A burning arrow shot through the lighted sky that was raining the soft, wet rain that landed upon the ground with a gentle "plop, ping" noise. The arrow seemed to just defy the world of Plit... just as I do.
******
My name is Teela Marie Yoshi. I am the fanged Yoshi who has done many good things, but just as many bad. For every thing that walks or exists on the face of Plit, there is an exact and equal opposite. This is the story of my life in parts, from beginning to end. I'm still writing and living in it, but when everything is said and done - and there is no more left to say or do because it is finished - this, too, will be finished. And if... and if I never live to see a happy ending to it... it's all right. I shall regret nothing I do in life because it all happens for a purpose; the good and the bad. Really, there is nothing I can say or do to stop what has already happened, but I can use the knowledge to my advantage and learn from it. If I have done anything unbearably wrong, I assure all that I have gotten on my knees and begged for forgiveness. What else can one expect me to do, though? I thank the Lord I've met all my friends, and even my enemies. I am, in some twisted way, regretful for all I've killed, even if they were the enemies. Everyone deserves a second chance, and not even my enemies quite deserved what they got. But then again, I want to say I regret doing it, but... Regret nothing in life; learn from it and move on. So how can I regret, and yet not...? Well, I’ve asked for forgiveness and that is all I can do. So when everything is said and done, I guess... I will be too.
_______________________________________________________________
Part One: Where the Problems Started...
The Moonlight sparkled mysteriously, the town peaceful, and a young figure scampered along the darkened roads. The streets played at the scene with their mirage-like thoughts in the fog. The night was eerie, and the figure still sneaked along quietly. Another figure stalked after the first, though very hesitant. The first figure stopped dead and cautiously, and listened to the second's footsteps. The second stood poised in the streetlight, seemingly doing the opposite of what the first figure was doing.
The poised figure had a dinosaur-like shape, red and shiny fur, and black, long hair with split-ends. It was a female Yoshi about the age of eleven. She seemed to be like a statue watching the first figure.
"Reema? Is that you? This blasted fog is so... spooky!" The first figure's concerned voice spoke loudly against the eluding darkness and stillness, but of course one musn’t forget the quietness. The first figure stepped into the streetlight as she high-fived the second, known as Reema.
The first figure had long blue hair with purple ends, a young female Yoshi shape, and light blue fur that seemed to be a little soaked, as if she has just gotten out of the shower. She smiled brightly, her smile seeming to evoke the evading darkness around her. This figure, the first, was known as Teela Yoshi.
"Teela... What in blazes are you doing out here at this hour?" Reema seemed a little shocked, concerned, and yet she still held that adventurous strike in her eyes. Teela shivered as she looked around cautiously, and resumed her look upon Reema.
"I want to go into the forest. Want to come with me?" Teela's eyes widened excitedly as Reema looked as if she'd just seen someone die in her arms.
"You're crazy! At night?! Why? I mean... haven't you heard the tales? You can't go out of the village at night! There's the magic... and the illusions... and even the Boos and strange creatures that lurk deep in there! WHAT ABOUT THE MIST OF TIME? You... can't! Especially since the zombies lurk out there!"
"Reema... I know that forest better than anyone in this village, or anyone else on Plit. I've been through them over a million times! From every rock, to creature, and everything! There isn't anything that can hurt me! Zombies? HAhaha! The balance of Plit itself would have to be off it that happens! I mean, sometimes they come up, but not tonight. It's a full moon! Sure, it's not strong sunlight, but it’s sunlight nonetheless!" Teela seemed as if she knew everything in the world right then as she paused and took a deep breath of the cool and crisp night air. Reema shook her head in disappointment. "And besides... I'm curious. I mean, I feel as though there is something I've not discovered! There has to be some differences at night, and I'm gonna find them!" Teela jumped up excitedly, higher than most creatures would. She grabbed the streetlight with her tongue, and landed on top of a nearby shop.
"Teela! What are you doing now?"
"Having fun! Don't be such a sissy! You're never like this during the day! See, even you're different at night!" Teela giggled childishly as Reema sighed and performed the same move as Teela, though not as lightheartedly, and more skillfully.
