S
ummer is a time of love, or warmth: of peace in the world. Greenery and flowers, the fireflies and cricket-songs at night. Cloudless night skies colored like dark oceans with a myriad of stars spattered across the vast expanse. Trail and rocks alike are wet from the passing rain and moss and loamy earth are heavy on the wind. Summer is supposed to be magical, a time of life and happiness. But why is she dreaming of rotting flowers and crying ghosts?She is still thinking about winter, because despite all that summer has to offer her, Elliana still finds that there is beauty in the way an avalanche comes hurtling down a mountain. She is a child of winter, the biggest different between herself and her summertime mother.
Elli walks along the beach. There are party goers playing games, telling stories, she can only hear murmurs of them, and still she cannot tell if it is the living or the dead in their shadows that are speaking to her. She thinks she does not care to know. She walks until her feet meet the water and she pulls back. It kisses her hooves before pulling back out, only to reach up to touch her again. ‘Like a toxic lover,’ she would think if she were older and wiser, but as it were, she sees nothing but an ocean.
What would happen if she swam out there? Would it let her pass, let her explore its depths, let her climb onto that distant horizon? Just then it grumbles and roars and it growls, and Elli who is not sure of so many things thinks no, it would never, it would never. It swallows you whole the ocean, it wants its prisoners (there are so many its prisoner already, planting sharp teeth in their gums, and coaxing fins from their bodies). But it wants more, it always wants more. It is why it gobbles ships and sings to women and prances for children to come and join it. Where it goes though—
And she sees a skeleton, arching ribs, wide and gapping. And she sees a unicorn. “I was wondering where it would take me if I let it,” she whispers and turns her gaze back to the ocean. “It seems so hungry,” she murmurs “doesn’t it?” She says, though it doesn't sound sad. Elli turns blue eyes to the unicorn. “I’ve missed you, I think.” Elliana cannot remember she stopped being so sure of things. Somewhere between a forest with a grave and boy with a magic light.
..but nightmares are dreams too.
