Welcome to the jungle(forest)!

It was a hot day to say the least. To be precisely honest it seemed that the sun has had enough and was trying to scorch the hated earth to a black crisp. The air was trembling, making it seem that the reality was slowly liquefying and turning into a nightmarish vision of a madman. Needless to say that the effect of such a weather on inhabitants of Rukongai was truly horrendous. Peasants were staying in their homes, working furiously with fans, rather than tools. Gangs, solitary bandits and all other kinds of trash stayed in their respective shabby bases, caves and drinking facilities, dreaming of rain rather than pillaging. It seems that even demons were brought down by the sun's relentless assault. Everything was quiet in the heat-filled air.

Of course all of this mattered little under the cool protecting veil of the Southern forest. Ancient defenders stood valiantly, casting their benevolent shadow and opening up the stashes of the mysterious forest breeze. Animals and a few lucky souls were endlessly grateful for such blessing. If anything, Yuu was grateful for the hellish heat that struck on the day she was doing something rather peculiar - babysitting. Usually restless and overly-curious, the young wolves were calm, not willing to waste energy and shadow's coolness. The two girls and the other boy surrounded Yuu in a circle and were napping peacefully. The one that she had saved all those months ago was resting his head on her lap, enjoying the closeness and a gentle rub. They grew up, especially him, not as big as their mother, who no longer seemed to have any problems with leaving her cubs with the Doe, but on the way there. Takeshi smiled, leaning further back against the bark of the tree, allowing the slow pulse of the forest take her and carry with it.

Suddenly something changed. It was as if a powerful, immaterial gust ran through the branches, leaving only a faint whisper as its trace. The animals felt it straight away. They jumped up, baring their fangs at the unknown that was disturbing the afternoon peace. To Yuu that gesture seemed cute at most, as she could sense that the pups were doing it of fear mostly. The woman remained seated, listening carefully to the little universe around her, trying to catch another glimpse of the irregularity that seemed to make its way into her forest some how; and there it was - footsteps. It was a sound of someone who didn't know two things about traversing overgrown terrain. Takeshi could clearly make out the twigs snapping and feet stumbling; the noise was steadily getting closer. "Who would be coming from that direction? Interesting..." Yuu calmed her friends down, undeveloped reiatsu touching their minds gently, soothing the anger and fear; they took their previous positions calmly, just eying the direction the stranger was coming from. The woman smoothed down the slightly wrinkled surface of the dark blue kimono, with seven crimson-red fish drawn on it. She then breathed in and began singing. Her voice was not loud, but powerful, piercing the stale air. Like a siren she beckoned the stranger; her eyes gleamed with curiosity.

Collapse. Pain. Tissues breaking apart slowly, like they were made from wet paper. Helplessness. Hypoxia, gently hugging her brain. Unpleasant organic shivers, trembles, as life played its last notes inside of that beautiful, damaged box. So intense, that it left her paralyzed and breathless. So powerful, that in her chest a chord broke. A sudden snap, and then there was only darkness. And then, Nina discovered she had her eyes closed.

In the intricate web of nerves behind her eyes, impulses sent by senses formed a complex and surreal image. She was pretty sure this shouldn’t have happened, ever, whatever it was. Her pointy nose was invaded by the smell of life around, colonies of bacteria and fungi decomposing dead matter in the soil of a... a forest? A rustle of leaves followed her movements. Eyes opened wide, only to find the confirmation of an impossible reality, which gradually engraved itself as a slightly shocked expression on Nina’s face. It was the expression of somebody receiving a nicely ornamented invitation to Logic’s party, only to later find herself getting brutally kicked out by bodyguards, with the door slamming shut behind her. Insanity was never something which she would have considered trying out...

