Forest Week:  Lost In The Tropics Part 2


    There was one artifact of Anna’s lineage which made it clear that she was artificial.  It was visible only to her, and was part of her internal computer’s emergency systems.  It was called the Reboot Avatar - and after she experienced a system failure, she would see the animated sprite as her systems came back online.

    It could have been removed after her construction was completed, but her creator thought the clockwise-sweeping backward ‘C’ shape would be reassuring to her, so she would see something until her vision came back online.

    Only visible for a few seconds, it gave Anna just enough time to thoughtfully reflect on how she managed to reach that state of failure.  Her memories were intact up to the point where she was struck down in the jungle.  She tried to feign unconsciousness, but something...some form of audio input, she barely remembered, was so intense and painful that she went into emergency shutdown.  It was out of the range of human hearing, probably meant to attack a human’s nervous system, as far as she could guess.

    She listened carefully, still remaining perfectly still.  Her vision had returned, but once she opened her eyes, anyone present would know she was awake.  The sounds of the jungle were still present, but distant, like they were insulated from her by either walls or distant.  There was also the distant sound of rushing water.

    Her first thought was escape.  She took a quick lungful of air, to try and motivate her artificial muscles, which were activated by oxygen.  As she did, she picked up smells.  There was a faint animal musky smell, but nothing that indicated anything close by.

    Anna opened her eyes, paused, and then sat up slowly.  It was clear then from her sprawled pose she had been carried into that place and tossed unceremoniously on the unfinished wood floor.  The floor was dusty, leaving dark grey traces all over her clothing and hair.

    The room she was in was small, dark and unlit, and had a low ceiling.  It was made entirely of unfinished wood, cut crudely from logs.  There was a single door made of a thick weave of forest leaves, and the same weave covered long, narrow windows that seemed more for ventilation than the view.  A refreshing, cool breeze blew in from the windows and door, contrasting the stuffy and humid room.

    She stood, hunched over because of the low ceiling.  Even at her height of just over five feet, the ceiling was lower, perhaps at a children’s height.  She pushed the top-hinged door gently, and looked out.  That’s when she swallowed hard.

    The view from the door was a hundred foot drop or more.  She had been brought up to a tree house.  Down below was a rushing whitewater river.  Even her titanium skeleton couldn’t withstand a drop that far.

    Opening the door further revealed a very narrow rope bridge network leading to other similar tree houses.  She thought about attempting to navigate them, but it would be dangerous if anyone spotted her - there would not be any escape.  Instead, she thought she had better watch and see if there was any traffic out there first.

    That was doubtful, as part of the water noise she heard was a hard tropical rain.  Which was why the river below was so swollen and fast moving.  With that kind of rain, the rope bridges would be treacherously slippery.

    Unfortunately there wasn’t really anywhere to hide in the room she was located in.  Her only hope to get the element of surprise was to listen for anyone approaching, and move to the wall alongside the door to ambush whoever or whatever it was.  Since she was on a solid floor and protected by walls, that gave her a lot of leverage over anyone entering from the narrow suspended bridge.

    Anna felt satisfied that she had a contingency plan, at least.  The primary plan was to wait until it was a little darker outside, as long as nobody came in first.  Being below the tree canopy, she could escape by early twilight over the bridges, since she had no problem seeing in even total darkness.  Hopefully the bears that captured her wouldn’t have night vision.

    She heard very soft footsteps on the roof of the treehouse.  She felt a rush of worry and fear, and she backed up against the wall next to the door quickly.

    The door was pushed aside suddenly, lightly, enthusiastically.  It sounded like the body that displaced it was much lighter and more agile than the bears that assaulted and kidnapped her.  She decided to peek around the corner first and see what it was.

    A pre-teen boy in green felt tunic, hat, and pants was smiling at her.  She hesitated, unsure if he was dangerous - he reminded her so much of Griffin back home.

