11-21-2023, 08:09 PM
The garden was full of exotic flora, each plant and flower stranger than the last, and a particular one caught his eye—a flower of such unusual shape and color that it seemed to beg him to look closer.
The flower was unlike any he had seen before, with iridescent petals that shimmered in the garden's soft light. Delicate, thread-like fronds radiated from the center, waving gently despite the lack of wind. Compelled by a mix of curiosity and the strange, almost magnetic pull of the flower, Jaxen squat to examine it more.
As his fingers gently touched the petals, they burst open, releasing a cloud of sparkling particles that resembled pollen yet poofed like cloud of baker's flour. The particles swirled in the air, and before Jaxen could react, it engulfed his head.
The effect was immediate and disorienting. The garden around him seemed to blur and shift, the colors and sounds intensifying. Jaxen hurried backward, but he stumbled, trying to steady himself as the world around him transformed.
He saw a child - a young boy with a mischievous glint in his eyes, playing hide and seek among the trees and bushes of the garden. The child's devious laughter rang clear. He darted behind plants, peeking out with a cheeky smile, as if inviting Jaxen to join the game.
The sight was surreal and deeply unsettling. The boy bore a striking resemblance to Jaxen, so much so that it was like watching videos of his own childhood. Memories, long buried and forgotten, surfaced in Jaxen's mind, mingling with must be the hallucination. He could almost remember playing the same game in this same place.
A wave of emotions washed over him—nostalgia, confusion, and a pang of sadness. And amid it all, a sense of doom sure to descend any moment grew so strong that he made an instant decision.
He sniffed and rubbed his nose with his sleeve as if capable of dislodging the vision and the invading plant that had stimulated it. The child looked him dead in the eye as if suddenly seeming him in return, then he stuck out his tongue and ducked behind a bush. When Jaxen followed, the child and all evidence of his presence was gone.
And he decided that he was ready to get the hell out of here and wishing to be home and never return was going to be the first of his conditions.
The flower was unlike any he had seen before, with iridescent petals that shimmered in the garden's soft light. Delicate, thread-like fronds radiated from the center, waving gently despite the lack of wind. Compelled by a mix of curiosity and the strange, almost magnetic pull of the flower, Jaxen squat to examine it more.
As his fingers gently touched the petals, they burst open, releasing a cloud of sparkling particles that resembled pollen yet poofed like cloud of baker's flour. The particles swirled in the air, and before Jaxen could react, it engulfed his head.
The effect was immediate and disorienting. The garden around him seemed to blur and shift, the colors and sounds intensifying. Jaxen hurried backward, but he stumbled, trying to steady himself as the world around him transformed.
He saw a child - a young boy with a mischievous glint in his eyes, playing hide and seek among the trees and bushes of the garden. The child's devious laughter rang clear. He darted behind plants, peeking out with a cheeky smile, as if inviting Jaxen to join the game.
The sight was surreal and deeply unsettling. The boy bore a striking resemblance to Jaxen, so much so that it was like watching videos of his own childhood. Memories, long buried and forgotten, surfaced in Jaxen's mind, mingling with must be the hallucination. He could almost remember playing the same game in this same place.
A wave of emotions washed over him—nostalgia, confusion, and a pang of sadness. And amid it all, a sense of doom sure to descend any moment grew so strong that he made an instant decision.
He sniffed and rubbed his nose with his sleeve as if capable of dislodging the vision and the invading plant that had stimulated it. The child looked him dead in the eye as if suddenly seeming him in return, then he stuck out his tongue and ducked behind a bush. When Jaxen followed, the child and all evidence of his presence was gone.
And he decided that he was ready to get the hell out of here and wishing to be home and never return was going to be the first of his conditions.