Erika continued to stare upwards, entirely stunned.
There were no cloud masses to bar the view of the smooth, luxuriant sky, the light radiating from a solitary sun that seemed to be directly overhead.
The blue-greenish tint to the sky was remarkable.
It was turquoise, like the surface of the waters about the Caribbean islands that Erika had once taken a vacation to with friends, on a break from school.
Beautiful and vivid, it was nonetheless frightening. At the very least, though she did not consciously acknowledge it, the commanding presence of the sun was a stabilizing and comforting element to her jostled psyche.
“What do we do?” Mershad asked, his eyes still wide in a look of surprise and bewilderment.
“I have no idea,” Erika said.
“This can’t be a dream,” Mershad remarked.
Some beads of sweat now stood out upon his forehead. He reached down and rubbed his arms, and even felt his own face, as if about to pinch it to test the reality of the moment.
He looked over towards Erika with a helpless expression. “This can’t be a dream.”
“I know that it isn’t. I know when I am asleep, and when I am not,” Erika said slowly. Her eyes were filled with fear, but she had already started to reach down into deep, internal reservoirs of personal strength to gain some elemental bearings. “This is real. Make no mistake about it. Whatever it is, we are both in it, it is real, and we had better acknowledge that first and foremost.”
As she spoke the stark words, some more of that strength welled up in her. She took a few cautious steps forward.
Her shoes crunched on the debris-strewn forest floor. Mershad stared after her, until she turned and beckoned for him to follow her. Gingerly, he took a step, then a second, and slowly trailed after her.
She continued onward, feeling the hard ground beneath every step. Unexpectedly, she discovered that she was taking notice of the very air. It felt exceptionally fresh and clean within her lungs. She took many deep breaths of the sweet air into her, as her heart rate began to steady from the initial shock.
Though she was no naturalist, she knew that the trees around them were of types that she was familiar with. Likewise, the chirping and chattering coming from the branches above was akin to the sounds that she had heard before on wilderness hikes.
Other than the color of the sky itself, she could not help but think that they were not too far removed from the university. The state was filled with thickly forested areas, and as far as Erika knew, they were in any one of those regions. It was just a mystery as to how they had gotten there, perhaps something conjectured in some obscure journal of theoretical physics.
The continuing commotion in the branches attracted her attention. She looked upwards, searching for the squirrels that she expected were running about the trees, just as they did all around the university campus. She knew the sight of a few little squirrels would be something else to grasp onto, as her mind struggled with the unprecedented instability of reality itself.
Any hope that she had of taking another step towards calming her mind was swiftly evaporated.
The creatures making the ruckus in the trees looked like diminutive foxes. They had reddish fur, elongated snouts, and four narrow legs that ended in grasping appendages, like those of monkeys. Long bushy tails protruded out behind them.
Even more unusual, sprouting from their backs, were the presence of a pair of leathery wings that they kept tucked in as they skittered about the branches nimbly.
Erika gaped at the astonishing little creatures.
“What are those… animals?” Mershad asked, having taken note of the host of small creatures himself.
Erika was breathtaken, as one of the creatures glided gracefully through the air from the branch of one tree, over to the limb of another tree situated about thirty feet away. It moved with dexterity as it alighted smoothly upon the new branch, grasping it firmly, with exceptional balance. Folding its wings, its little eyes watched them intently, and though the creature looked cautious, it was clearly not overly afraid of the two humans.
“No idea,” Erika replied. “I think we’ve just discovered a new animal. But wouldn’t you know it? We don’t have a camera with us.”
Mershad shook his head. He looked far more worried than regretful about missing the opportunity to document a rare species. “This is getting crazy.”
Though the environment held some features familiar to her, there was no denying now that there was something utterly alien about it as well. It was no longer just a matter of the anomalous sky.
She kept a wary eye on the little bat-foxes, not knowing whether or not they presented any kind of threat, but not about to underestimate them. Sometimes, the smallest of creatures could be the most deadly.