"Teela, you're never like this! At least, not as wreckless! I think you're crazy at night! I mean, I'm usually the one getting talked out of doing stupid things! Teela, I have a bad feeling about this!" Reema spoke as Teela stood there and rolled her eyes. "And besides! Do your parents know you’re out?"
"Yeah, Reema!" Teela paused sarcastically. "They let me roam out at night where I can get kidnapped and even killed! They love it when I do that! I snuck out, cool, huh? My parents won’t even notice I'm gone! They still think I'm in the shower! Do you want to come with me?" Teela smiled, feeling quite proud of herself while Reema turned and started to walk away.
"Teela..." Reema paused, looking back at Teela forlornly. "I told you not to do it. I'm going home. Just remember; I warned you. I don't know what is out there, but any other time during the day, I'd go with you. Thanks for the offer, but I don't think I want to know what is out there at night." Reema jumped, and a small thud was heard as she slowed her fall with her tongue and the streetlight. Teela sighed, and walked along the edge of the building, watching Reema quickly run home.
"Reema... ah, whatever. Hahaha... Even she isn't brave enough to do this?! And she was the one who wanted to go cliff jumping... good thing I stopped her. At least this isn't a stupid move! Reema, you would make good ninja material... with the way you run. Sure, I could do it too... but, bah, whatever. Why am I talking to myself?!" Teela smiled stupidly and started to jump from building to building until she jumped on top of another building, and paused at a ladder roof that seemed a bit weak and rusty from age. Teela grasped it and began to descend downwards towards a wooden fence. She smiled, and jumped way higher than the fence even reached. Teela Yoshi had officially taken her first step out of same haven of the village, and her first step into the forever-seeming darkness of the Forest of Illusion…
**********
The noises deep in the forest echoed with repelling force, and one could tell that they were perhaps from very large creatures. The night mist played with any living creature's eyes by seemingly making shadows move, as if cast by another living thing. The moon glistened; it was a blazing ball of full light, and seemed to reflect so many things that had already happened and even perhaps foretold of what would be if one were to stare at its gazing "eyes". There was magic in this forest, an almost uncapturable magic that had not been called forth out of its dormant resting place since almost too long ago. The magic was not classifiable; it could bring the dead back to life, make the young old, and even take the people of now and echo them through time, or so all this was told.
Teela smiled as she looked into the darkness, and took a deep breath. She looked to the moon, and sighed.
"The Moonlight can shine through this... it's not the Neuron Jungle. The Moonlight should be in there!" Teela grunted as she squinted her eyes. "I'm not afraid." And Teela marched forth, knowing she wanted to know what was here and so she would make herself go though. "I will show Reema there is nothing dangerous about this forest!"
Teela wandered past the first trees she knew were filled with magic essence themselves. Teela could feel their odd sensation surge through her own veins; she felt the magic prick through to her own soul. Teela felt the longing feeling that would never be fulfilled, she felt the evil that the dead brought once their souls were removed, the passion of caring for one so much that you would chase your dreams but only be requited, and Teela could feel the odd sensation that crawled through her the most, the feeling that seemed to be pulling her along almost unwillingly; curiosity, something waiting, something that echoed for her, something that needed her so bad, something that was so powerful, a feeling Teela could not resist. Teela knew she had to go deeper.
Teela saw shapes move, but she ignored them. Teela could not feel herself thinking anymore. She wandered farther, and saw straight moonlight above her; she stood in a single clearing. Teela wasn't that far in yet.
"Deeeepppppeeeerrrr..." Teela heard the wind echo, she heard the trees whisper, and Teela could feel the magic seeming to grab a hold of her and gently seem to smother her thoughts. Teela could feel her every memory being erased, but she didn’t seem to fight back. Teela felt no need to fight back. Teela was not relentless; something was calling her, and she felt she had to go...
