The Lotus Eaters

[VoltTurtle]

It was early morning, just after sunrise.

When someone walking nearby crosses an invisible barrier, the scenery suddenly and completely changes. The desert gives way to a sunny, colorful forest, pixies dancing among flowers and mushrooms that melt in and out of view. The sound of wind blowing through trees is audible over the noise of the real wind gently rolling over the desert's hills.

The temperature of the surroundings doesn't match the visage.

The trees have happy smiles on them, bouncing up and down as if they were part of an old cartoon. They talk to each other, saying pleasantries such as "hello" and "how is your day" to one another. The grasses dance in the sunlight, mushrooms spinning and singing soft nursery rhymes. Tall red poppies whisper compliments to the pixies as they fly past, and bright yellow roses shimmer in time with the music.

All of this is fake, of course, and any examination beyond the most cursory would reveal that. This place does not smell as it should.

In the center of all the madness, in a brightly lit clearing, was a girl with rainbow hair tucked inside a sleeping bag, a duffel bag marked with "S001" sitting next to her. She is sleeping soundly, surrounded on all sides by little houses built onto the branches of trees and poking out of technicolor bushes. The pixies flutter in and out of these abodes, going about their days.

The girl shifts slightly in her sleep, a grimace appearing on her face as she grips the sleeping bag like a vice with one hand.

"It is going to be a long day," the pixies gossip to one another. "Will her resolve be tested?" they ask, "will she be able to persevere?"

[Lilith]

"I've always hated you, you know?"

[VoltTurtle]

A pixie flutters by Jenelle's head. It whispers "Why?" into her ear, its words echoing among the leaves of the trees.

[Lilith]

"Too loud."

She raised a finger. She stepped over an imaginary mushroom.

"Too obnoxious."

She stepped over another, avoiding a pixie who looked very similar to their now-deceased teacher.

"Too excitable."

She wiped a tear.

"And you have a nice Gift."

She looked around for the real body of Lily. She was usually pretty easily spotted with her hair. She was also decently... sized. Especially with a crop top. A-anyways, Jenelle waved the bug away.

"Oh, and I was always jealous you dyed your hair."

[VoltTurtle]

"She always felt pain for you," another pixie whispered. "She knew how hard it was to live with your Gift. She knew she was privileged."

The mushroom's song changed, their choir turning into a melancholic hymn. The trees stopped bouncing and frowned, turning their gazes towards Jenelle. The wind picked up, rustling tree branches and whistling through the forest. The pixies swirled around Jenelle in a vortex of flapping wings and murmuring voices.

"She wanted to make you smile, even as you pushed her away," another one said, its eyes masked by tears. "No matter how hard she tried, she never could."

[Lilith]

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." She waved at the pixies. "Where are you?"

They were all illusions. All of it. She could be knee deep in water right now, and would probably be going deeper and deeper. Well, probably not.

Desert shenanigans and all.

"I want to talk to you, not the you-pixies."

[VoltTurtle]

"She can hear you, but she is not quite awake," one of the trees replied, it's voice deep and rumbling. "Are we not enough?"

Little bees buzzed to and fro between the flowers, nuzzling their faces into the petals. The tempo of the mushroom's song picked up and became a round, echoing off of each other and filling the forest with life. The bouncing of the trees resumed, but slow than before. A poppy emerged from the ground nearby Jenelle, gesturing to her.

"She wouldn't be able to maintain this place for long if you woke her up," the poppy said, its voice high and airy. "Isn't this better? Better than..."

It trailed off, and retreated back into the ground.

[Lilith]

"Yeah. Better."

She paused.

"I doubt the cameras can see this. I'm tired of talking into the emptiness while people watches. It'd be nice to see someone. I need to get my thoughts straight."

It smelled and tasted like orange juice. The good one that was less juice and more like a soda without the fizz. She could taste it at the back of her throat, but she wasn't sure if it was because she was that desperate for the sugar rush, or if it was really Lily's power.

[VoltTurtle]

The pixies scattered into air, as the trees and bushes and flowers standing up and moving themselves out of the way, clearing a worn, dirt path for Jenelle to walk. Squirrels darted out from the underbrush, scaling the trees and disappearing among the branches. In the distance, the clearing had revealed itself, a sunbeam illuminating it with an unearthly glow.

