Seasonless 60% of Chapter 1

1. The Dream and Dreamers
Daniel had no clue as to how he ended up in the middle of a burning forest which caged him. Stretching out in every direction was an inferno of entwined burning trees and shriveling greenery. Many other people were all around him; equally petrified. They were all wearing coats. A tall blond man in a n orange coat had his back to him, his arms over his head in a gesture of confusion.
Daniel looked down at himself and gasped. He was wearing a thick black coat, his hands were covered in soft plush mittens, he was wearing two layers of pants, and he didn't sweat a drop.
His hands trembled with his body. How am I going to get out of here? He frantically scanned the environment, for any opening in his flaming surroundings.
Daniel's eyes grew wide. The fire was in the vague form of a square, matching the distant tree line. The people trapped with him paced around as if the very ground would swallow them. Daniel shivered. What was going on? He hadn't gone camping last night. Was I sleep walking? It was possible, but doubtful, because never in his life had he sleep walked. And why are all the people here with him?
The grass singed and blackened as the blaze crept in on him. The flames were about fifty yards in each direction, and closing in by the second. Wait, are the trees moving away from me? It might have been only a hallucination, but it looked like the trees were moving away from him. He spun in a circle and saw the trees slowly push themselves outward, untwisting.
Strange things dreams are. Where did that come from? A frightened fawn taking shelter in a flower bed that he hadn't noticed before caught his attention. The young deer was crying out an agonizing melody of sorrow. Its animal cry struck a vein in his heart. “Easy, little guy,” Daniel said. The fawn raised its head to look at him. He saw his face reflected in its glassy black eyes. He looked bald since his black hair was invisible in the oily depths of its beady eyes.
He peered up at the sound of foot falls crunching on the grass. A girl was walking in his direction. Her brown hair hanging over her shoulders like a pair of arms. Her face was rather cute, even with the dark spots under her eyes. She smiled at him nervously before crouching down next to the deer. Daniel noted that her hair was dry.
“Aren't you just the cutest thing? You look like Bambi,” she said, seeming to lose herself in the deer’s eyes. The girl looked up from the fawn, and to the trees.
The man in the orange coat jogged to the left, exposing the side of his face. He wasn't a man, not an adult at least. He was a teenager, probably no older than him. As if that were an indication, Daniel rubbed his chin, stubble scraping against his fingers. It's like I haven't shaved in weeks.
The fiery trees were now at least a quarter of a mile away! His mouth hung open at the super natural nature of the hallucination. He heard animal footsteps approaching fast.
The girl glanced at him once and then looked to the foot pounds which were growing in intensity. A stag galloped out of the wall of fire, and toward the bed of flowers where the fawn hid. Its antlers were on fire, while the rest of its body was unsigned by the flames. It was as if the stag's brown fur was coated in fire resistant chemicals.
The girl sprang to her feet and gazed down at the deer and then whipped her head to him. She looked like she wanted to ask him something. “Come on go,” the girl said almost pleading down to the deer, “you can't stay here.” When the deer was twenty feet away the girl ran off, looking over her shoulder. “Run!” she said.
Daniel was about to yell something back before his mouth clamped shut, and his body shivered. He had the impulse to sprint straight into the dancing flames, hoping he could run the distance out of the fire. The stag’s presence gave out an ambiance of horror. It gave him a look unlike that of a predator, shaking its head in an act of dominance.
Unable to move a muscle, Daniel watched as the stag bent down to nudge the fawn as if to comfort it.
The fawn backed away as the burning antlers of the stag touched the flowers. They instantly burst into flame. The fire consumed the flowers until all that was left was a pile of ash. The ash then turned white. Daniel continued to tremble, still unable to find the will to move. What is that stuff?
Suddenly the kind of vapor that Daniel saw when he exhaled during a particularly chilly winter day whiffed out of the whitened ash. The ash had become snow! The fawn slowly walked forward and stood on the snow, its hoofed feet sinking into it. Suddenly plants began to sprout in the snow.
“Look at that!” someone yelled.
Daniel looked back top see who had said it. There were dozens of faces, all with the same shocked expressions. He could not decipher which had spoken. Daniel turned back to face the front and his tongue went dry.
Where there once stood beautiful flowers now sprouted an ominous rose bush. The thorns were coated with blood, and flowers of various unnatural colors sprouted. Black, blue, and whitish silver colored flowers were in full bloom on the plants stems.
