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As I stumbled backwards, the sphinx's words continued to echo in my head, each one a heavy weight dragging me down. “Child of Starlight,” “woven threads,” “fate.” The world around me spun and swirled, as if it were mocking me, and I struggled to keep my balance. The sphinx watched me with a calm detachment, its piercing gaze seeming to see right through me. Its voice echoed in my ears, haunting and otherworldly. I felt a sense of dread wash over me, as if I were standing at the edge of a precipice, staring down into an abyss.
“You are life. And he. . . he is death.
ChapterTwenty-One
SERRA
The words of the sphinx stayed with me as I made my way along the path. ‘You are life, and he is death.’ What did that mean? What did any of this mean? There was certainly more here going on than I had the capacity to understand right now. Wrapped up in my own thoughts I had not realized how much ground I had covered until I came upon the site. The smell reached my nose.
A large pond before me stopped any progress I made. It was a far cry from the water in the cenote, even the water by the sphinx. The water here was dark and unwelcoming.
Stagnant and putrid.
The smell that was coming off of it was not pleasant, the smell reminding me of something. A time I had seen my first carcass. The dead animal had been left to decompose on the side of the road as people filtered in and out of the checkpoint outside the city walls. I felt the confusion in my chest at the memory I did not recall being my own. But it was the imagery that followed it that made me stop.
The carriage jostled back and forth. A girl with dark hair that had been braided into a plait around the top of her head, her ears coming to a tapered point, dressed in a royal blue traveling coat sat within. She wrinkled her nose as she pointed, asking what the pile of fur and bones were. “What's that?”
A voice resounded through the lush interior, the velvet muffling much of the vibrations. “It’s a dead animal sweetheart. The circle of life will always turn. Death is a natural part of this world. One day you and I will no longer exist in the bodies that we have. One day we will be called away to join our ancestors.”
A woman with blonde hair and blue eyes sat next to her. She wore a traveling coat of the darkest red, heavily embroidered in golds as the stitching ran down the length. Her swollen belly a sign that she was with child again. The curtains had been pulled back to allow fresh air in, caressing her face as she peaked out.
It had been a long journey, but they were almost home.
The sounds of the city growing as they got closer.The sound of the horses' hooves as they clopped across the cobblestones. The dirt road long behind them. Excited shouts and cheers rang in her ears, children from the city chased after their carriage as it wound its way up the slopes to the castle. The little girl excitedly waved to them as they smiled and waved back at her. They had finally returned.
It had been a long summer away, and she’d been excited to get back. To see all the new things that were awaiting her inside the stone walls. The carriage came to a halt at the top of a long road before a grand stone structure. Guards on either side of the large doors. The stairs before them laid out as a group of foot men rushed forward to open the carriage door.
Amongst them was a man dressed in rich blues, a beaming smile as he approached. She leapt from the carriage into his arms as he twirled her around in the air before embracing her. A laugh escaped both of them as the woman in red stepped forward before placing a soft kiss on his cheek, a hand resting on her belly.
They were whole again.
The breath I held escaped in a rush. My stomach wanted to heave, but it was empty and nothing but bile would come up. The smells and sounds, the voices of the people echoing in my head. The sight of the city, it was not Rothnia. The smell of the pond filtered back into my nose.
I had to keep going, I had to figure out what was going on. And forward over the pond was the only way. I could not go around. It was too dense- trees, rock, and piles upon piles of debris littered the ground. Large boulders had been piled up to block the remaining paths. Something screamed at me that this was a trap, that I should turn around and go another way, but I really had no other choice.
While every way around had been blocked, a rock and timber footbridge spanned across the length of the murky waters. It certainly was not in the best shape, the years had not been kind to it. The aged bridge creaked as I stepped forward, the timbers sighed under my weight. I prayed it would hold as the waters below taunted me. Forward I stepped, farther and farther out to the middle, the planks of the deck rickety under foot. If I even breathed wrong on it, I feared it would collapse.
One misstep and I could plunge into the dark waters below. A meal to whatever lived beneath its surface. A shutter ran its way through me, the thought of becoming a beast's meal. One more step forward, the timber planks and rocks had given out. Dropping me down into the water below. My scream echoed off the rocks, the frigid waters of the pond hit me as I crashed downwards into it.
The breath in my lungs leaving as I sunk below the surface, the weight of my dress pulling me down. My lungs screamed for air as I struggled for the surface. My vision blurring as I fought against the drag. I was losing, I was going to die by drowning.
I had hoped that I would have lived until I was old and wrinkling, but that did not seem to be how this would end. The burning sensation in my chest gave way as I gasped for air. My airways filled with the muddy pond water. I felt the world slipping away as my consciousness let go, its existence ceasing. All around me, everything went dark. Only one thought repeated itself around in my head.
I wished this was not the way I would die.
A soothing calmness settled itself over me, in my heart. In my mind, the world seemed easier here. A bright light pressed against my eyelids. A warmth heated my face, my body, my soul. My heart. The sun shone brightly as I opened my eyes. An array of colors graced the blue sky as I looked about, blinking in the brightness. Butterflies and birds fluttered around as I took in the sight before me. A grove of lush green grass splattered with wildflowers and trees of various colors. Reds, oranges, yellows and green.
Had I died? Had I really drowned in the pond?
It would have seemed so, I felt so much at ease here, the burdens gone. The heaviness lifted.
A couple of white bunnies hopped around the grass at my feet. Their floppy ears drooped, their noses twitched, pulling loose flowers from the grass as they nibbled on them; the juices staining their chins. I couldn’t help but smile. A small nudge at my toe had me glancing down. A young lop bunny with black tipped ears had nudged it. Sitting up on its back legs, its nose twitching in the air, sniffing. Curiosity having gotten the better of it.
“Well hello.”
Bending down to pick it up, glad it did not run away from me out of fear. Its fur was soft as cotton, its whiskers tickled my chin as it sniffed. I was not a threat to it, or its friends. I always had a soft place in my heart for nature. For animals of various sizes. The sphinx’s words rang in my head, ‘have you never wondered why the world bloomed around you? Why birds, animals, and plants are attracted to you?’
It would seem it had been right. While the little white bunny settled itself in my arms, I glanced around the grove again. The colors in the sky blended and swirled together. It was as if someone had dipped a brush in water and swirled it across the paint, all of the colors mending together. The whole grove smelled of warm summer rain, fresh grass and cut flowers. A soft breeze blew across my face as the tops of the trees swayed.
