Author's Note:28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWkT4kArX3E
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKjNzXIL36b
Wasn't last chapter a blast? Makes you just feel like Dylan and everything will be fiiiine. Well, we are back with Zeph for a bit. I hope you are enjoying the story so far. If you have thoughts or something you want to share, I'll be looking for you in the comments.
~~~
Souls on the mortal plane weren’t able to retain shape without a vessel. They need a physical form to latch onto. That could be anything from flesh or a creepy doll in the attic.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbg2VOccMzw
When Zephaniah reentered the mortal plane, he descended at such a speed that he thought the impact might be devastating. However, if someone were there to see him, they would be little more than curious about the thin streak of light on the horizon.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0U0NyPqz1h
But no one was there to see his quiet descent.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7emDO5JMSl
It was quick, more like a blip. As quick as lighting, but only a straight line in the sky, entering the atmosphere at a slight angle. His trail of red transitive energy bled through in the stratosphere, slowly diffusing into the air of the late morning sky.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcwA4KAimaY
There was no impact, per se and hardly even a sound. He joined the earth.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ77GptAAQ7i
He was earth.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPxdpv0RbDi
He couldn’t move and for some reason; that bothered him. He became restless. Rock didn’t need to move, but for some reason he wondered why he couldn’t move his arms.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfnLMeAEGlS
As he wondered, he felt his arms first take shape, a hewn from solid stone, then lift against resistance. He slowly broke free, discovering where the stone ended and he began. When he emerged from earth, he tried to look upon his body but rocks didn't have eyes.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtM5RXumbwX
As he remembered what it was to see. He remembered what it meant to blink and that blinking should be as natural as anything. As the thought materialized, stone parted atop his new eyelids and the world came into view.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGDLrQEc6nt
Down his body, it didn't look as familiar as it felt. His chest looked like a cliffside all the way to his waist and led to a pair of stony pillars for legs. That is, it was all stone until he flexed the fibers of earth and minerals. Crust of shale and dust broke free from the toned human body beneath.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTUxlRFChAl
It was when he tightened his new muscle and flesh that he realized he couldn't breathe. Rock didn't usually breathe but he knew he needed air.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG2Po4z0L91
But he didn't have lungs. He didn't until he gasped, filling a cavity in his chest with air and around it hugged his new lungs. They stretched for the first time, then squeezed out wind and dust from his throat.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb4pGMmpTiz
He inhaled his new surroundings.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmGN2H0fVeE
He remembered what his purpose was. It was crude, like ore yet solid and unmoving.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQr4mDaFqTw
Find Dylan. Save him.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb7hNy0qm2k
He wasn't sure who that was but he knew that was his purpose. He looked around and did not see anyone that could be named Dylan. It was only dirt, a few bushes and sun that bent the air just above the ground.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ44fU4v8M3I
There was a lingering connection to the earth, even though he knew he wasn't paid of it anymore. It was fleeting, but he knew he could just as easily be any other plot of clay and ash.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpgjIZ3ZWBs
But that didn't matter. That would never save Dylan.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1KfQ6AyCSh
He picked a direction and started walking.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHXjxLlBR9r
For several minutes, maybe hours, he walked in that direction. He wasn't plagued with thoughts as he marched. The burden of contemplation never came to him even as his body twitched with each of its subtle changes.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPmK4d2vVJS
His jaw popped as he stretched it and suddenly he could hear the world around him. He forgot about sound, but rock could be forgiven for not concerning itself with noise.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc8RjiyxjL8
As he walked, one footstep sounded stranger than the other. He looked behind him a branch of bramble bush dragged behind his foot with each stride. He stopped and lifted the foot to inspect it.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOmg0cqlTjw
He slowly dislodged a two inch thorn from the pad of his foot and examined it. He figured that should’ve hurt.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNdvZiqi8Wt
As quick as the thought occurred to him, pain stung his foot. Not only that, heat from the sun bore into his skin and he felt the immense dryness of his neglected eyes. He blinked tears into them and as his vision cleared again he inspected his foot once more. He wondered why there was no blood.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQdEJkznoe9
Just then, he felt a thump in his chest between his lungs. A heart beat for the first time pumping blood throughout him. Life carved cooling ravines into the earth of his body, flowing like rivers, boring rivers that became veins and arteries.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMjNMOAFMcP
He felt a rush build pressure in his fingertips that rhythmically throbbed under the grip he put on his own foot. The feeling washed over him and with it, blood welled from deep within the hole the thorn left behind.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZQkdq0Z747
Blood and oxygen gave breath to his train of thought, fueling it's locomotion much more than before. He had a brain. He could think. He could remember.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB0LZd7xdmk
He remembered that little boy’s face and the fear he must have felt seeing his mother the way he did. He remembered fighting to protect him. He remembered Dylan. Zeph's eyes welled again for a different feeling than before. How could he have forgotten Dylan?
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3V33BLmpwL
He closed his eyes on tears that quenched dry skin before falling. His eyes opened again on the expanse before him.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8TEnZahDlS
Rock-brained-him had been walking aimlessly for who knows how long. The skin of the desert was tough and he didn't sink into the sand. Looking around him, he saw an arid scape of stillness and sparse vegetation.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa8u34lDuFY
As luck would have it, his senseless wanderings led him to the edge of a savannah. On it, a lone wooden shack marked the end of the desert in the distance. He limped across the dust as quickly as his limp would take him.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ91dVHFL5TL
As he drew closer, a man in simple garb crossed between him and the door to the shack.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyxeo0sewJa
The man hitched a foraging basket on his hip and under his arm as he watched Zephaniah come to a stop. His head tilted as he took in the sight of a naked, fit young man emerging from a direction that had no civilization for at least forty miles.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMOdHUrrSQE
His head nudged towards the door behind him. “Mind the pot.”
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzlxHT7RnJ1
Zephaniah took that for the invitation it was, and unabashedly hobbled into the little shack, shaking off some dust from his hair and body before entering.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj1NhE7tFdT
→ Request update
and then Add to home screen.