CWM: The Dragon Tree [1/2]

                                      Contemplations of a Wondering Mind:
                                                  The Dragon Tree

      In a pillar of light I appeared, and as it faded I looked around. Standing at the top of the last castle of a dying planet far away from our own world, I found myself standing next to a little person made of molten lava and a woman who appeared to be more of a lion than a human. I appeared to be wrapped in black, lightweight armor with a sword sheathed at my side; standing before us was a ghost of an old man wearing a red and white Hawaiian shirt. He was all torso, as his entire lower body was summed up with a light whispy ethereal tail.
      “You were brought here per my request,” he spoke softly as old men often do when they’re extremely tired. “I am in dire need of your assistance before I perish.” The three of us standing before this ghost merely looked at how odd the other person looked, and how strange it was to have a ghost saying he was about to die. “This place is Alur, this last castle I have kept standing in resistance to Dash. Long ago, Dash was born under the noonday sun. His hatchery had been crushed in some battle or another, and as a result he was born with a deformation of two heads. He has one personality for each head, though both of them are evil. As Dash became old enough to fight, he decided to destroy the world completely. That’s why you see the world in the state that it is before you,” with that he stepped aside and we could see over the balcony on which we stood. The land in which we found ourselves was a desolate wasteland of sand, rock, and dead trees; it was all that remained of anything around the castle of Alur.
      “So what you telling me all this for!” The shortest of us spoke up.
The old man looked at him and said, “I need you to kill Dash and his creations in order to restore peace to me. I am strong enough to stand until life can grow on my surface.”
      “You’re the earth spirit,” spoke the lioness with a lot of growls and over annunciated “r’s.” The spirit smiled, and began to walk past us to go inside the castle.
      “Sasha, I need you to protect what is left of my forests immediately surrounding this place. Mike, I need you to go into the mountains where you will perform your best; there you will find the most clues to where Dash’s lair can be found for your assault. Lastly, Jim, I need you to go into the swamps to the south to explore.” The earth spirit disappeared into the hallway behind us, leaving us to our own introductions and missions.
      “Last one to kill Dash is a pile of limestone!” Mike shouted as he ran into the hallway the old man had just entered, the molten lava looking more fiery than it was just a moment ago.
      “Shouldn’t we have more of a plan?” I asked, mostly to myself though it was directed to the team as a whole.
      “Defend the castle, kill your prey, and return to fight another day.” Sasha had materialized a bow from an odd gem she had been holding in her hand before she ran into the hallway, eager to hunt. Adjusting the awkward metal armor I wore, I decided to conduct a uniform inspection. A heavy breastplate with no arm or hand protection, and slightly lighter metal leggings that appeared to be attached to a leather belt I wore underneath the armor. The sword itself hung from a looser belt that went around the waist of the leggings, but the sword was sheathed in a metal mesh instead of a hard metal case. The sword was also stuck, or locked, in place by some mechanism I didn’t fully understand.
      “Let’s explore,” I said to myself. I headed into the hallway, and down the stairs to the front door, for my first day that would lead to a month of days like this one.
The spirit, or elder as we would soon come to call him, simply smiled while watching us depart on our missions for our own separate reasons. Standing at the base of the castle, once designed and built by dragons, I realized it looked more like a tower with a helicopter pad than an actual traditional castle. Its front doorway stood immense, one hundred times larger than myself or even the tallest human back on earth; when it came time to fight Dash we were in for a serious struggle.

