It has been a couple of days since I ran away and now I have to be very careful if I was to believe my dream last night.
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I had found myself walking through a zoo feeling myself being drawn to the reptile house. Something had told me that this was the world Apollo had said I came from. Once I got to the reptile house I saw a man looking at a big Boa with a sad look on his face. He must have heard me approach since he turned around to look at me and said, "I've been expecting you."
This took me by surprise and I was momentarily speechless before I manage to ask, "You were? How?"
The man shrugged and said, "I was told you were coming and that you'd be the only one that would be here. We don't have much time so please don't ask too many questions. The first thing I need to tell you is that this Boa was once my girlfriend. She wouldn't go along with Isis and Inari's religion and actively opposed it. For her crime the Quondams ripped her soul from her body and put it in this Boa. Of course without a soul her body is in a vegetative state. I hope that one day her soul will be returned to her body."
"How do you know that?" I asked being a little wary.
The man hung his head and said in a whisper I could barely hear, "The Quondams make it a public event so everyone knows what will happen should they defy Isis and Inari. I was so blinded by the promises the Quondams made that I was in the front row cheering for the punishment."
As the man paused I asked, "So what made you change?" I had felt sure that I wouldn't be here if he was still a supporter of Isis and Inari.
The man shuddered and said, "It started when I heard her scream and that scream will haunt me to my dying day. It has to be the most painful thing you could go through having your soul ripped out of your body. The final thing that brought me around was a few days later a boy had his soul ripped out of his body and placed in a piglet. That piglet was then fed to my girlfriend."
I gasped and put my hands on my mouth. If what the man said was true it was stomach turning. After a moment I found my voice and said, "That's horrible."
"Yes," the man said nodding, "which is why I have turned against Isis and Inari. With my admission we have even less time and my life is forfeit. I don't know if I'll be killed outright, my soul placed into an animal and fed to my girlfriend, or my soul placed in an inanimate object. Whichever it might be you must not try to help me. If you're captured too Isis and Inari might not be stopped."
"What do you mean by that?" I asked afraid of the answer.
"The Quondams have captured two people," the man said starting to speak more rapidly. "One known as Kit is part of the prophecy and by the time you get back to that world she'll probably have had her soul ripped out of her body. I don't know what she'll be put into or what will happen to her after that. It's being done to try and prevent the prophecy. You need to find her and the boy who isn't a boy. You're ability should come in handy finding Kit. Now you must go."
I didn't argue with him since there was a note of urgency in his voice. As soon as I was out of sight I heard a scuffle behind me and a voice ask, "Where is the one you were talking to?"
"I was talking to my girlfriend," the man said.
"So you confessed to her that you turned against us?" the voice asked which I took to be a Quondam.
"Who else would I be talking to?" the man asked.
"Someone you shouldn't be talking to," the Quondam said in a menacing voice. "If you tell us who you were talking to we won't feed you to your girlfriend."
"Go to Hell," the man said defiance in his voice.
"Very well," the Quondam said a note of anger in his voice. "Search the zoo for anyone else here and bring them to me if you find someone."
I heard the sound of people walking towards me and I started moving again. I accidentally tripped over something which made a lot of noise. Fortunately I didn't fall so I started running. There was no way those people didn't hear that and they would be on me if I didn't move. I ran to where I came in at figuring I'd be able to get back to the other world from there. I just had to hope that I wasn't spotted before then. I had a feeling that if I was spotted I wouldn't be able to escape.
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Now here I was on the edge of the woods wondering where to begin my search.