Chapter Four

Frames is my webcomic, and this book starts at chapter four because I decided to try writing events out in full story format after finishing chapter three. You can read this without reading the comic.

Note: At the bottom of this text I have placed the first page of chapter four in order to give a sense of what my comic is like. The comic adaptation of this writing won't be exactly the same in order or content, though they will be very close. This rearranging is to cater to each medium's strengths.

SYNOPSIS: After being suddenly stolen from their world, a group of teenagers discover that they have been chosen by god to embark on a series of adventures across the multiverse. This god turns out to be bored and chaotic, unlike that of Abrahamic religions, and willing to do anything to alleviate the infinite boredom caused by omniscience.

Flori regained consciousness, but didn’t open her eyes at first. Instead, she remained lying supine and saw light shining on her face through closed eyelids. It was warm. Sun? Eyes still shut, because opening them would mean she had fully accepted being awake, she twitched her fingers and felt crumbling earth beneath them mixed with soft blades of grass. A soft breeze floated by and a thin shadow passed over her in one direction, then swayed back. A tree? Why are we always being dumped into the woods? Feeling fully roused and quite certain that attempting to return to sleep was an impossibility, she gave in and sat up.

Eyes now uncovered, she discovered herself in the exact kind of place she had expected. A round, treeless circle in the middle of a forest that had no visible end. God seemed to like making people wake up in clearings for some reason.

Perhaps they were poetic, or maybe just convenient.

Becoming uncomfortably aware of just how hot it was, she took her sweatshirt off and tied it around her waist. She realized with mild surprise that she was wearing her shoes though she’d of course removed them before bed, and nearby to her left and right she saw James lying flat on his stomach, breathing gently, and that guy Peek curled up on his side and facing away. Suddenly, Where is Sabia? Secondarily, less urgently, Martin? A-What was her name.. Aracely? She forced her worry down like a stubborn pill. They were probably together, wherever they were, right? It could be dealt with later, once the others were awake.

It struck her that this was the third time she’d had to wake them up since the start of this unwanted adventure, which didn’t improve her mood. Regardless, she wasn’t going to let them be bothered by this, so she nudged each of them awake with a gentle foot in the ribs and put on a pleasantly excited face.

“It seems,” she announced to her companions as they rubbed their eyes, “That we’ve arrived at the site of our next mission.”

“F**k, it’s hot.” James moaned and quickly pulled off his sweater, which was fine for the cool of mid-November at home but clearly not for this humid forest. Peek saw this and followed suit. He surveyed his surroundings and opened his mouth to ask a one of his former kidnappers a question but realized that he didn’t actually know either of their names.

“Um... F...Floor?” he attempted, hoping it was close enough from overhearing their conversations the night before.

“It’s Flori, and that’s James,” she answered without looking at him, though not to be rude. She was busy inspecting the immense sea of trees. The tallest of them had to be nearly three hundred feet, and she noticed that the three of them had been laying in a small crescent of sunlight that had managed to make it all the way to the forest floor past the dense canopy due to the absence of growth in the clearing. The sun was slightly past its apex in the sky and the heat didn’t feel like that of late morning, so she concluded aloud, “It’s probably a little after noon.”

Returning to the others, she remarked, “Sorry, I guess we forgot to introduce everyone last night. Nothing personal, I promise.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” he remembered his question, “Do you know what we’re supposed to do here?”

“We’re still in the same position as you,” James said from the ground where he was laying on his back now, using his discarded sweater as a pillow. He flapped his undershirt. “I’m sure either it’ll come to us or we’ll come to it eventually.”

“Come to what?”

“Whatever it is we have to do here. Isn’t that how magical quests usually start off? If you hang around enough you’ll come across some important argument or a prophecy or something. I’m just gonna wait here for it to come to me because I see no point in putting some kind of special effort into this ordeal.”

At that moment, James was proven right in a sudden blur of motion. Out from the tall, thick underbrush came the sound of fast-moving feet followed by something bursting out of the leaves. It promptly ran straight into James’ lounging figure, tripped, and landed atop him with a shriek.

Flori and Peek stared in shock. The creature was humanoid, with very pale skin and shortish, stringy black hair. It seemed to be wearing a baggy tan onesie with long sleeves and short legs. On its cheeks, the backs of its hands, and its legs were dark gray scales like you might find on bird’s feet. Its feet seemed to confirm this as they were very much like a bird’s claws, but scaled up to proportion with a human sized body.

The creature lifted itself off of James as he stared at it, bewildered. It looked at him very much the same way and then to Peek and Flori in succession, but with a mischievous grin spreading across its face. It suddenly raised its hands clasped in prayer above its head and shouted while jumping up and down, “Thank you Kohemu, oh sweet, sweet ‘Hemu for smiling upon me! Thank you for this gift! Amen!”

They’d only had just enough time to process this when two more of the creatures burst into the clearing. These were holding an intricate spear each and one held a large amount of rope while the other clasped what looked like handcuffs in its clawed hand. They looked very much the same as the first one, but with slight variations in coloring and clothing and distinct facial features. The two seemed very annoyed and more than a little overheated after their chase.

