"Thorn Of The Forest"

Howard stared into the now empty void of the forest, the eerie silence of the forest, unmovingly with wide eyes. After a good few seconds, he finally rubbed his eye and blinked a couple of times, but the scene in front of him remained the same.

He stayed in the same position as if he were a statue and then slowly he backed away from the edge and then said in a raspy voice

"Wh What just happened, No what is happening? Did he just really jump off"

He thought to himself as he grabbed his hair once and muttered under a tired breath.

"Ohh God what have gotten myself into"

Howard wished all of this was a dream of some kind but the pain he felt a while ago was a clear indication that it wasn't.

"In any case, I should just rest now and try to get down whe- Wait a second"

As Howard was left in his own presence once again a sudden realization hit him and he could not help but facepalm himself harder than ever as he thought

"Shit, I forgot to ask him to get me down"

"Of course always forget the most important things at the most critical times Howard... well that doesn't matter now, since thinking these things now doesn't help"

He contemplated as his hand gradually moved away from his face.

As Howard lay down on the wide branch, the cold, smooth surface of the tree pressing against his back, he closed his eyes and tried to steady his breathing. The night air was still, the only sound being the faint rustling of the branches far above him.

Howard was tired and wished that he could just escape from all that was unraveling in front of him. He slept fitfully until his exhaustion caught up with him.

In his sleep, Howard found himself standing in a vast, endless field of crimson flowers. The sky above was a swirling mix of dark purples and blacks, with no sun or moon in sight. The air was thick with the scent of iron, and the ground beneath his feet felt unnaturally warm, almost alive.

In the distance, he saw a figure a silhouette shrouded in mist. It beckoned to him, its movements slow and deliberate.

Howard tried to move toward it, but his legs felt heavy as if the ground itself was resisting him. The figure's voice echoed in his mind, deep and resonant, yet incomprehensible. It spoke in a language Howard couldn't understand, but the tone was unmistakably ominous.

The ground beneath him cracked, and the crimson flowers withered and turned to ash. The figure vanished, and Howard was left standing in a void, surrounded by darkness. He felt a presence behind him, cold and unyielding.

Before he could turn, a hand gripped his shoulder, its touch icy and paralyzing.

Howard jolted awake, his heart pounding in his chest. The first rays of dawn were breaking through the dense canopy, casting long, golden beams of light across the forest floor.

He was still perched on the wide branch of the unnatural tree, his body stiff and aching from the awkward position.

He rubbed his eyes, trying to shake off the remnants of the dream, Howard slowly stood as he stretched his back, he carefully walked to the edge of the tree once again

As he had expected, he was still on the tall tree. Howard let out a sigh as he thought

"Well unfortunately it was not a dream but why of all places did he put me up here nonetheless the thing that bothers me most is how was that weirdo able to pull me all the way up here and how was he able to do so. From what I could gather he was maybe a little bit taller than me or maybe he could have used a rope and a pulley system?"

He thought before continuing 

"Anyway things are not going to get any better if I stand here and think all day"

Taking a deep breath, Howard crouched low and began his descent, his fingers gripping the tree's smooth bark as tightly as he could. The surface was unnaturally slick, and he struggled to find proper handholds. Howard lowered himself slowly, his muscles trembling with the effort.

His boots scraped against the trunk as he searched for footholds, but the tree's surface offered little resistance.

His descent was slow and painstaking. Every movement was deliberate, his fingers clawing at the smooth, glass-like bark for any semblance of a grip. The unnatural texture of the tree made it nearly impossible to find proper handholds, and his progress was agonizingly slow.

Sweat dripped down his forehead, stinging his eyes as he focused on the task at hand. The ground below seemed impossibly far, and the thought of slipping and plummeting to his death kept his heart racing.

"Just think of pleasant things," He thought

Howard's mind raced as he clung to the tree, his fingers aching and his arms trembling from the strain. He tried to distract himself with thoughts of pleasant things, as he had suggested, but the reality of his situation kept pulling him back. The ground below was still a dizzying distance away, and the smooth, glass-like bark of the tree offered little comfort or security.

"Damn it all, I better be given a good raise for all my troubles and not one of those 'atta-boy' pat on the back, I at least want a couple hundred no maybe even a thousand " Howard muttered under his breath,

"You know what at that point I might be pushing my luck a little bit too much" Howard always had a feeling that luck was on his side, it had always been, except for when it wasn't.

His fingers were raw, and his arms felt like they were on fire but he still kept going

Howard fell, each stride a fight against the unnatural slippage of the tree. His breath was ragged; his muscles shrieked for mercy, yet he refused to yield. His mind clung to the picture of solid, safe ground merciful stretch below which gave him the strength to go on. He could nearly feel the solace of firm earth beneath him, though he was still too far away.

As he inched his way down, his thoughts drifted back to the strange figure who had saved him. Cryptic words by the man, his bizarre appearance, and his disappearing into thin air-it all was like something straight out of a fever dream. But the raw ache in Howard's body and the lingering scent of the forest were proof enough that it all had been real.

"Rowal Extraordinary Bar," Howard muttered under his breath, repeating the name the figure had given him. "Beneath the moon, through shadows deep, I walk the unknown, where secrets sleep. What kind of cheesy, over-the-top nonsense is that?"

He couldn't help but chuckle, though the sound was strained and humorless. The absurdity of the situation was almost too much to take in. There he was, holding on to a tree that defied all logic, in a forest that stretched on forever, because of some spores and a masked weirdo who spoke like a character from a bad fantasy novel.

If I ever get out of this place," Howard thought, "I'm writing a book about this. Nobody will believe it, but at least I will have gotten it off my chest."

His fingers slipped and for one arduous moment hung by his fingers, his feet scrabbling for some hold. Panic filled him but he worked his hands free again, heart thudding inside his head.

"Alright, alright, concentrate," he whispered to himself. "No more daydreaming. Just get down. One step at a time."

As he looked down he noticed that he had climbed down a significant distance

"Well, I guess that did help somewhat..."