Alex in Haremland Chapter 4

I crashed through the underbrush after the blue-purple cat-girl, and I stole a glance over my shoulder at the floating black cloak that chased after us. It was about thirty feet behind me, but it was quickly gaining ground. I didn’t see any legs, so I wasn’t sure how it was even moving at all, but its lack of limbs didn’t seem to slow it down any.

“What the fuck is that thing?” I panted as I ran behind Una as fast as I could.

The cat-girl’s blue-purple tail flicked rapidly back and forth as she hopped forward, but she almost tripped over a root. Fortunately, she caught her balance and didn’t fall down, but she staggered a little as she regained her footing. She glanced over her shoulder at me, but her purple eyes widened with fear, and I could only assume the shadowy figure was gaining on us.

“Run!” Una yelled, and she pumped her arms as she continued on even faster. “Don’t let it touch you!”

What the fuck. What. The. Actual. Fuck.

This wasn’t a dream. It was a nightmare.

Sweat dappled my forehead, and I could only imagine the state my armpits were in. I wanted to look behind me, but the thought of slowing down had zero appeal. Still, I had to know what I was up against, so I cast a quick glance over my shoulder.

The black hooded figure hovered twenty paces or so behind us, and I could see the wind blowing beneath the tattered ends of the cloak. Everything it passed over drained of color, and I gasped as I watched green grass turn monochrome before it withered and died.

If that thing could drain all the life from a plant as it passed over it, I could only imagine what it was capable of if it ever managed to catch me.

I wasn’t about to find out, though, so I ran with all my might.

Then Una began to stumble again, so I hesitated just long enough to throw her onto my back. The petite cat-girl immediately clung to my shoulders, but she hardly weighed anything, so she didn’t slow me down very much at all. With the cat-girl suffering from a lack of agility, it would be better for both of us if I carried her to safety.

“Left!” Una urged into my ear, and she pulled on my shirt.

I adjusted my trajectory and darted between the trunks of the trees as I kicked my legs. My muscles burned, and my calves were screaming, but I didn’t dare stop.

Stopping meant death. I was certain of it.

“How… Do we… Get away?” I gasped out between frantic leg pumps.

“We keep running,” Una said in my ear. “And hope they find something else to chase.”

I kept running, and I swerved between trees in an effort to put some distance between me and my pursuer.

“What happens if we stop?” I didn’t want to know, but I also had to know.

“The nightmare will suck all the joy out of you until there is nothing but fear left,” Una hissed in my ear. “Now, go faster before that happens to us!”

“Yes, ma’am!” I didn’t need any further prompting, but I knew I couldn’t keep running forever. I’d have to stop eventually, but I didn’t know what I would do then.

The forest began to subtly shift around me as I ran, but I saw only streaks of color in my peripheral vision. The leaves were brightly colored here, and more green things grew beneath the shadows of the trees. It was like the mountain forest was becoming a jungle around me.

I ran in a zig-zag pattern, and I made sure to keep several trees between myself and the nightmare thing. I didn’t think it had anything to shoot at me, but I wasn’t about to risk it on chance. There were a couple of times I could feel the cold air whooshing away from the nightmare as it got closer to me, but the chill only served as further motivation to get the fuck away from it.

I wasn’t sure how much more I could take, and Una’s weight started to sap my energy from me. I was beginning to falter and stumble every few paces, but the nightmare was quite a ways behind us, so I took the risk and slowed down slightly. Una’s head whipped around to check on our pursuer, and her claws dug into the muscles on my shoulders. I could feel the anxiety radiating from her petite form, and I wanted more than anything to protect her.

I just didn’t know exactly how to do that when there was a ghoulish nightmare creature after us who could kill us with one touch.

How was I supposed to win against that?

“Help!” a voice called out ahead of me. “It’s going to get me!”

I didn’t know what had spoken, but I didn’t see any people anywhere.

Could the trees have been talking?

I wouldn’t put it past them, but none of the trees around me had faces, so I didn’t think they’d called out for help. I didn’t have time to find whoever had yelled, but a pang of guilt twisted my stomach. I only hoped whoever it was managed to get away from the nightmare creature before it drained the life out of them.

“Help!” the voice said again, and my eyes scanned over the forest floor ahead.

