Living Forest (13 page)

Staring eye to eye with Sleeping Star, he brings me forth into the massive tree he encumbers. The tree’s grains crush and crunch the remains of my bones and body into liquid jelly. Blackness takes over my sight. I can see no more, but I remain feeling what Sleeping Star feels. No pain, pure hatred, and a sudden stop of time ponders heavy on my mind leaving me feeling dead once again.

The tree that once held Sleeping Star immediately collapses to the ground as if all life truly left it. Quakes shake the ground as each massive limb trembles before the force of impact. Lightning pierces the sky, repeatedly striking the heart of the tree. With each snap cracking sound shimmying the atmosphere, a circle of fire breaks free around the tree. High in the air the real Sleeping Star rose. His eyes glow white. Dark red stained blood covers his body in a tribal tattooing.

Black hair, pulled back in a ponytail, reaches the small of his back. His skin tone is dark red, nearly brown, making it mildly difficult to see his tattooing. Sleeping Star hovers down from the air with lightning flowing from his hands. His eyes are burning out in fire and smoke from surges of lightning. All that remains for his eyes are two charred eye sockets. The moment Sleeping Star touches foot onto the ground he leaps high in the air. In mid leap, he transforms into a Giant Jaguar.

Standing on four paws almost seven feet tall from ground to back and over fifteen feet in length, he’s a prehistoric monster. In transformation he now has eyes, and it’s a pair that glow bright yellow. His entire body is covered with dark brown fur that has a black spotted design. Sleeping Star quickly runs to where he previously met Hollister and Amanda. Not taking any chances, he wants to confirm their death. We will now continue the story through the second life of Sleeping Star.

Racing upon where I last seen the jeep with disappointment and anger, raging growls bellow from me.

“Rrroooaaarrrr!”

Hollister and Amanda are nowhere to be found. Their bodies are expected to be mangled, but yet not even one drop of blood remains for evidence left behind. Trying to sniff out a scent, none can be found, it’s like they disappeared without a trace. For miles I race around hunting down even the slightest trace of them.

The blood scent of a woman momentarily bristles through the breeze. I think to myself,

“Wait! I have it.”

A quick southern breeze shifts me near the direction this all began. Almost the exact same place I gave my soul to the box for me to have life. Quickly, I cover much tree barren land with my four giant paws. I stop. I stand up. As I stand I transform back into myelf, Sleeping Star. Even though my eyes have been burnt, I see differently. The same lightning that took my sight, gave me sight. I see from looking at the electrical currents in all life. Even a blade of grass can be seen with my sight now. Even though everything is the same color, seeing who it is I’m killing is simple. Maybe even more simple than before, because every feature about you stands out more.

There’s one thing about me everyone should know before I go into this cavern leading to the City of Gold to kill Hollister and Amanda. I need to let everyone know why I must live. I must remain to remind everyone of their crimes. Civilization after civilization falls to blind hate. Taking whatever they want and claim that it’s theirs. Even go as far as to kill the first people to have ever walked this land, over land. They’ve stolen mountains of gold and silver, deep wells of oil, and destroyed historical artifacts of great non-replaceable meaning. Taking all of our precious things and claim them as their own.

Rape, kill, and torment races until near extinction. Still today many different races continue to suffer from their new world wrath. They don’t stop to make right their wrongs, but instead they keep making wrongs thinking it is right. Worse of all, if anyone stands against them for what’s truly right, they destroy them and make those left settle for cracker crumbs to survive on. I’m here to end generations of pain from suffering. I am Sleeping Star, and this is my vow to those who don’t belong.

Walking down a small cavern opening, I find three possible paths to take. Two of them lead nearly the same direction. The other path is hidden under a rock ledge to my left. Just ahead to my right contains a carved tunnel on top, and a natural tunnel on bottom. The bottom tunnel resembles that of a washout tunnel. Choosing the top right man made tunnel, it’s perfectly flat on bottom with an upside down U shape top. There’s just enough room for me to spider crawl through. The tunnel stretches out for at least five hundred feet.

