Echoes of the Macula: The Journey of Thlayli

In the realm of Corondalai, shadows and secrets are mixed. Among the twisted forests and jagged mountains lived a small, silver-furred rat. Thlayli. That's me!

Long, long ago, there were these creatures we called humans. They were filthy and greedy, but they were filthy, greedy, and smart. And they all died millenia ago. How? Well, let's just say there was a slight disease from an unknown source, killing every single human without mercy, the Macula. Yeah, sarcasm. As creatures, we know where it came from. Deep in the forest, in a place so vile, no creature ever musters the courage to venture, and those who do never either never return, or take a permanent visit to death. There lies dying corpses of humans by the hundreds, surrounding one particular cavern. The creatures of the world call this cave by many names, but where I’m from, it's known as The Chamber of Whispers, or the TCW. Weird name, but hey, it works. But I warn you: Stay. Away.

As the tales have wandered, every creature and soul knew the dangers of The Chamber of Whispers. As those have said, “Those who go in, never come out." I know how common that phrase is. But, as others have said, “Some wandered out alive... but are they alive?” They twitch and act mysteriously vivacious and incomprehensibly friendly. Many creatures have witnessed those who came out alive, but they all say that once you get in contact with them, you become one of the Macula. That’s the main method by which the Macula spreads. So be careful who you meet. The Macula also spreads by infecting a particular area of Corondalai, ambushing them at night with a stench that reeks of death, instantly putting them at risk of death within 2-3 days, or luring them with a poisonous gas that smells of cloy and intoxicating sweets and into The Chamber of Whispers! They always attack at night. The air poison doesn’t go that far. The ambush method was how all the humans died. Pretty powerful, I must say. If you get near The Chamber of Whispers for just a small amount of time, you’re infected with this seemingly non-lethal disease that’s attached to The Macula. It makes you wander back to the cavern over time with taunting whispers or visions of nightmares under moonlight. I always wander back into the TCW, which could end up with me lost and starving to death, wandering forever in the cavern until I collapse. We nicknamed it the Mac. The benefit is that you’re immune to the main disease that everyone knows of, the Macula. Complicated right? Well, my stupid ol’ self did that, so I’ll tell you in just a second.

Hello, my name’s Thlayli, and yes, I’m a rat. Please don't be disgusted or anything; I’m pretty clean. I live in the ruins of an old castle, where broken stone walls and wild plants took over what was once a grand palace. The walls are quite beautiful to look at. Every day is a struggle when you have the Mac. One of my companions is a raven named Sylas. She has midnight-black feathers and bright green eyes. I know it’s a widely known fact that ravens eat rats, but she's a different kind that doesn’t devour my species. Sylas had always helped me find my way back when I got lost and wandered near danger. Now, you must wonder: you said something about having the disease, right? Yup! I have The Mac. Gasp! It’s not a big deal. As I said before, getting The Mac leads to me being immune to the disease, but I have the danger of wandering back in! I believe that many, like me, were curious younglings who got close and barely survived to get out of that forest alive.

On one particularly gloomy day, as the sky grew darker and the shadows deepened, my mind began to drift again. It's like I can see myself wandering, but I can’t control my body to prevent myself from maybe falling off a 50-foot cliff! I wandered deeper into a forest, through hidden passageways I had never seen before. Damn it! Ugh! Snap out of it, Thlayli! My paws carried me further and further until I found myself near the cavern lit by glowing mushrooms and corpses. At the entrance of the cavern was a giant human skull, its empty eye sockets seeming to watch my every move.

My mind was in a haze of confusion. A soft, sad voice called out from the skull. "Thlayli," it whispered, "come closer." The whispers devoured my mind, forcing to me enter the forbidden Haven.

I moved closer, drawn by the voice, but then I heard a faint but loud caw. My friend had always been there to guide me back when my mind strayed too far. Sylas flew to the entrance of the cavern. "Thlayli!" she called, her voice echoing through the cavern. "Stay with me, Thylali!" I struggled, torn between the urge to head in and the voice of Sylas. Her voice gave me strength. I stepped back from the cavern, passing the human skull, my mind beginning to clear. Sylas gently nudged me with her beak. "Come on, Thlayli. We need to get out of here."

Together, we retraced my steps, leaving the glowing cavern behind. As we emerged back into the nature of Corondalai, I felt the grip of the Mac loosen, if only for a moment. I knew I’d always have to fight my wandering thoughts and visions, but with Sylas by my side, I felt braver.

