Chapter III: Manis's Escape.
Once Manis began running, he didn’t look back. He sprinted faster and faster, kicking up dirt and sand behind him, heaving from being out of shape, but none of that mattered as he dove into the stretching sea.
He paddled one arm in front of the other, thrashing for air every twenty-seconds, kicking his legs like a spastic dolphin. All that mattered was his survival, and Manis still couldn’t stop laughing. Every breath he took, poking his head out of the water as his paddles were graced and surrounded by monstrous cackles that only seemed to escalate. After what seemed like hours of swimming Manis’s strokes and kicks, halted to a minimum, to conserve his dwindling energy. He can make out an island miles ahead of him, barely able to make out the landscape as it is encased in a dreary mist with towering trees peering down on the sandy beach. There was much Manis couldn’t see but he can most definitely see a shore in the distance. And so he picked up his kicks and strokes once again, for one final push toward the only land in sight.
Kicking and paddling through the water each breath he took when he poked his head above water mid-stroke wasn’t graced with laughter, but a determined look and intense heaving. The only thing that mattered now was making it to the shore before he drowned, he glanced back at his once homelands, they were now a speckle on the horizon and hardly able to make out the shores, and flames from his village. As Manis glanced back toward the shore in front of him, he finally realized he had made it. He sloshed his feet through the water slowly transitioning to a walking motion. He waded through the beach’s waters and onto the shores, there wasn’t a soul in sight, although right now that was a gift from the world, or so Manis thought. His feet planted into the sand as he dropped to his knees and began catching his breath, he slowly inhaled and shouted
“JAYKOB!”
Throwing his shoulders back and clenching his fists, screaming until his voice cracks, void of all saliva, his throat goes dry, then it becomes raspy, and then hoarse. He topples forward with a thump, his face in the deep sand, his vision becomes blurry and the world seems like it’s underwater. As a dream light begins to shine, Manis’s consciousness fades.
Manis’s body felt weak and frail. He slowly propped himself up on his trembling knee. The beach that he was laying on, was no longer in front of him. At first glance Manis jumped backwards muttering to himself
‘What in the devil, where am I ?” Manis pondered, as he rotated his gaze before him. Not only was the beach gone, the thick greenwood that dwelled just beyond the beach disintegrated.
The world itself was gone, everything before him was nothing but a white purgatory. Much like the realm of thought that dwells within all mortal’s minds. It seemed vacant, vacuous even, and as Manis began to stroll forward he looked around, dumb-founded. His footsteps echoed, but not just echoed, each echo, reverberated. Louder and louder into the distance until they faded.
Was this the reality of the world? Was this a dream? Manis wondered, and then he gasped in a fret.
“Did I die from exhaustion?”
The thought molested his mind, it oscillated out of control. Manis screamed, he began sweating profusely. He pulled his hair until not just strands, but clumps of hair lied in his palms. If he knew one thing, it was that he was beginning to lose his young mind. Then another thought weaved itself into his young, unsuspecting brain. “If I’m dead... then Jaykob MUST be here.” “Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, HE MUST BE!” He frantically and maniacally repeated.
His eyes were stretched with excitement, almost tearing up. A grin made his teeth chatter. A grin that was so wide it mutated his cheeks. He nervously laughed as he strolled with shaking hands and shrieking Jaykob’s name like a mystery he irrefutably refused to solve.
His knees trembled as his gaze jolted around like an indecisive dog. Nervous, scared, and lost Manis was, undoubtedly. His young frame was shaking with fear, his hands clasped together and clammy. When suddenly, he heard a reverberating moan that pierced his eardrums.
He buckled to his knees and shielded his ears with his sweaty palms. The moan transitioned into a cackle, it started in a deep voice of many and escalated into that of a woman. Whose delicate voice calls you, intrigues you, and pulls you closer as her pheromones are some unfathomable energy that draws you in and possess your very heart.
Manis gritted his teeth, and as they chattered he began screaming; “WHAT IN THE SEVEN HELLS IS THIS?!” The laugh grew thicker, louder, closer. Footsteps that shook the purgatory followed. Each step got heavier as did the cackling. Manis’s head was now tucked between his knees and as he shook, piss ran down his legs. Abruptly, the noises stopped. All was quiet, too quiet, the feeling crawled up his brittle spine.
Now he slowly looked up without fear, tears lining and drenching his dark sockets, his eyes wide and piercing. All of the sounds he heard, from the footsteps to the cackling. All that was responsible stood before him, towering above him, a wonder of colossal existence. She stood with such an immensity, even her toe was taller than Manis. He began blushing as he looked-up, now he was frightened.
Dawning her white-silk robe, her perfect shoulders revealed her curves which jutted outwards in an irrefutable perfection. Her eyes a tantalizing blue, and her smile lustful. She held her right hand under her left forearm with her left hand slanted with her femininity. She turned her head downwards as her lustful smile turned into something suspiciously welcoming. She kneeled down calmly, putting her angelically soft hands upon her knees and coaxed Manis.
