literature

Penn - Part 1

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Penn stood on a branch of the biggest, tallest tree he could climb and looked out at the world before him. He breathed in deeply feeling the air penetrate the entirety of his body. This world was his world to explore; everything new; everything exciting. His people's territory was vast, spanning from the mighty ocean of the south to the harsh, darkly forested borderlands of the north. Penn enjoyed searching out every inch of the lands, discovering and exploring. This was good because that was, after all, his job.
Penn was a scout for his colony. This is what he thought of himself, anyway. Truly he was a forager, exploring the lands for new resources to exploit, but he rather preferred the romantic ideal of being a scout. He often patrolled the borderlands keeping his eyes peeled for the enemies of the adjacent nation. He would also take the opportunity to look out at the world he did not know and opine about its marvelous mysteries. Mysteries he knew he would never see in his lifetime, but so wished that he could.
There was no chance for promotion in Penn's society. He could learn all he wanted about construction or warfare or anything, but his place in society was determined at his birth and there was nothing to be done about it. As long as he fulfilled his role until he died his peers were pleased. It was not a life he preferred.
The reason Penn was eagerly leaning precariously off the tip of the branch he was on was because a patrol group of the bordering colony was passing by. As part of his job he would, of course, have to report this, but he enjoyed watching them for the moment. They were so different from what he knew. Their people were much more militaristic than his and if not for the overwhelming numbers in Penn's colony there would likely not be one. The neighboring colony was known to Penn's people as "the fear-inducing ones that cause burns and death." Penn's people were not especially good with names, but no one had survived a meeting with a soldier of that colony to tell of its name.
Penn envied them, he realized. They had a greater world to explore. The rumors said their territory expanded most of the great forest, though again given the survival rates of people who had dealt with the neighboring colony, this was likely an exaggeration. Still, though their society was much more rigid, Penn thought they seemed freer too. They could enter other territories as they pleased because they had the technology to defend themselves. Penn could not imagine leaving his territory unless he was extremely desperate, for it would be certain death, but conflictingly, he longed to. He also marveled at their distinctive uniforms. A bright, burning red that, he supposed, helped instill danger and fear in their enemies. It was much better than the basic black he had.
"Is there fruit up there?"
Penn stumbled at the surprise of being hailed. He looked down. It was another colonist out foraging.
"Is there fruit up there?" the other colonist repeated.
"One track minds…" Penn thought.
"No. I thought I had seen some… but I was mistaken." Penn yelled back.
"If there isn't fruit then move on, we have a job to do. Have to head back to the colony soon," the colonist retorted. "It is dangerous being too close to the border… 'they' could be around."
Penn climbed down and met his peer face to face. They exchanged greetings and spied each other warily, as was so common in his society.
"They are," Penn replied. "A patrol. Not far out."
"What? Why didn't you say so sooner? We have to report this back at the colony!" The colonist began scurrying away. "Be sure to mark the site, so the guardians can find it," he yelled as he was moving out of sight.
"Yeah, yeah. Right away," Penn replied. He made sure the guardians would be able to find the site, saddened that his new favorite tree would be bogarted by the fighting force until the danger had passed.
Penn gathered up his things and made his way back to the colony to file his report. He moved relatively quickly, tired of the day. The grasses that made up the vast plains of his colonies territory were tall, taller than Penn, but he had become an expert at moving through the blades like wind passing through the leaves. Penn stopped suddenly. He had thought he felt something. A rumble or maybe a vibration. His head turned and he let his senses take in everything, the sights, sounds, and smells. His colony may have controlled these lands, but that in no way made them safe.
Penn had heard tales from other colonists of strange and horrible beasts in the plains and the forest. "Beasts that were 100 times his size," they would say. "Shaking the ground as they walked, eating unsuspecting fools that wandered down the wrong path of fate, or crushing them if they were lucky enough to go unnoticed by the monsters." Penn did not really believe these stories, as he had traversed almost all of this land and had seen many beast, large beasts, frightening beasts, beasts that could shake the trees, beasts that could fly, and beasts he was sure could eat him if they so desired, but nothing on the scale the others spoke of.