      In the swamp the cold, murky water came up to my thighs leaving trails of mud underneath the cold metal armor and the thin silk fabric underneath, creating a sandpaper effect against my skin. Wandering through the thick fog that hung just over the top of the water made navigating purposefully in any direction impossible, but I found I enjoyed the novelty of an adventure. The threat of a two-headed dragon and its minions was far away from me until I saw a light emanating from under the swamp water. Looking over, I realized my sword was glowing. I timidly placed my hand on the handle, and found it hot to the touch. A blur of movement not far to the right of me, and the feeling of immediate danger made me ignore the heat of the handle; I drew the katana blade from its sheath just in time to parry a blow from a creature that looked to be made of the remains of some once living animal, and a pile of mud. Hatred filled its face, though it smiled, and I knew it wasn’t alone. I pulled back from the block, and slashed at its upper torso; I spun around in time to impale another one of the creatures, it had been quietly charging at me from behind. Its dragon bone weapon fell into the once still water, and I kicked the body off the end of my blade in time to get pounded up the side of the head with something hard and heavy. That single blow ripped open the skin over my ear and jaw, causing a pulsing flow of blood to pour into the murky water.
      “Smash!” It shouted as it slammed its weapon into my breastplate, knocking me backwards into a pile of roots I hadn’t seen before. I’d defeated two of them, but this one would be the end of me and I feared for my life. Two more blows landed on my torso and legs as I awaited the sweet darkness of death, but I faintly heard the whooshing sound of something that flew by me at an accelerated speed. Opening my eyes after wiping the blood and sweat from them, I realized my savior stood not too far away on the limb of a nearby decaying tree. She had a bow in her hands, and a smile on her lioness face.
      “It’s not every day a man needs a woman’s help in a battle!” she shouted at me, before leaping off while chuckling to herself. Straightening myself out some I decided to rest for a while, at least until my vision was a little less blurry, and I cried. My body pulsed and ached with the pains from the melee, but my right hand was burned from grasping the intensely hot sword. Sure it cut through anything it touched like butter, but it was doing the same thing to my unprotected hands. I rubbed my hand through the mud to cool the fever for a minute, and then sheathed the blade back at my side to investigate the roots I found myself resting on. They seemed to go deep into the ground and yet at the same time raised up a foot above the water's edge, and could provide a good advantage to look out above the fog. At the far end was an old gnarled tree, with what looked like giant eggs coming out from underneath it; no sooner than I had thought this, I realized the tree looked as if it were a dragon. Its head was raised back to breath fire on me and its wings spread out in mid-flight.
      “Dragon tree,” I whispered before passing out. In the darkness I felt an energy growing inside of me, and the thoughts of the spirit of the dragon tree filling my head with words. He wanted me to carry the spirits of his children. They had never had a chance to be born, and he wanted them to grow strong by learning from one of the weakest creatures in all of the universes: my own yet unborn child. What seemed like days later I awoke, and returned to the castle to rest for the night.

      The old stone structure was brightly lit by torches and the sound of singing could be heard as I approached, apparently I was the only one who had had a bad day. The slight glowing figure of the elder could be seen at the top of the castle wall looking up at the planet's moon as if in deep thought or prayer, that's when I remembered what was an adventure for us was life and death for someone else and my heart resonated with the urgency of our mission.
      "I hope you chose the right group, old man," I whispered to myself as I entered the main hallway to the castle to find who was holding the party.
      The main hall had been lit with torches, while the feasting tables had been piled high with delicious smelling foods and wines of all types. All prepared to the peak of their performance for this one occasion, that we had made it through day one together; maybe that was reason enough to party?
      "Thar he is!" Mike stood at the end of one of the longest tables devouring some types of rocks piled high that seemed to shine like only precious metals can. His demeanor was that of someone intoxicated, eating the stones and then singing of his conquests in the mountains; apparently he had fought off quite a large number of the creatures I had a light brush with, but where as I had almost died he had enjoyed the light exercise. Sasha on the other hand had found her a good spot near a large pile of meats, and was almost entirely focused on devouring everything she could get her hands on while only pausing to breathe deeply from time to time. The scene faintly reminded me of a lioness on television eating up to two or three times her body weight of the kill just to make sure she would have enough energy for later.
      Making my way through the two long rows of tables I decided I couldn't exactly identify anything lying on the table as being food from earth, yet I could smell that it was delicious and already hungered for it. Finding a spot between the two other guardians, I quietly sat down and grabbed something that looked like the motherboard on a computer but smelled like chicken. As I did I could feel something moving quickly towards my face and I allowed the food to fall from my hand while falling backwards off of the bench. The foot of a particular lioness quickly found itself on my neck, giving her a chance to catch her breath and me to lose mine.
      "You, who almost died today, you aren't a hunter why do you deserve to eat from the table?" she snarled at me while taking a large bite from the item I had been ready to eat. "No, I think you who can not fight should serve the one who protected you today. If you agree I'll let you eat whatever is left over, if not you'll die a hungry whelp in this deserted place!" Mike couldn't care less, he had already had his fill for the night and was enjoying the show.
      "Hahaha, there's a good lass! Bruise him up a few times so he has to hobble your food to ya in ya room!" Mike wasn't trying to make it any better, but as it turned out he had. She let me live, and as she slowly sauntered off down the hall to where our rooms were waiting for the night she invited me to bring her next plate. Slowly getting back up and regaining my breath I for an instant thought about letter her eat to her full before laying my sword to her, and for an instant my hand throbbed where the sword had burned me not too long ago. This whole trip was just one big nightmare, I looked back down the hallway to see what room Sasha had turned into before piling as much meat as I could carry on one of the long metal trays scattered throughout the dining hall.
      "Diner's served," I mumbled as I walked in on Sasha as she busily removed her battle gear and slipped into what looked like a light silk gown. She snorted as she saw that I had actually came like she told me to.
      "We're going to find use for you yet, human, come bring the platter to my bed side and then go prepare another." So, I dutifully sat the large tray next to her bedside while she watched me intently, as if expecting me to attack her out of spite. I didn't, though I wanted to as I knew she would be extremely slow from having an already full stomach, I knew we were a team and all of my teamwork training from work had kicked into overdrive. In this world, we would only survive if we could become and act as a team. So it was that I became Sasha's servant for as long as we were at the castle, at least in the beginning it was only food that she requested.

