Lone Wendy: The Girl and the Forest of the Gods by D E Dunn

moment before a steel hand
strikes me, sending me flying. He rises and pulls the spear from
his chest, sending it hurtling towards me, narrowly missing my head
as it flies off. His legs crumbling, he turns back towards the
hound, stumbling. Falling to his knees with a horrible wailing, his
massive steel hand outstretched toward the great dead beast. He
falls atop it, his unnerving scream crackling and fading, until
silent. Dead as well.
     
    The Kennel Master, a mighty monster, laying as
unmoving as the landscape, a weeping from behind his steel face. If
I didn't know better, I would almost say that he were crying.
     
    I don't know what to do with myself for a time,
shocked in the still and silence. Soon I hear more howling from the
distance. I quickly recover my spear, take his torch, and retreat
into the tunnels.
     
     

Chapter 8
Madness
Season – Beginning of Spring
     
    From the depths of death and darkness where I
languished, I saw a light. Crawling forth from the bowels of the
earth, I fell to my knees under the blinding sun. Bathed my lungs
in the cool fresh air. Felt the morning dew melt against my skin.
Ate fresh berries until the pain went away. And then I looked upon
the endless land, and despaired....
     
    -Wendy
     
     

Part 1
Big Sky
     
    Vast landscape mingling on crystal waters beneath an
ember sky. My first sight as I arose from the dark mountain. A land
both beautiful and bountiful. But not without its quiet horrors.
For within this pristine vastness, hope fades, and your fears fill
you.
     
    Madness, when dark things roam freely in your mind.
When the things before your eyes defy imagination and reality slips
away. When the world becomes so inconceivable, that facts and fairy
tales melt together into an indistinguishable mess.
     
    I stared into the eye of a giant, and felt a fear so
fierce, my legs could not hold me. No thoughts would come, only
tears. I whimpered powerless and paralyzed. But what was it that so
much I feared? The monster so large? Or myself... so small.
     
     
    ***
     
     
    Sitting on a hill, under a tree at sunrise, big sky
dwarfed only by endless land. Staring, so still, into the distance,
I never slept. My eyes are cold and glaring, hiding my thoughts
behind them. My fears, hate, and despair.
     
    I could have kicked the shard. Laid beside it.
Stepped over it, walked away, and never known. I should have known,
I'll never find it.
     
    The thoughts replay in my head.
     
    I'm nothing, I'm useless, I'm stupid
     
    The new mantra in my mind.
     
    I should have just died, I should die. I'll never
make it home, I don't even know where home is, or if it still
exists. Even if it does, even if I could get there, everyone would
just hate me. I hate me.
     
    My teeth clench, as I slump over limp on the ground,
and lay there through the day and the night. Watching as giants and
massive creatures wander the plains. Their fearsome looks
contrasting their calm and gentle nature. I find it soothing to
look at them, drifting peacefully as I drift off to sleep.
     
    I dream of home, a place as lost to me as I am. A
place I left, for a foolish dream I suffered for, only to find the
world empty and cruel. I think of my mother, I see her face as I
stare out. I think of Wil. I wonder, will they remember me for who
I was? Or will my leaving define me? How empty I feel...
     
     

 
Journal
     
    A calming night beneath a vibrant sky. The stars
dancing as the branches bow and sway. The breezes gentle and warm.
Sharply clashing as they meet and rustle the soil amongst grasses
rolling over like waves in a vast sea. A sea of earth stretching
far into the distance until it fades into the void.
     
    So beautiful, and yet lost to me. I can't think of
these things. I'm numb, I'm tired. I'm ill, and I'm alone. I've
decided not to eat. Do what I should have done long ago, and end my
journey. This is my end, to slowly fade into this peaceful place,
still and calming. Here I'll lye for all eternity beneath