I always thought the Sleeping Forest was made up. Something medics had always theorized about but had never been able to confirm. Many believed it was just our sleeping minds harking back to our primal lives, living in the forests of the three Rethan planets before we became civilized. But you see, a Rethan does not normally fall into a coma. You sleep or you die, you don’t do both.
Here I am though, in a coma. I should have died but my brother did his best to save me from such a long fall. Where my true body is, I do not know. My mind is trapped in its own dark sleep, from which I wish to escape. And my comatose thoughts have created a forest. The exact forest described by fringe medics and scared scientists.
And when I say exactly, I mean exactly. Solid black, lifeless trees, with tattered branches. Slimy black vines that claw across tree trunks and scrape along the ground, trying to grab anything that comes close. A long, eerie silence, only ever broken by the occasional cry or scream, as some sleeping soul is taken away to places unknown. A cold, purple mist that nearly blinds you. It all seems to stem from one long, snaking, shimmering river.
As I walk through this horrible place, I wonder if the Sleeping Forest is really just an elusive form of Death? I have heard the tails of Kinigi, the Eternal River that life flows through, reincarnating and recycling life. Surely the river here must be related to it. After all, it so closely matches the Eternal River that so many Rethans believe in.
I should not be asleep. I was caught off guard, and thrown off my feet. I will not let that happen again.
I must leave this place. But how? The rushing water is the only sign of any direction. No matter which way I walk away from it, I always end up at another bend in the river. This place makes no sense. Logically, I should follow the water downstream. The shimmering flow should guide me to safety, or at least to some form of civilization, as is often the case in reality. But this is not reality as I understand it.
Yet I am unable to take a single step before something breaks the silence. Someone calling my name? Who would know I am here? It has been long known that being in a coma and Threan-based telepathy do not mix, so who could be able to contact me? External stimuli perhaps? The only known example of true communication was Comatic Sleep Talking but it was deemed too dangerous for the average Rethan.
Still this voice calls to me.
I am beginning to think it is a trick of my own mind. Perhaps I am dying. It wouldn’t be a huge surprise, considering the pain, the fall…
But I am drawn to the voice.
Despite what my instinct tells me, I decide to go and find the source of this voice. Both it and I are now looking for each other. Only a hundred steps and I find it.
“Elkay!”
I blink several times. What are the chances of me conjuring up my little brother?
“Thank the Light! I found you! Veekay was right, you’re not dead!”
Arkay appears to speak a mile a minute. His appearance is as cold as the forest around us. Scratched armour, bruised and bleeding skin, heavy eyes. Despite his pained, outward appearance, he emotionally seems very happy to see me.
“What are you doing here?” I can’t help but ask.
“I… came here to find you. Veekay said you weren’t dead, that your heart was still beating even as the medics took you away and pronounced you dead. Everyone involved ended up getting thrown in the Kryan Catacombs and left to die because we didn’t do a good enough job protecting you.”
I am incredibly confused by what Arkay is telling me. Clearly this is not my own dementia, but something else entirely.
“They put the K-Class in the Catacombs?” I blurt, unable to focus.
“Yep. All of us. Including me. That’s why I’m here and not one of the others. I’m going to be dead soon anyway.”
“You… were taken from the KSA hospital and dumped in the Kryan Catacombs for failing to protect me?” I can feel the anger rising inside me, but I do my best to remain calm. Arkay though can sense my anger and visibly starts to hesitate and stutter.
“N-no… We were… Um… I don’t know. When you died, I was asleep, under anaesthetic. I didn’t… even find out until a day later and when I did, I was in the Catacombs with everyone else… Everyone though thinks you are dead, Elkay…”
I sigh. I have no answers, nothing to say. I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. I do not want to do anything stupid. All I can muster is one question.
“What do we do now, brother?”
Arkay glances around, as if he is looking for something. His head twists to the side, listening. After a moment of thought, he starts walking past me, back towards the river.
“You need to wake up. We can’t do anything until you wake up.”
Arkay starts running. I race to catch up with him. As we reach the river, he starts following it upstream and beckons me to come along too. He clearly knows these lands better than I do.
“We follow the river upstream, back to consciousness. Downstream leads to the dead ocean, then to Kinigi.”
“How do you know this?”
“I’ve been here before.”
I frown, but Arkay doesn’t mind. He quickens his pace almost as if he is challenging me to race him. I do not take his bait, I just want to follow my brother. But the further we run, the more… uphill the river seems to go. Worse, the vines behind us seem to be… closing in? It can’t just be my imagination, as Arkay sees it as well.
“Death wants him…” I hear Arkay mutter under his breath. “Well she can’t… Not yet…”
Suddenly, the terrain changes. Ahead of us is a sheer cliff face, a literal wall of rock. The river is no longer a strong current, but a powerful waterfall, coming from within a small cave about a hundred meters off the ground. Without any hesitation, Arkay starts climbing up the cliff face, but I can see the weakness building in his arms and legs. He is struggling. The black, tentacle-like vines are catching up with us.
I am reminded of the fact that I have wings. With a single flap, I take off and catch up with Arkay, my arms outstretched.
“Grab on, little brother.”
Arkay’s weight slows me down greatly, but I breathe deep and slowly start to ascend. The cave is small, so I drop Arkay into the cave mouth, where he slips a little, only just managing to catch himself. He doesn’t pull himself into the cave though.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes!” Arkay shouts. “Get in there! Wake up!” The vines have all but caught up with us. Arkay looks down and starts kicking at them.
“But…”
“No buts! You need to wake up! Go! I’ll catch up to you!”
I land in the cave mouth and start running. There is no room to fly. I glance behind me and see that Arkay has pulled himself up, but he is still fending off the vines.
“Please, Elkay. I’ll be fine. You’re Elkay Theanon, the Vice General. You’re more important than I am.”
“This is not the last time I will see you.”
“It’s not. I promise. Move, now!”
I keep on running. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. The sloshing of water quietens down, the river turning into nothing more than a trickle. I run into silence, the frantic struggle far behind me.
Nothing.
There is nothing.
But then there is everything.
I open my eyes. I am alive. I am awake. Just as Arkay wanted. But as I start to make sense of my newly regained reality, I realise that a new threat awaits me.