Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Catch Hollow Stairs

Reaching out quickly, you try to grab the creature with both hands. The branches shift slightly under your weight and, as you hands close around the scaly creature, you slip and fall. Your fall is arrested by vines and you hang there for a moment swinging. The creature in your grasp is almost calm, looking around with its eyestalks and purring softly. Using one hand you haul yourself onto a large branch.

Inspecting the creature, you find that its skin feels like rubber. Beneath the skin you can feel a whirring sensation as it moves quite unlike bones and muscle. The eyes of the creature regard you with glassy impassiveness as they scan around. A second creature, like the one in your hands but a different hue, lands upon a near branch. Then a third, and a fourth, landing just out of reach.

Your fall has taken you deeper into the crown of the tree, all around you is a network of branches forming a hollow. You subconsciously let go of the creature as you take in the grandeur around you. The hollow is large, lighted by scattered pinpricks of sunlight and glows a living amber. The air is crisp and clean with only the faint whisper of a breeze. At the center of the hollow is a naturally formed stair leading down into the great oak.

-Rest a while.
-Go down the stair.
-Try to climb out.
- ?

This is a post in response to Porky's "Blogging Our Adventures", which is an amazing project so far. If you want to start at the beginning, or figure out what this is all about, click.

1 comment:

Porky said...

I love this. The tree is already quite developed, and although there's no real obligation to match tone and style, this blends in smoothly, and opens things up in a natural way. I'll make the updates now.