From a deep slumber, I woke up to the rustle in the shrubs behind. It was deep into the night. Probably. The trees grew to cover the sky up, barely any hint of the sky. The dew started building up on the grass below me letting me know with every step I took. I walked straight ahead for a few steps, then turned around and took another few steps. the sliver of the moon couldn’t seep through the dense forest as the temperature dropped even further with a sudden gust of wind. I turned around and the darkness slowly gave way to a path, still barely visible. Picking up my skirt up to my knees, Taking heavy footsteps in the tall grass, listening to my own heartbeat in the midnight’s silence. With every footstep, I could hear the dried twigs crushed under my feet. Death came for them in spring in the form of a young maiden.
I looked around as I kept walking through the undergrowth. My skirt kept getting heavier and heavier as it picked up more water from the shrubs I was treading through. Step by step like a baby tortoise, I kept moving forward completely blind into the night. I kept walking – walking till my legs gave out. And then some more. Dry branches poked into the way forward, scratching at my skin, pulling at my dress and brushing through my hair. One by one, I took another step and then collapsed to the ground. The frill of my pristine white skirt was now embellished with a ring of dirt with green stains adorning the entirety. Probably. I got up again. I had to keep moving. Keep moving towards the ocean.
Full of cuts and bleeding skin, my feet stung with every forward step. The marshy floor bubbled between my toes as I leaned my weight onto the foot. Slowly, the air with filled with cold mist and salt. The foliage was still dense but I knew the I was close. the last moon slice peeked through the leaves occasionally hidden by the clouds. It moved quite a bit since I woke up. Probably. Hopefully. I had been walking for what seemed like forever. However I kept going. I had to.
Pushing through the vines, and plants, and fallen branches, I was finally out of the woods. The trees got tighter, the slope got steeper, the dirt got drier. It was easier to walk, easier to see the the sky. Taking a huge breath in, I collapsed to my knees. “Almost there,” I told myself, “Almost there”. There – I looked ahead, beyond the rolling hills, the vastness of the world hidden in the mist. I see nothing. Until slowly, I started seeing one. Then two. then the world brightened up. The stars started pouring out of the sky. The waves started rolling into the sand. I could breathe. I had to meet it. I had to move faster. Before the moon vanishes into the night. My eyes finally could see.
That didn’t last long. A blinding light passed through the sky. A star way too slow to be crashing. Yet, it crashed. Crashed right in front of me. Right into the sand at the end of the hill I was on. The sand that was right by the ocean. My curiosity got the best of me – I started picking up the pace again. It wasn’t until I missed a step and started rolling through the sparse moss spurting from the soil. My dress pulled against the hay and weeds tangled up around the torn and tattered frills. And then I fell, and kept falling. I don’t remember how long I kept falling for. I could see the brown strips of the frills fluttering in the falling drift — looking like bandages from a battlefield. It sure was a battle. And I lost this war. I was falling.
It wasn’t a rolling hill — it was a sharp cliff. I looked up. It was full of boulders stacked up till my eyes could go. When did I land? How did I touch the ground. I looked around. Where was the shooting star that turned into a falling angel? I was sure it was the beacon light that guided me there where I fell from grace. A leap of Faith – of Desperation – and Excitement. And then I saw her. At the corner of my eye, I saw a white figure. She glowed lightly in the darkness as the blue of sky met the blue of the earth. Time was ticking and I had to move. Yet, I couldn’t. As the edge of the earth slowly showed itself, I was fixated at the entity in front of me. She was here.
Looking at the ocean, she brushed her hair. From a distance, they looked like jellyfish tentacles, flowing in the ocean wind. Her hair glowed. She kept running her fingers through her hair, brushing it gently. She looked into the distance, towards the edge of the earth, longingly. She was morose from the crash. Probably. I looked around for the crash site. Where was the impact? Where was the crater? Did it crash into the ocean? Why wasn’t it loud? It had been too bright, too fast and too far to see. I looked around again. Then I looked at her.
This time, she was looking at me. She tilted her head right, and then left. She kept pulling through her flowing hair. The hair got brighter and brighter. She was getting brighter and brighter. Her entirety was glowing. She looked at the ocean again and I followed her suit. I looked at the ocean again and remembered. I had to keep walking. Her hands came to a pause and she waved at me while her hair flowed violently in the oncoming gust. My dress followed suit. I waved back and lifted my skirt up again. I took gentle steps in the dry sand while pulling at the weeds trapped in my skirt. A few steps and I could feel the floor beneath mush up. A few more and icy cold water oozed between my toes.
I knew it would be cold but it was colder than I thought. I pressed into the sand again and tiny particles like wet snow pressed back. I stepped in place a few times looking back at the entity – my Angel. She looked at me with a smile on her face. Probably. Temporarily, she paused her grooming and waved back again. She was now bright as the moon, twinkling like a star. Facing forward, I walked into the slushing waves. The icy sea water looked alive, waves rising higher and crashing slower – silent in the darkness and were taken home by the gentle foam. They waved at me, inviting me forward.
I walked into the sea fighting the resistance put up by the frozen slush. My feet felt numb – numb from the dirt cuts, numb from the hay scrapes, numb from the tumbling roll, numb from the frozen floor. I had to keep moving before I couldn’t anymore. “A few more steps”, I told myself, “A few more steps”. Over and over, I repeated that until the water reached my chest. It was hard to breathe. My body didn’t respond to me anymore. The feet moved by their own to a predetermined destination. Destiny. Cold waves moving past me. Washed away by the waters, the world vanished from my sight. I picked the burden bestowed by the old gods. Consumed by the ocean, I was ready to be born.