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1. A wind sweeps down over the plain, rippling the grasses, and when it passes over you you are overcome with sleepiness. You cannot help it: you must find a place to rest. For some reason you feel you must do this at the foot of the standing stone.
You awaken where you'd fallen asleep, exactly there and nowhere else, before you'd found yourself far from home. The time you spent away is there, but the memories are strangely elusive, like snippets of a dream. You can, if you focus, call them back up, but some of them are distorted and strange.
So it was a dream, then, you think, and you rise, and are alarmed to find that your hooves ache, your legs burning (and perhaps you shed sand from your coat, or snow, or the petal of an alien flower--perhaps you feel a lingering ache where something attacked you in the dream, or taste for an instant on your own breath the foreign fruit you'd eaten), as though you have walked a long, long way...
You awaken where you'd fallen asleep, exactly there and nowhere else, before you'd found yourself far from home. The time you spent away is there, but the memories are strangely elusive, like snippets of a dream. You can, if you focus, call them back up, but some of them are distorted and strange.
So it was a dream, then, you think, and you rise, and are alarmed to find that your hooves ache, your legs burning (and perhaps you shed sand from your coat, or snow, or the petal of an alien flower--perhaps you feel a lingering ache where something attacked you in the dream, or taste for an instant on your own breath the foreign fruit you'd eaten), as though you have walked a long, long way...
Whispers Softly - Whispers Softly
Whispers Softly walked with a beating heart full of love. She had been trying to make her escape from the Ache for years now and at last it felt like a burden was lifted off of her shoulder as she neared the edge of the swamp. She froze for a moment as she continued to execute her plan, and moved forward past the line where swamp meets the plains. She placed her first step into the new piece of land. Then follows the second leg and she slowly crept past the edge of the swamp into the bright green lush grass, her hind legs finally crossing over as it hit her own tail as she walked.
This time, this was it. For real now. She had left the swamp and started to jump up and down testing out the new piece of land. It felt soft to the touch as her hooves landed on it, leaving prints of mowed down strands of grass. The air felt fresh and less musky. Everywhere she looked were long strips of green grass with a few shrubs and trees sticking out in random places. Never in her life had she seen a vast open field. She only heard about it from her great great grandmother. Now she gets to experience this place on her own without someone constantly nagging at her side to go home.
She closed her eyes and inhaled the fresh crisp air again. This new smell, could this mean freedom? Her protective brother was nowhere in sight, not even her parents were there to call out to her to come back into the swamp.
Slowly but surely, a smile started to spread across her face. In the plains, where the Kiokote lives, where Endless Climbs lives, was her lover. And she was determined to find him while she temporarily suppressed the Ache in her chest.
“Oh darling,” she said out loud. How she longed to see him again. To touch him again and tell him how much she missed him. Desperately, she searched the grass land for the buck. She was unfamiliar with this new surrounding and marched on straight ahead in hopes of meeting any Kiokote that may cross paths with her. If they meet, she could ask about his whereabouts.
She marched on and scanned the surrounding with her eyes. Strange new birds flew by over her head and disappeared into the tall grass. “Darling!” she called out with an urgent tone of voice. “Darling, where are you?”
Oh, please answer my call. I haven’t much time...
Whispers Softly continued to walk blindly through the grass land and saw a dark figure in the distance. She lowered her eyelids and squinted her eyes. The figure was running towards her. Along its side, flew a reddish-orange songbird that sang a tune she knew… It was the gift she gave him! She saw his mane bob left and right as he ran with the bird toward her.
”Endless! Oh darling!” she called out, happy to see him again, and her legs started to run without her even noticing that she was already running towards him.
Everything felt so right. The wind swept over the plains, rippling the grass apart in her path, and passed over her. The more she ran, the more tired she became. Her eyelids felt heavy but she kept her gaze on her lover. “Darling I am here!” she called out, followed with a long yawn. Her body grew heavy and tired.
Whispers kept on looking straight ahead and tripped her hoof over an anthill. She fell down hard, and rolled over twice before hitting her body against the standing stone. It gave her a mild concussion but she was too thrilled to be able to see Endless again.
However, she struggled to get up as her body felt like it was sinking lower into the ground. With another yawn, she felt her eyelids close and saw nothing but the redness of her own flesh… She felt a light touch on her head, and a voice that was talking to her was all muffled. She could not make out what was being said to her. "Darling?" she asked for the last time. Her body relaxed, head bowing down toward the ground, and she dozed off as another breeze swept over her again…