Conscious, Conscientious

Deon blinked hard and squinted. He was lying on the ground, and for some reason, everything was incredibly bright. When his eyes finally adjusted, he was looking up at an afternoon sky.

What the—how? Deon thought. It was almost pitch-black only moments ago, and he was showing Lammy the invisible barrier that kept him from leaving Tailpiece. Now the woods felt mildly warm under the daylight.

Did I…pass through?

Deon sprung to his feet. “The wall’s gone! It’s actually gone!” He shouted to Lammy.

But he only saw more trees before him. The daytime woods now existed where Lammy was standing only a few seconds before. Not only this, but now the clearing they had been in was full of trees.

“Lammy?” Deon called. He stepped forward, and immediately bumped into an invisible surface. “Huh?” Deon banged on the surface. It was the same barrier he had felt every night while trying to pass beyond Tailpiece—but now he was on the other side.

“Can you hear me, Lammy?” Deon yelled, now walking along the wall and feeling for an opening. He walked for a couple minutes one way…then the opposite way…but the barrier remained.

Just like when Deon and Savannah first discovered the surface inside Tailpiece, it seemingly had no end.

Deon stood quietly for a moment. He turned to see what lay ahead. At first, the woods seemed no different than when he was inside Tailpiece. But then he noticed unusual colors hanging in the trees: yellows, purples, oranges…fruit he had never seen before was dangling from the branches, along with the familiar red apples and pineapples he was used to. In clusters of bushes beneath the trees, there were also multicolored berries that resembled the pink berries of Tailpiece.

A bit further beyond, Deon saw something that immediately shifted his confusion into eagerness: a dirt path. It curved away from where Deon stood, and continued outward for as far as he could see.

I knew it…Deon thought. I knew there was something more! He glanced back to where Tailpiece used to be, now blocked off by the invisible wall. It seemed there was no clear way back. And yet, if he could pass through once, maybe he could do it again.

But not right now. This was his chance. He was finally outside Tailpiece. This was his time to see what lay beyond, to see what his village was trying to hide. Maybe he could finally escape the mundane, and uncover what life really had to offer.

Deon looked back one more time. A melancholy feeling passed through.

“See you again sometime, everyone,” he uttered. He stepped forward, shifted the weight of his backpack, and began his journey.

He was ready to discover the extraordinary.

~

Several hours later…

Deon walked along the dirt path, still surrounded by trees, more bored than he had been in his entire life. A chipmunk or rabbit would scurry by every once in a while, but that was the most interesting thing he experienced for the past four or so hours.

His stomach growled loudly and he moaned in response. Deon had already eaten all the leftovers he snagged from the kitchen during his escape, and to make matters worse, he hadn’t seen a fruit-bearing tree in hours.

He realized he was perhaps a bit underprepared for an adventure. He had scaled the length of Tailpiece countless times over by now, and had no idea any path could go on for so long.

Eventually he took a break along the side of the path and leaned against a trunk. Maybe Mom and Dad were just trying to save me from pure boredom or starvation, Deon pondered. I guess this is how it ends. He looked across the path, deep into the woods. Red dots hung from a single tall tree not too far away.

Finally! Hope! Deon cried in his mind.

With rekindled energy, He headed for the tree. When he arrived he found it only featured a handful of apples, and strangely, a few purple berries. Deon shrugged to himself; this would have to do for now.

Then he faintly heard someone approaching from ahead. There was a small opening in between the tree and another dense part of the woods, and into that clearing walked a teenage girl.

She had midnight blue hair tied up in a black elastic, and wore a loose sleeveless blue shirt with a jagged black design on the front, tight black pants, and thin, worn tan shoes. The girl was slender but seemed athletic as she walked very lightly with her arms crossed, watching Deon closely. Her vivid purple eyes looked up into the branches of the apple tree, and then back to him emotionlessly.

While Deon was intrigued to be meeting his first person outside Tailpiece, there was a more immediate task at hand: he was hungry. “Uh, sorry,” he began. “These apples are taken.”

“No they’re not, they’re up in the tree,” the girl responded plainly. Her voice was clear and stern, but sounded as if she were talking to herself.

“Yeah, but…I was here first, so…” Deon tried to explain.

“That doesn’t matter,” she said, glaring at him uncaringly.

Deon cursed in his mind. Who does this girl think she is? She just waltzes on over and assumes she can take these apples when I found them first? Yeah right! “Alright, listen,” he demanded.

The girl stopped walking and cocked her head to the side slightly. A gleam appeared in her stare.

“I’ve been walking for hours,” continued Deon, “and all I want is a little snack and some food for later, so I’m sorry but I won’t let you take these apples.”

