Niko wanted to ask what she saw, but he wasn't sure if he actually wanted the answer. He started following, physically tiptoeing since his feet were actually on the ground, keeping his eyes on the bushes that kept giving off more rustles from time to time.
He was seriously scared of stepping on a stick, like all people tend to when wanting to sneak past something dangerous, so he kept glancing at his feet while he went.
It was one of these glances, only a moment that his eyes left the bushes, when he heard Plu scream. His head shot up, finding a gigantic creature that should never have fit behind those bushes.
It was tall, white all over and hairless, except for around its waist and unmentionables, where so much fur was located, you couldn't see a thing past them. He would have felt lucky about that, but the razor sharp teeth that hung far past the creature's chin as it rose to two legs were really distracting. It almost looked like a vampire unicorn that walked on two tall heeled legs, and less of a horse shaped face. .
"Run!!" Plu screeched, taking off faster than a ray of light and effectively deserting Niko to the creature that was beginning its advancement.
Niko's eyes went wide at the abandonment, taking off like the wind after the tiny Flair as the creature roared loudly behind them.
All he could see were glimpses of pink sparkles flitting through the air, Plu's speed leaving him in the dust as he ran after her. Trees rumbled with the weight of the large thing ambling after them, branches crunching and snapping loudly in its wake.
"What the heck is that thing?!" Niko screamed at the dust sparkles Plu left behind. He heard a shout in the distance ahead as she answered him.
"It's called a Trelluf, and if you don't go faster, it WILL eat you. Now run!"
Niko was heaving as he sprinted past trees, their distances between each other getting denser the further he went into the woods.
Wherever he had wound up, the plants looked far too magical to be from Earth. He was getting the sinking feeling, what with the strange plants and deadly creature tearing the ground apart behind him so that it could eat him, that he was no longer in his world.
The leaves above his head glittered with that same, ethereal light that fell off Plu, different colors glittering softly in the dark of the night. The branches were braided together, woven into intricate patterns, some dangling, some seeming to meld into the trunk itself.
Niko longed to get a closer look, but right now he was about to die, so it would have to wait for a time when he wasn't being chased down and eaten.
The creature was getting closer, breaths snarling closely to Niko's back, and all he could do was try to run faster.
"Niko! Duck!" He heard Plu's voice in the trees above, and rolled into a ball as he flew to the side. A moment later, he heard a loud smacking sound. The creature lay prone on the ground, a giant tree branch, practically the size of a small tree itself, sat over its fallen form. Loud groaning grunts came from it, wriggling as it tried to get out from under the huge thing.
Plu floated down by his head, laughing in utter glee at the pitiful monster.
It occurred to Niko, in that moment, that he'd never told her his name.
"Plu, how'd you know my name?" He asked, looking towards the fluttering Flair as she danced about the fallen creature.
"Hmmm? Oh. That. I'm your guide, remember?" As though that just explained everything.
"What exactly are you supposed to guide me through?" Niko asked, eyebrows rising when she started sprinkling some kind of pink dust on the struggling monster.
"Well, when you fell into me, I was intrigued by your garden. It seemed so peaceful, vibrant and unearthly." She floated back to his face, making eye contact as she fluttered up and down slowly.
"Without entirely meaning to, we entered into a contract. Which means, I am to guide you through this world, make sure you don't die, that sort of thing. . I take it you've never actually been here before, right?" Her hand gestured to their surroundings, the fantastically colors and shapes that definitely weren't native to Earth.
So it was a new world, after all.
"What is this place?" He asked, leaning against a tree as the day's events started catching up to him. He still felt winded after that mad dash away from death.
"This world is called Certes. It mirrors your own in many ways, parts tending to bleed between the two from time to time. It was one such part that let me drag us both over, finding your garden just as you'd seen it." Her hands waved as she talked, petals flapping around her tiny arms in every which way.
"But I've never actually seen that place before. I just dream about it sometimes, so I use it to distract me from stressful situations, like when I'm about to die." He muttered, feeling like she was focusing too much on that place belonging to him somehow.
"I'd imagine it seeped through the cracks, but the fact you've seen it multiple times makes me think this world was calling to you. Have you ever felt like you didn't belong in your world?" Plu fluttered closer, watching his eyes like they might give her all the answers.
Memories came unbidden to the forefront of Niko's mind, of times when he was walking home from school alone, his friends having gone off to hang out without him. Times when he was sitting in an empty apartment alone, lights not turning on as the skies slowly darkened.
Jordan had made things better, taking him around town as they hung out, staying overnight when his mom was out late. He'd even been the only one to show up at the funeral when his mother passed away.
Yet still, he had smiled when Niko was falling to his doom. It was clear, there was no real love for his friend. He probably got extra points, hanging out with the pitiful boy who never really hung out with the kids when school was over.
Would a different world really change anything, though? Niko was the one who was bad at making friends, especially genuine ones, it seemed. What was the point in going somewhere different, somewhere as special as this place.
He looked down, sudden hopelessness falling into his eyes as he remembered his pitiful existence back on Earth. Yet, despite everything, he had wanted to live. He needed to see if there was something more, something that was making everyone else happier than him.
"You know….." Plu was looking into the woods wistfully, as though there was something real entertaining out there.
"Certes is the perfect place to find something that makes you feel whole. It could be a soul that matches your own, a place that feels perfectly like home, or even just days that don't make you feel so wholly alone. I hope, Niko, that you can find what you need to be happy, because from what I felt in your world, you deserve to find it more than most." She looked up at him, a smile gracing her lips as she rested a tiny hand on his cheek.
Niko felt a foreign emotion bubble up in his chest, making it feel tight and drawing water to his eyes. Plu was like a giant reminder that he hadn't been happy at home. He might have tried, when he knew his mom would come home, when he knew how hard she was trying to give him a real chance in life. After her death, he had no real reason to try anymore. She was the thing he had lived for, and with her gone, that world became a painful memory he could only look at without ever making a connection with it again.
"Just because I've experienced pain doesn't mean I automatically deserve happiness, Plu." Niko muttered, turning his face away from her tiny hand, and examining the frozen creature on the ground. Whatever Plu had thrown at it, it seemed to have calmed down from its murderous frenzy.
A tiny scoff echoed from the Flair's mouth, small petals fluttering frantically as she started flying around in angry circles.
"Whatever, let's just get out of here before that thing decides to try and eat us again. Though, I'd say you were going to be the main course." She said, a smirk crossing her face, teeth glinting as she started flying off in a seemingly random direction.
Niko reluctantly followed, letting the Flair live up to her job and guide him to someplace safer than a random spot in the woods where jagged beasts of horrific stature lurked, waiting for unsuspecting people to wander by.