Detachment is a peculiar feeling, or a lack of feeling, as though you're experiencing the world around you, the person before you, your own self through a thin veil of lace. Present.Present....but are you really?
The ground beneath her feet felt unstable- no, maybe it was more like floating. No, she could feel the ground, the pressure of it,but it was distant. Like standing but with only the memory of how standing should feel. The false sense in a phantom limb. There was no feeling, just pressure, and as she took a step forward Trine Larsen wavered, tripping over her own feet- feet that felt...
...numb?Deep blue eyes lifted, taking in the expanse of the greyed forest around her. The trees were all barren, dead, and blackened reaching for the sky like old decrepit hands clawing at the sun. The foliage knotted, gnarled, and as bare as the trees it cowered beneath. It looked cold, logic would have dictated it to be so, but there was no chill to the air as the blonde walked on, slowly starting to get used to controlling limbs she barely felt. It was warm, humid like when you slept with the covers over your head and your lungs recycled old breath over and over again.
She lifted a hand to brush the rouge bits of hair that had slipped out from behind her ear, but missed her mark as the hand simply drifted right past. Trine rolled her eyes, she had truly taken being able to control her own body effectively for granted. The blonde tried again, this time keeping her eyes trained on the hand she had meant to use, but then she noticed something. Tied to her pinky, bright and vibrant against the grey background threatening to swallow it up was a red string.
"What the **** is that about....?"She mumbled to herself, pinching the string between the thumb and pointer finger of her opposite hand.
Trine gave a tug, watching as the string snapped taught, the other end of it serpentined through the bent limbs of bushes and old, creaking, tree trunks before getting lost in the empty space that seemed to fuzz around the corners the way water displaces the ink on pages of a book.
The blonde followed it, wrapping the slack around her arm as she went, ducking through low hanging branches and navigating through the thick foliage of the forest floor. It was going rather successfully or at least it seemed that way, it was hard to tell if you managed to emerge unscathed when you could feel nothing more than the pressure of the branches dragging past your skin. A few times she looked down and thought
'That should hurt' until she looked up, only to find that the original path of her little red string had shifted, her attention pulled in another direction.
She walked on, watching the forest roll by in an ebb and flow of shades of grey and black, until the path of string came to an abrupt stop- threaded through a small crack in the mortar of a tall stone wall. Trine raised an eyebrow, pressing her cheek to the cold surface of the stone in an attempt to try and see through the small hole to the other side.
As soon as her eyes focused the wall was gone and she tumbled forward tripping over the pile of a once mighty wall now crumbled at her feet. There was a quiet whine from beneath it, a whimper just loud enough to catch her attention. Trine dropped to her knees, the string forgotten for a moment as she started to dig, removing stone after stone until she found the source of the noise; a small, gold plated,figurine of an english bulldog, wearing a Cabbie Cap,cradled within the nest of stones and shattered bits of the mortar in between them.
Trine paused,staring down at the small dog as she tried to piece together how an inanimate object was making a whimper, any noise at all really, before picking it up. She held it at eye level, where it stood valiantly on the palm of her hand with the most peculiar look of determination molded on it's wrinkled face.
"Aw, how cute is that!" She smiled, slowly moving to pat it's head with her finger, but snapped it back to her chest when the tiny animal jumped to take a bite out of it.
The blonde screamed, half throwing the golden dog out of her hand. She backpedaled over the debris of the once great wall trying to put space between herself and the dog now proudly standing atop a cracked stone like it were some great mountain. And with the tiniest voice it spoke;
"Oi!" Trine blinked, leaning her head down closer to get a better listen,
"Me old mucker!"Her eyes went wide.
"....Delly?""Me old mucker."She couldn't help the small, breathless laugh that leapt from her lips at the discovery of her old friend in this bizarre landscape. The second glimpse of color leading her to realize that everything was in black and white except for the red string and this charming golden bulldog. There he stood like he had torn down the very wall himself, a solid padded paw raised in the air in greeting.
He shifted, nodding a joweled head in the direction of the red string before pouncing off of his rubble pile and on to the dried grey grass below, short stubby legs moving at an alarming pace as he followed the guide.