There, a few paces away from me, was what looked like a bouncing ball of fur. It hopped closer onto the path ahead of me, but as I ran past, it jumped up and clung to my leg. I glanced down at the brown fuzzy circle attached to the remains of my slacks, but I didn’t have time to question it.

“Thank you!” the ball of fur gushed. “I was almost a goner!”

“We picked up more passengers,” Una informed me in my ear. “Don’t worry, Furbaes are harmless.”

I glanced down at the ball of fur again, and I shook my head in awe at the extreme level of ridiculousness that seemed to be my life now. This dream just got weirder and weirder with every passing moment, and now I was a passenger cart for creatures escaping the nightmare. At least the tiny ball of fur didn’t weigh me down.

“Harmless, huh?” I asked in an out of breath voice.

I was quickly coming to the end of my energy, but I didn’t dare stop or even slow down beyond a bouncing jog. I didn’t want to find out what would happen to me and my new friends if that thing caught up to us, but I had a feeling it would mean the dream was over.

Whether or not I ever woke up again was another question.

I was putting even more distance between the nightmare and me, but I didn’t know how much longer I could keep it up. My clothes were drenched in sweat, and my hair was plastered to my forehead, but I ignored the discomfort.

It was a much better alternative to dying.

“Help… me!” another voice called out through the shadows of the forest. “Don’t… let… it… get… me!”

Then a clump of gray suddenly fell from the branches above, and I grunted beneath the additional weight. Long, fur covered arms wrapped around my neck, and hanging from them was a sloth with a grateful smile plastered on its face. It hung down my chest like a purse strap, and it bounced against my hip with each step I took.

“Thank… you… so… much!” The sloth creature tightened its grip on me, and I could tell I wasn’t getting away from it easily.

“Una?” I asked in a tentative voice. “Friendly?”

The cat-girl popped her head up over my shoulder, and she peered down my chest at the sloth creature clinging to my person. “Hello.”

“Hi.” The sloth person’s smile widened. “Thanks… for… the… ride.”

“You didn’t even ask first,” I gasped out mid-run.

“No… time… like… the… present… for… staying alive,” the sloth person squeaked out, and then it glanced behind me. “I’d hurry… if I… were you. The nightmare… draws… steadily closer!”

“It would be a lot easier if I wasn’t… carrying a bunch of extra weight,” I gritted out past my burning lungs.

“Less talking, more running,” Una urged in my ear.

The cat-girl had given the sloth-thing approval, so I refocused on moving my legs as fast as I could. I didn’t risk the energy it would take to look back, and I kept my eyes locked on the forest floor in front of my feet. I could feel the ball of fur wiggle its way higher up my pants leg, but it settled in around my belt after a while.

I wasn’t sure how long I’d been running, but I suddenly burst through the tree cover and into a brightly lit field of tall grasses. Birds screamed in alarm as I dashed into the clearing, and the sound of wings fluttering filled the air.

There was nowhere to run to, and I wasn’t sure if the nightmare creature had a strong sense of sight and smell or not, but I didn’t think we’d be able to hide. I had to do something, though, so I dashed across the clearing toward the next tree line.

“Where are you going?” Una asked. “Havenwood is in the other direction.”

“How am I supposed to know that?” I gasped for breath and readjusted her weight on my back. “I’m new to the area, remember?”

“Go to the right!” The cat-girl pulled on my shirt on the right side as if she could steer me like a car. “Head away from the sun.”

I nodded, and I adjusted my direction so the heat of the sun shone upon the back of my head. It was a little after midday by this point, but I had no idea where I was going, so I would just have to trust Una’s judgement. I glanced down at the sloth person and the ball of fur who was still clinging to me, and I shook my head in amazement.

This was the wildest dream I’d ever had.

The nightmare creature changed direction, too, but I managed to put more distance between us. It hovered over the ground with an ominous air, and the hooded head stayed locked in our direction.

I ran and ran for what seemed like an eternity, but I was running on fumes at this point. I wouldn’t be able to carry my passengers for much longer, but the nightmare creature still followed behind us. It had flagged slightly when we passed through the clearing, and I wondered if it was intolerant of the sunshine.

