Walking through a blue forest is never an easy feat. Sometimes this act gives you the chills, some other times it gives you laughs, or maybe it simply brings your worst nightmares to life. It all depends what you bring with you in the blue forest.
Indre brought with her just the minimum to make it through the day: a couple of mushrooms and a giant egg to stuff them with, paring the meal with nothing but pure water. There was nothing better than the water coming from the Huweja falls.
Indre... that name had a meaning until someone of her kind still existed. But apparently, no one humanoid with a hairless skin was left around. Last time she saw one of her kind was long ago. They were two, a man and a woman. They had crashed with their ship not far from the blue forest. Indre immediately came to rescue, but there was not much she could do. They could utter something like: "It's all over... Atlam is gone..."
Indre knew that name well. She spent her whole childhood there, before, well... it happened what happened. She knew that place was doomed, but she also knew that the whole human kind was no longer living anywhere but Atlam. If Atlam was gone, then everyone else was gone.
It didn't matter. By that time Indre - or whoever she was now - couldn't talk anymore. It has been too long and she was old anyway. Too late to learn to talk again. If by chance another human would appear, she would be unable to communicate if not via gestures.
How would this human look like? Tiny bits of Indre's thoughts were still coded in human language somehow, sometimes. Random words rising up from time to time above the hot bubbling stew of her mind. The rest were fluid thoughts made of sounds, noises and images. Those images depicted several figures...
The first figure was a very fat woman, with dirty hair and a threatening smile. She would have eaten Indre!
The second figure was a very thin boy. He looked scared, cold, and hungry. He would have died, given that Indre was now incapable of speaking. The boy would have uttered words that no longer made sense to her, while she couldn't have explained herself back.
It didn't matter. Her mind shifted to something she didn't thought of in a long time. A third figure appeared. It was a male human, very well built, young, naked. Indre's body went along with her imagination: accelerated heartbeat, increased sweating, mix of fear and excitement that cut her breath short, yet empowered it. A swirl of thoughts began to dance around concepts that in human words would sound like pleasure, warmth, touch, thrill, goosebumps, grabbing and... something took Indre's mind back to the reality in front of her. What had happened? She didn't have any experience of this sort in a long while and only once it had happened for real. Then she remembered that boy that in human language she would have called "boyfriend". It was long ago, on a ship. They did this many times, before it happened what happened.
She couldn't remember his name, but she could then remember his touch, his breath, his body, his voice, his warmth, his hugs.
Indre felt cold, despite the sun was still shining in the sky. That cold was increasing. She hugged herself.
By the time the blue forest appeared, Indre hadn't released her hugging position. The cold was still all around, drenching her whole being. What was happening? Indre hoped to find the answer in the blue forest. She walked to the threshold and touched one big blue leaf. Its bluish shades were so bright, just like other leaves that were lightening up the way within the forest. She took a deep breath and gave up to the deep blue.
After a few steps, the sun was not visible any longer. Only few photons could still peer in, bouncing on the blue leaves that turned sunlight into a spectacle of bluish glitters.
Indre managed to find her favourite spot; a clearing surrounded by giants trees which crowns covered the area just like a leafy dome. There were few light beams passing, creating the illusion of columns of light sustaining the ceiling of leaves above. Indre sat down and after a while, she uttered a sound, a scream of joy. That sound was answered back. She began to bark and her bark was replied to again.
Indre increased the rate of barks, while on her face an expression of hope was growing. "Wu wu - wu wu wu - wu wu wu wu!'
The "wu" went stereo mode, with series delayed less and less, while getting more and more volume! From her right corner, Indre heard some leaves moving. Then from her right, then from... behind! A mighty creature jumped on her. A beautiful monster! All covered with hair as white as snow, his mouth full of teeth, drooling non-stop, his four legs strong and equipped with sharp nails. Indre fell back and couldn't stand in time before the monster got a hold of her. He came to brush against her uttering hilarious sounds! The shock was so beautiful that she even managed to remember the human word for this being: "Dog!"
And they played and they jumped and they barked and they played again! The two beings were immersed in pure joy.
This joy was supposed to be broken only but tiredness, but it was halted by something else; an intrusive presence or two. Two humanoid figures entered the clearing. They were looking for someone. Once they spotted Indre, they walked towards her. Their faces came to light. She used to know them and very well. Those were the humans who brought her to this world. They were the controllers of Indre's life before she finally embarked on that ship and happened what happened.
She still remembers their names: "Mum and Dad..."
Indre's skin got cold while her breath increased. Mum and Dad pointed at the dog. Their faces were inquisitive. They waved their fingers in sign of disapproval. They started shouting things she couldn't understand. The dog barked once, then ran away in the depths of the forest. Indre turned and in desperation, she managed to utter the first word in a long time: "NO!!!"
She turned against her parents. Her instinct told her to attack. She tried to punched them but her eyes got drenched in tears and everything became blurry, so blurry that she eventually fell on the ground.
Falling onto the ground in the blue forest is never nice. Once you fall, the ground moves. Vines began to lurk towards Indre until she couldn't move anything but her mouth that was shouting random sounds of desperation.
Boyfriend appeared for a second. He said, "Close your eyes" and "Remember".
Those words were clear. Indre knew what to do. She closed her eyes and she remembered. Now she was in a small room, very small. Not even a room, a pod. She was sitting on a chair, strapped to it. She felt the thing is moving. It was falling! Faster and faster! Those horrible sounds, loud, scary! Then a big BOOM! Pain, confusion, fear, relief... It happened what happened...
Indre opened her eyes. She was outside of the forest, but it was already dark. The night outside of the blue forest was darker than the night inside the blue forest. She stayed too long and now her eyes didn't serve her well like they used to do. What to do now? Better to try to get home before it gets even darker.
Indre knew the route by heart and she even knew that no dangerous monsters would be there. All she needed to make sure of was to step in the right place when crossing the canyon. The path was narrow and one stone falling off could mean the end. Indre collected all of her energy and took the path. Even her food was gone, so she could rely only but herself.
While climbing and passing over a big fallen trunk, Indre thought again about that sensation of cold. What was it? By the time she thought of it, a gripping cold spread across her body again. The cold soon began even painful, a strange pain coming from the deep of her chest. She tried to take a break and hiding in a cavity of a hollow trunk. The cold faded a bit, but the pain stayed there. Then shivers began and everything went blurry. Dog and boyfriend climbed over Indre's thoughts. They tried several times, before they succeeded in getting on top of the other thoughts. The other thoughts were ugly, loud, aggressive, viscid, angry. It wasn't easy to defeat them.
Indre was just with dog and boyfriend. They stayed there until everything became whiter and whiter and whiter. This white became as bright as the sun, then it faded into complete darkness and peace...