Forest Week:  Lost In The Tropics Part 4


    Anna fell to her feet from around thirty feet high, and the soles of her feet sunk into the soft jungle floor.  She was face to face with the helicopter she arrived in.

    Peter Pan touched down silently behind her.  Unlike Anna, he was well practiced at patient and soft landings after flying on fairy dust.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I never thought I’d see Robin Hood mauled to death by drop bears and gorillas.”  Anna whispered sadly.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“It’s one of the most gruesome things I’ve seen.”  Peter commented.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“We found my helicopter,”  she noted, “But how will I get home?  There’s no fuel.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You forgot again.”  Pan said, pointing a finger skyward.  “Remember where I came from, and the late Robin Hood, and Tarzan--”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“My imagination.”  Anna replied.  “It’s what the drop bears have been accessing.  They’ve been using it against me, and I can use it against them.”  

    She then thought about why she had been feeling like she was losing those thoughts.  She knew she heard it all before, but she felt like she needed a reminder.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“This is all a dream state.”  she realized.  “That’s why I’ve been forgetting, and why everything is so confusing.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“And I’m the part of you that’s supposed to remind you of what you need to do.”  Peter Pan said.  “You see, Anna, somewhere in your life, you’re in that helicopter, and it still has fuel.  You have to find yourself, and quickly, before--”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Before I really do crash, and die.”  Anna said, as she started to understand.

    Or more like, she began to understand everything.  Once she was able to focus completely, she felt like she was floating.  She could feel the drop bears, all of them, all around her.  She knew where her friends were, and that they were in trouble.  She could feel that they too were trapped in a dream state.

    And that left her with a hopeless, sinking feeling.  Even if she could find them, she would find them in their pre-dream state, and she could do nothing to help them until they awoke themselves.

    Anna looked at the helicopter.  Now that she knew how she had to escape, she also knew she couldn’t leave just yet.  One thing the drop bears didn’t know is that even her dreaming body could autonomously control a helicopter - as long as she was still alive, she wouldn’t crash.  And that gave her the ability to throw a huge monkey wrench into their plans.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Peter,”  she said, “Where’s the best place for me to go to interfere with whoever is behind all of this?”

    Peter Pan smiled.  “I think you need to see the Good Witch of the North.”


---


    The rest of that sentence was that they would need the helicopter.  In this land of imagination, the simple belief that it was fully fueled and working again would render it operational.  And more belief made the journey to the North long and tedious, but possible.

    They needed the helicopter because, quite simply, it made noise, and it was fast.  Even in their minds, unassisted flight was slow, silent, and boring.  The raucous machine felt fast, and felt like it was doing something humans couldn’t, further fostering the belief in the machine.

    It was something Anna herself felt familiar with, and therefore it felt easy for her.

    After a long, indeterminate amount of time, the helicopter had left behind the jungle, and was flying over miles of tall, snow-covered trees.  Now that she felt in touch with the weird dimension around her, she knew the drop bears paced her below, and that only her will kept them out of the helicopter cabin.

    Next to her was Peter Pan, sleeping away the entire flight.  Somewhere in his hat was the sparkling pixie that made him fly.

    Before taking off, she sensed her other self, the one that tied her to the real world, slip away.  That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing - it meant she had been reunited as one again - but it did mean she was now completely trapped in this realm of dreams.  It was needed, in order to try and locate the Lair Legion.

    And she felt she needed to, because she now sensed that they were in trouble.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I think they’re below us.”  Anna suddenly announced, waking up Peter Pan from his slumber.  “Or they were below us very recently.  We should investigate.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“But if we land--”  he began to protest.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I know, the drop bears will come after us again.  I have a surprise for them, though.  My eyes can shoot lasers.”

    Peter Pan looked surprised, and then confused.  “Why...didn’t you use those before?”

    Anna smiled, and started descending the helicopter quickly.  “A very smart Samurai warrior once told me never to show my strongest weapon right away.”


---


    The helicopter sunk up to the doors in heavy snow, as it landed in a very narrow clearing of forest.  Even as the engines spun down, snowflakes pelted the windshield, driven by a relentless northern wind.

    Anna made a decision to leave one device in the cockpit turned on - the homing beacon - in case the helicopter became partially buried in a snowdrift.  That would make it difficult to see it at a distance, and she had to think of every trick that weird dimension of imagination could throw at her.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Are you going to be cold?”  she asked Peter Pan.

    He didn’t reply right away, so she pulled out the two white survival suits stored behind the seats, and passed one to him.  To avoid questions of how to use it, she slipped into hers boots first, and zipped it up to her neck.  Then she pulled the straps to either side to tighten it up.

    Pan did the same, only his looked decidedly more wrinkled even after that last adjustment.  The survival suit didn’t really come in pre-teen sizes.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Come, let’s go.”  Anna requested.  She popped open the already half-frozen door and stepped out into the deep snow, pulling the elastic hood over her head to cover as much of her face as possible.  

    She giggled when Peter Pan copied her, crushing his pointy green hat inside the suit.  The glittering pixie was none too happy, protesting with a flittering glow from beneath the fabric.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Uh-oh!”  Peter Pan’s eyes widened, and he reached for his bow, which had been left in the helicopter to fit the survival suit.

    Approaching the two of them were heavy, furry white creatures around ten feet tall each.  They looked like a cross between a wolf and a polar bear.  There were four of them total, one approaching from each direction.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“What do we do?”  Peter asked.

    Anna smiled.  “Those are Yeti.  I brought them here to help protect us against the drop bears.”

    No sooner had Anna spoke that name, Anna, Peter Pan and the four Yeti suddenly became outnumbered by drop bears.  They numbered a dozen, and were angry, and closing fast.  They didn’t like having their mental visions turned against them, and especially they didn’t like being taunted.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Stay behind me.”  Anna told Peter.  “This is going to get ugly.”

    But Peter Pan was gone, replaced entirely by a drop bear.  It hit Anna hard, knocking her into the snow.  They were playing dirty now, tampering with memories of Anna’s friends.  She knew that right away, and concentrated hard on her latest ones.

    The four Yeti growled, and charged.  The fight could be heard for miles.


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