“The Forbidden Land”

I have been searching for hours to try to find the cabin. I knew it was around here somewhere. I just couldn’t remember exactly where. I was desperate. I needed to find the cabin before the sun went down. Is that the same tree I’ve passed for the last hour? I wonder if what I saw all those years ago was even real. It had to have been. There is no way I could make up what I saw. I needed to relive the memories. Oh, that creek looks familiar. I’ll just follow the creek downstream and it should lead me to the cabin. 

As I approached the cabin, my mind filled with reminiscence. It appeared exactly how it looked when I left. I went up to the door and tried the handle. I turned the knob, but the door seemed stuck. I banged my shoulder a couple times against the door and it finally opened. I was in shock. All the furniture was there and the small bed was still against the wall. The huge window along with the two smaller windows were so clean that you could see perfectly through them, and they didn’t have a single scratch in sight. Surprisingly, the bed of plants right below the big window had grown from the last time I was at the cabin. Someone must have watered them because I couldn’t see how they could have just grown from pure sunlight. And then I noticed the thing I most nearly forgot. A trinket in the shape of a sun. It had a face on it with features of chubby cheeks, squinted eyes, a nose, and a simple smile. It was hanging just below the big window. It felt as ancient as it looked. I never really understood the trinket or why it was there, I just accepted it. The only part I disliked about the cabin was that it had this really ugly, dark orange wallpaper. I looked around one last time and sighed. Ok, I better be prepared for when the sun goes down.

…

The bed was stiffer than I remembered. I peered out the window and watched as the sun slowly went down. My heart was pounding, but I tried to focus on my breathing as I prepared myself. The sun had completely left the horizon…it was time. The house started to violently shake and I could hear the creaking of the old wood. I closed my eyes and told myself that everything would be okay. I felt like my head was spinning inside of a spinning vortex. 

…

I opened my eyes. I made it. As I turned my head towards the windows, I noticed that the sun trinket was now in the shape of a moon. I thought it was weird, but I quickly forgot about it. I looked through the window and got the most beautiful view. There was a small fence of rocks with plants growing through it. At the top of the fence the ground was level. The ground had long grass and looked like a prairie. I tried to open the door, but it gave me more trouble. I eventually got it open by shaking it forcefully. I took one step out the door and that’s all it took for me to be frozen in awe. I looked beyond the little prairie that surrounded the cabin and saw the woods. All of a sudden, the aroma of this place, this world reminded me of something I had completely forgotten. I stepped over the rocks and jogged up to one of the trees. This tree in particular was very round and had an opening at the very bottom. I reached my hand into the hole and pulled out a very dirty book. I brushed the dirt and a couple of cobwebs off of the book and looked inside. I reviewed my work within it. The book was a journal I had written in when I first visited this place. Within this journal there were drawings of animals and information I had written about them. I had a great idea. I could explore the world and write down my new findings. I put the journal in my coat pocket and began to take off into the woods. 

…

I searched for hours. I was expecting to see the same animals I saw years ago, but I surprisingly couldn’t find any. I was wondering if maybe they all went extinct like with the dinosaurs. As I got deeper into the woods, I started hearing all kinds of birds singing, so I kept searching. I started to hear a soft, deep rumbling. There must be a waterfall nearby. If I go to the waterfall, there’s bound to be animals there. The waterfall was getting louder so I knew I was close. Then I saw something moving in the distance to the left of me. It looked like a cat. It was a black panther and it was stalking something, ready to attack. I was fascinated as much as I was frightened. I was now completely unsure of how dangerous the animals were. The last time I visited the animals living here, they were more docile animals like bunnies and frogs. Maybe I hadn’t seen the more dangerous animals because I stayed closer to the cabin. I looked around frantically. My thoughts had completely distracted me. I now couldn’t see the panther anywhere. Then I noticed a black tail hanging off a tree closer than I would have liked. I slowly followed the tail and it led me to the body of the black panther. I saw the face of the panther. Its eyes looked into me as if it were judging my soul. Then it looked above my head for a slight second. I heard a tree branch break and fall to the ground so I turned around quickly. I didn’t know what to do. I was unable to move. Moving towards me was a gigantic snake, roughly the length of two king sized beds put together and as wide as a tank of oil on an oil truck. It had spikes covering its body from its head to its tail. Each spike had webbing and the spikes around its head were all webbed together. Its color was a metallic purple that glistened in the sun and its underbelly was a chilling ice blue color. The glistening from the snake's body reminded me of the sun and I glanced over. The sun was setting. Crap! The house was going to flip soon and I didn’t want to be stuck here with that ferocious creature. I did the only thing I could. I sprinted towards the direction from which I came. I was jumping over logs and ducking under branches. I could see a silhouette of the cabin. I was so close. I don’t even think the killer snake was chasing me anymore, but now I was just afraid that the cabin was going to flip without me. I ran up to the cabin and turned the knob of the door. The stupid door wouldn’t budge! The next thing I knew I was on my back on the hard ground, and I was face to face with the black panther. The panther was growling at me and I couldn’t move. The sun had gone down and the house had vanished. 

