(Prologue) The Pigeon and the Snake

In the world of Daniel's dreams, the unlikely is a way of life.

 

                Anyone else who had seen the pigeon clad in a vibrant yellow top hat and royal purple cape settle on the nearby branch would have questioned their sanity thoroughly. The young boy, however, paid no attention to the oddity; instead he was rather content to walk in a lazy fashion on the winding country road. In fact, the boy did not seem fazed at all by a great number of strange occurrences near to him. Off to the left, a miniature squirrel covered in plaid fur stuffed a clump of acorns in its nest. The fact that the acorns were engulfed in flames, which seemed to have no adverse effects on anything remotely flammable near them, should have puzzled the meandering youth, but instead he dismissed the whole subject completely. For that matter, the blazing objects should have alarmed the squirrel far more; on the contrary however, both treated the sizzling acorns as they would any normal acorn.

                Trees quaintly lined either side of the dusty path in a typical country manner, but some of these trees were distorted and wrapped together in bizarre knots and twists. Others rapidly flashed a random array of colors, most of which not befitting the average tree, including anything from a grayish lime-green to a muddy puce.

                As apples soared overhead in place of clouds and the odd ceramic plate squawked in salutation to its winged teacup counterpart, the boy finally stopped. Turning around he could see someone running up the path behind him, calling his name. The girl, older than the boy by a year or so, jogged awkwardly forward, the hem of her dress clutched in her hands so as not to trip in her endeavors.

                "Daniel!" she called, out of breath, "Honestly! Can't you ever do anything right?"

                Daniel raised his eyebrow in question, “I’m not quite sure I know what you’re talking about, Marie.” He said, perplexed. In fact, he was far more confused as to Marie’s behavior than to that of the squirrel and its flaming acorns, which, inconsequentially, were now slowly turning into avocado pits.

                Marie shot an “I Think You Know Perfectly Well What I Mean” scowl at Daniel, her hands placed at her hips. “Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten!” She cried. “You were supposed to be down at the Town Square helping Mother set up the stall for the Fall Harvest Festival, but here you are wandering down roads!” She threw her hands up into the air, her face flush with frustration.

                “And on top of that, you forgot to haul up water for dinner tonight!” she blurted, punctuating each item with a sharp jab of her finger at Daniel’s chest, “You are such a lay about! Waking up late, shirking your chores, sneaking out at night – I could go on for hours about you!”

            And that was quite possibly exactly what she intended to do. For the next few minutes, Marie rambled down a list of times when Daniel had either directly or indirectly, for that manner, managed to commit a misdeed, beginning from his third birthday, but around “Forgot to make that cherry pie for Mrs. Anderson last Summer” Daniel had lost interest, for something quite peculiar was happening.

                One by one, the trees righted themselves and the plates turned into songbirds while the plaid squirrel, now a normal shade of brown, had managed to get all of his quite normally shaped acorns into his nest. Oddly enough, everything was in a most normal shape, size and orientation.

                Everything resembled quite perfectly the old road leading up to his secluded country home. That is except one thing, which was the very thing that happened to catch Daniel’s attention. On the horizon behind Marie, a massive cloud blacker than the darkest, moonless night in a cavern began to rise up, its menacing black billows belching blue lightning that rent the sky with a resounding dazzle of eerie light.

                Marie, however, continued on her rant, babbling something about milking the roosters. Daniel, now oblivious to her presence, stood rooted to the spot as the cloud roared.

                Its voice was deep and menacing as it was, and it seemed to shake the very foundations of the earth as it coiled into the shape of a many-headed serpent. By this time, it was anything but a cloud, but a living, breathing, enormous snake. Its obsidian scales glistened as rain fell from nowhere, and its white, sightless eyes pierced into his very soul.

                The snake thundered forward, its gaping maw opened wide; all light seemed to get sucked down its abyss-like throat, and in moments Daniel and Marie were swallowed up into oblivion.

                He heard the snake bellow as the darkness closed in, “Wake up, Daniel!”

Author's Note

Pretty short. Was written for fun, when the idea of a silly dream full of oddities popped into my brain, but eventually sparked an idea for a whole universe. It's moving along slowly though. Mostly just a jumble of mismatched notes.