"Oi!" He barked out, turning to look over his shoulder at the blonde still sitting by the pile of rocks, dumbfounded. She looked up and scrambled to her feet, picking up a quick jog to catch up to him- still wrapping the slack of string around her arm. Trine could swear the dog rolled its eyes before continuing down the path cut by the string, grumbling
"Mucker," under his breath.
The two continued on, for what felt like minutes, but the extreme change in landscape would have suggested otherwise. For now, the area had gone from flat to the drastic roll of hills peaking in and out of the fog that had blanketed the forest floor and as they followed the string further the fog only grew denser. Trine could barely make out her new walking companion, the glint of the white sun off of his plated coat the only thing giving away his position. She focused in on the glint only to find that in her distraction she had walked right into the path of the string, effectively clotheslining herself in a awkward sort of fumble.
"Ah, crap what the he-" she paused in her flurry to try and untangle herself from the string, her eyes meeting with those of the second animal lurking in this strange place.
A deer. More accurately a buck, it's antlers tangled in a spider web of string, and it was pure white, making the contrasting string an almost blinding red in comparison. Trine laughed reaching a hand out to help untangle the mess from his antlers and curiously enough he simply stood and watched her with deep, greyed blue eyes- something she'd never seen on a deer before. She found the opposite end, the last of the string, tied in a tidy bow at the top antler and untied it, before letting it fall.
The tiny bulldog simply weaved his way around their legs, stepping over a hoof here and there until the both of them had managed to free themselves from the elaborate tangle. Trine moved to let the string drop to the floor, only to find it never managed to drift down into the fog, but instead it was back on her pinky finger, and tied neatly around an antler of the very deer she had just freed from it.
"Okaaay...." she drawled, exchanging a confused look with the buck to her left, before the bulldog drew their attention.
The tiny gold fleck was jumping, barking a sharp,
"Oi! Oi!" at a cluster of trees a few feet in front of them. Trine looked up to the trees and there perched on a branch was bird, an endless black against the faded landscape and on it's right leg a bright pink tracker tag.
"Cow slapper!" The blonde nearly doubled over laughing at this new found vocabulary the bulldog had just produced, his flat reflective nose turned up in what she could only guess was some sort of dislike. The bird only ruffled the feathers along its neck in annoyance, dark eyes shooting the tiny canine a look, almost as if to dare him.
"Oi! Cow slapper!" he barked a second time, this time jaunting up to the tree like he meant business, but the poor thing had a hard enough time trying to hoist himself over an unearthed root, let alone climb the actual tree itself to get to the bird.
"Well, you're not hard to guess. Are you, Rayven?"It shrugged its wings, before gliding down on the upkick of air now rushing through the trees, coming to land on the hindquarters of the deer still tied to Trine with red string. She laughed watching as the bulldog ran to the back legs of the deer, trying his best to climb up and get a piece of the raven now half glaring down at him from her perch. The buck was silent, but the look on his face as he turned to get a better look at the dog now running a figure eight around his back legs gave away just how annoyed he was with the commotion.
Trine shrugged her shoulders, looking up from the gold fleck of energy to the almost endless black eyes of the bird now in front of her. She lightly ran two fingers down its back, unsure of how you were suppose to pet a bird exactly.
“You’re a lot easier to get used to as a bird,” she teased, smiling when a scaley talon stretched up from the bird’s side and grabbed onto the thumb of the hand Trine had been petting her with, bringing it to a stop. The two were still, each looking back at the other with a strange sort of focus, lost for a minute. Even the forest around them seemed still.
“Oi! Oi!”The raven jerked its head down to look at the figurine bulldog, now staring up at her with it’s tiny golden eyes squinted against the light of the sun over head, and let out a sharp caw. When it turned it’s attention back to Trine the blonde had a contemplative look on her face, idly running a hand down the back of the deer’s neck as she thought to herself. The buck was still other than having to jerk his back leg up every now and then to shake the bulldog off when the insistent pouncing proved to be too much.
“We’ve really been at it for a while haven’t we? I mean, you were the first person I ever went up against when I first started out. And you were ****ing insane…” the raven, tilted its head, dark eyes still trained on Trine as she reflected,
“We went from you kicking my ass to this level playing field we’re on now. They do say that it’s your rivalries that make you- so I guess I can thank you for that. I’ve beaten you for a championship before, but you stepped up on this one and by some totally bizarre twist of fate; two halves of a single championship. It’s like we can’t shake each other. You beat me, I beat you. I beat you and we end up evenly matched. I used to worry about facing you. Heck, you scared the **** out of me. You were impossible to go against because there was no telling where your head was at. With this new attitude you’ve got, ”She smiled, inspecting the pink tracker on the raven’s right leg, absentmindedly reviewing the barcoded numbers along the cuff on her leg.