“Don’t be frightened my young dear Manis Furin, Jaykob couldn’t be saved, he was already gone.” His blush quickly turned to rage as spit flew from his mouth, “HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?! AND DON’T YOU DARE SPEAK OF HIM UNLESS YOU ARE THE ONE THAT TOOK HIM!” he blurted out in a volatile rage.
She cocked and raised her eyebrows, flicking her fingers in the air and snapped her fingers on the opposite hand. Every which way spawned the village that Manis had ran from. Although, there was one difference. The entire village that spawned before him was encased in a bright, captivating blaze that surrounded Manis.
She then began to fade into the dark sky that now stood before him. Cackling as she spoke: “Oh, Manis, Manis, now I know you’re young but only the most foolish mortals challenge and raise their voice to a god, for these foolish mortals Manis, they always lose.”
As she faded only the white of her smile remained, the fire grew out of control. It was spreading, not throughout the village but toward Manis, from all sides. He buckled onto his knees once again and screamed while his whole body seemed to convulse and jitter.
“Stop! PLEASE! WHATEVER YOU ARE, I ALREADY LOST HIM ONCE, I, I-I-I-I… WHATEVER YOU ARE, I SWEAR TO YOU AND BEG FOR ALLEGIANCE. OH GREAT ENTITY I BEG OF THEE PLEASE STOP THE FLAMES, I’ll do anything…” “ANYTHING!”
Manis booms and cracks his voice as he breaks down into a flowing stream of tears muttering: “Please... please!”
The fire halted, and her fading ceased. Slowly in reverse, first her face, then her neck and slowly the rest of her titanic body. The village faded and the world transitioned back to the white purgatory. This purgatory now seemed like a nice homely hovel compared to what Manis had just experienced. He slowly wiped his tears and stood up. As he began to make a statement she held up her hand and cut him off.
“Let’s start anew Manis, even mortals deserve second chances. Don’t you agree?” “Oh yes great one, but for the sake of pleasantries what should I refer to your stupendous greatness as?” “The mortals call me one of the first ones, but you my dear Manis, you may call me Vaea” She says with a disconcerting smile. “Vaea”, Manis repeats.
“Manis, listen to me. You are destined to be something greater than even you yourself can fathom, Jaykob’s death is nothing more than a vestige toward your own greatness.” “He was the one that protected me! And I couldn’t even save him.” He says in a maniac fret.
“Manis my dear child, some aren’t meant to be saved. It is a gruesome truth of this young world. We all have our fates written in the stars, even my own. Alas, I who stands before you is the only one in this world that can read mortal’s fates and guide those select few toward their shining destinies.”
“You’re a lucky boy Manis, heed my words and count your juvenile blessings.” Manis wanted to question if she was a demon but the thought wouldn’t leave his mind and all that seemed to seep-out was:
“My benevolent Vaea!” “By what slimly grim chance was I blessed with your presence!” She smiled and held out her delicate hand. It inched toward Manis as he instinctively stepped forward into her tremendous and moonlit palm. Vaea cautiously hoisted him to her eye-level.
“Manis you WILL accomplish astounding things, your name and face will be etched into statues, and the tomes that will one day serve as this cosm’s undeniable history.” “I may be young, but from being an orphan I’ve watched many people come and go from our village.” “I have drastically learned for a great opportunity to arise there is always a catch, a trade.” “So I ask with the utmost respect my benevolent and undeniable goddess, Vaea, what is it?”
Manis nervously rambled and stated. Vaea smirks, a smirk that crawls up his spine. “All I ask my dear Manis is you follow me, listen to me, and let me guide you. Jaykob isn’t the end of your childhood, it is the beginning of your adult-hood.” Manis didn’t believe a word, his face spoke this in volumes, but once again all that came out was a manic grin and shaky words that spoke in a ghastly pitch:
“My magnificent Vaea, what more could a lost child ask for, I never knew my father and my mother died giving birth to me, so it only seems.” “Yes... that the universe itself is finally giving back to my bastard life. That for every action there is a consequence. I although young, have dealt with weights that would crush a man—let alone a boy.” “This is my fate my benevolent Vaea and I, Manis Furin. Look to the stars in search of your voice to guide me. In dire hopes of a golden throne that hopefully, one day I can look back on all of this, and just laugh.”
Manis falls over in Vaea’s palms in a bout of hysteria, thrashing as his tears lined his red cheeks. His mouth stood agape and Vaea merely smiled with bulging attentive eyes. “Now Manis, your first chapter has ended and your second is merely beginning.” Manis ceased laughing, his eyes still and his mouth shut-close.
“Yes... my titanic Vaea, your word is law, your power is unequaled, and I am merely a conduit for your greatness.” Manis says sporadically, almost involuntarily. “Yes... my dear delusional Manis” Vaea cackles thunderously. “Now Manis, it’s time for you to wake up. Do not dwell, follow the path that is now illuminating before you.” “Find your way through the Greenwood, do not fret for your path, will find you just as I found you.”
She raises her opposite hand and slowly descends her hand. Placing Manis gently on the ground of the vast purgatory, and just as her shadow towers over him her index finger extends forward, pressing slightly on his temple. Emitting a radiant and blinding white oval light, as the goes blind in the whiteness, the dream light fades.
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