      "You will lead them you know," the old man's voice startled me as I carried my third empty tray out of Sasha's room. I simply looked at him and shrugged, intent on completely stuffing Sasha so she would be miserable and never have me serve her ever again. "I chose each of you to come because of what you can offer each other," he continued to talk as I began to fill the tray with food. "Just as Maangteur chose you to carry his children," he baited me for information, for as the name Maangteur was spoken, even though I had never heard it before, his children inside of me knew it and the reaction was my whole body jumped and I ended up dropping the tray with several pieces of still hot fresh meat onto the ground. I looked at the spirit as if to ask "how?", and he merely smiled and patted me on the shoulder. "Go feed 'her highness' before she decides you're taking to long and doesn't let you eat anything for the night, you'll need your strength for the morning. Do as Maangteur asks and take his children with you back to your world, and then when you sleep again in your world I'll bring you here once again.
      "More!" she shouted into the hallway from her bedroom chambers. Though I was the weakest of the group, and apparently the castle servant, the spirit had chose to confide his trust in me. I piled the tray high and brought the feast in before Sasha who had just finished picking the bones clean from the last tray I had brought in. She was obviously swollen beneath her silken gown and I had to fight a smile back as I brought her last tray in before her. "Good," she purred as she licked the grease off of her fingers letting a slight moan out each finger she licked. "This has been the best meal I've ever had, human!" Having easily eaten three or four times her own body weight in only a few hours I wondered how long it would be before her body armor didn't quite fit anymore. Cleaning up the bones and the empty trays, I ate a few pieces of leftover cold meat from the tray and then turned in for the night myself. The armor hung up neatly on the wall, but the sword stayed with me. Even though the belt was removed it felt wrong to let it go too far from my reach, and so I cleaned my wounds and washed the swampy grime from my equipment before lying down completely exhausted.
      I didn't have a clock but I knew it was well into morning by the time I laid down, and so my alarm went off. I laid in the bed completely still as I looked around the room, only moving my eyes as not to make a sound. The room was familiar so I sat up and slapped the alarm, Amanda stirred slightly as I stood up out of the bed. I waited a moment and watched her slumber, after a dream like that I wanted to tell her and hold her so that I knew it would be okay, but I also knew if it was real and I touched her our son would be born possessed with the spirits of two dragons from another world. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I quietly slipped out of the bedroom to get ready for work.