Reaching the end, it opens into a giant cavern. Bats dangle from the ceiling like an infestation of flying rats waiting on a meal. There are seven visible paths to take. One tunnel is directly in front of me and continues to move straight. It’s a much larger hole than the rest of the tunnels. Moving through the path, I can tell after about forty feet in that man has carved this hole. This tunnel is leading North, North-East. A half collapsed wall nearly blocks the path ahead. It looks like debris has been moved around recently to get through.

A pungent aroma, lingering through the near stale air, sends nausea pains through my gut.

“Sniff, Sniff.”

The smell is of Amanda’s blood. Knowing I’m on the right trail, my muscles tense as I pick up the pace. The tunnel floor begins to split open in the center, dropping down to another cavern below. Carefully walking around a corner, the tunnel ends.

“Click, clank, clack,”

Rocks tumble down what looks to be a never ending hole. I look around for any path to take around the large drop, but there are none. I know they had to come this way. Pondering the situation I think,

“Maybe they turned back and climbed down through the lower cavern.”

Turning back around the corner, I find myself at a foothold down. The crevice is very narrow, causing great difficulty for myself. It continues to get smaller. I can’t help to find myself wandering how they’d even fit here. The pungent stagnated aroma of Amanda’s blood curls my sense of smell once more, but letting me know that I’m on the right path. Now ready to drop down to the level below, it’s a ten feet drop with no good place to land. Dangling off of the ledge, I let go. The breaking of bones sound through the stale dusty air,

“Crash, crack, pop, snap”

I land on top a pile of human remains. The snapping of rib cages and tumbling of bones had to have alerted Hollister of my presence. Knowing there’s a deep drop no more than fifty feet in front of me, I look elsewhere for the path which they would’ve taken. Quickly I realize this is no cavern room, but a giant tunnel. I leap into the air transforming into the Giant Jaguar.

Racing down the tunnel with four paws, I adjust naturally as if I’ve always been like this. Stampeding like a herd of Buffalo’s, I can’t help noticing the massive amounts of human remains scattered throughout this seemingly never ending tunnel. Before the tunnels end, I come upon a rock alter that stretches eighty feet in length. The stone slab is around twenty feet wide, and it stands five feet tall. Encumbering the top of it is what looks to be a giant gold suit of armor and a thirty foot sword made out of a substance resembling diamonds. A name is etched in gold across the hilt of the sword. It reads,

“GOLIATH”

Painful groans echo towards me from the tunnel. Faint noises can be heard ahead in the distant. Creeping stealthily, I gain the element of surprise. A quivering female voice slightly echoes through the large cavern ahead,

“I know you’ll get blood everywhere, but it’s the only way to end the curse before he finds us and kills us.”

A weakened male voice reluctantly responds,

“I know there’s no other way. Didn’t it say something about we had to do this at the alter?”

The female voice quickly replies,

“Yes, but we must hurry. He will be...”

The vicious sound of a snarling roar rips through the cavern walls as if near explosion, silencing Amanda’s tongue.

“RRRRROOOOAAAARRRR!”

From the shadows I creep into sight, my fur still camouflaging me with the rock. Amanda, being the closest to me, is frozen with fear. The smell of blood is angering me to the point of prance and kill. Instead of ending it quickly, I feel like playing. It’s not like they’re going anywhere as the only way out is behind me. I lift up, stand on two paws, and transform into man as I stand. Static electricity surges from my fingertips like miniature lightning bolts as I await any kind of movement from the two of them.

Chapter Twelve

In this chapter we will rewind the clock up to the point when Hollister found Amanda inside the storm drain in Jay, Oklahoma. I will now continue through the life of Hollister Wolf.

Looking at Amanda, I don’t know how to respond. At one moment in my life she’s making love to me, the next kidnapping. Even worse, she helped or at least is an accessory to my death. Otherwise Sleeping Star would still be just that, sleeping. A quivering tone shakes through Amanda as she manically says,

“He’s going to find me and kill me.”