The air was still and the grasses stood like trees, pillars that blocked portions of the ebbing red sunlight as Penn stood in the silence. He laughed to himself and took it as his being tired and very imaginative. Penn realized he needed to get back to the colony soon. The guardians were not keen on letting people in after dark, and spending the night outside was not something Penn was in the mood for.
Penn hurried through the grasses and let his mind wander a bit as he ran, letting instinct direct him home. He thought of her. He knew it would never happen, but he thought of it anyway. She was his superior, at work and within the colony's society. The only way is if she was to deem him worthy and even then he would likely be killed afterwards. It was a fantasy, he knew it. Sex with his boss, with an upper level member of the colony, was absurd, but it was like he was programmed to feel this way he could not help it so.
Penn was getting closer to the colony, the sun was skimming the horizon and Penn knew he had only about a half an hour left to get back. She had a terrible personality, or so her attendants said. This could have been jealousy on their part, for being of a lower cast, but, and Penn knew it, it could also be because it was the truth. She treated everyone as if their entire lives were there only for her happiness, which by all rights, they sort of were, her being in charge of the colony and all, but she didn't have to act that way. And still, through it all, he has driven crazy by the need to be with her.
"Me and every other guy in the colony," Penn thought. She was truly Miss Popular. She could have her pick of anyone, and took every advantage of it. "Bitch," Penn thought. Then, "damn it."
He exhaled and took stock of his surroundings. Twilight and not much time left. He stood at the edge of the clearing that defined the center of the colony lands. The great hills of the capital towered in front of him within the clearing, barely at the edge of his vision. He was going to get locked out, he just knew it. It was that kind of day.
He saw by starlight only now, and made his way back by physical memory and his senses. He knew he was on the right path and worked his muscles to their ultimate trying to get back in time. Another rumble spread through the ground, and Penn darted his head up and tried to look around for the source. He didn't have time to stop and investigate and could see barely anything anymore, so he ignored it and continued on. Penn hadn't run this hard or this fast in as long as he could remember, but if he could get back to the colony in time, at least he would have triumphed at one part of this day.
The ground shook with, what felt like to Penn, the force of a huge tree crashing after a lightning strike. He was taken up by the force and his own speed and tumbled over the ground surface before crashing as a bundled heap into a rock. With much agony and strain, Penn worked himself onto his legs, aching from the damage he had taken as well as the pain of his sore muscles stiffening at the sudden stop. He shook his head slightly and tried to get stock of his surroundings.
The shaking seemed to have come to an end, at least, and Penn tried to find the colony on the horizon. All Penn saw was darkness in front of him. He couldn't understand it; even in the darkest nights he should have been able to locate the colony. His senses failed him. He knew he wasn't on the path any longer, but he couldn't locate where it was either. The air was deathly still, and Penn had begun to panic a little. Sound was gone, and even the smells seemed completely different, which could not be right.
Penn moved forward toward the darkness because he couldn't think of anything else to do. He stepped into the blackness hoping to discover some trace of something he knew and ran into it, banging his head.
"Ow," thought Penn. He felt in front of him, touching a solid surface, "What? What in the world?"
Penn was confused and disoriented. He looked behind him and saw only darkness. Darkness with flickering stars, actually. He looked ahead and saw pure darkness. Penn took a deep breath, the cold night air circulating through his body, and took a few steps back while keeping his eyes fixed on the pure darkness.
"Okay," he thought as he moved without obstruction. "So what does this mean? It means I'm not in a box, at least. A box? Made of what? Night? I am too tired for this, and anyway it wasn't a box."
Penn was trying to take it all in, but none of it made sense. The nothingness especially didn't make sense. He continued to step backward, taking a cursory glance behind him to make sure the sky back there still held stars. It did. Penn stared deeply into the darkness as he walked backward. After what seemed like an immense amount of steps taken in reverse, he finally noticed stars on the horizon in the periphery of his vision.
"The gates are well closed now," Penn said aloud to himself.