The trees were tall, but there wasn’t thick underbrush everywhere she walked. Leaves were all over the ground, but Teela walked soundlessly, though she seemed not to notice the quietness of death all around her. Teela seemed so lost in her own mind right then, she was just walking, feeling it get stronger and stronger, her heart skipping a single beat and her breathing echoing throughout the forest. Teela heard or saw nothing else; she wasn't too concerned. She was being led out of her own mind and body, her spirit flying and seeming to be following something else…
Teela wandered for what felt like another ten minutes, but in the Forest Of Illusion, time stood still. One could never tell how long they were in it. The forest seemed to have a mind of its own; perhaps it did. There was magic, and there were restless souls, and there was vengeance and love. This forest contained everything since the dawn of time, and it would have perhaps had a chance to even seriously develop a mind of its own; it could have been fate itself. But then again, what was fate but a false thing to believe in? Perhaps fate was just what would happen; Teela knew this all too well. She would sometimes sit and think about it for hours; was fate real? Teela doubted it, but she had never really formed a true opinion.
Some brush moved, Teela didn't stop. She walked right through the brush, the forest path seeming to be the only thing lit, and it seemed to be lit for her. Teela could feel the halt of echoes, the hush of the whispers in the wind, and she could feel the forest itself seem to stop breathing. Teela could feel everything around her; she felt not a single thought of her own...
"Goooooo... Farther. Keep going..." The voice echoed though her mind this time; Teela heeded it and continued walking. The moonlight was brighter, and Teela still felt not a thing. She felt as if she were walking on air, but Teela seemed to not note that either. She could feel it coming... but the thought that never seemed to strike her mind was "What?" No thoughts... at all... Just Follow... Follow... For I Will Lead... And You Shall Follow.
The Moonlight seemed never ending; time seemed to stand still; the trees seemed to bow; and the wind was at a dead halt. Nothing moved, something was to happen, and Teela could feel it about to happen. A few more minutes... that final breath would be taken... it would happen... Teela would know... It would change the lives of many... echo on throughout as long as the land of Plit itself would exist... if only one were to take the time to listen.
The Moonlight didn't fade into the clouds, the clouds seemed to fade in the moonlight. Teela saw something up ahead. She inched closer, seeing everything come to a sudden halt, even her own breathing. Her heart may have skipped a beat; Teela couldn't feel anything but the irresistible feeling she was being pulled. A final and single thought emerged through Teela's brain, "I am here... Where I am supposed to be..."
In the Moonlight, before the small Yoshi child, was a towering house that had some of the lower windows boarded and the upper ones completely shattered. Some of the windows, however, were plain and simple windows that seemed a little rickety but undisturbed by all except age. The unboarded windows wore faded navy blue color paint, and the large front door, which was actually two doors side by side, was a white color with beautiful multicolored stained glass windows that seemed to be black with dust, but some of it glistened finely in the Moonlight. It seemed as if it had been deserted for almost forever, and something seemed odd about it.
Teela walked forward, and a twig snapped under her feet. She shook her head quickly, and seemed to come out of a trance for a few seconds before spacing out again. Teela paused again, looked forlornly up into the Moonlight, and then continued towards the house...
**********
The door was creaky as Teela placed a single paw on it, her four fingers freezing suddenly as she heard a noise from within the house. It seemed like any other normal... ghost house... Teela then had a saddened look upon her face.
"Where are you? I look around, and you're never here. My love had stretched to the corner of the universe to try and reach you, but... you weren't anywhere... How could you leave me alone beneath this darkened sky of Earth, loveless? Longing? Where?" Teela shook her head again, and placed another paw on her head. "What?" She then shrugged and blinked... not feeling... as if she weren't there for a second. She felt... lifeless for a second, squeezed into some sort of corner of her mind, just trying... to feel anything. Teela then began to turn the knob, feeling cold and lonely... like she had been drained of something... Teela felt somewhat empty, somewhat lifeless. She then stopped as she placed a foot inside the door.
"Who can say that your love grows as your heart chose? Who can say when the day sleeps, that the night weeps? Who can say that your love dies as your heart cries? Only time... and how does time become in existence-" Teela coughed a little as the dust filled her nose, making her incredibly uncomfortable. She blinked, wondering why she seemed to be pushed away from reality for another moment. She shrugged it off again as she looked around. Teela seemed to have no recollectance of what she had just said, and... she didn't seem too concerned.
The furniture was ripped terribly, and a board game lay in the floor. Teela noticed a pile of bones, or at least that was what she believed it to be, as she could not see it clearly, in the corner of the ridiculously large and practically empty room.