Back at the ruins, Bramble was waiting anxiously. "Thlayli! Sylas! Where have you been?" he called out, relief flooding his voice as he saw them approach. "I was so worried."

"I found Thlayli wandering again," Sylas said, her voice calm.

Bramble’s eyes widened. "Again?! Augh! Thlayli, you got to stop wandering so far into the TCW. I don’t want to lose you!"

I sighed and said, "Yeah, yeah, I know. I can’t control it, though, remember?” Bramble toppled onto the soft green grass and started to worry. “Bram, I’ll be fine. I got you and Sylas by my side.”

Bramble smiled slightly, and Sylas proudly said, “Sylas, at your service!” We all started giggling.

That goofball is my buddy, Bramble. I met him in my earlier days, and we’ve been friends ever since, helping each other survive. Sylas is more like a mother to me and Bram. It’s been a thing where she helps protect me from wandering since she can fly, and in return, I provide her shelter, food, and friends. That's everything she's ever wanted due to her loneliness and terrible past. That whole afternoon, we scavenged carefully on the outskirts of the forest for our usual. Nuts, berries, grass, flowers, and bugs, especially for Sylas. When the spring night came, we ate the last of our forage. We closed all the openings that could lead the air poison to poison us from the TCW. We ended the night like that.

The faint light of the moonlight shone through the window of my castle. I look to my side to see Sylas and Bramble sound asleep. I sighed; I couldn’t sleep at all. A quarter of the night had passed until I closed my eyes slowly, falling asleep. Visions crackled and glitched in my head. They weren't that clear, but all I saw was Sylas and Bramble dead on the floor; suddenly a vision of the Corondalai abandoned, turning into a nightmare, and then a loud glitching noise led to weird visions. They were items that could only be found in humans' territory! It started getting harder to breathe once the last vision showed me cutting my arm with the weapons of the deceased humans.

I gasped, jolting up quickly. My heart beat faster and faster, leading to gasps. My body was shaking and trembling from the thought of it. Sweat and tears trickled down my face. I looked into the sunlight in relief, but I was shaking. I turned around to see Sylas looking at me from a distance, slowly taking the boards off the corner. “Y-you ok, Thlayli?” I crawled towards her, slowly bawling my eyes out. Sylas panicked, hopped towards me and hopped over to hug me. “You’re ok, you’re ok.” Sylas whispered. My eyes were blurry, but I could sense the warmth of her feathers.

A moment later, there was a scratching sound coming from the corner. I squinted my eyes. Bramble pushed the boards out of his way and was back with breakfast in his basket. He looked up and quickly noticed the situation. Quickly running to “Thlayli! Are you okay? It happened again, didn’t it?” My body was still shaking. I uttered, “Yeah.” “Was it the same one you had the other day?” Sylas quietly said. “Kind of. This time, it had another vision along with the same ones. It was me cutting my arm with a sharp item," I replied. Sylas waved his wings up in the air, screaming, “Cutting yourself! Why in the world would you do that!?” The birds around us started cawing and flying away.

We sat in silence, but Bramble's loud chewing interrupted the quiet morning. Sylas told me to calm my thoughts down and to settle near the grass to eat. Bramble and Sylas strutted near the grass to settle on the morning forage. I could hear Bramble's words about how he got the fresh morning dew grass; that sounded delicious, but I couldn’t just settle my thoughts down. This freaked me out. Walking back and forth, I finally got an idea of what the visions were showing me. I galloped towards them and screeched to a stop. “I know what my visions were showing me! Maybe I should go to the humans' territory to solve something huge!” I exclaimed. “What do you mean,” Bramble questioned, “you know what they’re telling you? What?” Sylas also questioned me. I sighed, “Never mind; let's just enjoy breakfast.” Sylas smiled and gave me a fresh, ripe blueberry. I gave a broken smile, sat down, and bit into the flesh of the blueberry.

