Petrified

by TrinketTheChangeling

Introduction: What the buck!?

Click, click, click went the keyboard of my miniature Aspire One computer. Typing away, like always.

It was pretty late by my standards. I think it was, what, midnight? I couldn't tell. Plus I didn't really care anymore, either. The clock was off anyway. I had been up later for the past couple of nights working on this story. 'Petrified' was the title, and to be honest, I was pretty excited about it. It was a little something called fanfiction, fake stories made up by high strong fans who spent most of their time on the internet. Mine was on one of the most stereotyped memes that had somehow managed to skyrocket in fans during 2010; My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

Now I know what you're thinking, "My Little Pony? Isn't that, like, a really old television show? For three year olds?" Well let me tell you now, it's not just a childish T.V. show made way back when thrown together by producers hoping to make a quick buck. It's so much better. I don't know how to describe it, but the colorful world of My Little Pony just...excites me, you know? Like, how some people get excited every time there's an update on Minecraft, or when Skyrim, Dawn Guarders was announced (which, in this case, was also me, heh).

Anyway, let's cut to the case, and say I'd been working really hard on it, and couldn't wait to post it for everyone to see.

I'd never really written a story, a good story, before besides this one. I hoped people would like it. At least better than the one that had bombed a while ago.

I hadn't liked that one myself.

As steadily worked away on my key board, I slowly became more and more immersed in my story. I was aiming to make it as realistic as possibly, along with keeping it off the verge of completely ridiculous. I had lost track of time a while ago, as I said before. Soon, all I could see was the bright, metallic white glow of the monitor screen. It stung my eyes a bit, burning them like simmering coals, considering I'd been sitting here for a few hours, doing nothing but this. I did, however, notice it steadily getting brighter. No, no, it couldn't be. It was probably just the auto-adjust messing with my already oxygen-deprived brain.

I only realized what was happening when my skin began to feel...weird. Like it was stretching somehow, and hardening. A crunchy feeling filled my mouth , along with the disgusting after taste of leaves and pine sap, such as peeling cheese off of a frozen pizza. I began to twitch a bit, but I didn't care. This sort of stuff happens to me when I don't get enough sleep.

Was it getting hot in here? I think it was getting pretty dang hot. My skin pricked and stung some more, like a hoard tiny parasprites were eating away at it. Chip, chip, chip. A sound like a thunderclap sounded insanely close to my ears, ripping away like fabric. When I say it was close, it wasn't just best-friend-giving-you-a-hug-before-class close, it was holy-crap-get-off-of-me-you-rapist close.

Soon, I was feeling dizzy, and sick to my stomach. Food poisoning, possibly? I did have a pretty rare steak that night. Maybe I should go to the bathroom for a bit and relax. Don't wanna soil my bed sheets, now do I? That would be an embarrassing stain to scrub off. I got up, stumbled a few feet, before falling into a deep pit that opened up by my feet. What was a pit doing in my bedroom? I didn't even think it was big enough to fit a pit of any size, let alone my size, in it.

Wait a second...Oh great, it's another one of those freaky dreams where you can't do anything to stop what was going on, and you just had to go with the flow, as my mom would always say. This also meant that I hadn't actually typed my story at all, and I was going to have to start from scratch when I woke up!

Sigh. Oh well, at least the ideas were still fresh from my head. It wouldn't take too much effort.

Pretty boring dream, by the way. All I was doing was falling through a hole in the world. That's pretty dang frustrating for me, too! It was just like that time I signed into Minecraft, started a brand new world for a bit of filming and recording practice, and my spawn point was just above a ravine! All I could do was sit there and fall. And fall. And fall. I had no chance to change my game mode to creative, because before I could type it, I died!

Hopefully this would be over soon, my belly was doing flip flops!

Most of the time, when dreams like this happened, I could wake up at will. You know, the old wives tale where if you pinch yourself on the arm while you were dreaming, your body would then force itself awake? For some reason, that old trick wasn't working for me at all. My arms weren't doing what I told them to, let alone my legs, so I couldn't even manage this one simple thing. They felt heavy and hot, and like a school plump catfish roasting together in a big greasy skillet. I started to panic. Naturally, and frantically, flailing, my limbs were still doing their own thing, flapping in the....wind?

