Time Seizure

Chapter 14 - The Arctic Blue Sails

Chloe strolled through the ethereal grass field, taking in how comfortable the soles of her feet were as they pressed into the cushioning surface, having removed her boots and socks to carry them beside her instead.

She shortly took off her beanie as well to let the air weave through her flapping hair; it felt like an aura cleansing her of any negativity.

She soon walked into a swarm of butterflies, all different variations of the colour blue and purple flocking around her.

One of them perched onto Chloe's wrist as she raised it, another on her shoulder, on her head, back, and so on.

"Wow, Max." Chloe exclaimed and giggled. "This is one hella butterfly fetish you got here!" She raised an eyebrow mischievously. "I wonder why?"

At that moment, Chloe peered ahead to see a yellow glowing aura strolling up to her from the mist, and then it stopped before it could come into clear view, idling there as if wanting her to come over instead.

All the butterflies latching onto Chloe fluttered away abruptly, as if startled by this new presence.

The girl, on the other hand, felt no such trepidation, as she surely enough recognized this presence. "Rachel? Is that you?"

The aura didn't answer. Instead, it spins around, revealing its shape to be a doe, her spirit animal again, before disappearing.

"Hey, wait up!" She reached out.

As she herself ran to catch up, the rising sizzle of oceanic waves reached her ears, followed by the faint squawking of seagulls. Also, the corner of her vision caught the outline of a towering lighthouse in the distance, wheeling its searchlight around its landscape vigilantly; she was definitely nearing a beach.

"That's our lighthouse, isn't it?" Chloe pondered aloud to herself. "Where Max and I began and ended our time quest... or so it seemed."

"Where she made her final decision." Rachel added.

Chloe hung her head regretfully. "Yes..."

"Don't, Chloe!" The voice commanded sharply, easily reading her thoughts. "Don't do that again!"

"It's hard..."

"I know." Rachel softens her tone again. "But we can only move forward now, for Max. She'd want that too."

Chloe sighed. "You're right."

She journeyed on a little further until the prickling vegetation basing her steps turned into dry powder; it was sand. The wind blowing at her front escalated, parting the mist that obscured her vision to reveal a beautiful colour scheme landscaping the shore.

The orange halo from the low-hanging sun lit up Chloe's moistened eyes as much as it sparkled off the humbled ocean.

"The scenery's so beautiful." She choked. "It makes me want to paint something."

"Why don't you?" Rachel had to prod.

Chloe cleared her throat, unsure for a moment until the right answer came to her. "Because I'm a self-loathing dumbass."

She could swear that she heard Rachel chuckle at her right then.

"You always did fancy art, with all your tattoos and graffiti snaked all over your room."

"And some public places that would get me arrested."

They shared another laugh; it was like old times again.