I had a fevered dream of a growing dread and anxiety about the unknown future.
Living peacefully in an isolated forest cottage deep in an enchanted wood, I was living the fantasy of isolation and seclusion, blissfully unbothered. The interior of my quaint home was well-kept and clean. I felt healthy and stable.
For days on end, I would stare out the window where I would catch a glimpse of various woodland critters passing by. They would stare back at me, and this began happening on an increasing basis. Eventually, I grew uneasy, as I felt I was being monitored by unknown and malicious forces.
One day, I decided to leave the confines of my shelter, and discover the reason for the watchful eyes. Stepping outside, I saw numerous paths leading away from my cottage into the forest in various directions. Having no clue which path to take, I chose one that followed a small river.
The path was easy to traverse at first, as there were minimal inclines. The river wove through an ancient forest that had a thick underbrush of thorned bushes and entangled vines. The path became a narrow trail overgrown with the underbrush, and I cut myself on the thorns as I brushed past.
After a few miles, I began to feel irritated from the scratches, and I grew ill and weary. Suddenly, I found that the trail widened into a road that led me to a clearing in the woods. At the center of it was a large boulder that had ancient stone steps that wrapped around it, seemingly leading nowhere.
Tired, I climbed the steps and laid down atop the boulder to rest. It occurred to me that the boulder I was now sitting on was marbled with gold and emerald. Amazed at the great wealth the boulder contained, I wanted a piece of it. I knocked loose a gold nugget and emerald stone, and pocketed them.
Suddenly, I heard a rustling in the thicket that surrounded the clearing. From it emerged a multitude of small, ghostly creatures, who stood only a couple feet tall. Looking closely, I could see that they were wood elves, their eyes glowing greenish-yellow in the dim light. The slender and shriveled creatures stood still and motionless, staring at me. They all looked sickly and sinister, and their garments were made of the fur of various woodland animals.
Not knowing what to do, I just sat there, waiting for something to happen. After a few moments of eerie silence, one of them stepped forward. He appeared to be the leader, as we was somewhat larger in stature than the rest.
In a deep and raspy voice, he introduced himself as Eldritch, the elder of the Elmwood elf tribe. He pointed at me and accused me of robbing them of their livelihoods, and that I was not welcome there.
Ignorant as to what they were talking about, I got up to leave. As I did so, I noticed that a green mold immediately began growing on the boulder. Thinking nothing of it, I made my way back to my cottage. Evening had set in, and it was now dark. Feeling sickly and weak, I laid in my cottage bed until I drifted off to sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~
As light hit my eyes, I awoke with a start and I now felt worse than the night before. Something was very wrong. There was a greenish tint coming from the windows. I looked out, and I saw that the green mold had spread and was now covering absolutely everything. It was everywhere, and now the whole world looked gravely ill, rotting away with the sickness.
A sense of dread and anxiety came over me. I knew I had somehow caused this, and that I was being watched. Fearing that the sickness would come inside the cottage and overtake me, I hid in the attic.
Sulking in the shadows of my solitude, I contemplated the reasons for my dread and why the world was dying. Was I indeed responsible for killing it? Was I somehow the cause for this suffering? Was I guilty of causing the decay and rot? Would there be a future?
The despair of the sickness spread into the attic, enveloping me. I could feel myself being consumed by the sickness, and my existence decaying into a hopeless oblivion.
~~~~~~~~~~
What felt like many years had now passed, and somehow, I was still alive. I woke up in my attic, but much of the roof had collapsed in. My house now looked like it had been abandoned decades ago, as it was now in a derelict state. The green mold was now gone. I looked around and saw that much of the forest and everything that was once green, was now brown and long dead. There were no clear paths as there had been before.
Realizing I still had the gold nugget and emerald stone with me, I decided to return them to the Elmwood boulder where I had found them. I followed the river, which was now dried up. I trudged through a barren wilderness until I found the boulder.
The sinister wood elves were nowhere to be seen, and I no longer felt like I was being watched. The world was now barren and dead, having long since been consumed by the dread of the sickness of which I had apparently caused.
Weary from my journey, I once again climbed the steps to the top of the boulder. I replaced the gold nugget and emerald stone back into the boulder, and I rested.
As I rested, a few sprouts sprung up from a few cracks in the boulder. It was now time for myself, and for the world, to heal and grow anew. It was time for the Earth to be reborn.
Then I woke up. THE END.