"And you keep lying to me, forcing me to wonder if you're trying to find a way to tell me goodbye." Teela actually heard herself speak these words, but before she could say anything in wonderment... she felt somewhat dizzy, feeling something surface into her mind. Teela then begun walking towards the huge staircase that lay ahead of her, straight across from the door she had entered through. Now, Teela once again seemed in a trance of some sort...
The staircase creaked worse than the door had as Teela walked upon them, her gaze set upon the largest door in perhaps the entire house. It was at the farthest end of the balcony-like floor. Basically, you could walk into the house, and see the doors to all four floors. Teela stared at the door, and then turned around and begun to walk back down the staircase. She looked around the dark and gloomy setting, her expression lifeless. In a way, she felt... locked away, and yet she felt more free than she'd ever felt in her entire life.
"TTTTHHHHHHHEeeee BOOooonnneessssss!!!" Teela heard something yell fiercely inside her head, her heart starting to pound furiously for some reason... Teela then... felt lost completely. As to what happened next, she couldn't quite recall.
Teela walked to the corner of the room, and began sort of digging through the bones, which, by the looks of it, was once a Birdo or a Yoshi, or some type of creature related to the sort. She picked up the skull and slipped it over her head, and felt herself being... moved... through the halls of the large house. Being watched... by so many... eyes... Teela then snapped out of it. She looked around frantically; the room around was dark. It wasn't just dark, it was beyond dark, and Teela knew it. She couldn't hear her own breathing; she couldn't hear her heart pounding; she was too paralyzed by fear, too consumed by worry to realize it.
"AND YOU WILL BE HERE FOR ALWAYS!!!" Teela heard another whisper within her head as she suddenly saw something glowing. Something seemed to be melting, something... melting, shapeshifting perhaps, into something. Teela stared, her heart skipped a beat, and another... she didn't breathe, her breath caught in her throat, her head running through so many thoughts that Teela couldn't process them. Suddenly, she could see everything, in a way; the glowing remained in the room, seemed to be floating with the eerie fog that suddenly rose up. Teela stared, her eyes wide, paralyzed...
As to what came next, Teela didn't know really. The room was very large, and Teela could just feel her body heat evaporate into the air, which semed to be only the coldest she'd ever felt. She saw, what she saw exactly, was glowing purple. She also saw, so clearly, the two glowing green fangs of whatever it was she was seeing.
"To be the only one in the world, all alone, that was what you wanted, wasn't it?" She heard the icy chill, knowing... it seemed... harsh, evil, somewhat demonic. Teela didn't know wheather or not, really, to respond. "Or did you just always feel alone? Or even perhaps, as I've seen, you want to be alone? All alone in the world, no one else? RESPOND." The voice echoed, Teela now realizing the room was much larger than she'd originally thought, as it took a moment or two for the echo to return.
"Actually..." Teela decided to respond, her voice somewhat weak, as she thought for a moment..." I'm afraid to be alone." Teela heard a snicker, as she saw the fangs sort of smile... Teela knew whatever it was, was sneering.
"Pathetic..." And with that, she saw it dive for her. Teela somewhat yelped as she suddenly turned to run away, whatever it was following. Teela felt the darkness start to take its toll, the feeling of loneliness and dread, panic and worry, starting to get to her, feeling the crevices of her mind. Teela ran, ran, afraid, or whatever it was. She was more confused than anything though. All she truly recalled was wandering onto the roof, and then... almost nothing, except more Moonlight through the treetops, and then she remembered somewhat, of the main room, or something like that. Teela only recalled being right here, actually able to speak for once, speak her own thoughts, feel her own self speak. Now, being chased, Teela didn't know what to think, had never been in this situation.
Teela then did what any Yoshi would have done: try and eat its attacker. Teela turned her head, slowed a little, and rolled out her tongue wildly... What came next, she didn't expect. Her tongue went right through it, as whatever it was caught up to her. Teela stared at its eyes... the eyes of a ghost, the eyes... of a Boo, or something like it. Teela saw the eerie purple glow, the strange, almost otherworldly, two green glowing fangs. Teela just simply stared, simply knew that everything around her may have not even been in existance right then, for she felt as if she were looking Death in the eyes, to even want to think what was real and what wasn't right then was practically impossible as all the emotions clashed inside of her, her own emotions; fear that she'd never see the light of the day which she enjoyed, fear that she'd never be able to see the Moonlight in she so dearly loved, worry that she'd be dead before she even really got a chance to see the world; worry, fear, and so many other feelings that branched out from the two which had not been classified. Teela was just shook up, for fear had grabbed a hold, just taking hold of her mind; Teela couldn't think straight... no, she was so far from reality right then, compressed into her own mind by the endless void of fear, unable to free herself from the clasps that held her so tightly, not willing to let go. This was fear... fear of the unknown... somehow, the worst type...
