Was she sleep walking, dreaming? She couldn't tell, all she knew was the want, the will, the need to run. So she did. Reisx ran through the trees, through the underbrush regardless of what stood in her way. No burrs or fallen trees, no moss nor stone could keep her still. Her heart beat in her chest and she breathed in and out, in and out, her paws like a drum thrumming in her ears. She was chasing, something someone, and she heard voices, howling in the distance. It wasn't Cellen, no, he was still sleeping in the night. Her silver vision, primed for these moments in the moonlight as it shone bright over her as she sped through the trees. Their scents were close, so very close, but she kept running, weaving, not knowing which way to go. She was carving her own path, off the trails she had walked so many times since freedom had been brought to her by Cellen. But she, like the water that wished to break away from the rest, the desired and destined path, she sought something else, this, whatever this was, she wanted answers.
Her chest heaved as she moved, and she panted, tongue lulling from her mouth, but there was a determination in her eyes, a fire in her soul, she could feel it. The fire ran through her like the water ran through the rocks, determined, strong, able to carve through something so tough, something so seemingly unbreakable, but able to do it with ease. Keep going she told herself, as she moved, they were so close, she could almost taste their scent it seemed to thick upon her tongue. It was so close, the time, the moment where she would come out on the other side and find a way, find her way, but then she came to a skidding halt when she was met with a gust of wind, salty and she coughed, whipping her head away, eyes blinking, tearing from the sting.
More water rushed around her, and she looked to see rapids in front of her. The water crashed and sprayed water, filtered with water, clay and sand up into the air and it became mist. Her head was down, she was trying to catch her breath, and she let herself step into the very shallow water that lapped the edges of earth surrounding either side of the stream - now river, before her. It was wide, rocky, and muddled with captured limbs and leaves. As her breath calmed, she raised her gaze and looked around, the scent was gone, but it led her here. Why? Peering on the banks, she saw her own paw prints, and saw the water lapping at indents whose details were now oct to the water's ravenous hunger. Had they been here, brought her here, why, why now?
Before, she had been so close to jumping into the water where she had last seen the silhouette, last seen any sign of the others, those without names, those that were wild and free like her, but so distant and mysterious, and it puzzled her so. They were testing her, training her, somehow, through these leadings, pushing her to limits, stretching the boundaries she had set for herself but they were making her see she was capable of so much more. So much more. She lapped at the water, clean and filtering by her paws, and she sighed at the cooling sensation in her dry throat. She licked her lips, tongue and mouth satisfied, and she felt calm regardless of the crashing waters before her.
Turning Reisx looked to where her paw prints were in the earth. She walked towards them slowly, removing herself from the shallow water, and peered at them. Her paw prints were defined, edged, and concrete. She could define them in the landscape around her. However, when she looked to those that were all but washed away by now, those left by the others, those that had brought her here by the chase, she tilted her head, watching water filter into the indentations, then come out. They were like tiny whirlpools, caused by the other's presence, caused by the other's storm they had set. Coming closer to them, Reisx's paws ere once again in the water. She looked to the indentations under the surface, and then raised a paw. She inspected it as if looking for an abnormality, something different, something variant from before. But nothing had changed, had it?
She felt the wind around her, circling her and she closed her eyes, breathing deep. She caught the scent of something, someone again, but something close, something, inviting. She inhaled and smiled, feeling warmth, comfort, confidence, strength. She heard a whisper on the wind, a humming, almost like a song. The words were just beyond her reach, just beyond her ears, just on the tip of her tongue. She was grasping at them tenderly in her mind, her memory, why did this seem familiar? Why did she feel as if she belonged?
Reisx opened her eyes again and looked down to her paw, and then to the indentation in the water. It was almost gone, just a wisp of what lingered there was left, and she looked around herself, the raging rapids, the tender and sentinel trees along the shoreline of the river. The scents in the air were perfect, they co-mingled with one another and existed not solely by themselves, but together as one. Each piece had a purpose, had a place, had a meaning and was part of something bigger.
Silver eyes attend, Reisx looked to the indentation again, barely there and lowered her paw into the water, where the paw print had once been visible, once been defined before the water had chosen to leave it blank, mysterious, and able to be converted. As she pressed down, she felt a connection to the ground, the earth, the island around her, and as she lifted and pulled away, she felt the attachment stretch to herself as she looked down. She smiled, looking to see that her own paw could be placed in that which had been.
She could walk in, no, follow the paw prints of others, but also cast her own onto this place. She could make her mark, and she could make a change.