      Work was slow, well I guess you could say slower than normal. Being a security guard at the front desk of an electronics manufacturer isn't exactly the most exciting job in the world after all, isn't it usually old retired guys that get jobs like that anyways? I apparently had just performed the daily fire extinguisher inspection without really realizing I was even a few feet from the desk, my mind trying to stay afloat in the confusion of last night's dream. I knew there was only one way to find out, and that was to follow the dream and see what happens. I then noticed a couple of the lines on the front desk phone were ringing from inside the building and picked up the phone. Apparently Susan from the third floor had lost her purse, again, and my job required me to help even if I really didn't care; considering she lost her purse about twice a week.
      Arriving home I find Amanda sitting at the computer again, still dressed in her pajamas and a pen in between her teeth.
      "Fucking Internet Explorer 6!" She suddenly explodes, while I busy myself with taking off my boots.
      "Sounds like someone needs a break," I timidly suggest. I know she can be a little violent when she's coding, this time however she ignores me so I decide to try another angle. I undress to my boxers then come back to her desk and notice the only plate on her desk is from a bagel she probably had early this morning. So I decide to cook, and I know she likes noodles so I grab a pot and turn on the stove. While the water heats up I grab her plate and the three empty chocolate wrappers I hadn't seen underneath the plate.
      "Oh, hey sweetie," she finally notices me though only briefly as her whole focus is on the screen. "You need to stop getting me those chocolates, they're making me fat," she always complained about her weight. At her five foot four inch height, 125 pounds, I always considered her much too thin.
      "If you don't want to eat them, then don't eat them," I whispered to her while I lightly kissed her cheek and gave her body a light hug. As I did felt the warmth of an energy flow from myself into her, and as it did she closed her eyes and let out a soft moan. Suddenly realizing what I had done my eyes grew wide and my hands began to shake, I was afraid I had hurt her in some way. Instead she seemed invigorated by the dragons' energy, invigorated and more sensual.
      "Well what if I love food too much to resist you continuously giving me treats to snack on?" she whispers back, suddenly turning to face me. I smile because I know I just pulled her from her work and am excited to spend the afternoon with my girlfriend.
      "I guess you'll just have to learn to enjoy your soft curves as much as I do," I tease her as I kiss lightly on her neck while rubbing her sides. She turns to face me and we kiss, and the thoughts of the dream slowly subside to Amanda's' body. The water on the stove boils over the pot and onto the stove twenty minutes later, but I don't even hear it, our clothes litter the floor next to where we lay joined together. Our bodies in motion, my grunting and her moaning, both of us out of breath.
      "Jim, okay, okay, I can't," she pants while trying to tell me she's had enough. "I'm not in shape like I used to be," her hands tremble and I know it's not because she's cold.
      "It's okay baby," I say before I start kissing hickeys onto her chest and groping at her breasts that seemed to have grown a little since the last time I'd seen them. "You know I think you're beautiful, even if you are a little twiggy." She smiles before she laughs, trying to push me off of her.
      "Eek, stop it! I'm not twiggy, I'm fat!" I roll off of her as she runs off to the bathroom to clean up, and that's when I hear the lid on the pot rattling as the boiling water leaks out a drop at a time.
      "Shit," I say as I run over to the stove to cook for my queen.

      Night came all too soon after the sex and the meal, we laid together on the couch laughing at some 'reality' t.v. show and eventually we slowly drifted off to sleep together. The sudden flash of the television shutting off woke me up, deciding we needed to move to the bed I grabbed the sheets and made the bed before carrying Amanda there. As I laid her down I realized how full she really was, even in her sleep she held her tummy when I wasn't holding it for her. It had taken a year, but her old athletic form was finally submitting to the effects of me trying to spoil her all the time. She hadn't seriously worked out since we had started going out, and basketball had been replaced with building websites all day. It was no wonder when she laid on her side after a large meal her tummy would grow into a soft belly that laid on the bed three inches over her panties. I simply smiled as I spooned up behind her and covered her up so she wouldn't get cold, maybe in another year if we were still doing good together I'd ask her to marry me. As darkness crept over my mind I found myself, once again, traveling down a beam of light into the desolate world of Alur. As I did I could hear shouting, I rolled out of the bed and quickly put on my armor. My sword glowed and was hot to the touch.
      "Let's kick some ass," I said as I stepped out into the commotion.

