Her skin is a fleeting ghost, her wavering heartbeat only a whisper to the world. Those who watch her, still as stone, with no emotion. The hitching of time suspended around her. The rippling of reality. An eerie dance forever following her soul as it wanders. Her footfalls denting the earth. The clouds spin as mist to shroud her. A never-ending veil of shadows. Her journey takes her through a dark forest. The trees loom above, a reminder of her past. The path ahead is long and night is fast approaching. On golden wings she treads to a glistening pool. Moonlight filling the air. She stares at her reflection, a gruesome mask upon her face. She cringes but can’t help but smile.
“The truth has finally come,” she thinks. She cups some water in her hands and trickles it over herself. Her body begins to feel heavy.
“Maybe I’ll rest awhile,” she wonders. But no, Great Mother Owl said to move quickly. One last look at the pool and off she goes. The star filled sky mocks her with its boundlessness and she reaches out toward it. Tears prick her eyes and her skin runs cold. The ground beneath her disappears and she is falling into nothingness. The shining stars are gone, and so is she. She is a mass of thought floating nowhere4. A hissing ring reaches her non-existent ears. A sizzle of light vanquishes the nothing and she is whole again. More whole than she has ever been. A smile sets on her face as cold stars meet her retuned sight.
“I been reborn,” she says. “I have gone nowhere, yet I have been everywhere. You are strangers, yet I love you.” She stands up completely cured and kisses each stranger as they remain still and silent.
Then an unnoticed boy from a bed within the large room smiled back at her.
“Welcome home,” he said.