The leaves rustled merrily from the wind in the darkness. The sound of summer cicadas was the most obvious sign that it was the peak of summer. It was not hot, however.
Glowing chickens at the bottom of the tree cucked and cockled angrily for a few hours before entering their slumber following the cue of the night.
Aside from the light emitted from the glowing chickens, the only other source of light was a pair of green eyes. Spring-Autumn sat at the edge of the nest he stole and looked into the dark horizon.
In his hand was a glowing feather. As it was the nest of the glowing chickens, these glowing feathers were everywhere in the nest. It created an ethereal feel to the nest that was placed under the enormous tree that had pale purple leaves.
At the physical level of Spring-Autumn, he did not have to sleep much anymore. A moment of shut-eye was enough to reinvigorate his mind.
The summer wind came and Spring-Autumn let it carry the feather away. His hand lingered in the air for a moment. When he took it back, several wrinkles were present on his hand.
He could feel himself aging rapidly. It was not at the level where it was visible to the naked eye but it became obvious after a period of time.
"This is the backlash of going to the future?"
While it was nothing serious right now, he would certainly be heavily affected by it if he were to allow it to continue.
"I have to do something,"
It was nothing to stress about. He existed in the future. How could he possibly die? That did not mean he could sit still and do nothing, however.
Spring-Autumn could feel his cheeks lifting up for a smile. If he could solve this problem, his joke about immortality might actually become true.
He lifted his head to look at the moon in the sky. It was bright and ever-present. In the absence of artificial man-made lights, it was the brightest moon it could possibly be. It was beautiful.
Rainmist rested peacefully inside the nest. A thin blanket covered her body. A heavy one would only bring discomfort on the night of summer.
"It's summer. I want to go to the beach,"
Spring-Autumn suddenly thought. Unfortunately, The Nations was a landlocked country. It would take a long time to get to the ocean. But it was not a problem. He had all the time in the world. Along the way, he would get to find more about this world as well.
He suddenly thought about the helicopter he took to get here from Listia. He ultimately ended up proudly nodding. Such a device was cheating. He was a real man who would experience the real nature of this world.
A bird screeched in the sky. It was unknown what kind of a bird it was as only the silhouette was visible. Perhaps it was the main hunter of this flower field.
It swooped down past the tall sunflowers and extended its claws deep into the grass. The ground trembled slightly and the bird flew back up into the sky. A long line followed it into the sky. It was a death worm.
Spring-Autumn rubbed his neck that had goosebumps from the disgusting appearance of the worm. Its face was like that of an oversized maggot. White with thin eyes. A long strand of saliva leaked out from its jagged teeth.
When the first nocturnal hunter acted, the rest followed. Under the veil of the night, chaos was brewing in the flower field.
An army of ants suddenly dug their way out of the ground. Shockingly, they were the size of humans and were walking on their two hind legs.
They walked in a single file line. Their black, beady eyes had a dim light in them that showed budding signs of intelligence. Slowly, they emerged from the ground. In no time at all, they took up a whole chunk of the flower field.
"F O O D!"
Spring-Autumn's ear trembled and he picked up sounds from the ants. They were communicating with words.
Following the words of the single ant, the rest of the ants orderly organized and surrounded a sunflower.
"S U S P I C I O U S,"
"B I T E?"
"B I T E,"
"B I T E!"
The ants seemingly came to a conclusion and began to bite into the sunflower. The sunflower was tall enough to act as a roof so seeing numerous ants the size of a human bite into it was a chilling site.
Screech!
Following the attack of the ants, a dark shadow crawled out from the sunflower. It was a spider. Its eight red eyes shone intensely in the night. Like an elegant lady, it slowly stepped out from the step of the sunflower. It was so big, it was almost the size of a car!
"F R E N?"
"N O F R E N!"
"F A K E,"
"N O F R I E ND, R U N A W A Y!"
"F O O D?"
"N O T F O O D. R U N!"
"R U N!"
And just like that, the ants rapidly scrambled away to find other food. The gigantic spider did not give chase but crawled back to the half eaten sunflower.
In the sky, a dozen of what appeared to be glowing jellyfishes appeared in the sky. Spring-Autumn stood up to take a closer look.
They were floating humans! Or rather, they were ghosts? They were pale and their skin were translucent. Not one looked the same with them all being unique.
They were floating with their arms and legs hanging. A lifeless expression on their face, hovering silently in the sky.
Spring-Autumn watched this fascinating phenomenon silently. Time passed and they continued to hover in the sky.
At this moment, the colony of ants finished eating a dead corpse of a bee. There was an ant that was smaller than the others. After finishing its meal, it grew a couple inches taller. One ghost that was hanging from the sky suddenly blinked and turned into a stream of light that funneled into the body of that particular ant..
Spring-Autumn widened his eyes at this scene. Was this the reason why the ants were able to talk?
The light vanished from the ant.
"C O N F U S E,"
It said loudly.