Yep, it was wind alright. What was wind doing in my head? Most of the time my dreams weren't this descriptive, my imagination isn't necessarily the best.

My friends called me an airhead, but this is just ridiculous!

Oh great, I was regaining true feeling now. The burning sensation was gone, but now there was a whole new type of pain. Reminded me of that time I had crashed my lawnmower into the side of my trailer, and/or house. Ouch. I had been aching all over for a week! And this, this was that, times ten. Talk about pain.

Just try to stay optimistic. You've been through worse, right?

Clouds were zooming by my face, and I realized, too late, that I was falling out of the sky. My blonde hair wouldn't stop covering my eyes, no matter how much I pushed it away. Closing them, I tensed my shoulders. So this was it then. When I died in this dream, I would finally wake up. Nice little loophole.

I think.

SPLASH!

What the buck!? Did I...did I just fall into a lake!? What are the odds of a lake right where I was falling? Guess my loophole wasn't so full proof after all. Oh crap, oh crap, I can't breathe! I can't breathe! Choaking and sputtering, I enhailed and exhailed the disgusting taste of filthy lake water. It was like the stuff you find out in a cow pasture after a long rain shower. Along with the fact that I couldn't breathe, this sucked! What kind of demented little dream was this? I didn't realized my brain had a crevice that was deep!

I opened my eyes once again, struggling with more panic as I realized I flailed helplessly on the murky bottom of this forsaken pond. Looking up, I realized that the surface was right there! Right there! I had taken swimming lessons since I was seven just so I could avoid this kind of problem! Were those five hours spent each day, not to mention five dollars an hour, all for nothing!?

My lungs burned for oxygen. Why wouldn't it just end? This stupid little dream, why must it torture me? I just wanted to wake the fu-

...

A smooth, enticing sound, almost like the calm period before a dubstep bass cannon, wounded it's way through one ear, in, and out the other, and I was suddenly calm. It whistled through like silk. Smooth, cold silk, the kind you see used in Christmas Day stockings from grandma on television, and my problems were soon forgotten. It was just a dream, right? Why shouldn't I just let it take it's course, like I was thinking earlier? I'd been through worse pain. Sure, I couldn't move a few seconds ago, and I was free falling, but hey, what can you do? It's my subconsious. Scientists say that you have little to no control on what goes on in there.

Shadows danced in my vision, twirling and spinning like autumn leaves. Their long, fan-tipped tails wriggling gracefully through the water, turning the pond from what looked to be a murky brown to a crystal clear blue. Small, soft, webbed fingers, or should I say fins, danced across my shoulders and arms, wrapping on to my elbows and hauling me up. What were these things? Mermaids? No, no they couldn't be mermaids. For one, I'm not into junk like that, so it wouldn't be in my brain, and two, there was something vaguely...equine about them. Snouts short and stubby, hair flowing lightly behind them, tails coiled like a snake. Seahorse came briefly to mind. Plus they were, really, really small.

There was quite a few of them in the pod. One had braided hair that stuck to it's shoulders, as if it was seaweed, while another one's was thick and curly, free to do as it pleased.

I caught a glimpse of the pony-fish beside my cheek. Lyra? Oh geez, there were so many things wrong with me. I giggled slightly to myself, and that's what brought reality back. I remembered my current predicament and stopped, beginning to cough again. I struggled, but the creatures kept their hold on me.

I was going up now, which was great. Really great. Soon, my head burst through the surface, and my lungs gulped up the sweet, delicious air that welcomed me. Air! Sunlight tickled my nose, and I sneezed. No surprise, plenty of water came out along with the mucus. My neck and shoulders cracked a bit as I searched around for shore, man was I stiff. Then, suddenly, that's when the mysterious creatures decided to let go. I began thrashing harder, desperate to stay up. Why had they left? I started to doggie paddle towards the sandy beach as neatly as I could.

