky turned blood crimson from the setting sun.
“As many before you, the self-reflection of this river…has afflicted many”
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