You made your way through the thick trees and wild vegetation with a sad, yet fierce determination. Your gaze was set stubbornly on the dirt path in front of you. Your only thought was to follow it until you reached the hidden tree house. You must not break down until then. With each quick stride your heart seemed to shatter just a little more than before, but you kept telling yourself just a little further now...hold it together for just a little bit longer...
Your feet carried you into the darkness of the night and you walked so long that your feet and shins began to burn. Still you carried on. No matter how tired you were, both physically and mentally, you couldn't stop and break down. Not yet, keep it together just a little while longer... Your vision stirred and smeared from the hot tears that were suddenly stinging your eyes and clouding your vision. You wiped them away furiously with shaking hands. Now that you had wondered away from the warmth of the bonfire you felt the cutting chill of the wind that seemed to rattle through your bones. You took a few deep breaths and tried to pull yourself together. You couldn't give in to your misery just yet. The cruel ache in your heart was too real, too personal to just release out in the openness of the forest. You needed to be alone in a closed off room before you were able to express the extent of your pain.
As you blinked away your tears you finally pulled your gaze off of the dirt path beneath you and swept a glance around you. You instantly knew you were lost. The dirt path from before had been pretty open and clear with the forest only just creeping up on both sides. The path you were standing on now however had overgrown weeds and exotic plants bursting out at the sides. The tropical looking trees loomed above you with their large leaves creating a canopy that completely blocked out the night sky that was above it. Panicking now you spun yourself around towards the direction you had come from. You saw that there too, for as far as your eyes could see, the path you had been on was overtaken by the ruthless forest floor. There was no way of knowing how far you had walked before you turned on the wrong path. You were just about to start re-tracing your steps when the cold night wind carried a faint, but hauntingly beautiful melody to your ears. Though it was hard to make out it sounded like a choir of angels singing. You closed your eyes and cocked your head to the side to try and hear better; sure that it was probably just your imagination, but then you heard it again softly calling in the distance. Despite all logic you suddenly found yourself following the phantom music. You trampled through knee high weeds and angrily swatted away any other forbidding vegetation that got in your way. You felt the familiar stings of pain from your bandaged arms as more stray tree branches cut into your flesh as you stubbornly pushed them aside; despite the pain though the entrancing serenade beckoned you on further. With each step the wondrous melody grew louder and all the more majestic.
You pushed past some large leafy bush and finally came to a shoreline on a beach that was oval shaped with huge rocks in the middle of the reservoir. Off to the side was an impossibly high cliff that had a small waterfall that steadily spit forth gushing water into the small enclosed ocean pool below. But what was most astonishing of all was what was in that pool. Mermaids! Real live mermaids where singing and splashing about under the night sky right in front of you!
Some reclined effortlessly on the flat white-washed rocks, their pale skin gleaming beneath the moonlight while their shining tails flicked the water playfully. Others admired their own radiant reflections on the dark water's surface while they continued with their enchanting melody. One mermaid sat on a rock directly underneath the small waterfall and she bathed her fiery red locks that reached all the way to her mid-back in the pouring water. Tiger Lily was beautiful, but these mermaids were breathtaking. All of the mermaids were different in appearance, yet they all seemed to have the same stunning ethereal quality about them. Though they all had different colored hair, and eyes, and faces, they all had the same rainbow colored tails that caught the moonlight and cast dozens of tiny rainbows all over the surfaces of the surrounding rocks and water. However there was one mermaid who stood out above all the rest. She sat upright on a rock in the dead center of the lagoon and while the other's voices rose up in song, hers however did not. She sat silently admiring her own reflection and brushing her long graceful fingers deftly through her thick wavy locks of pure golden hair that went all the way past her smooth curvy waist and pooled onto the rock at her side. The moon above shone directly down onto her porcelain skin, turning it almost luminescent. She was petite for a woman, but she had soft curves in all of the right places and you were pretty sure she did not have a top on, but couldn't tell because her hair covered her perky breasts completely. Her heart shaped face was delicate without a single blemish or flaw. She had big slanted eyes that were as dark blue as the ocean depths below. Her lips were full and plump and a perfect shade of rose that matched her lightly flushed cheeks. She was the most beautiful creature you had ever seen.