I decided to test out my theory, and I aimed for the brightest spots on the forest floor. Sure enough, every time I glanced back over my shoulder, the nightmare creature slowed down to avoid the sunlight. The shadowy black figure skirted around the warm places where the sun shone through the foliage, and in doing so, put even more distance between us.

“How much further?” I gasped out, and it took everything in me to continue to pump my legs up and down.

“We are getting closer,” Una assured me. “But Havenwood is a full day’s journey from the Happy Fields where we first met.”

That gave me a little bit more information to work with, and I glanced up at the sun’s progress across the sky. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been running, but it had been close to midday when Una and I found the noodle tree. Plus, I’d covered a lot of ground in my giant form after drinking the ‘big’ potion.

The nightmare creature carved a path across the landscape behind us, and every time I glanced backward, there was more death and decay before my eyes. At this rate, the shadowy figure of death would kill the entire forest trying to get to us.

“Will we be safe from the nightmare once we get there?” I asked as I stole another look at our pursuer.

“It is well hidden within plain view,” Una said, and I could feel her nodding against my shoulder. “We will be safe there, I promise.”

“I didn’t think there was any safe haven in this land with the way you describe it,” I grunted. “You said I could take my pick of multiple ways to die, but I’d rather a strange cloak thing wasn’t one of them.”

“Less talking, more running, please!” the ball of hair squeaked, and it nestled tighter against my waist band. “Dumo, dumo!”

“What does ‘dumo’ mean?” I asked.

“It means ‘please’ in furbaeish,” Una explained.

The strange talking ball of fur definitely reminded me of the toy Furby I had as a kid, but I didn’t have time for nineties nostalgia, and I tucked the thought away for later consideration.

A whoosh of wind whipped past my head as I spotted the long tendril-like fingers of the nightmare creature reaching out to grab us, and I scampered forward at an increased speed.

The furbae was right. I needed to do less talking and more running, and I would ignore the fact that I was practically a walking zoo at this point since it didn’t look like I was about to lose a passenger any time soon. I was amazed at my own ability to maintain my rapid speed, but the threat of death looming behind me was more than motivating.

Here I was, running for my life and talking to a ball of fur and a cat-girl. This had to be the craziest thing I’d ever experienced, and I couldn’t remember ever having such an immersive dream before. I didn’t know what would happen if the nightmare caught up to me, and I was half tempted to stop and find out, but something in me said that was a bad idea, so I kept running.

The nightmare creature slid through the shadows of the forest, and it moved from tree to tree at blinding speed, but it was hard to keep track of it while I crashed through the underbrush and hopped over roots. How I’d managed to get this far this fast without tripping was beyond me, but I was grateful for my luck.

I hoped my luck would hold for a little while longer.

“That way,” Una directed with a pointed finger toward the left. “I recognize this area!”

“We’re getting close?” I asked.

“Definitely.” I felt Una nod against my shoulder. “Not much farther, Alex, you can do this!”

“Okay,” I panted. “I got this.”

I gathered all my remaining strength, and I burst forward with renewed vigor. The prospect of a safe haven was looking better with each passing moment, and I held onto the thought as motivation. I pictured a veritable Garden of Eden with tall walls to keep out all the nightmares, and a lavish spread of food prepared just for me.

We passed through another sunny clearing, and by the time I hit the opposite tree line, the nightmare creature was even further away from me. I resisted the urge to do a victory dance since we still weren’t safe, but any distance between me and death was appreciated.

“Hold on,” Una said, and she tugged on my shirt. “I’m sorry, Alex, but you have to slow down.”

“It’s going to catch back up to us any second now,” I argued.

“But Havenwood is very near here,” the cat-girl countered. “I must find the stream.”

“I… can… hear… it,” the sloth person wrapped around my chest said in a slow voice. “We… are… close…”

Of course the sloth would talk in an annoying slow voice, and I snorted with amusement. I’d lost my mind somewhere, and I wasn’t sure if it was ever going to come back. There was no logical explanation for my current predicament, and yet, there I was, running from a nightmare with a sloth person, a furbae, and a cat-girl.

The whole thing was ridiculous to the point of being hilarious.

“Do you hear the water, Alex?” Una asked, and she climbed higher up onto my back to look around.

I listened carefully as I trotted beneath the branches of the trees, and then I heard the rushing sound of water falling.