“Teema Testa! You’re under arre-” All present saw the creature called Teema standing with arms now outstretched toward the sky, cackling madly.

“Our saviors have arrived! And I was the first to find them!”

Teema sat down on James’ stomach, much to his displeasure, and said with false concern, “Oh dear, it seems that I have to follow the prophecy now and help these heavenly strangers… that means I won’t be able to go to the lockup! Truly a pity..”

From underneath Teema, James could be heard saying, “See? Just like I told you. Prophecy.”

Led begrudgingly through dense undergrowth by the spear-wielding officials who looked incredibly pissed, they shortly came across a narrow but well-trodden path and after this the walk became much easier. It wasn’t long before they reached an area where the brush became sparse and the light filtering through the leaves was almost nothing, and the whole group paused.

The one with the rope bent over and reached toward what looked like a tightly-woven conical basket sitting on the ground. It sat atop a small mound of earth that rose distinctly from the rest of the area, which was fairly flat. Once picked up, a round wooden manhole cover-type thing was revealed and then removed. Below, the top few rungs of a wooden ladder descended into an unknown space.

The official holding the cuffs grunted at Teema with a hard shove in the back, “You first.”

Teema snorted, “I’m not going to try to get away anymore, you don’t have to treat me like I will,” and then hopped easily onto the ladder and into the dark.

Handcuffs and Rope then turned to the three of them, the gracious and welcoming smiles across their faces a shocking contrast to the treatment Teema had received. “Please, come in.” Rope stood over the hole and offered their hand. Flori, who was closest, took it for balance and gave the others a last look with an excited smile before climbing down. James and Peek followed her, and the officials brought up the rear, replacing the circular lid with basket cone on top as they entered.

The interior was very dimly lit, with the only illumination in the underground space coming from wall-mounted candles placed at wide intervals. These sconces also helped to show the size of the room, which was quite large and circular with a domed ceiling. The entrance hole and the ladder were at the center of it, and the hard-packed earth that made up the walls and roof was supported by a series of intricately carved wooden beams. Despite the murky lighting, they could tell as they climbed down that the carvings were delicately painted scenes of daily life.

Once they had all reached the smooth tiled floor, Rope and Handcuffs introduced themselves in a courtly manner with formal bows that involved a lot of hand waving and ended in both kneeling on one knee.

“I’m Lei and this is my brother Pendet,” the creature formerly referred to as Rope said with a gesture to the creature formerly known as Handcuffs.

Pendet smiled excitedly. “We are honored, good journeyers, to have been some of the first to meet you after your descent from the heavens. Please wait here in our Great Room for a moment while we spread the news of your arrival to the others.” Lei gestured to one of many carved and painted benches along the perimeter of the Room, indicating that they should sit. Then they said in a hushed tone, “I hope you can forgive us for the unfortunate circumstance of her being your guide, but as I’m sure you know from the prophecy the first to find the journeyers must be the one to lead them. Very unfortunate.”

With that, Lei followed Pendet through one of the arched doorways off of the Great Room, and the three prophesied journeyers took a seat. Teema sauntered over cockily and leaned against the wall a few feet from the bench, grinning at the various people passing through the Great Room who looked back at her with disdain. Flori leaned toward the others. “‘...as I’m sure you know...?’” she quoted in a whisper, “Do you think we should play it off like we know what prophecy they’re talking about?”

“I don’t know.. Maybe we could just ask them? They seem pretty nice,” Peek offered. James turned to him. “Haven’t you seen The Road to El Dora- Nevermind,” he cut himself short after remembering that Peek almost definitely hadn’t seen The Road to El Dorado.

“Basically,” he explained, “We don’t know what will happen if they find out we have no idea what this prophecy is about. Sure, they could be understanding and nice, but they could also turn on us or something because to them not knowing what the prophecy entails could be proof enough that we’re fakes or something. ...And then their religious zealot head priest will try to kill us with a big stone jaguar he brings to life with magic and there will be, like, conquistadors around.” Peek looked distraught.

“James I think you’re forgetting that, unlike in how the mistaken-for-gods or whatever plot usually goes, we’re actually supposed to be here and we actually were sent by the gods. ...Well, god in singular, though they don’t seem to know that,” Flori added.

They sat in silence for little more than a moment before Flori suddenly jumped at a hand being placed on her shoulder. It was Teema.

“I couldn’t help but overhear your small predicament.”

Peek jumped up. “Please don’t feed me to your jaguar,” he expressed tensely. (James was surprised to find that apparently they had jaguars in that frameset.)

Teema snorted in amusement. “I don’t know what a jaguar is, but I do know about the prophecy.”

Author's Note

This is a work in progress, so the abrupt end isn't a planned feature of the piece!
Also please keep in mind that three chapters of webcomic precede the events here, so the lack of exposition is to be expected. If you would like to read the comic, please contact me directly!