Wow, that's amazing! But, something deep within him told him it was the most vile and repulsive thing his eyes have ever had the displeasure of seeing.
“Can anybody smell the smoke?” someone said. There was silence, except for the crackling of tree limbs.
“No,” several people replied, both boys and girls.
Daniel rumpled his brow. He inhaled deeply, baffled. Why couldn't he smell any smoke? He should have been coughing uncontrollably with all the smoke floating over him, like a ghostly apparition. He was no expert on the chemical and physical breakup of fire, but wouldn't the heat from a fire of this intensity reach him even from this distance?
Duh, this is a dream. It sure seemed all too real though. He had heard that you couldn't feel pain in a dream. He pinched himself and winced. It wasn't true. When he pinched himself he felt it alright. What was with all the people? They were behaving so realistically.
Daniel rarely dreamed. He couldn't even recall the last time that he had, so being surrounded by such strange sights was awe inspiring. He was quite afraid; he didn't know if he should just stay where he was and close his eyes. Maybe when he opened them he'd be in another scene, hopefully one without fire.
He jumped when the stag let out an ear-piercingly distress call. Its head was reared toward the sky. The flames scorching and licking at the trees were suddenly extinguished. Unlike the flower bed not all of them turned into the snowy ash. Some of them, most notably the taller and healthier looking of the trees, weren't even burned at all.
“I think now's our chance to go!” a girl hollered.
People began to move toward the tree line, but they soon ground to a halt.
New alien plant life began to grow in the snow, just like with the flower bed. Some piles of snow simply melted and left behind normal looking grass. The trees that did grow back were as equally menacing as the rose bush. The bark of their trunks was the same whitish gray color, and the leaves which were shaped like stars were black. They glistened like oil stains in the faint glow of the stags burning antlers.
Mountains loomed beyond the trees. Their miles high peaks were obscured by misty clouds. Those mountains make the Himalayas look like ant hills, he thought. He had only seen pictures of them in books, and on the Internet. But these dwarfed even Mount Everest. The peaks were so high up he had to crane his neck up to even see the point where the clouds coiled around the peaks like snakes.
When he was done gawking at the wondrous view of the mountains he scanned every inch of the field catching the yes of many. A girl with golden blonde hair who looked thirteen, was gazing toward the mountains. His eyes lingered on her. The way she stared at it was as if it were the first beautiful sight she had ever beheld.
She quickly looked away when she realized that he has looking at her. Daniel wanted to apologize, but instead he shrugged and turned to where the fawn was, beside the rose bush. His mouth dropped open. It was gone! Where it once stood was a miniature pond of shimmering water.
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Andrew was one-hundred percent sure he was dreaming. If it weren't so he'd be screaming. He was considered the perfect son in his father’s eyes and by other adults a role model for other teens. Andrew knew he was neither of those things. He was a deceiver. Sure he was Mr. Perfect around his father and in class, but subtract them from the equation and he was an ass-hole.
He was a cruel nearly heartless man. Signing a pact was not his style. When presented with one he chose denial. Once upon a time I learned to rhyme, sort of. Taking slow steps, he approached the puddle, where the boy with crow black hair still stood.
Andrew shook his head. The dream was so strange. He had just seen a fawn dissolve into water for crying out loud! The boy stepped aside for him without looking at him. He peered down at the liquid. Staring at the water where the baby deer had been Andrew felt like he was looking at the surface of the ocean from a plane. In the watery mirror was a blonde haired blue eyed boy.
He surveyed the area. Andrew had considered picking up the fawn and throwing it in the fire just to have a bit of mean-spirited enjoyment in the dream. However, he couldn't get himself to do it no more than he would willingly throw himself into a fire in the real world. So he had suppressed the desire, and it wasn't just because that girl and boy were standing near it. No, something inside had told him that the fawn was standing in for... him.
He cringed when tiny droplets of blood began to drip from the rosebush and onto the surface of the water. Where they plopped onto the puddle the water and dispensed it became an ugly greenish-yellow colored muddle. More and more blood drops fell in the water leaving its surface in disorder. The water turned and swelled. It could have been just him, but it sure looked like the two types of water were fighting each other. If they were the disgusting looking water was definitely winning. If he tasted it no doubt it would be bitter. This must be what crazy people dream; my world is spinning out of control.
