Jonathan

When light and sound returned, they stood in a dense and colorful forest. The air had changed from the saltiness of the sea to the sweet, resin flavor of the woods.

»Where are we now?«, Lester asked.

Jonathan was glad to hear the voice, for it meant that he was not alone in this strange and beautiful place. He looked up to see Lester still standing just a few feet ahead of him. Still standing next to the man in robes. Jonathan took a deep breath and turned around. He gave the two kidnappers a wide smile.

»You have no idea how lucky you two are.«, the man in robes said. »Most people would be ma…«

Lester did the last steps toward him and interrupted his speech with a punch on the nose. He yelled out in pain. »Don't just stand there, you idiots.« Then the next fist hit him. And a third. And only then the other men reacted. The long-haired one stayed with Jonathan, whose hands were still tied behind his back, while the other ran to help his boss. He had only done his first two steps when a sound like thunder and the ground shaking made everyone, except for the man in robes, freeze. Just when it had turned silent again, a second pair of thunder and shaking went through the forest. And this time it sounded closer. They all looked toward it. And when a giant stone-foot hit the ground right next to them, making their ears ring and their bodies shake, they all ran. Jonathan could hear someone behind him but didn't dare to turn around and look. It didn't matter who it was. Running this way made the thunder quieter and the earth shake less. And that was all that was important. Even now, running for his life, he couldn't stop from glancing up at the colorful roof of tree crowns. The regular greens were broken up by red and pink leaves, unlike he had seen before. And some of them, turning orange and yellow, seemed to be heading into autumn already. Another reason for not changing direction, no matter who was behind, was that he went downhill. And even with that working in his favor, his lungs started to feel like they were about to explode, so when the thunder was nothing more than a distant rumble, Jonathan stopped. And the person behind him stopped as well. After a deep breath, that was interrupted by exhausted coughing, he looked around and was happy to see Lester bend on his knees behind him.

»What was that?«, Jonathan asked in a hissing voice. »What is any of this? How are we in a forest?«

»It has to be some kind of hallucination, doesn’t it?« Lester walked around him and untied his hands.

»Why are they here then?«

He shrugged. »Maybe they have some control over what we see.«

»But if none of this is real, and they control everything. Why are they running and why did they let us get away?

Lester just shrugged again and sat down. »Let's wait until the drugs, or whatever is causing this, wear off.«

»Didn’t that guy with the robe say something about how lucky we are?«

»He did.«

»So what was that about?«

»Look, I have no idea what's going on. But it can't be like this forever. Everything wears off at some point.« He paused. »This might be what makes these people go insane. Maybe they test drugs on them until they're mad.«

Jonathan started pacing. »That must be it. We have to stop them. We have to get out of that cabin and catch Dorothy as well.« He looked at Lester. »What did happen after she knocked me out?«

»Nothing much really. Just the three of them punching me until I couldn't take it anymore.«

Jonathan was shaking his head. »I really can't believe her. Why is she doing this?«

»Money probably. For most of us, that’s something we do things for that we're not entirely comfortable with.« Jonathan looked at him with narrow eyes. »She is pushing that obviously.«

A soft melody accompanied by rustling in the bushes made them look up again. A rabbit-sized creature walked out. His fur and stature were like a fox, but his ears were huge, and he had a stumpy tail. It looked at them with its big, teary eyes and continued its beautiful song. With all that melting their hearts, the creature pointed uphill with its front left paw and started walking in that direction on all fours. Both followed.

Even with the beautiful noises, the variety of bushes and strong roots breaking through the ground, Jonathan grew tired of hiking quickly.

»What are we doing here? Isn't this obviously some kind of trap?«, he asked between heavy breaths.

»Well maybe, but what else are we going to do?«

»How about not hiking up a mountain?«

Lester laughed. »This is about you being exhausted? How was exercising not part of your training? What good is all your knowledge if you can't even get to the place of your adventures?«

»Well. I did some running, but…« He stopped because the creature had turned its head to them again. Jonathan looked into its eyes and without another word, he continued walking up the mountain.