But here it was. A forest. Temperate climate, deciduous trees, and heat which would have made a jungle proud, as long as it wasn’t a too picky one. And here she was. Nina Irving. Tall, thin, slightly terrified. Dressed in ninja-black training trousers, a checkered cotton shirt in frappe nuances which reached her knees, and long stripped socks. No shoes. It was the same outfit she wore in her most recent memory, which made about as much sense as everything else here. With uncertain and abrupt gestures, Nina stood up and continued to point her chocolate-like sight around. Coma? Hallucination? Memory loss? Kidnapping? Alien abduction? It was like a trial, with a little voice in her mind rightfully shouting ‘Objection!’ before any of the opposing parties could win. She felt weakened, and, with a rusty –silvery tint of fear, Nina realized she could breathe again.

So easily. Like it was a normal thing to do, and not the increasing torture she had been living through the last months. Without enough information, the woman’s usually brilliant thought processes were stuck in a vicious circle. A circle, which seemed to tie tighter around her throat with every breath she took. Ignorance means fear. Nina started walking faster, and faster, ignoring the protests of her soles and knees. Every direction is the same when you don’t know your location, and her feet were burning with the need to run. Anywhere. Away. From what, she did not know. But an unconscious intuition seemed to be guiding her steps. Either that, or it was just dumb luck.

Her fears evaporated under the warm touch of a woman’s voice, a beautiful song reflected from a thousand directions. It flowed in her mind like a gust of air in the interplanetary space, just as clear and needed. With slow steps, Nina carefully approached the singer. A woman dressed in elegant traditional clothing, seemingly young despite the snow on her shoulders. Her delicate appearance in this wilderness, along with the four young wolves guarding her, made Nina do something she would have never imagined. That is, question her sanity. After a light bow, she sit down on the grass and gazed into those Mg3Al2(SiO4)3 eyes. Pyrope, from the Greek pyrōpós meaning "fire-eyed”. Some kind of garnet. It made Nina think about fascinating interactions between molecules, and how this could connect with the genes of albinism. The DNA spiral reminded her of musical oscillations. With the song over, she would gather her thoughts and carefully speak:
“I apologize, Onē-san. But I am lost, and I have no idea about how I actually got here. Could you please help me?”

Yuu kept weaving the song. With every new verse the spiritual pressure around her became heavier. Like a shaman she dove deeper and deeper into trance, plunging the world around her beyond a surrealistic veil. Right there and then she knew that the young soul was like her – with an ember deep inside; it was waiting to blossom into a flame and shatter the spirit in two. The fact that a woman was caught in the net of her performance was a pleasant surprise. Even shabby-looking clothing, which was torn by the blind advance through the forest, could not overshadow pleasant olive of the skin and large mahogany eyes of a wild deer. ”Another doe" – Yuu thought with an inward smile; a quick tingling sensation flared at the bottom of her stomach at the sound of being called “One-san”. The encounter was turning out to be a rather interesting one.

The wolves got up and proceeded by smelling the stranger thoroughly. Takeshi could clearly feel their surprise and confusion; she knew exactly what brought such reaction about. Despite being the same size as Yuu, she smelled as a newborn to them. The woman bit her lip. It seemed that it fell on her shoulders to deliver the crushing truth of dying, afterlife and practically everything concerning the new existence. Although the duty of educating the girl was cutting across with the plans of seduction that were already forming in Doe’s mind, it carried certain significance. ”Perhaps she’ll have a healthier experience of Soul Society than me. Aren’t I just precious!”

Yuu stood up, revealing that the traditional kimono she wore was not as traditional as it looked at the first glance. The attire diverted from norm in the fact that the material was cut short just above the knees, allowing for free movement of long pale legs. The woman walked towards her guest, moving with the tempting grace only the ones who have accepted the guile of the beast could exhibit. The sanguine of her eyes was invitingly calm, supported by a gentle touch on the shoulder and a friendly smile of thin lips. ”Tell me, which clock is more accurate: the one that has stopped or the one that gets behind by one minute every day?” - Yuu spoke while walking past Nina, forcing her to follow. The wolves paced briskly by her side.

