The Upside-down Garden Chapter 1

Waking up from the hardest hit to my head, I find myself laying on the ground with my nose in the dirt and feeling like a thrown sack of potatoes. Slowly finding the strength to raise my arms I climb up to a sitting position and rub away the dirt from my face before getting a better look at my surroundings, and man was I lost in all manner of speech and thought. The world around me that I had known and loved for all my life was gone, and in its place was an expansion of the weirdest of wildness that could ever have been concocted. The large plants that resembled trees standing around me jutted out of the ground in reverse palm tree style with leaves on the bottom with roots in the air that gave off a very sweet aroma that was reminiscent of fresh vanilla pudding.

Ferns that were a light violet purple color seemed to radiate light in waves that mesmerized my eyes for some time before snapped out of its hypnotic flow. There were vast quantities of fruit bearing plants of all shapes and sizes and some that were quite reminiscent of home, but also not in some ways. Upon trying to pick one such fruit from a vine next to where I had just woken up from not even five minutes earlier that looked like a red cantaloupe, I was surprisingly assaulted with an array of fruity juices and very prickly seeds that stuck to my face like cockle burs dipped in fruity gelatin. Once the assault of flavorful fruit had ceased, I broke open the fruit to get a better look inside, and it looked as if a kiwi had been mashed together with a watermelon and a green grape. Having already tasted the battery of sweet goodness firsthand, I figured it would be safe to eat and dove into this succulent treasure of nature. Having filled my stomach with these new discovery, my mind began to wander around as if trying to figure out what was going on and if this was a dream or not.

Of course a good slap to the face did give me a rude awakening, but it really was my current reality. I had somehow dropped out of my home in Twin Falls, Idaho into this jungle infested wonderland which I now stood in. It wasn't as cosy as Idaho weather, but the heat and cloudless skies made me feel at ease as that usually means that there wouldn't be any freaky weather soon. However, knowing that anything could happen, I started to make preparations for the worst. Preparedness staves of the unexpected. Seeing as how I had been thrown into the unknown, it became apparent that getting the main four essentials would take priority over almost everything else. Luckily for me, there was a nice climb up to the top of one of these upside down palms which had a very striking pattern of orange, blue, and green stripes that was remarkably similar to that of a Bengal tiger. After getting to the top of the tree, I took a quick look around as it would give me a better lay of the land and almost fell of the top in the process from the sky raised roots.

The sight that came afterwards was truly breathtaking. Miles upon miles of seemingly untouched land that was prime for cultivating to whatever needs were necessary for my survival. Soon I was busy getting the top of the tree figured out and surprisingly it was quite fun. The supposed roots appeared to be both roots and leaves jutting out from the top where I stood in a tightly twisted matrix, and with a little muscle power and some clever basket weaving skills I had previously learned, I made myself a little makeshift bird weaver-like hut. Quickly scaling back down from whence I came, the next goal of my plan was to find water.

This had already been done when I was looking around from the treetop as I was scanning the landscape, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to go and take a quick look so as to have that peace of mind. Swiftly making my way through the maze of tangled vines, ferns, and falling fruit smashing into my head, I arrived at the river. It was only about twenty feet wide but I was amazed that the water was as clear as glass and you could see every little fish-like creature swimming about. This was short lived however as there was what looked like a gigantic salamander swimming right towards me at breakneck speed yet its head seemed to be attached at a peculiar angle.

Seeing the danger, I quickly turned and ran in the opposite direction back to the safety of my newly constructed hut. Too late I had realized my mistake with that encounter; I had no way of protecting myself. So I decided to make something I could use to fill in that role of self preservation. After wandering around my new dwelling area, which was roughly around 100 by 150 feet, I found something that gave me an idea for a weapon. There was what looked to by a type of long hollow grass-like plants that covered the back end of here my new turf was. The blades were long, tough, bladed on the end like a double edged arrowhead, but the farther you went down, the blades became almost like an arrow shaft.

Picking a few up from the base, I quickly discovered that they were hollow and filled with a disgustingly sticky resin. This resin managed to get all over the other blades that had been picked and were laying on the ground, which were now stuck together in the form of a spiny yet wobbly bobble moving form that seemed to be alive and was now standing erect. In fact, upon becoming completely aligned with the three suns above my head, they quickly reattached themselves to the ground through the resin and roots seemed to sprout in an instance. Pondering what I had just witnessed, I figured that if I wanted to protect myself with these things, I cannot let them tough the ground until they properly dry out, otherwise they will continue to just fix themselves. To solve this, I simply hung them with the resin to the tree I made my hut in and lo and behold, they dried out quite nicely. Now that I had shelter, a food source and a weapon, I quickly realized what would soon have to be done sent chills down my spine: facing and hunting down a bizarrely headed salamander creature in order to have fresh water so as to keep myself that much more alive.