Accompanied by Mike Dawe’s cover of Perihpery – Scarlet

Just past dawn, I walked the woods when a whisp whipped a willow branch about my back. A quick roar of surprise rang from head to toe, “Blimey!”  I fell to the forest floor, turning round to catch sight of my assailant . No figure shaded me, so I settled in the soil sighing with satiety for my safety stayed still.

Still.

Still, I wondered what willed the whip. No beast bound to the branches swinging sweetly above, orchestrating a ballet of shadow and sun. Silver swallows sung symphonies, and I smile, seeing more sparkles than suspicion.

Stand.

I rose, and the dirt dropped from my breeches like confetti glistening in the low light; dancing away with each pass of my hand, dusting the low foliage.

My journey surged towards the setting sun. The woods weren’t wide; a couple days hike between the trees. Time ticked tiny clicks in barely a whisper as I lost myself in the fresh forest life of the first fine month this year. The air softened my lungs with the comfort of lavender looming the long sea of sunshades.

Shift.

So suddenly, a perfume pierced my peripheral, and I peeked across the path . A mystical maiden made magical movements, twirling, swirling, twisting, & flipping in a solid stream of sun.

My skin swarmed with ants. My stomach stuffed with flutterbyes. A shadow stormed forward from the former, forcing me swiftly to the center of the sunshine encircling the siren.

Silence.

Surprise struck us both. I stuttered, standing a breath away from the aromatic aura around our rendezvous. The sun stayed bright over I, and stopped at a hollow core, what for, a trick before thee?

I see the pupil; I’m caught in the eye- a portal to permanent damnation.

Strafe.

I step aside, shimmying around the set up. Now I know wiser and widen my gaze, dissolving the spell.

“Well, well, well… It would seem someone is keen to me & the item I carry,” I said leerily.

That night, I nodded none, darting my eyes across the deep darkness. I formed a fire and found friendship with it, as the embers were so hospitable. My mind recalled vespers, and the song sung in the pops and crackles of the flames escaping splinters of sticks. The warming voices gave charcoal characters personality.

Sway.

The words wound ‘round my skull like gnats, gnawing at my hairline. Here, I realized, this fire is no friend. The phrases as flies became pepper; singing, singeing embers. I saw the characters uncloaked- a sorcerer’s spell of earth & hellfire.

“I swear, I’m no liar.”

I leapt & danced a less-jolly jig as the flames flung from head to toe. So lucky, below the hill I sat atop, a whiff of water so pure I stirred a path to the bottom, sloshing a stumble from side to side until I plummeted a summit a metre too tall; a fall so fatal.

Sleep.

Presently, I sleep in the sea; a scene so serene. Sinking through trees of coral & weeds, the sun above me produces a serpentine ballet of shades and rays; a special scene for my slumber as I fall under a final spell, and am dragged into depths a metre to deep, black as ink, with peremptory pressure.

I lost all my parcels, a piece of reflection from this section of my adventure. “A piece of the end,” I said. Here, I stay asleep under a spell, a hex in hell, suffocating & shrinking, the loss of my item making my cold heart swollen- it was my son’s soul stolen-

-my son’s soul stolen whilst I stay stuck in serene sleep.

Serene.