“No!”, I said in a cry. 

“What are you doing here?”

I heard a voice but the voice wasn’t a voice I heard with my ears, it was a voice inside my head.

“Who’s talking to me?”, I asked.

“The one on top of you.”

“I’ve lost my mind. I’m so scared that I literally lost my mind.”

“Hello? I’m still talking to you.”

“This isn’t happening. There is no way this panther is talking to me through my mind.”

“Oh, but I am.”

“If you’re really talking to me then get off of me.”

The panther slowly stepped backwards so that I wasn’t pinned to the ground. I quickly got up. 

“That must have been a coincidence”, I said.

“Really, me stepping off of you when you tell me to through your mind is a coincidence?”

“I think I’m going to faint”.

“You’re not going to faint.”

“How is this even happening?”

“Follow me”, the panther said persuasively.

“Now why would I follow you?”

“Well don’t you want to know how this is happening?”

“Can I trust you?”

“Why wouldn’t you?”

“Well, for starters you might kill me.”

“If I wanted to kill you, you would have been dead half a day ago.”

“That’s very comforting.”

“Just follow me.”

We walked back in the direction of the waterfall. I was terrified of the snake and whatever else might show up. Not to mention that I didn’t trust this panther at all. He was being suspiciously quiet.

“My name's Touhctaw (too-hick-taaw) by the way”, said the panther.

“You have a name?”

“You don't?”

“I do, I just didn’t think animals gave themselves names.”

“I didn’t give myself this name. It was given to me by the other animals.”

“You can communicate with the other animals?”

“Of course, I can.”

“Do you have telepathy?”

“No, all the animals can communicate with each other.”

“So, you all have telepathy.”

“You know I still haven’t gotten your name.”

“It’s Gemma.”

…

Touhctaw and I arrived at the waterfall. It was mesmerizing. There were these different colored lights floating around. They weren’t fireflies or any kind of insect. They were like these orbs and they were illuminating the waterfall and the woods all around us. Touhctaw took me up along the side of the waterfall to the top.

“You must be hungry. Would you like something to eat?”, he asked.

“Well what can I eat?”

He walked over to a bush and pulled off a piece of fruit. Then he walked over to me and dropped it into my hands. The fruit looked like a peach but it was mostly pink and purple. I took a small bite as I looked at him. It tasted like grilled chicken with a bunch of seasonings on it. 

“Is it supposed to taste like chicken?”, I questioned.

“Yes, that’s the fruit that we carnivores eat.”

I kept eating while we rested. He was laying down right next to where the water was flowing. The view was breathtaking.

“Do you know what this place is?”

“No”, I said.

“This place is the origin of all animals. All the animals in your world were created here. Some of the animals chose to leave this place and go to your world. The rest of us stayed here.”

“How are you able to communicate with me?”

“The animals that chose to stay here have evolved further and are smarter than the animals that left. Without the presence of man, we are able to evolve and grow to be smarter than man. The animals that left are simple minded and man rules over them. Since man is not in this land, the animals can grow to be the dominant species and have the smarts and soul that man has.”

