Myth Land (unedited)

XX

Tombstones.

I can't give you the exact number, but I swear there were at least hundreds of tombstones stood tall a few steps away behind Sphynx. Each one of them was rooted deep into the ground as if the land would never let them escape even if those rocks could cry. On each surface there were some undetected words carved. I still have no idea who wrote or carved those words, but whoever did it must have claws stronger than a harpy eagle. But neither of us could read those words that easily. There should be at least two or three fireflies sat on the edge or at the top of the stone illuminate them.

She took me to look around and read some of the words for me.

'You see these writings over here, Pearl,' she pointed at a trapezoidal stone on her left side while I walked on her right.

'What does it say?'

'Forgive. Forgive and don't hate. Don't hold a grudge.' She quoted.

I didn't utter a thing, so we kept on walking. Sometimes she stopped to show me some of her favorite ones. Things that said like how we should help each other. Things that said like how we should accept differences, in terms of our appearance, eye colors, heights, weights, or what language we spoke, or how we walk, or how we dress—although I had no idea what 'dress' was.

But at some moments she would stop at certain tombstones which were still in good shapes. The ones telling us about all sound-like-a-good-things tombstones looked as if they were ready to collapse. Not to mention that they were covered with moss and mud. Yet these tombstones were clean as it were always cleaned by rattlesnakes. Its surface could almost perfectly reflect the moon like a river.

'Beautiful, aren't they?' she brought me back to reality.

'I must ask you the same question.'

She froze. Then sighed.

'Those are warnings for the humans.'

'About?'

'About... Well this mainly talks about...'

She sighed once more.

'It says that the only cause of humans' death is the humans themselves.'

There was this huge ball made of dirt stuck in my brain after listening to what she said. She reminded me of something. No. She answered an internal question that I knew I had before I came to that place, yet I forgot what the question was.

I wanted her to give me further explanation, but I was too afraid to ask because Sphynx seemed to get so lost in her own thought. She neither stared at me nor the stone. Her eyes cut through all the stones even the tress. All the way to whatever existed somewhere farther in this forest.

She bloated her chest with oxygen then lazily walked away from the mirror-like tombstone while I followed her.

We arrived at a certain tombstone which had longer writings than any of the previous stones she had read, either for me or herself. Sure it had a bigger size. I assume it was almost as tall as a giraffe. And its width was thicker. The shape itself was squarer and had sharp edges which could kill any animal who tried to come near.

She looked up and read the title for me.

'Life.'

Every time she paused, I thought the animal who was standing next to me was not Sphynx.

'I have read this one for gazillion times,' she chuckled. 'Still I'm stuck with those... furry... smelly animals who never wiped their butt after they pooped. Ugh, how I wish I am able to escape to Myth Land.'