As Teela stared at the eyes, she somehow felt familiar... felt this was... it. Teela shook her head...
"No?!" The ghost just laughed slightly as Teela shook her head and turned and started to bolt through the dark, only to know she'd just run through even more darkness... darkness that seemed to just want to take her hope, trap her inside... and perhaps... it was helping, doing an excellant job at that.
"Your mind is so easily penetrated!" Teela ran on, though the ghost dissappeared as she looked back. Teela then looked ahead to find it as it charged at her; she screamed as she turned away and ran, running the way she originally came from.
"I don't remember..." Teela sighed, knowing the only thing she could think was to try and leave, but she didn't remember how she'd come in here in the first place. Teela then started to panic as she ran harder, finally getting tired... tired of running, wanting to give up, but she didn't know... was confused... Teela couldn't see everything anymore now, for the eerie glow that had somewhat frightened her, then in a way helped her, was now gone. She was so confused, wanted to just get out of here, wanted to wake up from this horrible nightmare, but she... didn't know how!
"Enough of this childplay, you foolish creature! Filthy excuse for an animal!"
"I'M NOT A FILTHY CREATURE, OR AN ANIMAL! I... I have feelings..." Teela actually seemed somewhat hurt by what this... thing... ghost... was saying. She felt despaired... hopeless.
"You're are a filthy soul. You're imperfect, a filthy hybrid of good and evil, still saying sorry for things you've done, knowing you're just going to make the same mistakes again. You're not worth anything, just uselessness laying around, doing nothing but living, just to die. Making excuses that you're all the same because you were created so, though really, that is just imperfection, a way of saying you don't want to accept it, just want to pretend you're all worth just as much as the other. If this is so, why is there hatred? Anger? Things like good and evil, not equivalent. Only the better will win. Good won't always live, for there are so many other factors, such as what the situation is, and only your filthy souls want to believe there is always a better side of things, when, really, you're all going to die in the end, all going to be consumed by hatred!"
"YOU'RE WRONG!!!" Teela then stopped, as she was tired of hearing these words get into her head, trying to change her; tired of running away from these things which her very existance went against, trying to consume her every thought of being; and she just couldn't accept these things, couldn't accept them because she knew, her heart wouldn't accept it either, every part of her was in defiance agaaint what this evil was saying and she knew it wasn't true. "Everyone is equal! ONLY EVIL MAKES IT NOT EQUAL! IF THINGS LIKE... IF THINGS LIKE YOU DIDN'T EXIST, MAYBE PROBLEMS WOULDN'T EXIST!"
"Then why is it that without evil such as I, as you claim, there would still be fighting? Still be unreasoning, thus violence!!! ACCPEPT THAT YOU ARE IMPERFECT!" There was a snide grin again as Teela sighed, frustration building inside of her.
"I never said I was perfect. For I know everyone is imperfect and I understand my place in this world, and it is not right for you to try to change it, for only I can change it and there is nothing you can do about it," Teela yelled as she heard a chilling laugh, a lighthearted laugh, she not wanting to hear this creature laugh harder with feeling.
"Oh, you believe you are right about everything, don't you?"
"No, it is not my job to know everyhting, for if I knew everything, I would surely know what tomorrow would hold, surely know where obsessions would go, surely I'd know where my passion hides its feelings within me, and everyone else. If I knew everything, I wouldn't be here. What I search for, you cannot tell me, for my purpose is to search, and even I don't know everything, for I only know what is around me, and I'll admit it, I may change my purpose, but I do understand I have one main purpose and that purpose is to live, and that is the only purpose I understand, for the other purposes, I would wonder why I would have such a purpose for a while and then I'd finally accept it, as after awhile, everyone accepts everything, as we know we are but imperfect. But this only leads me to wonder why you would ask me such questions?" Teela then stood, poised, waiting for the icy reply, believing she could come to an understanding with this thing. Teela didn't understand, however, why it would talk to her...
