The House of Worlds

Kadir; 2

It was so beautiful. The sky. It was perfect. Standing on the flat, rigid ground of the desert, staring up at the sky. The white sand was speckled with bushes. Little clumps of brush that spiked up, reaching its arms towards the heavens. A few roots and dead trees stood up here and there, making homes for small rabbits and owls. I gazed off into the distance. The further my eyes looked, the more tan and browned the sand and dirt became. In the very distance were mountains. Large, spiked gray mountains that breached the surface of the desert. But it wasn't the sand, or the bushes, or the mountains that caught my eyes. It was the sky. Stringy, thin clouds billowed overhead, and then stretched out the further out they were, becoming thin and jagged until finally, they cloud weaves ran out of thread, and the clouds puttered out. Low hanging clouds over the mountains billowed, gray and transparent. Like fog, almost, but unlike the thin clouds, which loomed high in the sky, these low hanging clouds covered the mountains like a blanket, like soft gray cotton. The gray cotton had a rip, however, somewhere in the middle, just peeking over the mountain where the sun gazed through. Like soft butter or marmalade, the sun shone softly through the gray clouds over the mountains. Just seeping into the desert, covering everything with a few last rays of warmth before the cold night came. The sun had a different effect on the stringy clouds above, however, striking them with a force too powerful for anyone or anything to handle. It worked in time with the clouds, creating a gorgeous sunset halo around them, giving light to the dark creases of the clouds, and sketching spiderwebs into the stringy clouds' surface. Fading into the distance as the clouds up above did. I never got tired of staring at the sky. A shuffling noise next to me jerked me out of my stupor.

I twisted around immediately, my shoulders tensing. As my brain registered the sight, my body and mind relaxed, and a slow, happy smile spread across my face.

She stood on the boulder next to me, staring at the sunset, a small, grateful smile playing on her lips. A slow wind brushed past us, blowing her hair gently behind her, the strings of long golden hair fluttering in her face. The feathers of the arrows on her back waved gently. The falling sun threw beams of red and gold onto her face, the light captured in her face and soul.

I leaped onto the boulder, landing next to her. Off balance, I pitched forwards, my feet sliding off of the sand covering the boulder. My throat made an involuntary noise, halfway between a howl and a scream, so it came out as a screech. A hand grasped the back of my shirt and yanked me back up onto the boulder.

As my feet found solid ground again, I straightened up, and found myself staring into her bright emerald eyes. They were twinkling with humor and amusement. I was not amused. She laughed, the beautiful sound echoing across the desert. Smooth. I thought to myself, real smooth. She suppressed a smirk.

"Be careful!" she advised through a smile. Good Lord. I rolled my eyes.

"How far away are they?' I asked, not impressed.

"Three, four days distance," she said, gazing off at the landscape around her.

'Let's go then," I said, sharpening my knife. "I'll bet you a pear I kill five of them." Her eyes lit up. She was always up for competition. And she almost always won. I'd better get that pear.

"You're on!" she turned around and crouched down. I watched closely. This never ceased to amaze me. She closed her eyes and gripped the boulder tightly. She bit her lip and bent her head, concentrating. I waited... Two eagles wings burst from her back, growing, extending, until they were longer than her arms. Air hissed out of her mouth, through her teeth. her head was bent. I crouched down beside her and gripped her hand.

"I'm fine." she croaked, straightening up. She flapped her wings a few times, testing them out tenderly. She smiled happily. She extended and stretched her wings out as far as they could reach.

"You ready?" she said, grinning.

"Always."

Laughing, she jumped into the air and spiraled upwards, like a corkscrew. I watched her for a moment before leaping off of the boulder to follow her. She flew among the clouds like she was one of them. She weaved in and out of the cotton in the sky before flying off into the sunset.

I can still hear her laughing.