The afternoon came around the corner, bringing the cute, fluffy clouds you’ll see on a perfect day. Sylas flew out of the cracks of the windows while Bramble and I squeezed out cracks in the corners, moving the boards to the side. We walked together into the fields for a quiet hike to end the day. The flowers bloomed brightly under the bright sunset, especially the carnations. Bramble picked a few to eat, and I just enjoyed their shadows as they loomed over me while crawling past them. Bramble disappeared into the tall grass, and I followed. He was excited when he saw another carnation in the distance. This is a terrible situation due to them being pretty far, but it was Bram that I was worrying about. Sylas hopped farther and farther, saying she'd come back. She's probably looking for bugs. All of a sudden, a stench filled the air around us. Oh, shoot! That smell was the stench from the TCW that could put my friends at risk. Just remember that the Mac makes me immune to any of the methods that the TCW brings! I quickly yelled at Bramble and Sylas. Sylas, being the smart one she is, already held her breath, flying away from the stench. Sylas was smart enough, so I let her handle herself. But for my not-so-bright- Bramble, he was at a distance and seemed to be dozing off. Bram sniffed around, wondering why it smelled weird. I freaked out. I ran towards him, but it was too late. Bramble spewed out pure black-red blood and collapsed. 

Damn it! Damn it! I ran faster and faster, not trying to look at the bloody flower that he hurled onto, and quickly collapsed right beside Bramble. I promptly threw him onto my back and crawled as fast as I could away from the stench. Sylas flapped in the distance, worrying about what we were doing. I dragged Bramble out of the tall grass, quickly screaming at Sylas. She swooped down like a bullet, grasped Bram, and flew to the castle. I ran right under Sylas, worrying about the blood that Bramble was dripping onto the ground and I.

We finally ended up at our home and set Bramble on the glossy marble floor of the castle. He mumbled something and then closed his eyes. Sylas immediately grabbed a curved leaf with her beak, kneeling beside the stream nearby, capturing water. Sylas flew back immediately, slowly pouring the water into Bramble’s mouth. I watched in horror as Bram’s veins turned into a dark, pure black color. It was like black worms inside of him, hiding around his neck and arms. I sat beside him, slowly nourishing him with food he'd need to survive for the last few days he'd be with us. I looked at my hands. Blood. I lowered my head down, looking at the ants scrambling in a straight line. “I don’t understand!” exclaimed Sylas. “The Macula only spreads late in the evening or at night! Not in the afternoon!” I replied in a mellow voice, “I know, why the heck would it spread now?” Sylas looked at Bramble, mumbling and twitching as he was, I guess, asleep. “Maybe the macula got stronger over time and is now spreading in the afternoon too.” Sylas looked up and questioned my words. I looked into the sunset. Dried tears cracked on my face when I squeezed my eyes shut, thinking this would be a dream. I then again fed Bramble for the last time with the flowers he loved eating the best. I don’t even know if this even helped; I got frustrated. I threw the berry onto the palace walls and screamed. Tears burst out of my eyes as I stomped to the other side of the castle, slamming myself onto the grass to end the night. Sylas was still fixing the boards to the openings; I’m pretty sure she sighed. The night crept over the horizon, causing me to fall asleep.

My friends died; Corondalai was dead silent, glitching, being in human territory, and then cutting my arm. “Ga-!” I lunged forward, then sweated again. Sylas worryingly hopped over to me, reassuring me that that was a vision dream again. I looked at her dark green eyes, thinking about how and why she was awake. She whispered, “Same nightmare? Anything new?” I slowly caught my breath, gasping, “Y-yeah, I mean no! Nothing new.” Sylas gave me a few berries and hopped to Bramble, who was still unconscious, feeding him food. Hopefully, that helps. Bram was getting skinnier and skinnier over time.

I slowly chewed the salmonberry, still blinking as if I hadn’t gotten any sleep at all. I thought about my nightmares again. Are they telling me something, or am I just stupid? I replayed the visions in my mind once again. My friends were both dead; were they both attacked by the Macula? Maybe. Next was Corondalai abandoned, which might be the Macula killing every single living thing, leading to a deserted place. The part about being in human territory and cutting my arm didn’t come to my understanding. That's when I remembered that the background of the cutting was in a place where humans made and tested chemicals that healed some diseases they had. What?! What does this even mean? I sighed, dozing out of my mind.

Sylas turned around and hopped to me, asking what I was doing. “Nothing. I was just dozing off.” I smiled at Sylas. She looked at me confused but didn’t care much. She flew up towards the ceiling, fixing the palace up with some trinkets she found this morning. The sun shone off of the things she found, bouncing off every shiny trinket that was around. I looked up. This was like a constellation, but with light, it looked magical. Sylas, proud of her work, flew down beside me, smiling.

