Anomaly

We entered the dead forest in slow, cautious steps. Everyone kept their weapons in hand, eyes alert and faintly tense, scanning every shadow around us.
We had no idea what might exist inside this place. After all, since we had fallen into this dead land, we hadn’t encountered anything, but no one seemed willing to be caught off guard by something bizarre.
Mysteriously, the constant heat that seemed to emanate from this place faded noticeably the deeper we moved into the forest.
In place of the heat, a strange, persistent smell of ozone mixed with burnt wood began to fill our nostrils as we advanced. It was a dry, almost metallic odor that seemed to cling to the throat.
Clearly, Victor, Arthur, Rupert, and everyone else in our ranks were uncomfortable: some rubbed their faces, others kept wiping their noses. Every so often, someone coughed quietly, trying to hide it, but it was obvious the smell was already starting to truly bother them.
As always, Rupert was the first to comment. He wrinkled his nose as if the air itself annoyed him: “Are we really not going to talk about the fact that there’s a smell... like...”
He cut himself off for a moment and turned, casting a cautious glance around the dead forest, where dry branches creaked at the slightest breeze and low-hanging mist seemed to swallow the ground: “... really strange and potentially deadly in this place?”
“You don’t need to worry about that” Arthur replied, lightly adjusting his monocle with the tip of his fingers: “The smell comes from ozone”
He swept his gaze across the surroundings, as if analyzing every shadow between the trees: “This place seems to be struck by lightning with some frequency... although I have no idea how rain could even be possible here”
He stepped closer to a nearby tree and carefully touched its trunk. The dried wood crumbled at the slightest contact, breaking apart into fragile splinters: “Many of the trees here appear to have been hit by electrical discharges” he concluded, studying the blackened remains: “So the burnt smell likely comes from that”
Then he suddenly stopped. Instinctively, all of us did the same and halted with him. Our attention turned to Arthur, who was staring at the ground with an uneasy curiosity.
He slowly crouched down, brushed aside the dry soil with his hands, and picked up a few granules between his fingers. He rubbed them together until they turned to powder, then let them fall back onto the barren, lifeless ground, as if testing something only he could perceive.
His lips moved again, curiosity still in his expression: “The ground is quite damp...” he said softly, lowering his gaze: “And there’s a strong smell of wet earth. It seems to rain here frequently”
Then he turned his head back toward the path we had taken to get there, as if mentally retracing every step: “Outside the forest, the soil was different... cracked, dry, as if it hadn’t been wet in decades... centuries... maybe millennia. That made me believe there was no rain in this land. Even with the streams, the water didn’t seem... like real water” he added with a slight frown: “At least, not to my eyes”
Finally, he looked around, lingering on the forest of dead trees where we now stood. The dark trunks rose like motionless shadows, and the humidity seemed to hang in the air: “But in here...” he murmured: “This seems to be an exception to the rule. I don’t know why, but... it rains here”
The members of the anomaly response team exchanged silent glances. Each of us seemed to have reached our own conclusions about this place, shaped by sensations that were hard to explain. Still, despite our differences, one thought imposed itself almost unanimously: this place was strangely bizarre.
In fact, I found Arthur’s explanations quite logical, more so than my own. And besides, I couldn’t sense anything anomalous.
Even when I activated my eyes shortly before we entered this dead forest, I couldn’t see even the slightest trace of glow or distortion.
So, as strange as what I’m about to say may sound, this is the truth: this area of dry, twisted trees is completely natural... even though, at first glance, the place itself seems profoundly unnatural.
My inner thoughts were subtly interrupted by Victor, who approached me with cautious steps, nearly silent on the uneven ground: “I don’t have an exact direction” he murmured: “But I can tell, to some extent, how close we are to our objective”
Then he shifted his gaze, carefully scanning the surroundings. His shoulders seemed slightly tense: “Also... this constant feeling of being watched is a bit unsettling”
I understood perfectly what Victor meant. Since we entered the Dead Forest, no, since the moment we fell into this barren, lifeless land, I had already known: my sister had become aware of our presence.
Even now, walking among twisted trees beneath air heavy with the smell of ozone and burnt wood, I felt it with disturbing clarity. It was as if the entire environment betrayed our passage.
With every step, a silent pressure closed in around me, and I had the unmistakable sensation that her eyes were on us... fixed, attentive, following our every movement, coming straight toward us.