He had calmed down enough during his backward walk to have this fact trickle forward to his conscious mind. It didn't seem important now though. Penn was still really freaked out by the situation he was in. Something unbelievable was happening to him. The colony had vanished from his senses and the stars were disappearing from the sky
Penn stepped back further and realized that more stars had appeared at the edges of his vision. He had an idea. He turned around directly away from the pure darkness and ran as fast as he could for a short while. He did not notice the pain he was in because he was numb from the shock of it all. Penn stopped and turned around again, facing the darkness.
It had form, he realized. Edges. It was square. He looked up, following the edges he could perceive at its sides. It was tall, taller than Penn, taller than the grasses of the plain.
"Okay, so more of a rectangle then," Penn thought.
It wasn't that the stars had disappeared from the sky after all, they had only been blocked.
"A monolith," Penn realized. It was a giant rectangle made of pure darkness. "What else could it be?" He thought.
This could not have been here before. Penn was sure of it. He was pretty confident as a scout that he would have noticed this sitting in the plains. Penn was walking toward it before he even realized he was. It was drawing him in, in that sort of way that the smell of great food draws someone in. It had to be investigated. His body knew it before his brain.
His brain caught on quick though. Penn regained his position directly in front of the monolith and touched it tentatively. It wasn't smooth like he had expected it to be. He kept a touch to it and worked his way along the monumental object to its edge. Cautiously, Penn peered around the edge of the monolith and was relieved to see plains and the stars beyond. It was quite thick, he figured, looking at it from as much of an angle as he could manage while keeping touch with it. He didn't want to let it go for fear now that it might not be real. If he could touch it, it was tangible and he could not have somehow gone completely mad.
He returned to his place of impact along what Penn considered to be the main face of the monolith. He felt up and along its surface. It was strangely textured. It felt somewhat like the skin of fruit that had been long dried in the sun. He had quite a lot of traction along its surface. It then occurred to Penn that he could climb the monolith. Surely it would be amazing to look out at the clearing from atop this great object, and see the great hills of the colony bathed in starlight. It would also be quite the story to tell when he returned. No one had ever made a discovery like this before, not in Penn's lifetime anyway. It might even give him more status.
"Sure, that never actually happens, but hey, neither does this." Penn rationalized to himself.
Penn felt along the surface of the monolith and found his grip. He lifted his body and legs and found his feet on the wall. He started to work his way up the massive entity, excited and scared and amazed. He stretched a bit and thought he must be taller than the grasses now. Time passed and he thought he must be half way. Penn had no way to know this of course, the monolith was far too tall to see the end. He looked up and only saw darkness stretching below his body and stars above. He was stunned he had the strength given the way he had felt earlier, but he was too interested and too deep in his fantasy to care. He continued to climb ever farther along, wondering if he would ever reach the top.
"I suppose it wouldn't have been an adventure worthy of telling if it was easy," Penn clicked as he spoke aloud in mild exasperation. "I think maybe I can see the top no-oh shit!"
Another quake rumbled through the plains, stronger than any Penn had felt yet. Penn held onto the monolith with every bit of strength he could muster. The rumbling did not stop this time, but instead increased. Soon, Penn felt even the monolith itself shaking. He tried to look around, but saw only darkness as he moved his body close to the surface and gripped for his life. The vibrations were immense. Penn's whole body was rattled by the force and he was sure this was the end of him.
Then, suddenly, there was nothing. Stillness. Penn could barely even think he was so shaken, but he felt a wave of relief wash over him. He quickly realized however, that this feeling was not relief, but wind. A mightier wind than any Penn had ever experienced. He retightened his grip on the monolith and realized he was being lifted into the air. He could feel the ground peeling away from him.
Before he could even think to do anything about it, Penn was torn into the sky.
My first story to post on DA. I appreciate any commentary. I have a couple of other arcs planned for this, so I hope to think it is interesting, hahaha. It is not polished grammatically, but I will get to that if it turns out to be interesting enough.
© 2009 - 2024 Kai-Xi
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