“Yes!” I gasped.

“Run for the water!” Una urged, and she wrapped her arms tightly around me. “Hurry!”

My breath was coming in ragged pants, and my clothes were drenched in sweat, but I pressed forward with the last dregs of my energy. I didn’t know how much further I could go, but I’d already come so far. There was no turning back now, especially not when certain death lay behind me.

The sound of running water grew steadily louder as I ran toward it, and then I burst through the bushes to see a huge waterfall. Water sprayed in every direction from a tall outcropping of rock, and it poured over the stone wall to fall into a river below. Foam churned up where the water landed, and the roar was deafening. Ferns grew everywhere, and a small, dirt path curved along the riverbed.

“What now?” I skidded to a halt at the edge of the stone wall, and I glanced over my shoulder at Una.

“Keep going!” she urged, and she bounced on my back. “We are almost there!”

“Keep going where?” I asked as I looked around. There were no signs of buildings or civilization anywhere, but then again, the cat-girl wasn’t exactly what I would call civilized.

Maybe homes looked a little different in All-the-land?

“Under… the… waterfall, of… course,” the sloth person said.

“Seriously?” I asked, but I didn’t see any way to do that without getting wet.

I marched toward the waterfall with my passengers in tow anyway, and as I drew closer to the rushing water, the flow of the stream began to move. The water shifted more and more the closer I got, and then a hole in the stone wall was revealed. I trotted up to the entrance and peered inside.

It was a tunnel.

I paused at the entrance to look back, but I didn’t see the nightmare creature. I didn’t hear anything except the wind blowing through the branches of the trees, and I sighed in relief.

Maybe we’d finally outrun it?

I didn’t want to question our luck, so I darted inside the dark stone tunnel without another thought. The water immediately shifted back to cover the opening, and we were cast into total darkness. A faint light illuminated the far end of the tunnel, and I could only assume it led to Havenwood.

Una slid from my back, and the cat-girl crumpled to the damp floor of the tunnel with a deep sigh.

“That was close!” Her voice was full of relief, but I couldn’t blame her.

“Alright, everyone off,” I said to the sloth person and the furbae creature. “Ride’s over. You’re safe now. I think…”

I leaned against the cool stone wall, and my shoulders slumped with exhaustion. I could still feel the warm print of Una’s body on my back, and my shirt was clinging damply to my skin like the sloth to my chest. My heart hammered out a staccato beat against my ribcage, and it showed no signs of slowing down.

“Come on, Alex,” Una said, and she jumped to her feet. “Havenwood is straight ahead. I can’t wait for everyone to meet you! They’ll be so excited I found the Dreamer!”

I was too exhausted to argue with her that I wasn’t the Dreamer since I’d only just escaped death moments before, so I just took a moment to take deep gulps of air into my burning lungs.

I’d never run that much in my life, but we’d finally made it to safety.

I hoped, anyway.

“The Dreamer is real?” the furbae squeaked as it bounced free from my pant’s leg to the ground. “Where is he?”

“Right in front of you,” Una said in a proud tone. “Open your eyes.”

I wasn’t sure if the bouncing ball of fur had eyes or any other facial features, but I didn’t mention this to the blue-purple striped cat-girl. She was more familiar with the furbaes than I was, so I trusted her not to say something rude to our new friend.

“It is kind of hard to see in pitch darkness,” I pointed out. “Let’s get out of this tunnel.”

“This way!” Una said, and she rushed down the length of the tunnel away from the waterfall. “With only a few more steps we will arrive!”

I staggered after her with the sloth person still clinging to my chest, and the furbae bounced along beside me at a brisk pace. It was hard to make my body move at all, but I forced myself to press onward. Water splashed beneath my feet, and my foot wrappings were soaked already, but they’d done their job. I hadn’t even thought about my feet during the mad race through the forest, but the coolness of the damp tunnel floor felt amazing.

Then we emerged from the other end of the tunnel, and I was blinded by the brightness of the light after being in complete darkness. I blinked rapidly to clear the fuzziness from my eyes, and then I looked around. My jaw fell open immediately, and I opened and closed my eyes once more to make sure I was seeing correctly.

