Mandragora: Reflections from the Firepool

Gavin awoke lying naked and bruised lying upon a field of jagged rocks. The sky was overcast with a faint red glow. In this scarified landscape with charred tree stumps and fallen blackened boughs strewn about, he realized that he had forgotten everything. All around him the dark and barren field stretched on into the horizon. Scattered everywhere he saw with glazed eyes what looked like the tops of small volcanoes jutting several feet out from the rubble, each with their own red glow.

Gavin got up off the ground and rubbed the cuts on his legs, smearing blood over his dry skin. He cringed and looked up at the fire in the sky. Even the rocks were blackened. With nowhere to go and no destination in sight he walked toward the only place that stood out. The closer he got to one of the small volcano-like protrusions the more his mind was put to ease. He crouched down on its slope and crawled up toward the edge of its crater. There were waves of heat pouring out yet his heart seemed to breathe in tranquility.

Gavin leaned over the edge of the crater and his eyes turned red and dried out. It was a fire pool as still as ice, reflecting not his red searing eyes looking into it, but another time where he was fighting a man with bare fists. Jabbing his face into a bulging mess. He cringed and backed away from the firepool and ran into the red haze of another. Again he felt his mind put to ease the closer he got. His eyes were searing and dry in spite of the coolness that pervaded the rest of his naked body. This fire pool reflected another time when he was pushing a beautiful woman until she collapsed unto the ground.

“Come away from there harebrained human!”

So startled, Gavin turned to look and lost his footing on the gravely slope. He rolled to the ground scrapping his naked body and smashing into a burnt stump. The side of his body was stained black from the stump and then he was shocked to see a narrow jaw set in a black face with far-spaced eyes looming over him.

“Ahh… who the rifk are you”? Gavin demanded.

“My name is Smil and you better let those firepools be, their very dangerous.”

“I don’t know how I got here but I know it’s not home.”

“What’s home?” Smil asked.

“Not here?” Gavin asserted.

“Then follow me before you get into more trouble.” Smil ordered.

Gavin got to his torn feet and saw that Smil’s feet where calloused and cracked as the patches of dirt that were like puddles scattered across the desert of rubble. Smil’s feet were long as his bony shins and his knees were swollen and rose all the way up to his chest. He had a spring in his step and didn’t quite walk but hopped from one foot two another. His arms were half as long as his legs with sharp claws on his feet and hands.

“Keep up!” Smil snarled.

The sky rumbled and the clouds, in a tumult, rolled toward them, turning from a dim gray to black.

“A storm is rolling in Smil.”

“Of course it is harebrain!” Smil retorted.

They hurried past countless firepools weaving through their red haze. Gavin began to worry as lightening struck, sending rocks flying and leaving puddles of cracked earth. They’d been traveling in the same direction for hours; his feet were blistered and battered and his heart was suffocating.

“Hurry now we’re getting closer, you’ll see! Just a little further.” Smil said.

A bolt of lightening stuck the ground near Gavin. The shock wave nicked him and the ground burst open sending rocks flying. He was hit by a barrage of rubble and fell on the open ground. He put his hands out to get to his feet and was shocked to see that they had become like Smils. His hands had become black and hairless with sharp yellow nails. Even his arms had shortened slightly.

“What’s happened to my hands?” He yelled.

“It was the lightening, now hurry up! We’re very close now.” Smil snarled.

Gavin looked around and noticed that there were only a few firepools, not nearly as many as there had been where he’d awoken. The rubble in the vast field was all smeared in burnt remnants of vegetation yet in it he spotted a skeleton of something that must have been like Smil, with the same long feet and high knees. His fixation was interrupted by awful screeches.

“Smil you two-faced drip,” said another creature that looked like Smil with skin as black as the burned stumps that littered the ground. This one was shorter with the same narrow-jawed face with two black beady eyes spaced far apart.

“Who under the blazing sky are you?” Gavin demanded.

“That doesn’t matter right now. You're following this wretched thing to further suffocation. Follow me instead, I’ll show you peace of mind.”

Gavin looked back at Smil who was crouching as though ready to pounce on this new stranger.

“I don’t trust any of you.” He yelled.

The rocks had become so dark from the storm clouds overhead that only the red glow radiating from the firepools left light enough to see. It had become hard for Gavin to move fast as he had to watch each step and strain his eyes to see. His ankles we’re sore and he saw traces of blood on the rocks upon which he walked. He was headed for the closest firepool. Smil was startled and used his long feet and high knees to chase Gavin down.

“What are you doing, don’t go there, anywhere else is better, it’s too dangerous there.” Smil snarled.

The other creature like Smil had caught up and addressed Gavin also.

“Smil may be dim but he’s right, it’s too dangerous, follow me I’ll show you how to get away from this place.”

“I don’t trust any of you now get lost!” Gavin shouted.

Smil grabbed Gavin’s shoulder but was shrugged off. Gavin used his arms, which had become short like theirs, and fended them off. And again, the closer he got to the crater of the fire pool the more his mind was put to rest. On his hands and knees he crawled up the slope, but again Smil grabbed his leg and tugged. This time Gavin hit him hard with a kick to his calloused shoulder. Smil screeched and tumbled down the slope.

Again Gavin’s eyes seared from the heat wave that spilled over the edge of the crater, and yet he looked over and into the firepool and felt his eyes dry out. They reddened and he felt the incongruous tranquility fill his heart. As he peered at the reflection from firepool he forgot himself and saw himself crouched by a tree trying in vein to stop himself from sobbing. There was blood in his hands and he slouched even more. He looked over by another tree and there was a dead soldier that he had killed in an unfair war.

“It isn’t me,” he whispered before loosening his grip on the edge of the crater. Gavin let himself slip and he fell into the reflection from firepool.

Comments

Marc
Devin I really like this one. Excellent job!

Pauline Jones
Very vivid and visual with an unnerving sense of dislocation.

Steve
Like a nightmare.