    Anna’s mind finished sifting through her memories a minute later, and her mouth hung open in disbelief at what it came up with.  This boy, as far as she remembered from reading stories any mythology...was Peter Pan.  Or he had a very strong resemblance, at least.  Only one way to find out for sure.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You have a fairy friend and fly, don’t you?”  Anna asked him.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Tink?  Yeah, how’d you guess?”

    She sighed.  This must be part of the dimensional anomalies.  “I...don’t belong here.”  she told him, hoping he was a good guy in this version.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No kidding.”  the boy scoffed.  “I get people like you from time to time.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Androids?”  Anna asked.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Lost people.  What’s an android?”  he asked.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Never mind.”  Anna shook her head.  “How do I get home?”

    He smiled.  “How does anyone get home from here?  You have to learn to fly!”

    Anna peeked out through the edge of the leaf weave door again at the hundred foot drop.  “Great.”  she said.


---


    Pan was hanging out of the pushed-open door, just a couple fingers precariously hanging on to the door frame, and he didn’t seem the least bit concerned.  Anna was, however.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Excuse me.”  she said nervously, from her spot standing in the middle of the room, far from the door.  

    It wasn’t that she feared heights, but she did fear certain death.  And she didn’t trust Pan not to make a mistake that cost her life, so she stayed out of his arm’s reach, too.  

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Why do I need to learn to fly?”

    The boy in green smirked triumphantly.  “Because the Drop Bears can’t.  That’s why I brought you up here, so they can’t get you.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh.”  That answer actually made sense to Anna.  She secretly hoped that she could fly.  Though it seemed impossible now, she had seen stranger things around the Lair Legion.  One of her friends, Liu Xi Xian, was learning magic spells.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“What’s your name?”  Pan finally asked.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Anna.”  she replied.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“That’s a nice name.”  he replied.  “Rhymes with banana.”

    It was one of those moments Anna knew would happen sooner or later, but hoped would never come along - a child poking fun at her name.  She rolled her eyes, and hoped they could get to the flying part already.

    Then she felt the treehouse sway dangerously, like there was either a strong gust of wind, or an earthquake.  It wasn’t her imagination, either, since she heard the wood around her creak loudly, and shed puffs of dust.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Uh-oh.”  Pan said.  “It looks like your teddy bear buddies are back.  We’d better go.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“What?  Wait!”  Anna tried to say.  It was too late, though - Peter Pan grabbed her wrist and pulled her off balance enough to send her stumbling onto the narrow rope bridge outside the door.  She didn’t even have time to re-gain her balance as he pulled her further.

    A quick look down revealed a dozen drop bears shaking the tall tree the treehouse was mounted atop.  It was cracking noisily, and pieces were falling down.  The rope bridge swayed dangerously.

    When she looked up, a sparkle of light flew by her, showering her with golden sparks.  She didn’t see the source of it directly enough to know what it was, and it moved around her rather quickly.  Being on unsure footing, she was afraid to track it.

    Then she suddenly felt weightless.  She felt her boots rise off of the rope bridge, and suddenly she didn’t feel like she cared whether she had something to stand on or not.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You let your mind free!”  Pan cheered her on.  “You’re flying!”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I am!”  Anna finally caught on.  “I am, I’m flying!”


TO BE CONTINUED
    

-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2009 by Jason Froikin, and may not be 
--    reprinted without permission.  
-- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow
--  Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin
--  Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin

A fun twist, one that I'm sure CSFB would be jealous he missed.
On a side note, I often check the board on my iphone, and I see there's a new format for that... at least, I've suddenly stopped getting the banner and regular look of the board, and have had all replies only visible if I click on the parent subject. 
Is there a way to view it in "classic" mode on the iphone?  I much prefer seeing the responses under the subjects, so I can see what has new replies and read the subjects of them at a glance, rather than opening up each parent subject.  Plus, the order of which reply goes to which post can be confusing.