Evening came around the corner fast. I sat there the whole time, staring at Bramble and thinking to myself about the craziest ideas that I came up with about my visions. Sylas came back with food once again and a plastic container filled with water. Sylas proudly said that she found a container floating down the river, so she picked it up, thinking this could be useful to hold items and water. I loved Sylas’s smart mind and intelligence; I just wished I could just tell her my situation so that I could figure this all out. But for some reason, it felt like I shouldn’t tell her. What is wrong with me?

That night, as Sylas and Bram were asleep, I crept outside to grab a huge leaf on the ground near the stream. I dragged it inside the castle and quietly put grass and all sorts of shenanigans on the leaf. I tied it all up, and it was cute that it was a little bag I could carry. I looked around outside and found a plastic container that had a cap that closed. Yes! I ran over to the stream and filled the container with water, closing the cap to prevent the water from pouring out. I grabbed a nearby quartz, ran into the castle, and started writing a message on the flat rock near them. After that, I ran.

The next morning, Sylas woke up early again. (Sylas's perspective) Yawn! I stretched my wings and opened my beak wide open. I looked around and noticed that Thalayi was gone! I quickly took off and pushed a board out the way, flying into the forest. He probably ran off into the TCW. Once I got there, there was nothing to be seen. What? I hopped around the entrance, seeing no footprints or wreckage to be seen. He always leaves footprints because he always walks over a muddy area covering the path. I flew higher, scanning the area, listening, and seeing if I could see or hear anything. It was dead quiet. In the distance I saw human territory, it looked like five tornadoes swept through that place. Didn’t he mention something about going into the human’s territory, though? No way! He would never! Would he…? I flew back to the castle, cawing loudly. Where are you, Thlayli!?

(Back to my perspective.) Ow! A thorn stuck to my foot as I shoved through the grass covering my way. It felt as if I went in a circle because I was stuck there for, like, hours. I jumped up and down and caught a glimpse of a large rock that towered over the grass. I hopped over toward the direction the rock was going. I finally bumped into the rock. I climbed on the rock to rest my back, which hurt because of the leaf bag I carried. I looked up and saw that I was closer to human territory. Whoo! I was getting closer and closer by the minute. I looked around to see that I wasn’t far until I was at the easy part of this journey. I hopped off of the rock into the grass, laughing and prancing forward, which made the grass lean onto a side that felt incredible, like a superhero. Finally, I jumped out of the tall grass, giggling and thumping onto the soft grass. I rolled over to see a dandelion that smacked some fluffy seeds onto my nose. I sneezed and smiled. I never felt so alive and happy! I turned around and saw the tall grass area sway like waves from the wind. It felt more magical than anything when more dandelions let their seeds fly. They flew around me with the wind, picking up all the leaves, flowers, and seeds, starting a swirl of paradise. I breathed in the smell and sighed. What a sight!

            I looked at the clouds slowly moving past me, I sighed. Suddenly, I heard a noise in the distance. I quickly turned around standing on my feet. Out came 3 wolves growling deeply at me with a mouth looking as if it had rabies. I looked at their bodies seeing that they were skin and bones.  Maybe it does. I backed out slowly, hopefully not causing a big fuss to happen. They crept slowly towards me, probably ready to eat me in a second. I tripped backwards falling down the hill. God damn it! I rolled and tumbled into a bush. Ow! I took a thorn out of my leg and noticed a piece of sharp glass beside me. The wolves surrounded the bush growling even harder, their red eyes following my every step. I shuddered. 3..2..1! I lunged out of the bush hurling the sharp glass into one of the wolf’s eyes. I ran for my life heading into the human’s territory for cover. I heard the ear piercing shriek waking up the whole forest. The other two ran faster and faster until one caught my arm, ripping a patch of skin off. Sh*t! Blood dripped down my arm. The wolf barely caught me! Sweat covered my face as I quickly stumbled into a crack near a concrete wall. I slid right under and crawled into the corner. The wolves huffed at the crack with their bloody red eyes staring at me in the corner. I trembled. Once the wolves ran away, I slowly peeked out of the crack and limped over to grab a long strip of grass to cover my injury. I breathe through my teeth. Damn, it hurts. Blood was smeared onto the concrete floor of the building. I sighed in relief and laid onto the floor.

TO BE CONTINUED...