"What is it your place to ask? I am fed up with you..." This time... Teela smiled. The ghost was annoyed, and Teela smiled... because... she knew why.
"Because you know I'm right?" And with that, she watched the Boo dissappear. She then began to run, her smile not bringing her any comfort from all the feelings and emotions of fear, frustration, worry, and so much more just raging, burning, not ever letting her go, almost not accepting she was fighting it off slowly.
"Enough." She heard it echo as she then paused, watching it get darker... "My time grows near, and your soul will not be needed." Teela couldn't even see her hand anymore, couldn't even look down to see her nose... Teela couldn't see anything. She could only look back to see the purple reappear, and then fade.
"Wha-" Teela was about to question it when she watched it swerve towards her now, seeing as it had gotten in front of her... Teela tried to turn around, but it knocked her onto her back before she could even try. Teela then watched as it reappeared in front of her again, staring into her eyes this time, and not just upon her... She knew it could feel her fear, she knew it could see that glimpse of hope that would shatter most evil if it were just... solid... if that hope was just solid, it would be the most defiant thing on Plit. The fear, however, covered most of it, and it was losing... as Teela was.
The ghost started to glow a yellow color, yet flares of silver came up, as Teela suddenly felt herself being lifted into the air, feeling compressed, unable to move. She struggled... couldn't exactly break it, but... she didn't know how to fight it accept to struggle. The ghost then laughed maniacally as Teela stared.
"Your soul... was different, as your mind. I, however pathetic myself to you to some extent, if that was what you thought of me, wanted to say... before your time of course... before your soul becomes forlorn, your mind being completely washed over and erased... you would have been powerful... in some ways on your own. Your mind... is complex... easily entered when you were curious, as you were the one who cried out to me, I did not... I didn't have to lure you here myself. You already knew the way... and yet you didn't. You just... are powerful with your mind. To be able to think of the reality you can, to be able to think... the way you do, unable to be controlled by any accept yourself... the only one I've ever seen like it. You're weren't as... pointless... as the others, but you still shall suffer the same fate."
"And I take that as a compliment?" Teela didn't know... exactly... what to think now... she just... wondered... what was going to happen. What was there to think that hadn't already gone through her head? She didn't understand what this... ghost, thing, whatever she wanted to classify it as... was saying... exactly... Didn't really know a single word of what it was meaning...
"If you will, yes, I would suppose so... and now, my time grows short for talk... Say your prayers."
"FOR WHAT?!" Teela asked as her eyes grew wide... She didn't... comprehend it! It didn't sound like it was going to kill her, but she didn't know what it meant! She hadn't understood anything so far.... didn't know... what to think about not knowing either...
"Goodbye..." And with that, it swerved at her, its mouth open, the fangs aiming at her, Teela's mind completely going gone, blank, not understanding, everything at that very moment clashing inside of her. She then took a deep breath, and yanked at her arm, wanting to scream, but it felt like she no longer had control over herself for a moment... leaving her no choice.... Teela then felt something... she felt something inside of her, something she felt she had control over her; not her personality, not her memories, not even her current thoughts, but... in a way, her will... to live... not wanting this to happen, her faith, her belief that she'd overcome the darkness, all the things that she normally never thought about, but the stuff that made Teela herself, the positiveness that seemed to have been compressed, seeming to have finally broken free, the knowingness Teela contained. Teela jerked her entire body once, feeling... weakening, and she then turned, struggled a little before it weakened some more, this time, giving in completely, her urge to break loose finally echoing on, raging through her, Teela finally feeling herself breaking from the darkness around her, feeling everything inside of her return. This seemed to have thrown the ghost off guard, though not too much, as it continued for her. Teela tried to turn, but... a hold on her feet... was still... there, broken, but the energy was still around her... She then toppled backwards as the ghost grinned, its mouth gaping, ready to take her completely, widening from pleasantness. Teela then closed her eyes, shielding herself as the ghost... the last thing Teela felt... those fangs collided with her arm... as it tried to move around, seemingly towards her neck...
