I fight my way out of my sleeping bag as quickly as I can untangle myself from its mummy-like grip and stumble to my feet.
"Who are you?", my voice tremors as my brain desperately tries to compose itself and separate the dream from waking consciousness. Reality bleeds into the dream state, the dream state into the present moment. Her scent still on my breath, an enormous being in front of me. It's dark still. I'm camping in the wilderness...
"That ain't the right question," he disrupts. "But if you need to name me you can call me Wanderer. Now hurry up, we haven't got much time!"
With that he turns around and crosses the clearing in two large strides and stops underneath a pine tree at the edge. With his staff he flicks my bagpack from one of the higher branches and in one swoop tosses it in my direction. It lands semi-softly on the bed of heather at my feet.
"What are you waiting for, the fucking bus?", his demanding voice thunders, as he heads out on the trail mumbling to himself.

"I... err, I'm coming...", I answer unconvincingly while nervously stuffing my sleepingbag into the top compartment of my pack and swinging it across my shoulders. I can't believe the size of him, I think to myself as I half run to catch up. And what the hell am I doing following a giant with a patch covering one eye out in the woods in the middle of the night? I take a deep breath and shake my rational brain hoping the chaff will blow away leaving me with clear grains of insight, understanding and composure. It doesn't. I'm scared and confused, spinning on my feet and yet I keep walking further and further away from anything civilized, save and familiar. I sense that I'm falling. It's dark. Very dark. Falling. Deeper. Faster. Falling. The abyss between all worlds seen and unseen opens up and in its jawless yawn I disappear into nothingness...

"Don't go there yet!", he shouts at me while shaking my body violently in his hands.
I must have blacked out, I think as I try to focus my eyes on the huge face that hovers in front of me. Someone's shouting at me but I can't make out what they're saying. My brain acts like a giant, soggy ball of bubblegum, sticking to the most inconvenient places. My nose hurts and so do my knees and my right elbow. There's something dripping from my cheek onto my lap. I whipe it off to discover it's red and sticky. Red pine sap maybe? Slowly I realize there's blood on my face. I have a short burst of panic and the adrenaline rush wakes me up instantly.
"I'm sorry," Wanderer says, feigning concern about my obvious physical discomfort. "That sometimes happens with you humans in my presence. I should have seen it coming. Ah well, you lost it for a moment and fell. Scraped your nose on the rocks here and got bruised a little. So what. Let's keep going and stay present will you. I don't fancy carying you around. Got it!?"
"Yeah, sure thing," I answer still dazed from knocking my head on the unforgiving forest floor, the metalic taste of the adrenaline lingering way too long at the back of my mouth like a slightly drunk and obnoxious neighbour not leaving at the end of a party. Only now I notice small lightning bolts shooting out from my hands as I grab on to his dark blue cloak and hoist myself upright. It's like a light that follows my intention and reaches its destination long before my hands do. Puzzled I look around me. The surrounding area is filled with a pulsating greenish hue in which I can easily make out the shapes of trees, rocks and undergrowth. Whatever I focus on, the lightning, now originating from my solar plexus, connects with. Amazing.
"Enough already!" he shouts. "Stop tripping and focus. Don't let it overpower you. Before you can be immersed like this we need to prepare you. You understand?"
The shock on my face at his outburst convinces him I'm back enough to continue. Without further words I brush off and we set out on the trail again, the lightning gently fading until I can't perceive it anymore. All that is left now is a bloody nose, some bruises and headache to match.

We walk for what must have been two hours. That is, he walks and I sort of trod behind him trying to keep up with his massive strides. He reminds me of my brothers when I was little. We would all get into the car on Sunday mornings, including our elderly dog, and head out for the woods. Sometimes it felt like an adventure but most of the time it turned out pretty boring. Time passing so incredibly slowly as it only does when you're young and bored. Inadvertently and with some anticipation we would reach a set of stairs on a high sand dune and we would race each other to the top. I, being the smallest by five years, never had a chance in hell and gasping for air I would reach the top third, frustrated out of my mind, always. Both my brothers laughing of course at my futile attempts to outrun them and their long legs.

That's pretty much how I felt keeping up with this enormous one eyed being. I wondered what happened to his eye and as if he could read my mind he half turned his head in walking and commented, "I might tell you about the eye when we have time but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. At the pace we're going we'd be lucky to reach the gate by dawn. And by the way", he continued, "you obviously have never seen a giant before if you think I am one. Huh! A giant", he muttered, "the kid thinks he's seen a giant. How entertaining."

The layer of sarcasm was as thick as the smell of aged goat's cheese; undeniable, pungent but not alltogether indigestible. We walked on in silence and I even had my thoughts whisper to me for fear of being overheard again. Then I noticed that everything around him seemed to go very quiet too. Nature attesting to something very unusual with a stillness that creeps into your bones and sends shivers down your spine. The earth growing goosebumps of discomfort where ever his feet landed and the trees bending away from his presence to give room to the otherworldly to pass in all his greatness. And that was only the beginning...

< chapter one | chapter three >