Before my eyes was a colorful, radiant garden. Birds with rainbow feathers flew through the air, and flowers bloomed everywhere I looked. Butterflies flitted from petal to petal without a care in the world, and bees buzzed between bushes like they were on a deadline.

“Una!” a voice called out, and I whipped my head around in search of who had spoken.

“Una has returned!” another voice said.

“Una is safe!” another cheered.

Multiple other voices combined together to say the same thing, and they all chanted the cat-girl’s name in celebration. Una grinned wide, and she spun in a circle in front of the tunnel entrance to the chorus of greetings. I still couldn’t see any people anywhere, but that didn’t mean we weren’t surrounded by the cat-girl’s friends. The ball of hair at my side was proof enough of that.

All-the-land was full of ridiculous things, I could already tell, but that didn’t mean it was any easier to process the fact that I’d just saved a ball of fur and a talking sloth from a hovering cloak thing.

“Oh, Alex, it’s so good to be home!” Una grabbed my hand and squeezed it warmly. “Thank you for bringing me safely back to Havenwood. Come on, come meet my friends.”

I held onto her hand as I flashed her a wide smile. “Lead the way.”

Then she pulled me away from the waterfall tunnel and toward the beautiful sunny field. We walked through the tall grasses, and I heard giggles at my feet, so I glanced down and saw a bundle of flowers. They looked like marigolds, and they smiled happily up at me with wrinkled faces.

“You brought Una home!” The flowers giggled and swayed. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“This way, Alex,” Una said, and she tugged on my hand. “We are almost there.”

The furbae bounced along beside us with a cheerful air, and the sloth person clinging to my chest stayed silent, but there was less tension in its arms. Everyone was relieved to be safe from the nightmare creature, but I was still curious about what Havenwood would be like.

I still didn’t see any signs of civilization.

We walked for a little while longer, and then I spotted a humongous tree. The branches reached for the rainbow colored sky, and the trunk was as tall as a multi-story building. It reminded me of the giant trees on the west coast big enough to drive a car through, and I remembered my mom lecturing me about the sequoias on a family road trip when I was a kid. As I got closer to the tree, I noticed a face with a serene expression etched in the bark, and I could practically feel the excitement radiating from Una.

This had to be Havenwood.

The cat-girl released my hand to scamper toward the tree, and her tail swished energetically behind her as she trampled through the tall grass. The furbae bounced eagerly after her, and the two laughed as they headed toward the imposing sequoia. I walked behind her at a leisurely pace, but I was still regaining my stamina after the mad dash across the landscape.

Una led me up to the base of the tree, and then the cat-girl cleared her throat and began to sing.

“We can dance if we want to, we can leave our cares behind,” Una sang. “Because if you can’t dance when you want to, then I don’t care for your mind. Say, we can go where we want to, to a place they’ll never find. We can go where we want to, and leave this world behind.”

The song sounded awfully familiar, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Then, as I watched in fascination, a door appeared carved into the bark of the tree. It popped open like a lid, and Una turned to flash me a broad, toothy grin.

“Welcome to Havenwood, Alex the Dreamer,” she said, and she flourished her hands toward the opening in the base of the tree. “After you.”

“Inside the tree?” I shot her a questioning look as I approached the entrance, and I peered inside.

“Yes.” Una nodded. “Look for yourself.”

There was a staircase carved into the hollow of the trunk, and it rose up into the height of the tree out of my eyesight.

Well, she’d been right about one thing.

Havenwood really was well hidden in plain view, but it seemed we were safe now, so I entered the hollow of the tree. Una and the furbae followed behind me, and I started to make my way up the wooden staircase.

I didn’t know what lay at the top, but whatever it was would be much better than what was on the other side of the waterfall tunnel. Anything was better than certain death.

I was not prepared for what my eyes saw when I reached the top of the staircase, though, and I gaped at the scene before me for a long moment. Built into the branches of the giant tree was a network of wooden structures and rope walkways. Climbing over rope bridges and walkways were a multitude of animal-like creatures, and they all stopped to wave in a friendly manner when they saw us. Located several stories above the field full of tall grass was a bustling city among the limbs of the sequoia, and there wasn’t a scary beast anywhere to be seen.

“Hello, everyone!” Una waved back with enthusiasm.

It seemed as though we’d arrived in Havenwood at last.