Takeshi led the young soul through the forest like a will’o’wisp that has suddenly decided to actually guide travellers to safety rather than demise. The white of her hair and clothing’s deep colours were like a lantern amidst the dark green. Regardless of the girl’s answer Yuu would keep going in silence, breaking it only once to part with her friends. ”Go on now. Your mother is waiting for you.” – her voice and a gentle curve of the lips would cut pups’ whining short and sent them along an overgrown path to their parent’s den. She would then continue walking, choosing the route that took the least tall on the one following her. Doe’s own bare feet were treading lightly, as if floating above the tangled greenery. After some twenty minutes later they would arrive to a large grove. A large oak took up most of it. Like the forest’s heart the enormous bark has spread its vessels-branches to all directions, entwining them into the canopy of the surrounding trees. A womb of a small creek was cradled safely beneath the gigantic roots, and the stream has cut its way through most of the grove, eventually disappearing under the ground to join a massive system of currents that gave life to all around it.

It was a new and strange world, proving quite stubborn to assert its existence to the newbie. Nina just took it with a pinch of salt and a mouthful of sugar, smiling in the universal optimistic-but-naive-tourist kind of way. Nothing could ever hurt her, because she wasn’t involved. That belief had been deeply carved in her genes, along with the fundamental goodness of human nature, selfless cooperation as the best way to solve problems, and other such criminal idiocies. Reaching out her hand with fingers slightly curled, she accepted the curious sniffs of the wolves as something natural. They were simply trying to know her. Passing eye contact with one of them triggered a glimpse of memories, and a little voice murmured in her mind:
‘Toto, I've a feeling I am not in Kansas anymore.’

And here she was, the Good Witch of this story. All threads of the spell were skillfully sewn together; the invisible password was ‘trust’. Was that a bridge connecting them, or a blindfold? The perfect gestures, the soothing expression and unexpected words uttered through a deceiving smile. ‘Food for thought’ was an almost literal expression for Nina. But did her beautiful savior realize how scary this was...? After a few seconds of silence and catching up with them, the newborn soul spoke. And kept speaking.
“It depends, since you slightly changed the original riddle. If we’re talking about the times the two clocks point the exact hour, then it’d be the first one. It is right twice per day, whereas the other one is only right once in about two years. That’s zero-point-zero-six-erm...-nine-four...repeating...percent. However, ‘accurate’ is a tricky word. The late clock could be closer to the chronological bull’s-eye over a period of time, even without reaching it. So if we sum up the general deviation from a hypothetical, correct clock’s graphic, we get...Hm... Each of them would be more accurate than the other for approximately 360 days, then roles would switch and history will repeat. Again and again.”

She had a hard time knowing when to stop talking. She wasn’t very good at it, either. Hesitations, sprinkled here and there like salt, little moments of white blankness when her tongue blocked and hands moved frantically. Why was it so hard to sketch out pieces of her mind, when everything was so clear? In the end, silence felt like an ointment. When it’s too much, most people would drown in it. But Nina breathed it like air, calm and trustful. So strange then, that her movements would exhibit the slightest unease. Restricted by the slow pace, awkward steps followed the most graceful of spirits.
‘To where?’
Soon, the answer unraveled itself. Nina could only watch the amazing scenery, the complex pattern of the branches, and say nothing more. For a while...

Feeling that they’ve reached their destination, the young soul walked towards the creek and sit down. The water she splashed on her face was cold and refreshing, captive sunrays burning inside of every drop.
“You know, this feels very strange for me” Nina stated, on a much weaker tone than before. She didn’t look at her interlocutor. The worry she had nonchalantly walked away from finally caught up. “I’m going to ask you a question, and kindly ask you not to consider me mentally unstable because of that. Tell me...do I happen to be dreaming? Is this whole place my brain’s creation, while my real body is in a coma somewhere?”
Her muscles were as tense as her voice. Nina wrapped her arms around herself and tried to stay still, knowing too well how fragile dreams are. If she, by accident, hit on the truth, then everything would probably collapse. That riddle, was it a subtle suggestion? First written by the author of “Alice in Wonderland”...But Nina was so sincere that she couldn’t even lie to herself. Almost shivering, the woman awaited the answer which could change her life. Or end it. And then, turning back to the red-eyed angel, she would speak a few more words, and timidly initiate a handshake.
“My name’s Nina Irving. What’s yours?”