Corrupted Wonderland

You awoke from your slumber to the sound of humming birds in a meadow full of dandelions and tulips. You sit up wondering you woke up in this place. How did you end up in this world? As you stand up you go towards the following path to figure out the place you have ended up in. While on the path you follow up with some people, but not so human like, dark as a ghost.

“Hello, may I ask where we may be?” You stand there patiently waiting for a response, no answer “Hello?”. No sound, not even a breath but why are they standing there, are they talking to each other? You decide to carry on your way instead of trying to get a pepe out of them.

While wandering through the woods on the path you found a while ago, a strange woman waves to your direction from a distance. “Hello, Which way do you wish to carry forth?” As you wander around looking for the signs to know the way you wish to go you soon realise they are nowhere to be seen. As you go to face her you realise the signs are attached to her neck. “Oh my! Are you alright?” As there was no response nor any signal of pain you decide to go to the ‘Corrupted Forest’. As you start to walk away you hear behind you, “Be careful, and don’t talk to that lamb!”.You carry on as what she just said goes out the ear. I must be here for a reason.. But what reason?

Am I being watched? Every now and then you hear the sound of twigs snapping and leaves crunching. “Who’s there?” You look around your surroundings but nothing to be seen. “Hello there!” You jump while you look up to a branch to see a ‘lamb’ in the tree, but in the form of a child. “Hello? What may you be?” You respond to this creature as a black pitch sewer with a tail as a kirin and an endless void of a face. “I’m a lamb! Or so I believe I am. What may you be? I’ve never seen something like you before.” The creature tilts their head while waiting for a response. “I’m a human, I believe.” The lamb looks at you turning their head round “A human? I’ve never heard of them before.. But welcome!” After a little chat you decide to carry on with the path through the woods. Soon you find a train, but it’s abandoned. You decide to go on as the lights flickered leading you in.

As you step in the second the abandoned feeling left, shining poles clean flooring no plants hanging through the uneven ceiling or through gaps in the floor, nothing. “So much for an abandoned train.” She chuckles as she says that out loud, talking to herself “Abandoned? It’s Been running ever since the opening! What makes you think otherwise?” The lady was standing near her in a coal-black gown with a feathered hat as if she was a black swan. “I just found the train on the rails, hardly, in the Corrupted Woods run down all rust.” The lady giggled “Darling, everything looks run down and old in the Corrupted Woods even when newly built, that place is called ‘Corrupted’ for a reason.” “But how did it get so corrupted? You know, all gloomy?” She turns to the lady hoping for an answer. “Honestly dear I don’t know myself it could be the ‘Giant woman’ or the lamb I’m not the best person to come to with questions like those.” “It’s alright! Though where are we heading? That is if we were moving.” You stare endlessly out the window as there are no rails or even land, besides from the endless distance of clouds. “Wait.” She stops in her tracks recalling what the Lady said, “Who’s this ‘Giant Woman’?” The lady smiles warmly, “I don’t know she’s just a tale to many people but many people believe, many tales are around her like ‘her collecting the negative feelings making the forest corrupted more and more by the day’. Or just a woman wandering the forest trying to escape the ‘void’. You believe what you believe dear. I must go now. The next stop is ‘Deathless cycle’. The only next stop, I’ll see you again soon.” The Lady left leaving nothing but a black spotted feather.

You go to sit down while the train is ‘moving’ to look outside. “Not abandoned but hardly any people, then again the only stop is ‘Deathless cycle’ so I ain’t surprised it’s not the most welcoming name.” Soon you are done chatting to yourself and you decide to shut your eyes for a short period of time.

Soon you awoke. But not on the train you walked upon but instead another place that was unique from the others. No trees, no creatures, not even solid ground. Clocks on the side are ticking but no sound, the hands moving the numbers like wet ink on paper smudging every time they go round. The sky being split with the sun and moon submerged into one. “Glad to know the places get crazier when I take a nap.” You look around more to see if there’s anything else, until you hear humming from somewhere. Where? The humming continued, unable to hear exactly where it was coming from so you just went forward where the sky and night splitted down the centre hoping you’re going the correct way. You continue walking, watching the hands going past where every number was supposed to be, sliding the ink around in a cycle. But something didn’t fit right with the atmosphere; it felt unreal, fake. You turn your eyes to the sun and moon realising it looks like it has been cut unevenly like paper.

“Explains the ink in the clocks I guess.” You stop in your tracks as you hear the humming more clearly where it was coming from. Ahead you carry on as the scenery becomes clearer as it unravels the fakeness behind it all. The sun scribbled in yellow as if a toddler coloured it, the moon being outlined in white pen and coloured in and a faintly scribbled line to split the sky and night apart, the stars being dots and the clouds being painted. “So a realm of fakeness? Besides from the clocks actually being real I suppose.” You roll your eyes in disbelief and look over to a figure sitting in the air humming a tune.

“Watch them be fake as well.” The closer you got the more ‘real’ this person was, her hair is pale white down to her waist, a dress with crystals to represent stars as her dress blended with the colours of the night and her sleeves matching the sky. And 2 streams of light blue from the back of her hair down to her knees like jellyfish arms in the ocean. “What’s your purpose for being here?” She focused her eyes on you as you stopped in your tracks. “Well? I don’t have all day, or night.” “I woke up here.. What is this place called?”

“Deathless cycle, that’s why there are clocks wiping the numbers out of existence and why things change overtime, making it seem all fake.” She stopped sitting in the air and turned to face me, her eyes had no pupils and her face was pitch black, like the goat but no sign of a mouth, let alone another eye. “What are you?” “A God, my appearance may be different from the others but I assure you I’m not stupid like those creatures, let alone untrusting like that girl with a sign through her neck.” “Untrusting, how?” “We were friends, she sent me here to be trapped. It didn’t work though. I am able to move to different realms.” She smiled as you looked down seeing that the sky changed again, the stars looking more like constellations and the clouds disappearing. “Why, and what’s your name?” “Astra. I don’t know why, she works for someone though, but still doesn’t get paid sadly. Any more questions? You seem to have a lot.” You look around as the clock goes on and on with no change whatsoever, “What type of God are you? And who does she work for?”