Tears begin to flow from her like a river. She begins shivering as if she’s cold. I’m cold too, but not from the weather. It’s because of the death and destruction that resonates across this land. Reassuringly I reply,

“There are no trees in sight Amanda. I want the death I brought to stop. Do you know how we can do this?”

Still mentally broken from the hell on Earth, Amanda seems to do nothing, except weep. I’d leave her here to die, but I know this is a journey that can’t be made alone. I raise my voice to Amanda and talk in a scolding manner while pointing my finger at her.

“I don’t care if you answer me or not Amanda. All I know is that I can’t do this alone. I need you to pull yourself together and help me find a way to stop them from killing everyone on Earth.”

Amanda nods her head back and forth making the notion she’ll help me. With her breathing slowing down to normal she looks at me and regretfully says,

“I never wanted you to die Hollister. All I’ve ever wanted was to prove to the world that my family’s legacy does exist, but I never wanted this.”

Interrupting Amanda I speak firmly when saying,

“We can stay here all day casting blame on ourselves, but that will not save us or anyone else from the trees. Do you know where we must go?”

Grabbing my hand and shuffling her feet to stand, her breathing becomes shoddy.

“My fa...”

Amanda coughs then swallows the lump in her throat that chokes her when even thinking about her father.

“My father always told me that all lost answers can be found in the City of Gold. I don’t know if our answer’s there, but it’s all I know and all I’ve ever known.”

Letting her hand go, I sigh in dissatisfaction. Amanda quickly enrages in temper. Flinging her fists to her side and stomping her feet, screamingly she states,

“I’m telling the truth Hollister. Why don’t you believe me?”

Quickly I reply,

“It’s not that Amanda, and I can give you a few reasons to not trust you.”

Amanda interrupts me not giving me a chance to finish.

“Then what is it Hollister?”

Sarcastically I respond,

“If you’d let me finish then maybe you would know why I sigh. Now that all the trees are gone, the landscape is different and it’ll be very hard to find where we were.”

Amanda no longer looks angry, rather she looks confused pondering my truth. Sadly I say,

“We will not get anywhere standing here. This is something we can discuss on our way to my grandfather’s house. We can search from there, but we will have to walk.”

A short lived moment of serenity takes over Amanda. She speaks with some excitement,

“Maybe we don’t have to walk, we can ride.”

Knowing what the roads look like, I hastily reply.

“There’s no way we can drive there without a four-wheeler or something like it. The trees made sure of that when they destroyed the roads.”

Amanda replies mocking my previous sarcasm.

“Now look who’s jumping the gun, who said anything about driving? When I was racing away for help, I managed to see many horses at a farm not far from the gas station on the corner of highway twenty and fifty-nine. Just a few miles from here and along the way to your home. If we’re lucky enough we can ride one there. We could’ve taken the bike I borrowed without permission if it hadn’t been crushed.”

Walking back through the blood painted city, I can’t help wandering about how bad the rest of the world is beginning to look like. There are no trees in sight. Billions of trees once clustered this land, and now they’re tools for death and destruction. I don’t know how we’re going to defeat something that’s neither dead nor alive. As we walk down the blood splattered desolate highway fifty-nine interrogatively I ask Amanda,

“Exactly how did you survive among all those who died back there where you were?”

Amanda reluctantly responds,

“I don’t want to remember it Hollister. Their screams of terror and pain are still haunting my mind. If you must know when I arrived at the courthouse, they were already preparing for war. Before they all were murdered, a native jumped in front of me and pushed me out of the way. I watched a branch impale him, leaving him staked to the ground. That limb was meant for me. All I could do is run. I stole a motor cycle that was lying by the road. I couldn’t out run them so I drove the bike into a ditch and dived into the drain. I thought I was going to be crushed, but then they just left as if being called away. Then there was nothing more than silence, for what felt like hours, until you found me.”