“Let’s move on, this way,” Erika suggested in a low voice.
Erika slowly turned to the right, beginning to carefully make her way from the area. She cast a sideways glance to make sure that Mershad was following her lead, but kept the greater part of her attention fixed upon the disposition of the little bat-fox creatures.
The creatures continued their high-pitched chatter among the branches, a few shifting their places amid the cluster of trees that they were situated within. To her immense relief, they made no moves to follow the two humans.
Erika had observed, with not a little worry, the fact that the creatures were not terribly startled by their presence. The creatures appeared to be no more wary than were the squirrels that heavily populated the university campus’s grounds. Yet whether or not the little creatures were some sort of pack hunter in their own right, it soon became clear that humans were not likely their prime quarry. Erika and Mershad gradually lost sight of them, as the little beasts’ hyper, high-pitched sounds faded farther behind.
Finally, she felt comfortable enough to turn around and face forward, picking up her pace a little in the process.
Erika looked over her shoulder several times to check on Mershad. “They are not coming after us, I’m pretty certain,” she commented, as she recognized his lingering fear, her gaze sweeping around the area for a moment as an idea came to her.
She walked a few paces to the right, leaned over, and snapped off a branch that had been attached to a tree that had long since fallen to the floor of the forest. She stripped it of a few narrow offshoots, leaving behind a rather straight, sturdy piece of wood.
She extended it towards Mershad. “Here, take this. I’m pretty confident that those things in the trees could not take a solid hit from something like this.”
Mershad reached out and took the offered branch, nodding to her. She watched his expression relax just a little as he gripped the stalwart branch, clearly feeling a little less vulnerable.
“And now for myself,” she remarked, locating another suitable branch. Clasping it firmly, she held it out in front of her. “It will work fine. Just in case. But I don’t think we will have much to fear from those little winged guys.”
“My brain says we won’t, but I just had no idea what they were,” Mershad replied.
“Hence, precautions,” Erika said, bringing the stick about in a powerful swing that swooshed through the air. As if taking her gesture as a cue, Mershad whipped his own branch-staff through the air.
“You’ve got the hang of it,” Erika said approvingly, forcing a broad smile despite her ginger nerves. “Well, let’s get going. We need to find someone or something more familiar in this area.”
Erika started forward, resuming her long, easy strides. Mershad hustled up and walked along at her side, beginning to use his branch like a walking stick. She noticed that he glanced behind them less and less often, as they continued forth without incident through the forest for the next couple of hours.
To her relief, they encountered no more unusual creatures. More promising, they saw several birds that were of very familiar forms. Among those that she recognized were sparrows, finches, and even a couple of large, black crows. The familiar caws of the latter were welcome music to her ears.
Her tensions gradually lessened, and her spirit became more emboldened as they continued their long march beneath the trees. Mershad seemed content to walk in silence, but she suspected that under the surface his mind was racing with thoughts. She did not disturb him. Erika took the silent time to attend to her own thoughts. There was little else for her to do at the moment, except to avoid being lulled into complacency.
Erika could not begin to comprehend what had happened to her and Mershad. She had no idea as to what the fog was, or how they had gotten to the forest, much less why it had happened in the first place.
There had been no sensation of travel. The fog had merely appeared, and then departed, revealing a whole new environment around them.
Erika found that she was eminently grateful for the presence of another person with her during the harrowing experience, especially one that she already knew. She was not entirely sure if her mind could have handled such an event by herself. At the same time, she knew that while she derived some stability from having Mershad with her, she also had some new responsibilities.
With their whole world shaken, Erika knew that Mershad needed her as well, immersed as they were in an experience whose nature neither of them had an inkling of. She knew that she had to be as strong as she could for his sake, and resolved herself to that course even though she suspected that the fox-bats and the blue-green sky were not the last surprises that they would encounter.