Almost instantly, we broke from the trees and began to cross a bridge over one of the sparkling blue rivers. I imagine Orrin knew precisely where he wanted to go, and the world was not delaying taking us. Getting used to how it moved us through it was going to take some time.
“So, this is one of the many bridges,” the green man began to speak.
“Did you build it?” it was strange there were so many structures in this world. Grey as it was, it was clearly some natural forest. Or, perhaps natural didn’t quite fit, but it was odd to see cabins and bridges. I could imagine trees growing on their own, but houses typically don’t build themselves. At least, I’d like to think that. In this strange place, there was no telling what could happen.
“Oh, no. Most of this stuff was here before I got here. We couldn’t ever figure out where it came from!” Orrin said. His voice was careless as if he wasn’t the least bit concerned with how the bridge came to be. Perhaps I was the strange one in worrying about it. I suppose I didn’t have any other reason to think too much about it beyond something to walk across.
After we finished crossing, we cut through the woods; I had to dodge several branches that seemed to jump out as we passed by the grey foliage. Eventually, we came to a clearing. I was starting to feel that passing through thick patches of trees was how the movement in this world occurred. Or maybe I was overthinking it. Still, it had come in handy during the last fight, so I figured it would be best to figure out as much as possible. It would be nice to have something to take advantage of in a situation.
“Hey, Kiko,” Orrin said as he waved in front of my face. I nodded to show I was attentive, but I was only just now coming out of my thoughts.
Most clearings I had seen in this world were around the bodies of faux water—either the world's lakes or the rivers. This one was different and a little concerning.
What appeared in front of me was a rather large cemetery. Stones were laid out neatly and carved rather ornately. It would be easy to guess this was the gravesite of many influential people, but who they were was anyone’s guess. I followed Orrin through and spied what was carved into the stones. Names and dates were laid out, but I didn’t know what any meant. Some stones looked to be in languages I couldn’t understand. Whether that implied they were old or from a world that spoke in strange tongues, I could not tell. None of the graves appeared worn, but I didn’t know much of what could destroy them in this world.
The place had an uncomfortable pressure— as if the eyes of the lingering souls were sizing up the newcomer in their territory. Perhaps I was overthinking it; Orrin seemed unfazed as he happily strode through.
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Eventually, we stopped at a single stone. The shape was flat with a curved top, and on much of the slab, there was a carving that appeared to resemble a winged person lifting a wingless one. The carving job was a bit sloppier than the others, but it was well enough for me to determine what was attempted.
Orrin bent down and laid some bright yellow flowers on the stone. I almost jumped. Not only did I not notice he held the flowers until this moment, but the bright color also made them pop out in a jarring way. Was I so wrapped in my thoughts to miss that he had the flowers?
“This is where my master is buried,” Orrin explained. I could not tell from his voice how he felt. It lacked his usually laid-back tone but didn’t seem sad. The best way to describe it was simply neutral.
“I see,” I replied
We turned to look back at the stone and stood in silence for a moment. I expected Orrin to chime in and say something, but no words came from him. After standing in silence for a long stretch of time that one could only wonder the length of, he turned and began to walk away.
I hastily followed after. As soon as he stepped away from the cemetery, the green-clad man returned to his usual self.
“Well! Where should we go next?” he happily asked. I said nothing. He was clearly speaking to himself when asking the question. We entered the woods and reemerged in a new location.
Orrin had taken me to a world lake, but it was different than the others I had seen.
I had grown accustomed to seeing the entrance to a world appear as a large body of water. The rivers that ran throughout the world seemed like they emptied into each lake, and jumping in would lead to a world. The location Orrin brought me to still appeared as water, but not as one complete body
The water from the river rushed into a reasonably large section, but the ground was uneven and seemed to break apart and move down into a valley. The faux water from the first portion flowed over and formed a series of waterfalls into separate sections, overflowing and pouring water into the next sections. This seemed to create at least 7 layers of the world lake in a series of cascading waterfalls and lakes.
“It’s a fractured world; each section is kind of like its own mini world,” Orrin explained, I think. I wasn’t sure of what he meant.
“Fractured?”
“Yes, we think it was one world at first, but something caused it to break into more.”
“Does that happen often?” I asked.
Orrin laughed.
“I’m sorry, you wouldn’t know…” he finally said as he saw my confused look, “we have had some debate here on the nature of the worlds. One theory is that this very world between worlds is the product of such a fracture.”
I didn’t see the humor in making Orrin think of that particular theory; perhaps there was more to the debates he was leaving out.
“Debates?” I asked.
“Yes, though perhaps I should just call it banter between friends. You walk around a place like this long enough, and you start to come up with all kinds of ideas!” Orrin explained.
“I see,” I replied, though I wasn’t sure I fully understood. As we walked to a new river, I left the conversation there and began to follow it. I did not expect to see the river suddenly end before it could empty into a world lake.