“Your strength comes from your sheer ability, determination, and not your mind games. I can’t tell yet if that’s made you harder to go up against or if you’re at a disadvantage since I’ve gotten so used to facing a more chaotic version of you…”The three animals gathered in the small clearing seemed to jump to attention, the buck straightened up beneath her hand, ears set pin straight, rotating from side to front trying to hone in on some kind of sound Trine had managed to miss. Even the golden bulldog had fallen silent and positioned itself between the blonde’s feet, when she looked down it was hard to tell by the tiny metallic face below her if he was looking for some kind of protection or if he thought he had a real chance at taking on whatever it was heading their way.
Suddenly in flurry of movement and the abrupt flapping of wings, feathers flashing in hues purple and deep blues in the light of the bleached sun, the raven took to the air, and that was when she saw it. Completely silent a white, speckled owl shot through the air, cutting through the fog so swiftly there was barely a break left in its wake. It swung back around sending the four of them into a frenzy as they tried to avoid a collision as the bird came so dangerously close Trine could feel the push of air from beneath it’s wings.
“Oi” echoed, from a much farther distance than she had expected and it was only as the second bark seemed even further did Trine realize that the owl had managed to scoop up the tiny bulldog.
“Delly!?”No reply. The raven took off in the direction of the last ‘Oi’ only to be chased right back into the clearing, the sound of the owl screeching just behind the black flash of movement amongst the fog almost ear piercing. Trine jumped, squinting into the fog in an attempt to find the two of them, the sound of the raven’s wings the only indication of direction she could go off of. She ducked down, trying to get beneath the haze, the deer’s right shoulder now level with her head as it took a step forward. When she looked down she was almost nose to beak with the disruptive creative and as it turned to face her, its eyes endless, black, pits set deep into a round pristine face.
The blonde squeaked, not expecting to be so incredibly close to the one animal so far she would have been happy to avoid, only to be further spooked when the raven streaked by managing to knock the owl off kilter for a moment before retreating to rest on the buck’s antlers. The owl seemed unphased, it’s eyes still locked on Trine as it twisted it’s neck to inspect the woman before it, before jumping at her, a clawed foot attempting to take hold of whatever it could reach. She fumbled backwards, pushing back away from the owl that had started up in a tizzy of attempted swipes and pecks at every moment and place of weakness it could find. Until a strange sort of rumble caught the group’s attention, effectively putting the violent advances to a brief pause.
Every once in a while there was a wisp of dark grey fur breaking just above the fog before disappearing again. Then there was two, then three and the small opening filled with a low growl.
The buck to her left shifted, lifting its head high, both ears pointed in the direction of the closest rumbling growl. The bulldog sounding off its alarm of
"Oi! Oi! Oi!" as it came flying into the clearing, carried on tiny legs. Trine felt panic jump high in her chest, and without a second thought she ducked back into the fog to find him- only to be met with the sharp, icy stare of a wolf. Trine jumped back with a scream,
"Holyflying****!"And then a flash of gold at her feet and the familiar bark started up again. The other two tufts of fur circled around the back, making the buck visibly uneasy as he shifted closer to Trine's side, gingerly stepping around the small dog at his hooves.
The fog lifted just enough for her to make out the wolf in front of her, still baring it's teeth, lips curled so tightly it set deep wrinkles throughout its muzzle. The eyes locked on her were unmistakable. Trine stared right back, her attention only drawn away when she felt one of the other two slink past her leg, before nudging the smaller wolf still growling in front of her. The buck snorted, stomping its hoof down inches from the two of them, icy blue snapping their attention his way.
Trine turned, trying to find the third one inevitably lurking along with its siblings, but somehow it managed to elude her. It's only when the smallest of the three slinks back towards the treeline, her ears pinned back to her skull in annoyance that the blonde catches a glimpse of the third wolf.
He kept his distance, but it wasn't out of fear. Light ice blue eyes stood out against the dark spread of the thick, black, mask of fur on his face like a shock of lightning buried in the night sky. He simply watched.
