Sylvie walked through fluffy mists that looked just like pink cotton candy. She felt weirdly detached; when she looked down and noticed that she was walking on air, and the ground was impossibly far below her she didn’t even feel worried. Some part of her mind, locked in the background, found that odd, asked questions. Should she be frightened? She had no wings. She wasn’t Snowpepper. Yet, she walked, and though she felt nothing beneath her feet, one step led to another and she seemed to be moving.

Going where? The question recurred over and over, but given no answer, it faded away. Far below, the coasts and mountains of Earth revolved, the roundness of its ball clearly apparent at this height. When she looked up, she saw stars in an indigo sky, yet down below the sun shone, illuminating the oceans and land masses with golden light. She had never seen aything so beautiful. She felt serene, but not happy, for she couldn’t escape a the nagging thoughts, like fingernails scratching on the blackboard of her mind, wondering what was happening to her? And what was going to happen next? And most repeatedly, why?

The questions rose, dissipated when she ignored them, and were followed by new questions, in inexorable progression.

She focused her attention outward, entranced by the glory of the sight below her feet, the many-shaded pink, salmon, coral and palest mauve of the clouds, the bright, untwinkling stars in the deep blue heavens. This is a grand adventure which need no explanation, she told the fearful thoughts; be quiet and watch. But they continued to come up with new questions, new angles, feeling like a scuttling rat in a trap seeking a way out.

Finally, exasperated, she stopped walking and turned her attention inward to the thoughts. What do you want? she demanded–then immediately plummeted from the sky toward the Earth so far below her. The wind rushed past her, sucking the air from her lungs, making her ears pop. She screamed as she fell, background thought and conscious awareness united in the pure terror of the moment.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 5th, 2006 at 1:52 am and is filed under general. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.