Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Nubilous Reality ❯ The Hanging Gardens ( Chapter 3 )

- Chapter 3 : The Hanging Gardens -

 

By the time Michael regained his consciousness, he was now longer in the tunnel. Instead, he found himself in what seemed to be a large crate, in complete darkness. Right besides him, he also felt his backpack. He pulled out a torch and lighted it to see better where he was. He looked around but there was nothing else in the crate besides him. He then realized that the crate was moving. The strange men must be transporting him somewhere. He put down the torch and put out the fire with a bottle of water but something went wrong. There was still light inside the crate. He then looked up and realized that he had accidentally set the roof on fire.

Michael quickly got up and retreated to the far side of the crate and started screaming for help while punching against the wall.

The movement stopped. He heard someone jumping down on the ground and running towards the crate. For a moment nothing happened. Then suddenly the wood started cracking loudly. At first, Michael thought that it was because of the fire, but he soon realized that in fact on of the men was hitting the box with something; most probably an axe.

The fire almost reached Michael and the man still didn't manage to break the crate. When he finally succeeded, his clothes caught fire so the man quickly pulled him out while the second one poured a barrel of water over him to put out the fire.

“Ki preker!”

<< I have no idea what that means, but it's definitely not something good. I should be more careful next time. >>

Michael was now soaking wet so one of the men brought him one of their silver robes so he can get rid of the wet clothes.

<< I guess this is better than nothing. Huh? I don't recognize this place. >>

He now found himself no longer in the woods; not even the large field. The crate he was in was being carried by a wagon, but the strange thing was that it wasn't pulled by anything.

<< How does it move then? I highly doubt those guys are pulling the wagon all by themselves…>>

Michael then looked around to realize that he was on a stone paved road and on each side of it there were extremely large gardens that had so many species of trees and flowers that he couldn't believe his eyes. He didn't even recognize most of them. It took Michael quite some time before he noticed that the gardens also had several upper floors. But there was another strange thing. They weren't sustained by anything. They just stood there in mid air.

And beyond those gardens, as far as he could see, there were only high snowy mountains no matter which direction you looked.

<< Just where the hell am I? >>

“Oi!”

“Huh?”

When he finally managed to take his eyes off the scenery, Michael noticed that the two men have been whispering to each other for a while. Now on of them approached him with a rope in his hands.

<< Great, now they probably want to tie me up. I guess this is better then home anyway. I'll just cooperate until I see where exactly I'll be taken to. >>

And that's what they did. They tied him up but also covered his eyes with a piece of cloth; probably so that he won't see all the way to the destination.

<< Damn it. And I wanted to see how the pull the wagon. >>