_
Tell me who wants to look back on their years and ask where'd they go?
One thought... touching... the halls of my mind...
Why did that night have to be my last... He had left me completely, my heart... my sorrow... was no weapon... and yet I had tried to use it as one...
No! That wasn't the right thing to do... Yet again another thought upon me... though not my own... your stories sound familiar...
Yeah, I never did get to lay eyes on you again, my love, for the day had grown to an end, and the moonlight had left me still and cold hearted. I stood beneath the sky, this being my last thought, and I didn't want to suffer missing you anymore. I didn't know if you had died... and I grew tired of endlessly searching...
... ... ... ... ... .... ... .... ... ... How can these thoughts be so sorrowful... Not... Not my own... I- I know...
_
The air felt... a little chilly against the Moonlight that bled down upon the ground, where lay... a seemingly lifeless body from the looks...
"Uhhgg.... How can these thoughts... They're not... not my own......" Teela muttered, her eyes suddenly jolting open, her mind suddenly panicking... She then looked around. She could see a lot better around herself now, and came to the realization that she was alive... but what exactly had happened? Teela looked around, and noticed the trees with their creepiest now, the way they held the magic within themselves, reeking the essence Teela could sense so strongly. Teela then remembered how she had been floating in the air, remembered the conversation... she remembered it as the memory suddenly poured back into her, everything within her falling into place.
Teela then moved her hand to try to get up as she put her hand in something... silvery, something... wet and almost slightly green... She looked, and realized it looked like blood... Teela then looked to her arm in horror as she watched the substance... the rest of it from the way it looked... There must have been a lot... it seeped into her cut as she looked in terror at the two huge gashes on her arm; apparently the ghost had got to her arm, but what had it done?
Teela watched the substance move into the cut, and she then screamed, pushing herself off the ground; she finally began to run from the fear of whatever this was that was happening to her. Teela glanced back down into the cut, watching it swell and start to close... and she looked back up, running into a tree, her yelp of pain not being heard by anyone or anything as the forest seemed to eat it. The nightly noises of the Buzzy Beetles, the owls hooting somewhere else, kicking in... the only things heard, nothing foreign to the night noises...
When Teela sat back up a few minutes later, sighing, she started to feel dizzy, feeling something... in her head... felt something new... almost seemingly like something was being unlocked... Teela felt sick as her head was pounding. She rubbed her head and looked down onto the ground into the water trickles that had been bleeding away from the river. Teela stuck her hand into it, trying to wash her face, to get this feeling to leave, but there wasn't enough water. She then stood up completely and decided to try to find the river. The Moonlight wasn't horribly dim; it was bright and lit the entire forest now. Teela wondered if it were still the same night even.
The river wasn't actually that far, and Teela could hear it when she got close to it. She wondered why the noise didn't protrude through everything else. It was somewhat a night noise... Teela then figured, since she had usually heard it during the day, it wasn't a night noise...
"Ugh... My parents must be worried sick... I'm gonna be grounded forever..." Teela moaned as she then neared the water, her eyes blinking as she then stared into her reflection, her scream of terror now... now echoing on through the night.
What Teela saw was not her own, but... it was... her face covered in blood... Teela placed a paw on her face, and it was soft, and not bloody. She then touched the water, swatted at it, punched it too, as she then shut her eyes.
"I want the truth," she said simply, knowing the Forest of Illusion had done this before; it happened often. It even used to be a game to her and a few of her friends. As Teela opened her eyes, she... wanted to scream... but... it didn't frighten her.
Teela's face was different, only by one thing though. She now had... two glowing fangs... They were slightly glowing, and she realized the glow was fading. Teela then placed her paw on her face slowly, hesitantly, making her hand's way to her mouth as she touched one of the fangs gently. She felt them... they were real... and with that... Teela gasped, standing up and kicking the water, running through the ankle-deep water as she ran through the forest, not stopping to look back, only wanting to run, run farther and farther, triyng to escape this nightmare that she didn't believe was her life right now, and didn't want to believe, didn't want to think about; she only wanted to run... get away from it, for it wasn't fear... it was much worse, a feeling Teela couldn't explain. She didn't want to accept this really happened, just wanted to forget it, and erase it, she just wanted and wished she'd never came out here...