LET ME LIVE THAT FANTASY


♕

She loved exploring.

It was a divine, courageous act for a child who’d known next to nothing the moment she was born – only mother and sister, the depths of the glorious, blue sky, the machinations of love and instinct pulling her closer to the earth. But she took to wandering like a primordial, ancient pull, plunging into the depths of the Throat with impeccable ease, curious and curious still, unfurling her wings, allowing the summer winds to flicker through her plumage, while she crashed and careened across the hot sands. It was second nature for her to dive and rummage, for her to seek out knowledge everywhere she could, watching the birds in flight, staring at the lush grass and the way they moved, studying the serpents slithering through sultry dunes, wondering why the sound of bees buzzed in her ear (and even further still – why it seemed like the most beautiful of melodies, all illustrious and intrepid, daring and soothing). She wanted to understand and comprehend so many things at once; the sensations were wonderful and overwhelming at the same time, luring her into beguiling sets and bewildering moments, pondering over fire, over magic, over enchantments, over the crushing, gnarled, twisted world they lived within.

Today’s adventure corresponded with the sea – she’d watched it for several days now, eyeing the lake with the slightest of interest, pondering if it was a ravenous monster intending to devour, consume, and pluck tiny youths from their mother’s sides, send them into the unknown, oblivion maybe. But she’d witnessed others hastening to its brilliant, blue allure, and eventually she too was ruled by fascination and ferocity, waiting until no one else was nearby, ducking out from behind some long grasses, walking slowly towards it. Her head inclined in several different directions, trying to discern if another would come out from some hiding space and laugh at her because she’d been frightened of something so spellbinding and utopian. The little girl gathered her strength, her courage, her might, in one swift breath, and lunged for the shore.

The cooling sensation tickling her hooves made her shudder, and when she wasn’t immediately snatched and driven into the underworld, she laughed. The chill was intoxicating, ravishing, and moments later she pressed further into its shine and fathoms, until it tickled the tips of her pasterns and she giggled again, amused, diverted, entirely sworn over to the gods of the lake. Then, because all her actions seemed raucous, unrefined, exuberant, she kicked at the liquid, laughed and laughed when it splashed over her form, when it sprayed into jettisoning spikes and droplets, when it cascaded across her mane, her tail, her wings. She stomped too, then reached deeper until it waded and wafted to her nearly to her knee, completely, utterly enthralled.