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The water had stopped in its tracks. The current completely paused. The stream parted around my hands. The water had changed course. It appeared as if something was causing the water to ebb away before it could touch my fingers.
Like a force was shielding the water from my hands, and only my hands.
The breath in my lungs stilled. I turned my hands over to look at my palms.
The water rose up to meet them. The sound of the flowing water had ceased altogether. Now it followed the movement of my hands. Stunned, my eyes searched the entire creek.
The water behaved like it had been halted in time. It stalled its flow over the rocks. It changed its course around the land entirely.
It waited.
My arms began to burn and glisten with an ink so white, it shimmered silver in the sunlight. My limbs pulsed as different symbols appeared intricately drawn onto my skin, connected by swirls of lines trailing down my fingertips. The markings vined their way up my forearms, blazing a firestorm in their path.
They seared my skin and then halted in their path. The symbols glistened like celestial tattoos.
They were beautiful. I should fear them, but I couldn’t. I wanted to embrace them. To welcome them home.
The only sound I could hear was the breath rushing into my lungs.
Slowly, turning my wrists, I searched the backs of my hands. The lines swirled up my shoulders and neck, covering my chest.
As my hands turned to face the water, the creek began to rise, again, to meet my arms. The water pooled into a fountain, surging upward to kiss my palms—the rest of the river remained suspended in time.
I held my hands cautiously over the water. The roaring in my ears started small, then built with each second. It was deafening when the fountain began to sway and dance under my hands. The creek became so white, it appeared to be pure light as it formed a compass that radiated eight runes from the center point.
The liquid formed one coherent marking. Once the marking was complete, like it was made from stone, it froze in the air before me. It was the same as its sister in the dust, except for one place that was different. The center of the circle beamed with a silver light, ebbing and flowing like the waves of the ocean.
Now it was complete. It was mesmerizing. The light was so perfect, I couldn’t help but be drawn toward it.
It called to me, softly at first. Barely a whisper. But the light sang to me, the notes so heartbreakingly transcendent, I couldn’t breathe.
Beckoned by the notes of light, I leaned closer.
I wanted to become what it was.
I needed what it was.
I felt myself slipping toward it. The roaring continued to build. I was falling, my mind plummeting toward the symbol.
No.
My entire body was falling… into the creek.
I flailed my arms out to propel my body backwards on the bank. Losing all stability on my knees, I fell. My palms hit a rock behind me, and the world crashed back into place.
The creek coursed over the rocks, bubbling water over the mud.
I stood up; my trembling knees threatened to plunge me down into the water.
I stared down into the creek bed. Fearing a tidal wave of pent-up water would come rushing around the bend, I hopped back two feet and waited for the impending destruction.
But the water looked… normal.
My gaze darted to my hands as I turned them back and forth.
Oh, no, please don’t be glowing like a Roman candle.
I ran my fingers over the backs of my arms.
