His hands stretched down to reach for the ground, but his feet dropped further. He was falling through the curtains of faded gold. At some point below, there was a change of color. As the ends of the blades parted for him, that brighter green swelled into his vision, and he braced himself.
Slipping free from the enveloping grass, the sounds of him gliding against their paper-like texture ceased, and he was given over to a spacious silence. The awaiting environment scrolled upward in its layers, colors, and shapes. He took this moment to glance about, not only remembering this landscape with its dense jungle and low-hanging branches, but he hoped to spot Ernie and Henry right off.
All that waited on him below was the lush carpet of the forest floor. When he landed, the loud splat resounded about him as his feet sunk into the moss. Ending in a squat, his hands pressed into the spongy texture, and he felt the humidity already washing his bare skin.
Before straightening himself, he took another moment to glance about again, but he refrained from calling out their names. Like before, he didn't have to wait long anyway.
"Pst." He heard Ernie whisper from somewhere close. "Joseph."
He followed the sound. There was a tree to his left. It had a thick trunk. Ernie was peeking at him from the side of it. With his upper half slightly exposed, Ernie was still holding his rifle against his chest, but he wasn't looking at Joseph.
"Whatever you do…" Ernie began, but then Joseph followed the sound of Henry's voice coming from directly ahead.
"Don't…move."
Joseph frowned.
"Yeah." Ernie whispered again, "You're, like, totally in the perfect spot."
Joseph noted the smile on Ernie's face and whispered back, "For what?" That's when he noticed Ernie was looking directly above him. Before he could alter his posture to crane his neck enough to look up, he watched the colors around him darken. Being drawn to the mossy carpet beneath him, he observed a gradual concentration of this darkness.
It was concentrating around him.
"Almost!" Henry whispered, his voice rising in pitch.
A strange-shaped shadow solidified upon the moss, and
Joseph wanted to scoff. Trunk-like objects descended into view, stabbing the spongy carpet with a thunder rivaling what he heard earlier. The rumble that followed wasn't what nearly bested his balance, but it was the sudden compression of air that came down upon his head and back.
Digging his fingers into the moss and bowing toward the ground, he closed his eyes as thousands of water droplets sprang upward.
"Wait for it, Joseph!" Henry shouted, as both he and Ernie sprang from their hiding spots.
Joseph lifted his head enough that when he opened his eyes, it was in time to see the mist falling back onto the moss. Ahead and to his left, both men were charging in his direction, but all he could see were their legs. A new ceiling of twisted wood and contracting muscles hung low over him. Every piece of it shuddered from a large blast of a voice from above.
Ernie and Henry whooped and cheered at the same time the air cracked and snapped each time they pulled the trigger. Joseph braced himself when those two trunks swayed to the right, shifting the entire ceiling in the same direction. The trunk on the left lifted, and he spotted the end of it pull from the hole it made in the moss. Its spear-like foot looked for a
spot to the right and then plunged back into the moss, anchoring the mass in its new position.
Joseph didn't want to move from his hunch, but he was aware of the other two trunk appendages somewhere behind him. If they moved, though, he didn't want to be where they decided to land next.
"Hold, Joseph!" Ernie shouted, pelting off several more rounds at the groaning mass.
"It messed up once it touched the ground!" Henry laughed, spending a number of projectiles in his clip.
So Joseph waited, but he was groaning along with the beast above him. He should have known better, but then again, both men were right. All he had to do was wait on their cue, keeping his fingers and toes intertwined with the sludge beneath him.
The trunk on the right pulled from the ground and stretched further right. Changing from its vertical orientation, the spear-end reached for one of the nearby trees. With a swift jab, the spear plunged its tip into that tree. Gaining this new anchorage, the trunk flexed, lifting that part of the ceiling above Joseph. He was drawn to the light finding its way inside what he felt like was his cage. There was a chance he could use to escape, but he remembered what both men said.
"Oh no you don't!" Henry chuckled.
Joseph watched the next barrage of rounds meet with this extending trunk. A cloud of bark shavings danced from the shaking appendage, and the beast above moaned. The wooden ceiling swayed to the left, stretching that wounded trunk to its full length. While Henry continued to free more shavings from the surface, the trunk strained and then pulled the spear tip free. Joseph bunched his shoulders around his head as the trunk swept to the left. Gritting his teeth, the trunk plunged back into the mossy ground.
The deepest parts of the sludge jolted as the air boomed. Joseph felt every bit of it in his hands and feet, but he held on.
"Are you ready?" Ernie shouted with laughter.
"What do you think?" Joseph shouted back.
Both Ernie and Henry roared with cheer as they pelted the beast. Already so many pieces of wood had salted the surrounding moss. Joseph wondered just how much more was the beast willing to lose before it used its last resort.
"Oh!" Henry gasped. "Hey!"
The edge of the ceiling ahead of Joseph began to lift. Light was finding its way inside of his cage once again. Keeping his
focus forward, more and more of Henry was being revealed. The moment he could see the man's face, the two of them shared a quick glance.
Henry's eyes flared along with his smile. He was holding his rifle against his hip, but as he began to take several steps back, he lifted the rifle, placing the butt against his shoulder.
"Almoooost! Almoooost!" he called.
Joseph pulled his right hand out of the muck and curled his fingers into a fist.
"Almooooost!" Henry continued as he took several more steps back, unrelenting in pelting the beast with rounds.
"Woooooo!" Ernie cheered from the left, but Joseph didn't take his eyes off Henry, keeping his fist tight.
The ceiling had tilted out of sight. Joseph had an unhindered view of Henry and the jungle behind him. Light was all but restored to his lifting cage.
Henry's big beaming smile stretched longways, and he lowered his rifle. Without taking his eyes off the beast, he shouted, "NOW!"
Joseph hissed as he kicked with his left foot. His left hand was yanked free of the sludge as he twisted to the left. Now sitting on the ground, he was facing right into the wooden wall's opening maw. There in the center, the jagged ends of logs were pulled away from one another by those contracting muscles, revealing a blackness within.
That's where Joseph aimed as he pushed with his left hand, throwing his upper half forward. The two trunks that had been behind him this whole time pushed in like fashion, launching the beast to meet him. Those same muscles from before were pulling those sharpened logs further apart, widening the dark space in the center. Joseph was diving into that cavity, his right fist leading the way.
When his forearm disappeared into that arriving darkness, his stomach pressed into the outer surface of the beast's mouth. This meeting was but for a second. He felt the impact of his knuckles connecting with a hidden surface, and his whole body shook. There was a clap of thunder, and the large mass of wood, logs, trunks, and muscles ceased its advance, only to rocket backwards.
Light cast upon Joseph's fist as the beast plunged into a gathering of trees and limbs several yards away. The air around Joseph buzzed. Droplets of humidity formed a mist, and then fell as the beast dropped into a heap of giant splinters.
Joseph stood tensed at the end of his pose. Then he expelled a slow sigh, relaxing his posture.