The girl’s eyes smiled coldly, but the rest of her face remained unchanged. “I don’t need your permission,” she said, and she continued to advance toward the tree.

“I’m telling you, stop!” Deon demanded.

“Are you really trying to pick a fight over this?”

“MAYBE I AM!”

Deon blinked—and within that instant, he was struck to the ground. Confused, he saw that the girl was now standing beside him with her arms still crossed and the same blank expression on her face.

“Well it’s not a good idea,” the girl muttered, her attention on the tree.

Oh, so THAT’S how it’s gonna be…Deon thought. This girl has no idea who she’s messing with: the best fighter in Tailpiece! Fumed, Deon leaped to his feet and swung a fist at the girl. She swiftly blocked the blow with her forearm, but suddenly recoiled, grabbing her arm and turning away.

“Ow!” she cried with an unexpectedly high tone.

Deon paused, his rage vanishing instantly. “Oh! Um…I’m sorry…I got carried aw—”

Then her fist smashed into his stomach. Deon keeled forward and coughed.

“Idiot,” uttered the girl. Deon blushed—she fooled him. The anger immediately returned and he grabbed the arm that had punched him. Still leaning forward, he sent his own fist into the girl’s gut. She grunted, but retaliated with a quick backhand to Deon’s cheek. A light flashed in his eyes and he fell to his knees while the girl hopped back, waiting for him.

Deon stood up, hiding any evidence that he felt pain. He shot a raged look into the calm girl’s eyes, yet at the same time, he couldn’t help but feel excited: she was good. He had faced some tough fighters in Tailpiece, but this girl was clearly something else.

“You take hits better than I thought you would,” the blue-haired girl told him.

Deon smiled. “I was about to say the same to you.”

They both lunged at each other and met in the middle with locked arms. The girl kicked him in the side and he tried to knee her in the stomach, but she sidestepped it and with a spin, broke her arms free. Before Deon could react, the girl bashed her palm into his chest, causing him to stumble backwards. Then, with a jump, she flew at him and kicked him in the same spot.

Deon fell over backwards, but rolled and clumsily brought himself back to his feet. He was now breathing heavily, while the girl remained completely composed.

Darn it! How is she fighting me with this much ease?! Deon wondered. She wasn’t even relying on powers, making Deon wonder if she was like Savannah and simply didn’t have any. Maybe powers were unique to Tailpiece? Either way, it was about time he introduced his own, if he wanted any chance of winning.

“It turns out you’re not much of a fighter,” said the girl.

“You haven’t even seen the half of it,” he told her as a confident smile grew on his face.

For the first time, the girl looked the slightest bit puzzled. “What do you mean?”

Deon imagined that a thick plank of wood, roughly half his size, was floating a few feet behind the girl. The plank appeared into existence as he intended, unbeknownst to her.

Upon his demand, the plank punched forward, colliding with the girl from behind. She let out a surprised exclamation as she crashed to the ground. She lay still for a few seconds, before slowly positioning to push herself back up.

Crap…thought Deon. He was hoping that would be the end of it. But if anything, this bought him some time. He raced over to the tree as the girl began to stand up. Deon considered using his new vine trapping technique, but he knew she’d be too fast. If there was no clear victory in sight, maybe he could at least grab the apples before she got to them.

With no time to climb, he needed another power-based move. Deon imagined a giant pair of bug wings with a vine handle hanging out of the bottom. The wings appeared just above him, and he grabbed onto the handle. Then the wings began to flap rapidly, producing a low buzzing noise as they ascended, taking Deon off the ground and towards the fruit-bearing branches.

When Deon reached the first thick branch, he touched down onto it and allowed the bug wings to vanish. Right in front of him was a beautiful, bright red apple, just waiting to be picked. He could feel his stomach calling out to it in longing, but then he heard the shuffling of feet below.

The girl now stood at the trunk, looking up square at him.

Deon froze, until he remembered he was too high up for the girl to get to him easily. He had plenty of time.

Or not.

The girl pounced into the air, soaring straight for Deon’s branch. When she reached his height she swiped an arm at his shoulder, causing him to lose balance and fall out of the tree. The girl pushed off the tree and jumped after him with her foot aimed at his torso.

“What the heck?!” Deon cried as he plummeted to the ground. He crashed with a hard thump and a moment later was pinned on the chest by the girl’s foot.

Deon couldn’t move—firstly because he was in too much pain, and secondly because the girl kept her foot there, nailing him down as she stood with her hands on her hips. She leaned over him, meeting his eyes with hers.

“Like I said, you’re not much of a fighter,” she said, and then she removed her foot from his chest. Deon lay silently as the girl walked away to retrieve her apples, and then everything faded.