She looked back down to the middle wolf, who didn't seem to sway to the side of anger or the strange sort of distance about the largest of the three. Instead, he seemed confident in wherever it was he stood in this place, until the second protest from the buck sent him snapping back at it's legs.
"Okay, okay! You two need to freaking chill." She interrupted, looking around for where the owl had taken off to. It had vanished like a ghost and Trine couldn’t help, but wonder if it was ever even there, until she felt the hard slap of feathers against her cheek as it flew past at a speed that seemed unworldly. As it made its way to the tree line the largest wolf, jerked up catching it in his mouth before tossing it down for the fog to swallow it up. The raven lifted from the buck’s antlers and flew straight to where the owl would have been, but not before defiantly cawing at the animal that had taken down the white bird only moments before.
The buck shifted, the tension in its body making it more and more clear how uneasy the three newcomers had made him, as he started a walk towards the far side of the clearing, grey blue trained intently on the closest wolf. Trine felt the pull of the string on her pinky finger, and took slow steps in the direction it had tugged as the buck continued to walk off, but her eyes were still locked on the shot of electric in the greyed world- the largest of the three staring right back. Slowly, almost slow enough he didn’t seem to be moving at all, the wolf took a step forward, moving out of the darkened tree line only to be nudged back by his sister.
Deep blue shifted to see where the middle wolf had gone, only catching a small glimpse of the tufted fur at his shoulders through the fog as he made his way back to his two other siblings.
After a few minutes of walking, led gently along by the string on her finger, and followed closely by the figurine bulldog (who every now and then would grumble
‘me old mucker’ under its breath.) Trine noticed another shift in the landscape. Now, all around them was tall, dry grass, a light grey wash of color wholly uninterrupted until she spotted a golden brown off in the distance.
She stopped, forgetting she’d been attached at the finger, causing the buck’s head to jerk as his antlers were pulled to a stop while the rest of him was still in a forward motion. It shot a look at her, but she shrugged offering a sheepish smile in apology before turning to get a better look at the spot.
The blonde stepped closer and it seemed as if the brilliant flash of color had made a motion to get a better look at the three of them as well. Another step, and another, soon losing count as the two grew closer and closer- the expanse of grey between them growing smaller and smaller. Trine froze when she finally got a good look at what it was she had been so eager to investigate.
Just a few feet before her was a lion, massive in size, and incredibly beautiful. It had stopped as well, the dark, grey of its regal eyes fixed on the much smaller being before him. It was a strange moment. Usually Trine could only assume if she had ever ended up standing face to face with a lion she would have been absolutely terrified, but instead of fear there was an overwhelming amount of respect for the animal only feet away from her. This was his space, an area that had been rightfully his until she stumbled into it by chance, or fate, or whatever it was that was turning the gears of this curious reality she now found herself in.
They stood that way for a moment or two in silence, and even the tiny bulldog seemed to grow placid from it’s usual frenzy, until the lion let out a roar with such an audible impact Trine could feel her chest shake from the vibration of sound wafting over her. She stood her ground, but didn’t fault him for the growing tension starting to weave it’s way through the sinew muscle of its body. When they traveled parallel to one another it was easy enough to simply move on, never needing to come to terms with how similar that strange dot on the horizon may be to you, or how equally matched- but when two great forces had to come face to face there was no doubt a strange sort of charge would feed off of the collective energy.
Slowly, the blonde reached a hand out and while the lion looked wary it didn’t strike or move away, he just simply watched.
and it was at that exact moment when the sharp call of Trine’s alarm clock rang out through the empty space, calling her from sleep.
**So, just a little note on the red string. I think most of the symbolism in this is pretty straight forward, but the string is a culture thing. The way I learned it the string is called 姻缘红線 in chinese- which basically is like “The Fated Red String.” The way my teachers explained it to me was there is a deity in chinese culture called: 月老 (said Yue Lao) Yue is “moon” and I think that’s the Lao for “wise”...but it could be “old”...I forgot lmao! ANYWAY! He ties the string around the ankles of two people fated to be together. (In Japan it’s around their pinky finger...but I have no clue who is in charge of that in their culture.) There were a couple of folklore stories basically where the person followed the string and found the other person at the end of it- so I ran with that idea for the deer.
