Out of This World

The woods I had been walking in right before I entered this place were dry, and the temperature was around fifty, so I knew I must have entered into some new location, but I didn’t know how, why, or where the location was. I decided not to worry and to walk downstream to possibly find a familiar lake that I knew was around my house, though I do not remember encountering any stream all the times I had walked down the trail. The path I had taken, however, was not a trail. It was kept clear of plants from the large trees drowning out the sunlight, making it almost seem like twilight. The stream came into sight and the water was clear and fast flowing. As I began my walk, I noticed that the sky was brighter, though the sun could not be seen through the clouds. The canopy of the trees had broken up slightly, though it still amazed me that they were so tall, two, maybe two and a half times as big as the trees in my woods. The banks of the stream proved an easy walk. Not too many large rocks got in the way and I was making great time. It was probably a couple of miles downstream when the flow of the water became faster and it started sounding louder. Now, I could still hear the hum, but the closer I got to the loud rush of water, the more it became drowned out. The sky looked like it was growing dimmer, so I decided to try to get to the falls and watch the bank before the sky was completely dark.

The waterfalls were a sight to admire. The mist from the crash into the water below blew all the way back to the top of this rather tall waterfall. The annoying hum was all but a memory as I was overcome with awe at the white water as its noise drowned out the sounds of the woods. Suddenly, I heard a screech and a clicking sound that got louder and closer. I ducked and expected the worst, but a collision never came. It was a bird, well, it flew, anyway. This thing was huge and it had just snapped some sort of flying bug out of the air. The bird was not an average hawk or eagle. It was I guess four or five times the size of one.

I watched the flying creature closely, then saw it go into a crevice of the cliffs that bordered the lower part of the falls. Then I saw an amazing sight. Twenty or thirty of these animals were soaring around, all snapping bugs out of the air. The clicks I had heard in the woods must have been coming from these animals.

A feeding frenzy had started, and I soon got a close up view of the food source. I was admiring the precision flight of the birds when thump, I felt an impact of something on my back. It was followed by a loud buzz. I looked behind me and was startled by nothing else than a huge dragonfly. Two wings had been clipped off by one of the birds, and the insect, about two feet long from front to back, was helplessly buzzing in circles. It was a beautiful creature, a rainbow of colors could be seen in it. It continued to buzz and scooted closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. Then it dropped, only to be snatched by a bird after its effort to escape. I thought about the dinner that the birds were having, and amazement quickly turned to hunger.