“My goodness, that's disgusting,” the boy, who was now standing at his left said.
Andrew said nothing and instead tugged at the tight orange coat he was wearing. He half expected it to be white. He had a dry sense of humor whenever he tried to be funny. It was a miracle that he hadn't been admitted into an asylum after the event that turned him into a bullying terror.
"Wow!" he gasped as a loud flapping noise fluttered overhead. "Wow," he said again, this time so overwhelmed by what was happening that he couldn't have screamed if he wanted to. Coming from all four corners of the trees every kind of animal imaginable was lumbering, slithering, swinging, and flying toward the center of the field that no longer existed. For in its place was a vast expanse of water.
“Hey man, look at the ground!” the boy said, startling him.
“Sure, whatever imaginary being,” Andrew said looking down. He practically jumped out of his skin when he realized the ground beneath his feet consisted of liquid. Could there be a squid with an eye the size of a pie under there? Andrew studied his environment with critical eyes. Only the ground beneath the trees was still land. A chorus of surprised shouts rang through the field.
He shuffled his feet, his mind going blank. How could he stand in mid air? Shaking the thought away he swept his eyes over the watery floor. All kinds of fish were visible through the water that was as clear as glass. They swam around gracefully as if through air.
He jumped when a colossal whale swam beneath the soles of his shoe. Landing back on the surface of the water he didn't even so much as a ripple on its surface. He was so mesmerized by an orca as it launched itself clear out of the water that he didn't care at the moment about any of the other animals. However, he paced over the surface uncomfortably when he saw a crocodile zip through the water beneath his feet like a torpedo leaving a blip in its wake.
It passed him by, seemingly uninterested or unaware of his presence. He squatted down to see how deeply his feet penetrated the waters surface. The bottoms of his shoes didn't even grace the surface. Praise! He was hovering about an inch over the water. Should I pinch myself to see if I'm awake? He smiled at his own silliness.
People were practically flying above the water as they moved about. A few looked down right terrified. Andrew ignored them, only interested in the animals. He walked further away from the rosebush. Even under the crystal clear water, the roots were invisible.
As he drew closer to the trees, more animals stepped into the field. Nervous eyes met his every time he passed somebody. When he had walked for what he guessed to be three minutes he stopped. Andrew squinted at a tree in the distance. An orangutan was curiously eyeing him from a low lying limb. A komodo dragon, tiger, and a rhinoceros with a fierce looking eagle on its back, stood directly beneath the orangutan.
They stood side by side as if they were meant for coexistence, as if even a tide could not break their bond. They were like one. And these were animals that would have a bone to pick if they ever met in the wild. Everything here was so undefiled.
Stunningly magnificent birds were walking amongst the stalking lions, leopards, and many other predators without fear. Occasionally however some of the animals would put on aggressive displays of defense when in the presence of certain animals. He had had many strange dreams and nightmares before, but none prior to this one had ever been this unusual and realistic. And he was a materialistic person who barley believed in his father’s spiritual beliefs.
If it weren't for the unnatural plant life, and the fact that he was floating over water, he would have sworn he was fully conscious.
Some of the animals growled at the people. It was an unsettling sight.
“Shoo! Go away!” a man said, waving his hand at a moose. The animal ducked it's head as if preparing to charge, but quickly raised it and ran pat the man.
Andrew moved around, making way for the animals that stalked past him. He found himself unable to peel his eyes from them. Andrew continued to watch them, filled with nostalgia. All of the familiar and unfamiliar animals had gathered around the rosebush. Andrew saw both gentle and predatory birds soaring through the air above his head. It’s not fair! This is a dream, so why can’t I fly too? Who was there to make the rules for his dream? No one, that’s who!
Among the list of other animals were a long necked emu and ostrich, various deer, a lumbering elephant, big cats, small mammals walking in between the larger animals feet, various dog breeds, a fox, and wolves, there was even a unicorn and a winged horse! He knew if he turned around his mind would create more animals to populate his dream, but he kept facing forward.
One of the wolves stood out from the rest. It wasn't the same grayish color of the other wolves, and it stood alone separating itself from the other animals. Doesn't he realize he doesn't have to be territorial in my dream? Stupid dog, he probably drank water from a smog polluted stream as a pup. It was typical of Andrew to be sarcastic, even in a dream. He turned his neck around when he heard flapping noises, and then a bald eagle heavy as a boulder landed on his shoulder.