      My hand trembled as I sheathed my sword, though I no longer felt the heat as it burned my hand I could smell cooked flesh. I told myself it was simply the group of ten monsters we had just killed. Once again I filled my hand with sand to help absorb the heat as Mike laughed at his own strength against these unnatural things.
    "Now there's a warm-up routine, lass," he must have been talking to Sasha. "Though maybe next time you'll actually kill your fair share, and not have me do all the work!" Always up for an ego boost, they would probably begin to bicker about who had killed the most and was therefore the better hunter; I decided to investigate the bodies before they completely melted away into sand.
    "You shooting fire into the ground, it's cheating! Fight to their face and then we'll discuss your score," Sasha wasn't one to back down from a fight. Instead she had just changed the rules of the game in an effort to outwit Mike.
    The bodies had a core of mud-like material, and were clothed in only a rope or stringy vine that seemed to be growing on the creature itself. As the creature dissolved they always left behind their weapons, which was the bones they were using as tools. All of them were etched in some crude way, probably with a rock or some other hard material, but the tools themselves were all used differently as if the creatures all had different personalities. True enough to their predecessors, they all dissolved at pretty much the same time, and I collected the bones to bury them behind the castle. If these were the bones of the dragons, they deserved to be laid to rest and not used to destroy the planet's last defense. It had been quiet for a while by the time I noticed it, apparently the other two had gone back inside to eat breakfast before heading out. I would join them after I buried the bones, something about the food here was worth not missing out on.

      So it was leftovers again, the hall was almost empty as Mike and Sasha roughly brushed past me on their way out. Their way of letting me know they felt that they were in charge, and cold or not the liquid-bread meal that smelled of cinnamon and oatmeal but tasted of butter and pancakes hit the spot. I noticed on my way out the mess that was left behind the other two, and I wondered if Sasha had once again eaten as much as she had the night before and whether or not she'd make me serve her again tonight. The bright sun beat down on the wasteland surrounding the mountains, but it had no power in the swamps where it was always foggy and somewhat dark. As I stepped foot into the waters again I could feel the cold settle in, and a chill ran up my spine as my body's temperature tried to adjust to the water. Yesterday I had explored all of the area of the swamp surrounding the back of the castle, today I would go further out before panning around in a semi-circular pattern. This would allow me to cover maximum amount of territory while still being able to make it back about the time the sun had gone down. My dark armor gave me a lot of visual stealth and I wanted to operate in the murk as much as possible, even if my sword completely ruined the effect as soon as these creatures got near.
      It took me only a few moments to get to Maangteur's tree, and unlike last time where I had passed out, this time I was greeted by a calm warmth as I ran my hand across the trees side in a petting motion. A cool breeze ran through the swamp as I kneeled down to pat the eggs beneath the tree gently. Was this place real, or was I making it real? Before too long it was time to continue my journey: ever onward, ever forward, never ending.