“I don’t remember the animals being like this when I last visited this place.”

“You were here before?”

“Yes, years ago.”

“The animals here are able to evolve constantly and one year for you is ten thousand years for us because our world moves faster than yours does.”

We talked for about an hour and then I decided to get some rest because the whole day overwhelmed me, and I was exhausted. I layed on my back and slowly drifted off to sleep.

…

It was morning now and the land was covered in thick fog. We came down from the waterfall and decided to take a walk so that Touhctaw could give me a tour.

“I haven’t noticed any bugs. Are they super small or something?”

“Bugs don’t live here anymore. None of the animals here eat them because we all eat from what the plants provide. All the bugs did was rapidly consume the plants so we had a shortage of food. We kicked the bugs out and sent them to your world.”

“Gee thanks. I wish we could send them back.”

…

I came across many animals. There were colorful birds everywhere and I felt refreshed by the air. This place felt like home. Then we came across the snake that scared me witless. 

“Ssshe ssshouldn’t be here Touhctaw.”

He was talking to Touhctaw through his mind but for some reason I could hear his voice in my mind.

“You can now hear what the snake says because you ate the fruit and are now linked to this world.”

“How did you hear my thoughts?”

“Your thoughts are no longer yours. Everything you think we can all hear.”

Touhctaw resumed talking to the snake.

“Don’t worry I’m dealing with it.”

The snake slithered away and we continued our journey.

“What was that about?” I asked.

“The animals are concerned that you are here. If you stay here, our world will perish. You’ve seen our world, and I know how you feel about it. You wouldn’t want anything to happen to this world. That is why you have to leave and you shouldn’t return.”

“So, you’re kicking me out. What was the point of showing me around if you were just planning on forcing me to leave?”

“I showed you around so that you could see and understand why you have to leave.”

“Even if I leave, who's to say that someone else might not come. What are you going to do then, convince them to leave as well?”

“That is why you have to destroy the sun and moon trinket.”

“What is that?”

“The thing that is below the window in that cabin.”

“How do you know about that?”

“I know about that just as I know about your world and everything else I have told you.”

“That’s not really an answer.”

“You can choose to stay here if you please. You will be able to live in this world without having to interact with a human again. You will be able to live in peace. However, you may get lonely being the only one of your kind. You might decide to show someone from your world this world. Then that person will want to stay and more and more people will want to stay. That will lead to the destruction of our world. You may get what you want in the end but what about us?”

“What if I just promise to never go back and stay here forever?”

“A promise means nothing coming from a human. Even if you just stay, that will still disrupt our world. You will be the new dominant species and that will affect all of us. Humans think differently than us. Humans create things and their creations evolve more and more. Their creations harm us. Instead of us evolving, humans want their creations to improve continuously and that deprives us of evolution. So, just think to yourself. Is it really worth it?”

I thought to myself. I knew what the right thing to do was, I just didn’t know if I could do it. It hurt me to think that this was the last time I was going to see this world.

“How do I destroy the trinket?”

…

I was back at the cabin. The sun was almost set once again. I turned the knob expecting for the door to reject me once again, but it opened easily. I ran over to the bed and sat down. I was squeezing the sheets in my hands. The sun went down and once again the house shook and I got extremely dizzy. 

I sat up from the bed. I didn’t realize that I had laid down. I looked outside. It was morning. I tried to get up from the bed but my foot snagged on the blanket and I landed on the floor. Then something dropped onto the floor. I glanced down and noticed my journal. I completely forgot that I had it in my coat pocket. I picked it up and my jaw clenched. At least I would have my journal as a memory of that place. I crawled over to the window. I ripped the trinket off the wall and off the ugly orange wallpaper. I looked at it in my hand. It was once again shaped like the sun. I crushed it in my hand as single tears went down my face. The trinket crumbled into wet sand and poured through my fingers. I opened up my hand and the rest fell to the floor. I looked up at the plants that once grew by the window. They were all dead.