~

Deon awoke groggily, still soar everywhere. He felt something in his hand, so he brought it to his eyes to see the perfectly red apple in his grasp. How did this get here? He wondered. Deon sat up slowly, grunting as he did. He nonchalantly glanced towards the tree—and almost fell over after jumping from surprise.

The girl sat casually against the tree trunk, munching on an apple with two more apples and a few berries beside her. “You’re not afraid of me now, are you?” she teased impassively.

“What?! N—no,” Deon stammered as he sat more comfortably. Then he noticed he also had apples and berries next to him. “What’s with this?”

“There were six grown apples, so I gave you half and took the other half.”

Deon was dumbstruck. “SO WE WENT THROUGH THIS WHOLE MESS WHEN YOU WERE JUST GOING TO SHARE THE APPLES IN THE FIRST PLACE?!”

“Yes.”

“WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST TELL ME?!”

“You never gave me the chance to tell you,” she explained. “Besides, I knew I could take you down easily, so it didn’t matter to me either way.”

Deon took an angry bite out of his apple. “Hey wait a minute—you didn’t take me down easily; I got you good with my plank attack!”

“And by doing so you made the worst mistake you could when fighting someone like me.”

“‘Someone like you?’”

“You really can’t tell by now?” the girl asked. “I’m a Power Rebound.”

“A what?”

The girl’s thin eyebrows furrowed in confusion, which was the most emotion Deon had seen her demonstrate yet. “You’re wandering around No Man’s Land, picking fights when you don’t even know what that is? Power Rebound is a type of consciousness—you at least know what that is, right?”

“Um…can I have a hint…?” Deon requested awkwardly. This girl was practically speaking gibberish with all these terms.

She stared at him for what felt like a full minute. “Are you kidding me?”

“No, but now I wish I was.”

She took a long, deep sigh. “Okay…well…welcome to No Man’s Land. This is the place that bridges all of the countries of the Multiverse together. Only consciousnesses can enter No Man’s Land, so I’m not really sure how you made it this far while being so ignorant.”

Deon wanted to push back against her insult, but his sheer curiosity kept him quiet.

“Consciousnesses are people with mind-related abilities, and there are over a hundred types and variations,” she continued. “I’m a Power Rebound, which means whenever I’m hurt, my nerves charge up energy and release a power boost throughout my body. So when you hit me hard from behind, all you really did was incapacitate me for a moment and give me an energy boost. Did you get all that?”

“I…think so,” Deon said, feeling foolish. This was quite a bit to take in. A multiverse…consciousnesses…This place already sounded infinitely vaster than Tailpiece. “Wait, so since I’m out here, I’m a consciousness too, right?” he asked. “Do you know what type I am?”

“It’s obvious. You can create things with your mind and bring them into reality,” she explicated. “You’re an Imaginer.”

Whoa, an ‘Imaginer…’ thought Deon. That sounds cool. “That must be one of the rare types, huh?”

“It’s literally the most common one.” The girl took her fruits and stood up, about to leave.

“Well wait a second!” Deon urged. “You just probably haven’t seen a good one yet. I mean, I am the best Imaginer in my village.”

He couldn’t tell whether she was unsurprised or unimpressed, but he guessed both as she stared at him wordlessly. Then she turned and started to walk away.

“Wait!” Deon yelled again.

The girl stopped once more and turned around slowly with her arms crossed. “What?”

“Are…are you doing anything tonight?”

“Sleeping. Bye.”

“I mean…I was thinking maybe we could…”

“No.”

“…practice against each other.”

The girl finally stopped rejecting him for a moment. “Why do you want to do that?”

“You’re the first um…consciousness…I’ve met since I left,” Deon explained. “And I think where I come from, Imaginers are the only type. I figured this could be a chance to learn about another type and test my abilities against them.”

Deon waited impatiently as the girl continued to glare at him, and then he was dismayed when she turned and continued to walk away. He considered telling her to wait once more, but decided against it.

“Come on,” the girl called to him.

“Huh?”

“Come on,” she repeated. “And my name’s Skrili.”

Deon was thrown off for a moment, but he hurriedly climbed to his feet, grabbed his fruits and backpack and tried to catch up to Skrili, who wasn’t slowing down for him.

“My name’s Deon,” he said.

“I don’t care.”

The two of them entered the main path of the woods and followed it under the shade of the late afternoon sun. Deon wasn’t sure what he was getting himself into by asking this Skrili girl to train with him, but as long as it was something new, he didn’t care. He had fallen into a world—or apparently, a Multiverse—filled with special powers, and he couldn’t wait to experience it all.