Lily was still curled up, and fidgeting in her sleep.

"The choice is yours," a tree rumbled and creaked. "We will miss you."

A pixie held onto its lover, high above Jenelle, trembling in fear. The mushroom's song faded away, becoming an ominous, low hum. The whistling of the wind through the branches of the trees turned into a ghostly howl. The bees began to hide, burrowing into the flowers and disappearing. The sky began to turn a blood red as the moon rose behind the sleeping girl, staring at Jenelle with one large eye.

"She is not ready to face the horrors of her new reality," the pixies said, in unison, together forming a chorus of voices that sounded like all of Lily's friends and family.

"We hope you know what you're doing," the first one to speak whispered. "Once the threshold is crossed, there can be no going back."

[Lilith]

"Okay."

Jenelle wasn't good at words, or convincing people. She was able to do certain things right, but that wasn't one of them. She walked toward the invisible line, then looked back at Lily. Or what looked like Lily. The eye seemed convincing enough. She could vaguely hear her own voice in the echoes. It made her stomach churn.

"Stay, uh, safe."

She paused.

"And good luck."

Jenelle didn't say anything else.

[VoltTurtle]

The flora of the forest moved themselves back into place, once more obscuring the worn dirt road that led to the sleeping girl. The whistling of the wind quieted back down, the mushrooms song returning in force as the squirrels emerged from the trees. Rabbits bounced along the ground, disappearing in and out of burrows. The moon closed its eye and sank below the horizon, the sky returning to its unnaturally bright blue.

The pixies returned to their routine, fluttering between the trees and flowers, enjoying the sounds and sights of their world, temporary as it may be. One pixie that resembled Lily herself stayed separate from the rest, standing on a rock nearby the line leading back out of their paradise and into the harsh desert beyond.

"Don't get hurt, please," the pixie said, the one voice out of the whole crowd that actually sounded like Lily. "It would break her heart."

The pixie waved, and smiled warmly.

"We will see you again, okay?"

[Lilith]

She thought about her plan.

"Maybe."

Jenelle forced out a smile. She lowered her shoulders.

"I'm sorry."

A pause.

"For everything. Good bye."

[VoltTurtle]

"It's okay," the pixie replied, its response unheard, before it melted back into the environment.

The forest returned to its previous serene visage, absent the intruder. It remained an invisible oasis in the cold desert, a mirage of love and life and color that would never grace the world again once it was gone. It defended Lily Little from threats of all kinds, but it could not last forever. Someone would stir the dreamer awake, and all that this was would be washed away.

Lily remained asleep as the sun rose above the horizon, her nails beginning to dig into her sleeping bag.

[Ohm]

Kyle had gone from a walk, a confident saunter away from that room with grease boy in it to a frantic run. Hands hovering near his beak, shaking. Any adrenaline he had gotten from the fight had worn off, and he could feel it all. The stinging of his forearms and chest, the frantic breathing he was doing, and the fucking thing in his throat that was making its way,

He had to get it out! There's grease from his throat, and it came from another human, and oh dear god help!

He reached a hill and started to make a climb towards some shrubbery or anything that would make it easy for him to get this over with when he skidding along the ground, a last present from Moose. Narrowly avoiding eating shit, Kyle crashed through some shrubbery while somewhat on balance before crumpling to his knees and making a heinous noise as his beak pushed against the ground and something made its way back up.

[VoltTurtle]

Another intruder entered the glade, crossing the invisible threshold just as he crumpled forward. The forest responded in kind, the bouncing trees turning towards the downed boy in unison as he choked and gagged.

"Are you okay?" the nearest tree rumbled. "Do you need assistance?"

The denizens of the forest looked through him, as if they knew he was there, but not quite who he was. Reflexively, the song of the shrooms took on an almost chant-like fervor, the pixies swirling in and out of the center towards the bird-headed boy in a hurricane of light and color. They fluttered past his head, gentle wing beats providing the percussion to the mushroom's chorus. Flowers poked out of the ground around him, surrounding him in lush, unearthly beauty.

"We cannot help directly," one of the pixies murmured, its voice low, yet soft. "But we will do what we can."