      The morning passed into the afternoon as I hit the outer radius of my arc to begin my return route, and so far the swamps had remained quiet. I didn't really think a creature of mud would really desire to be in a place like this, but if this is where I was supposed to patrol then this is where I would stay. I stopped to rest on the tall roots of another tree nearby, the water was making my skin soft and the heavy metal was causing my skin to bruise and cause irritation. If I could dry out for 30 minutes or so, I felt I could make it back to base easier, and so it was lunch time. I pulled out my cloth pack, which was really just a long stretch of cloth rolled up and tied shut with a small rope. Inside it was an item that looked of a leaf, but I knew better, the color of the leaf would change the way it would taste. This one was red and tasted like one of the best red apples I've ever had. Sticky juice ran down my chin as I took bite after bite of the delicious fruit, and before long it was gone leaving me wishing I had of packed two. Just then my ears twitched, the sound of bone or wood striking against itself echoed no more than a mile ahead of me, and there was only one group out there that used bone tools and weapons.
      "Let's show them what I'm made of," I say to myself as I put my pack away and step back into the water. I didn't know if I was talking about my teammates or our enemies, but I knew I wanted to do everything I could do to protect what remained of this planet. It took a long time for me to get there quietly, as I had wanted to surprise them to gain an advantage, and it paid off when I got there. Three smaller mud creatures stood in the water digging up what looked to be a mummified dragon corpse. Watching them for a minute brought in a world of clarity as to why my role in the swamps was so important. The swamps contained an unknown amount of corpses, each of these corpses would be preserved in a mummified fashion in this environment much like the bogs and swamps did to fossils in my own world. So if the creatures needed bones to use as weapons, they would use the swamp as an almost limitless weapons cache! Two of the creatures were digging while the third was pulling security, or perhaps he was just lazy, as he seemed to be playing around in the swamp water. After pulling up and measuring the corpse, they hefted it up and began to carry it off. If there was ever a time for my attack, it would be while they had their hands full and were making too much noise to hear me approach. They traveled towards where I had imagined the mountains would be, though I wasn't sure how far towards the mountains this swamp would travel. So I followed quietly, it would still take me a while to ease in for an attack.
    After two hours or so we left the swamps and began to travel through the burned forests, and the closer I got to them the warmer I could feel my blade next to me becoming. It wouldn't be long now before it would be dark enough for them to see it's light.
    "Flash!" something growled from up ahead, and in what seemed like the speed of light I felt myself being pulled backwards as a giant boulder embedded itself into the ground where I had just been quietly walking. My body hit the ground before my head did, but it still hurt and I could feel a ringing in my head.
    "So clumsy," she whispers before jumping off to the top of a hill to get a better look at our attacker. Knowing what she had in mind I knew what I had to finish up, my cover was blown and I had to take these three ahead of me out before they could deliver their package. I closed my hand around the hilt of the sword and felt my skin begin cooking almost instantly. Unsheathing the blade was like unleashing the sun, as the sun had already left the small valley we were in covered in semi-darkness.
    "Give me strength," I mumbled to myself as I picked myself up and charged at the three, who were just now setting down the mummified remains. The weight of my charge and the searing heat of my blade let me impale the first of them easily, though by the time I pulled my blade free the other two were on top of me. I quickly hopped back to allow for a little one on one instead of two on one when suddenly a giant fireball explodes on the one closest to me. Dried bits of mud explode in my face in a fine mist, and I can hear Mike laughing hysterically hidden far off somewhere in the mountains above us. I targeted the last creature before looking around to see how Sasha was faring against the attacker who had spotted one of us, but she was nowhere to be seen. I charged again, it had only been a few minutes since the attack had begun but I worried about her. The third one was easily finished off by himself, though he was the biggest of the other two. I slashed at his weapon wielding arm before spinning and slashing at his torso, and in doing so was suddenly pushed to the ground by something heavy and hard. I felt for a minute like my back was broken and I was afraid, though when I wiggled my toes and clenched my hands into a fist everything seemed to work. I was trapped under a boulder as large as Mike, but the sounds of the battle continued on somewhere above me. Finally what seemed like an hour of constant battle there comes a large tremor, as if from an earthquake, and then silence. I knew in my heart the other two had defeated the other creature that would have slain me if I had of been here by myself.
    "Wot you takin' a nap fer lad?" Mike asks from behind me with a chuckle.
    "I know someone who's eating leftovers again," this time Sasha on the other side of me makes fun of my predicament while poking me with her bow.
    "Seriously guys, it's getting a little hard to breathe. A little bit of help for the little guy?" I really was in a lot of pain, though I could only imagine how much pain I would be in if I hadn't of had this strong armor on me.
    "Leetle! Didja hearen that one? You're da leetle one 'n I'm only up to yer waist, what does that make me!" Mike suddenly explodes in anger at me, the magma flow inside his body keenly lit of the valley in a dark red hue.
    "Oh, I wouldn't of used that word if I were you Jim. Listen I'll be back at the castle, don't take too long or I might just have to come find you and have you for an entree." Sasha laying down the rules even before I'm out from under the boulder, I can hear her steps quietly retreat towards where the castle must be.
    "I'll show you leetle, you fukin' maggot can't even stand up in a fight against a couple henchmen!" Mike spits at my face in an almost uncontrollable rage. He walks up to me with his short little legs, that if I wasn't so afraid of him I might actually ask if he had knees underneath all those rocks. A single hit, and the boulder above me explodes and melts, where not even a second passes before that flaming arm finds it's way on my own armor. "That's fer needin' another rescue! Seriously, it's no wonder the old man has you wasting your days playin' soldah in the swamps!" For good measure he grabs my breastplate and flings me against a rock wall on the side of the nearby mountain. I just glare at him, I know he's right, but at the end of a long day I'm just glad everyone's still alive.
    The dark valley was now quiet, I had waited until I couldn't hear Mike's quick footsteps as he ran back to the castle for the night. The dew had already begun to settle, probably because we were still fairly close to the swamp, but I still knew it was late. Picking myself up from the indention Mike's toss had made me leave on the mountain, I began to make my way home for the night.
   
