Under the Moonlight

18

I awoke surprised to see the girl holding my hand, gazing down at me as she tried to rouse me up throughout the morning.

"Good morning, you're finally awake," the girl said excitedly.

I didn't bother responding because I was still fuddled and addled from being woken up.

And so sometime later, I finally had the will to rouse myself from the grogginess I'd felt the entire morning.

"Good morning," the girl said once more as I saw her sitting by the rock, staring at the clear blue skies.

"Good morning," I said.

"So, will you be returning home?"

Despite assuming that she would've been unhappy at the news of me going home, she had kept herself a straight face.

"I will, but I don't mind staying for a bit more."

"Let's go find a river then." the girl demanded.

Then I remembered she had been yearning to see a river ever since I told her about it.

"I don't think there are rivers on top of mountains,"

"Let's go down then?" the girl said, "there wouldn't be anyone who'd dare grab your things up, would they?"

"Well, I'm lost hundreds of miles away from any human settlement I can think of, and I only have you, so there wouldn't be anyone to dare," I assured her.

The girl had stood on top of the rock where we had ourselves seated every night, and she proceeded to shout these words on top of her lungs: "Let's go find ourselves a river!"

I couldn't do anything but smile at her for her enthusiasm, as if she had been keeping that energy to herself, waiting for me to wake up.

She then approached me and stared at me gently before grabbing my hand just as we were about to depart our camping spot.

While taking descent from the mountain, she said amidst the silence:

"I find men odd," she added, "they do poetry, but they don't know who to deliver the poems to."

"I agree," I said without hesitation.

I can't really argue with what she has to say because I, for one, am a grownup.

Over the hours we traversed through the seemingly endless forest, we decided to take a stop by in the middle of the descent.

"Do you still remember our way back?" I muttered to the girl.

"I haven't had time to even remember my way back," said the girl. "all I could think of is the river."

I was left surprised as I thought she'd cooperate, but to no avail, it seems we have been lost once again, but I couldn't blame her for it as I, too, have been searching for the river with different intentions.

"The river that you described– do they calm down every once in a while?"

"Yes," I said, "they do."

We both fell silent as we rested, eventually falling asleep from tiredness from trudging a mile down on our descent from the mountaintop.

I awoke as night descended; all I could see was the moonlight shining from above and the shadows formed by the trees below. Meanwhile, I noticed the girl sleeping with her head on my shoulder and our arms interlocked; I hadn't expected that much because, from what I recall, she fell asleep on the other side of the boulder; and it felt nothing like I'd felt before, she felt as fragile as the wings of the butterfly and as innocent as the bellflower, as willful as the deer and as intricate as the rabbit, I tucked her hair behind her ear as it was covering her face, and so I had a clearer picture of her pale forehead and her closed eyes, and so I said to myself: "Your eagerness to face the wild world in search of something so simple and common yet so hard and tough to come by these days–it has moved me, you moved me, much like a rock that has been tossed in the calm waters, you shook me, for once, you had never given up, and has always been moving forward, traversing to the endless solace of space onto the harshest conditions this planet had to offer, I couldn't comprehend how lonely you must have felt out there, waiting for someone to come by, and befriend you, how you suffered trying to stay sane of all the times reality has wronged you."

As I returned my gaze to her, I observed tears trickling from her eyes, it felt as if she had heard everything, but I wouldn't mind it anyway, as I've always wanted to say those words to her, longing inside of me.

And so, with nowhere to go and nothing to do, I held her in my arms as I walked down the slope, despite the darkness that had persisted to my detriment. So long as I got the moonlight, I shall be guided to the river.

I ultimately collapsed on my knees in the middle of my descent as I was tired, falling over a pile of soft grass on the ground, I rested myself by a tree trunk, and luckily, I hadn't disturbed the girl's slumber, so I proceeded to take my rest once more.