Chereads / I kneel to no one / Chapter 9 - He should have known

Chapter 9 - He should have known

After jumping on Skymmning, he slammed his feet on its side, forcing him to move faster *Bang* bark pieces flew into his face as he rode straight into its trajectory path.

"RUN!!!! FASTER!!!!!" he screamed. The horse went as fast as it possibly could. Getting into the clearing where the small village was, they came galloping out from the tree line at full speed.

Blue and yellow were the colors of the Caroelan soldier's coat. His shoes were robust, made for battle, and somewhat elegant. Now somewhere in northern Finland, a 14-year-old boy on stead clad in blue and yellow, the colors of Sweden, and wearing the uniform of its soldiers while riding a solid horse breed for a single purpose. War.

Left behind were three people, watching the receding figures by the tree line.

"I SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO MY MOTHER SKYMMNING!!! ONE SHALL NOT STEAL!" He screamed at the horse as it galloped away with its strong legs.

Now far away from any dangers, they stopped as the sun was setting in the distance. He sat down and began to make camp for them. Getting wood for the fire was the priority, then was making a make-shift shelter.

He shopped down every little tree he could find, which wasn't that many, but it was enough to make a shelter and keep the fire going for a night. After starting at the fire, he began to unpack the necessities, like some food for Skymmning and some for himself. He looked at the jars he had found and smiled.

"Let's make something different this time around. What about some mushroom stew with some dried beef." He said as he looked at Skymmning, who stared at him with his judgemental eyes as he always does.

After saying that, he opened the jar with mushrooms and unwrapped the dried beef, and put them into the boiling pan that was placed in the fire.

"I've had worse… but I don't think I'll ever make something like this again." He said after he had finished his meal. Those mushrooms he ate are called "Psilocybe semilanceata or Liberty caps" it's a psychoactive mushroom, making it illegal in most countries in the modern world as it is classified as a narcotic. But he did not know of this, for he was not that educated in mycology (Study of mushrooms)

After half an hour of laying down on a bed of pine needles, he began to feel tingly, not from the pine needles but in his stomach, an extraordinary sensation. It was a very ticklish feeling that was rising from the pits of his stomach. He thought that he probably needed to relieve himself, so he stood up and went to take a big dump.

As he trudged through the thin but firm snow in pitch darkness, he crouched down to relieve himself, he stood in that position for a long time, but he felt like nothing was coming out, but the feeling in his stomach remained, so he remained in that position.

His pupils have now begun to dilate and were now very large compared to before. They were nearly covering the whole iris.

He had begun to feel a little giddily, and his mood was much better than before. He looked at a large pine tree and began to laugh at it. He didn't know why it was so funny. It was just a tree, but he laughed nonetheless.

It had now been an hour after he had consumed the food, and the effects of the mushroom were begging to kick in. He started to see strange shapes in the tree's bark, which made him frown a bit before laughing even harder.

Falling over with his pants still down, he laughed as he hugged the pine tree, nothing seemed natural, but at the same time, it felt too real for him. He rolled over, so his back was facing the ground, and looked up at the stary sky above. He began to see patterns, things he had not noticed before

Pulling up his pants and undergarments, he began to stand up and took a look around him. He turned around, a little confused. "Where is the camp?" he said out loud. He felt a little lost now. He turned around again. The bark on the trees was moving before his eyes like small ripples in a pond.

He stared at it before he began to walk in a random direction, not knowing where he was heading.

After wandering around the forest for what seemed like an eternity, he sat down on a large stone he saw. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He began to hear a very faint ringing sound. As he concentrated on the sound, it got louder and louder until there was nothing but that sound echoing in his head, then silence.

As he opened his eyes, he saw an uncountable amount of eyes staring at him, hiding within the darkness of the forest, the bark of the trees had eyes, but the closer he tried to look, the smaller they became. It was as if they existed in a maze trapped within the bark.

He looked down at his mittens and saw how they were somehow different, and they felt… Soft, oh so soft. It was like his fingers were in heaven. He put them towards his face and began to rub them on his face.

Slowly he felt a pull from within, a feeling so distant yet it was upon him. Dragging him somewhere he did not know. He fell from the stone he was sitting on and hit the ground *Thud* he now saw the snow. It was like nothing he had seen before. They sparkled without light and were shaped like stars, stacked on top of one another.

*Gasp* He turned and faced the sky once more. He saw how the needles on the pine tree's branches were softly swaying with the silent wind.

He sat up and looked around where he saw those eyes once more, barely visible in the darkness, but he knew they were there, now tumbling around to get on his feet. He began to walk while looking around, now completely lost in the darkness. Not knowing where he should turn and go, he wandered until he tripped. He immediately turned his head and looked at what he tripped at. It was but a stone. But there he saw it, footprints.