A Floating Cage of Bamboo
Prologue:
It began so simply, with every aspect of the world embitterred, roughened, moldened into the shapes of despair, that could be considered extremely familiar by us. Quietly, my spirit stood up, away from the grass, as my physical form remained seated. My spirit glided underneath the trees, allowing the leaves to gently coat it with the essences of sun. It wandered into the leaves, felt their sleek, green skins stroke its skin, felt the twigs hold its weak structure upwards, enabling it to climb to its distant reaches, closer to the sunlightt it basked in. I was lost, entrenched in these amagings, that made moments stronger against the pulling movement of time into oblivion. The grass denied its prickled form, and instead, transformed into soft cushions placed gently underneath me by Mother Nature. Their were no surprising cracking sounds of twigs being broken by feet, nor any other form of announcement of another being entering into my momentary sanctuary. The wind was carrying its strength well today, and so, sounds of his arrival were lifted away from ears into a different path. His feet glided over the sleekness of my hair. Rude awakenings enter our lives covered by surprise, but in this case, my rude awakening did not center around a realization, but rather the more literal meaning of the term. Bear this situation in mind, a young woman is lying upon the grass, when a complete stranger seemingly walks up from behind and strokes her hair with his feet. Would you not imagine something along the lines of a pervert seeking release in the form of unprotected fruit. I opened my eyes, and they quickly widened in shape. I rolled over into a crawling position of some sort, and within that same moment hurdled myself into an upright position, with my back to the stranger, fully prepared to begin running towards the village I had been attempting to escape from only a few minutes ago. In fact, I was already in the process of completing such an action. Only silence seemed to be left behind as I moved my feet in panicked quick motion. Then, I heard it, the relief and fear I had been seeking, the sounds of another pair of feet striking against the earth, the grounds of the forest. Leaves were being rustled, and they were nearing me, so much so that I could feel a sense of disillusionment of escape beginning to pass over me. My legs differed in opinion; they increased in strength and speed. Still, the other pair persisted. They, too, gained a greater degree in those two esential characteristics. Before awareness could take a hold of me, the other feet triumphed, and my entire body was brought down, with a great might, against the earth, not by the feared being, but by the clumsiness of my own feet. The shadows toyed with my fear; they created dark beings within the corners of the forrest, but a human voice quickly grabbed my attention. It was a calm, and yet its voice could easily be compared to the sound of river water strengthed by a storm. Only, its form could not be considered human; i surpressed a the scream, brewing within me. In a matter of a few short seconds, I was on my feet again, even more determined to escape from the range of the strange creature. That one glimpse of it fueled my feet in ways it had never experienced before.