Why did my body feel so heavy? It was almost like I was a log on the water. A very heavy log. Weren't logs suppose to float anyways? Like driftwood? Was I gaining weight and I just didn't know it? That wouldn't be good. I didn't like being called fat. It's not that I really cared about superficial stuff like that, but I...I just didn't like being called fat. Call it a pet peeve. It's...a little demeaning, if you can understand.

Pushing on, I slinked hap hazardously up a slanting sandbank, stubbing my toe on unidentified objects I assumed was litter, and onto the half grass, half grain covered beach. I kept going until my entire body was no longer touched by the water.

Huffing and puffing, I hauled myself onto my back, staring at the clear blue sky above me. The sun was just at the peak of shifting from morning to mid-day. Time was different here.

Worn out by my latest endeavor, I looked back at the water, and nearly face palmed. It wasn't even that deep. Just a yard or two below the surface. I probably could have walked to that small sand bank and made it up by myself, if I'd kept my head clear. I didn't need those mermaid-horse-thinglymajigers' help, even if one of them could have possibly looked like Lyra. Turning my head again, I moved on to the next problem. Where was I?

The area was definitely a very, how should I put this, colorful place. The trees, which were quite large, shading out the area that was beneath it, were ranging from dark green to lime tinted leaves. The bark was all sorts of shades and colors, and I though, in my opinion, were unhealthy colors for the kinds of trees I was use to. A thick canopy prevented the thin grass from growing except for the small edge in front of my nose.

Those trees actually were...kinda pretty.

Maybe this could be a little fun. I always did like role playing in the comments of fan fiction stories. Maybe I could make a blog for that later on in life. Ooh. Take a mental-note.

This has been quite an interesting dream so far, after all. I had been typing a story, when suddenly I'd fallen down a pit, into a lake, and was rescued by mermaid horses. At this rate, just about anything could happen.

Attempting to stand, I soon found that the simple task wasn't so simple. My heavy body groaned with the effort, creaking slighty. Creaking? I thought, slightly puzzled. I fell on my rump, barely moving my hands quick enough so that they would catch me. That's not the only thing I caught. What was that I saw in the water? It looked, weird, to say in the least. So I, again, dragged myself closer on my belly.

Oh. My. Gosh. It was...a reflection. Not just any reflection, my reflection.

It was too different. My hair, still a deep golden-brown, long since going past my shoulders, was there, intact, but wet. My peace sign necklace I had made a few years back remained safe and sound as well. The only thing different , very different, was my skin. It had turned into a horrible display of roots, woven together in various odd angles and ends. Moving my hand forward, which was in the same predicament, tipped slightly with claws, to chip of a piece. I nearly let my dinner go when I saw how easily it fell away, and how the thick, pink sap dripped away from the wound before clotting.

My eyes, a dark chocolate brown, were still human, to my relief, even though a set of two small, pointy fangs distracted you from that, protruding grotesquely from the sides of my mouth. Huh. I mind wasn't really into vampires compared to how much it looked like my face was.

The clothing articles I had been wearing earlier were a little torn. A green creeper hoodie and grey yoga pants. My favorites. Plus they had become quite soggy as well. They had retained all sorts of weird bumps and dips I didn't even want to know about on my legs. Probably more roots. It was a little tight as well. How hadn't I noticed? That means I was getting fat!

Darn it.

I was some weird, and slightly disgusting, mixture between human girl and tree-dog, what was suppose to be a fantasy found on Deviant Art accounts. I didn't care if this was dream, because it felt all too real. More like a nightmare.

So, I reacted as anyone, even someone as quiet and composed as I was, would have in a situation like this. I went into the fetal position, curled up in a tight little ball, like an insane person, and had a freak attack. Oh great. Newsflash, I've come to the conclusion that I indeed have a tail.

I was out like a light.

(((OOC: So, what did you all think? Is the story going good so far? Sorry about how short this chapter was. I wanted to get it out as soon is possible. I know how much you all were expecting it! So, stay tuned, cause there's more where this one came from! Looking for an editor, so, if you think you could do it, tell me in the comments, please!)))