    After I hung up the armor, and cleaned myself up I took a quick look over my body. I was bruised from head to toe from attacks or just walking around in my armor all day, what a day.
    "Hungry!" Sasha could be heard exclaiming from down the hallway, though no sign of Mike making requests. That was a good thing right? I hurried from the wash and into the main dining hall to grab a tray for Sasha, Mike stood there guarding the food. He was making sure I only got leftovers I presumed.
    "It's for Sasha," I stammered to him when I got close to the table, he simply nodded as he watched me load up the plate with food still so warm it let off a steam trail as I rushed to Sasha's bed chamber.
    "I was worried you wouldn't come," she started as she placed down the last of an extremely clean bone onto an already large pile. "I really wouldn't want to eat something as disgusting as yourself, so I grabbed a few things on my way to my room." Sasha sat near the head of her bed, her gown pushed up over the basketball sized belly underneath it. I could feel the blood rising to my cheeks as I handed her the plate I had piled up, and picked up the remains from her "first" plate. Her strong nature and love for good food reminded me of Amanda, and they were both equally beautiful.
    "mmff om am omma ef sfo faf," she was saying something while she ravenously devoured the food as if someone else might take it from her. I simply nodded and walked out with my hands shaking the bones on the plate. This continued on again until early in the morning when she was too tired to eat her food. Once again she had consumed three or four times her body weight while I was serving her, who knows how much she had before I had gotten there though.
    Back in the dining hall, Mike was long gone as was a majority of the food. I was happy though, we had kicked some ass today and lived to talk about it. Now it was time to wake up and I didn't want to lay down, to sleep here is to awake there.
    "Amanda needs you too," the voice of the spirit of the earth spoke to me in my room as I sat on the edge of the bed. My body desiring sleep, but my mind torn between these two realities. This place had become more real to me than my reality, but he was right. Amanda, the girl I loved and not the girl I slaved to every night, was carrying someone very important.

    "Amanda," I whispered as I woke up to the light of the alarm clock dial that read 5:59. I was back home, and this time I took the time to hold onto my love. I massaged her belly, which was oddly still very pregnant looking for a few seconds before my alarm clock hit six and sounding it's alarm to the world. Something was wrong, I realized as I brushed my teeth and checked the calendar for special events, since when was it March? Something weird was happening to the time line as I traveled between this world and the other world, but I couldn't figure it out. I remembered that it was March and that today I had to pull a long shift since my coworker was on vacation this month, but I could also remember at the same time that it was still January and Amanda had only just tested positive for pregnancy. Work passed in a blaze of speed that brought me home all too soon, as I really didn't have any time to think about what was going on and just how crazy I was becoming because of everything.
    "Jim," Amanda exclaims as I walk in the door, not holding a bag from Taco Bell. "I thought we agreed tonight was Tuesday Taco night?"
    "Oh," I stutter not really knowing what to say or what excuse to make up for remembering that it was still January and at the same time remembering at the end of February we had agreed to Tuesday Taco night. "Well I, it was, you know, maybe we can make our own food tonight right?" I clumsily try to talk my way out of saying that I have no idea what's going on anymore.
    "Ugh, you mean I have to get up and walk all the way over to the kitchen?" Amanda wasn't normally that lazy in January, but I can also remember since her pregnant tummy had grown out for two months she had grown lazier with every inch.
    "No baby, you know I'll take care of you!" I felt like I was talking to Sasha. Every minute I spent in this world made the other world seem more and more real and this one more and more fake. I wasn't sure how long I could handle this duality, I wished one world would just simply go away so I could reclaim what was left of my sanity.
    After that lapse of memory Tuesday Taco night went pretty smoothly, with my girl full and happily drifting off to sleep I once again just held her as if for protection from what was to come as soon as I slipped into the other world.

    Every day that passed, I slipped further and further into Alur. Also, every day that passed I grew stronger and more proficient with my sword and my knowledge of the layout of the swamp. I no longer needed rescuing every day, but Sasha would stop in and kill a creature or two as if to show me she was still better than me no matter how good I became. And, so I became the castle servant every night to show my appreciation to everyone's team work and their willingness to stand and fight against the massive unending horde that only grew stronger in numbers every day. Soon an entire month had passed in Alur, and on Earth it had been ten years. Ten years of me being in two places at the same time, I wasn't even sure if it was possible time could move slower in one world than it did in another. All I knew is that every day I would wake up in a wonderful world, and every night I would wake up in this empty drab world that I had completely lost interest in. Sure I still loved Amanda and Matt, our son, but Earth was just a dream and the real world was in Alur.

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continued in part 2 due to file size restrictions
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