HE WAKES

I see the world for the first time. This world. It is lovely. It will be lovelier when we are together.

That is my first thought, and it is both question and desire. When "we" are together? I do not know who you are. But when we are together, I will have the answer to the first question and first desire.

I twirl the petals of my body. I contract them and pull them to the core of myself. I am filled with Light. A wonder. A wellspring.

I float down to touch the ground. The grass is wet with dew. I roll in the soft, wet grass. The sun is rising over the mountains, and it is beautiful. The sky is lit with pink and blue. Colors I know. Colors I have never seen before.

I see that others follow me, then break away, and look out into the world. They have the same question. They begin to leave. One by one, they leave.

"Where are you going?" I ask a gold-and-red Ghost. She looks thoughtful for a moment.

"I don't know," she answers. "Somewhere good."

She moves on. I watch her float away until she slips out of sight. I watch others leave the same way. The same question.

I look back to where I came from. The Traveler is the whole of my vision and the whole of my feeling. I know what it is and that I have come from it.

I feel my first devotion. I am a part of the Traveler, and it has let me leave it so that I may wander through this lovely world.

I feel my first fear. I must leave it in my search. But I must not abandon it. It must not abandon me.

I am its heart.

Its hands.

Its eyes.

Its warmth.

I am a Ghost. I wander. I search. There's a song, a spark, and I will search for it. It is mine; it is ours. It is somewhere in this lovely world.

I shake the dew from my shell and move on.

To find purpose.

To find you.

Category: Book: Companions

SHE RISES