I could also tell what that... sensation, more precisely, what the meaning behind her gaze, was truly expressing. It was almost as if she were watching us with her emotions laid bare. There was curiosity and confusion as her eyes moved over Victor, Arthur, Rupert, and the others.
But when they turned to me, everything changed. I felt the weight of that look far more intensely: happiness, joy, and a whole range of similar emotions, all focused on a single point, with me as the recipient. All coming from the same source. All coming from Tenebrya.
(We’re close) That was all I said to Victor. He simply nodded in silence and went back to scanning our surroundings with renewed attention.
It was obvious that everyone was tense. I had the feeling that any noise, no matter how small or insignificant, like a branch snapping under our boots or the distant rustle of dry leaves, would make everyone aim their weapons in the same direction without hesitating for even a second.
Personally, I didn’t think we’d find anything there. I mean, as far as I knew, if something really were lying in wait to attack us, it would’ve already jumped us. Right? We’d been walking through the forest for at least half an hour, and nothing had shown up so far.
Unfortunately, like most things in life that are easy only in theory, I bitterly regretted those thoughts just a few minutes later, when something, something very real and anything but comforting, finally appeared.
Laura had the clear sensation that her mind was going through some kind of reset. In front of her, the small, cute, floating anomaly kept staring at her boss, Emily, without blinking, gently bobbing in the air as if defying gravity. A sweet, playful smile curved her lips.
The words it had spoken moments earlier continued to echo in Laura’s mind, perfectly clear, perfectly audible, and yet something was wrong. The more she tried to understand them, the more their meaning seemed to slip through her thoughts.
Laura had the distinct impression that many of the people present had also heard the anomaly’s words. That was evident in the way the room, already silent from the moment the anomaly had appeared, sank into an even heavier quiet. It was no longer just the absence of sound, but an uncomfortable void, as if even breathing had become cautious after what the anomaly had said.
Laura looked at Emily for a moment, and Emily held her gaze. In that brief silence, shared as if by an unspoken agreement, both of them arrived at the same thought: the
and her sisters weren’t just anomalies with appearances similar to cute girls... maybe just a little strange, but still, in some way, cute?
At least, that was what all the data collected so far seemed to suggest. Except, of course, for the small and disturbing detail that none of them actually possessed internal organs. The only exception was the youngest sister, with her dark appearance and nearly oppressive presence.
Even so, in her as well, all the organs were dead and inert, like forgotten gears in an abandoned machine, making it impossible to tell whether they had ever served any real function at all.
Curious, Laura was the first to ask the question that everyone in the room probably wanted to hear: “So...” she began, drawing the anomaly’s attention to herself. The anomaly, as always, seemed strangely relaxed, almost indifferent to the stares around her: “You’re telling me that you... and your sisters...” Laura paused briefly, organizing her thoughts before continuing: “... don’t actually have any resemblance to human children?”
The anomaly looked at Laura, golden eyes glinting as she blinked a few times: “Oh!” she suddenly exclaimed, as if a memory had finally surfaced: “You mean... what I and my sisters look like right now?” Laura nodded in silence.
The anomaly slowly spun in the air, tracing a small circle, wearing the thoughtful expression of someone searching for the right words: “To begin with, our true bodies remain in our place of birth... the cradle of creation” she said, her voice soft yet strangely deep: “We wouldn’t be able to cross into your reality without... well, without literally driving it insane”
She cut herself off when she noticed the confused looks on Emily’s and Laura’s faces. A faint smile curved her lips: “Hmm... I think you humans call that a... higher dimension?”
Hearing that, Laura parted her lips for a moment, as if gathering her thoughts, before speaking. Her voice followed soon after: “So... what exactly are we looking at right now?” She cautiously raised her hand, pointing directly at the anomaly floating in front of her.
With an indifferent expression, the anomaly merely shrugged, as if commenting on something trivial, no more remarkable than the weather. Her voice echoed again, deep and distant, reverberating through the air like a whisper from far beyond that place: “This is only a tiny portion... smaller than a grain of sand lost in the desert, smaller than your own planet against the vastness of the universe. A fragment detached from my main body, in the cradle of creation, and remade here on Earth”
There was a brief, almost thoughtful pause. Then, in a faintly curious tone, she added: “I suppose you humans... call this an avatar?”