Anotherworldly: Volume 1

The River

Step, breathe.

Step, breathe.

Step, breathe.

One foot after another, one breath after another, one blink, one heartbeat. Take it one at a time and any exhaustion, any weakness lending weight to her limbs and slowness to her steps would be gone from mind and body. Keep focus on breath, on where to put her feet, on where the branches come at her head and the bushes reach for her clothes. Keep from being caught.

They were right behind her, meters behind her, crashing through the woods and cursing loudly as she let a branch snap back into their faces, stumbling over roots she danced over and underbrush that she could traverse in the dead of night, underbrush unfamiliar to them in a forest they didn't know. A forest they didn't know, but thought was now theirs.

Step, breathe.

The river was ahead, so close she could almost see it through the trees, and then she would be safe.

No, not safe. She would be free. She wouldn't have to run anymore.

But she didn't know if she would be safe.

***

She took a deep breath of the warm summer breeze, filled with the scent of flowers and last night's rain, the air alive with birdsong and insects buzzing to and fro across the water and through the trees. The river babbled at her feet, inches away but just far enough that the water wouldn't lap her toes. Easy to fall for its charm, easy to crave its coolness in the stifling heat of the day, but she still had never touched it.

Nobody would touch the water of this river, would allow even a drop to fall on them. It wasn't safe, it wasn't good. Something lived there, and even the adults of her village would only whisper of what it was and what it had done. Though, everyone else said that venturing this close would be too dangerous on its own, and she came here whenever there was a break from school. She was still alive. So she didn't quite know if she believed the tales of danger told to all the children at night, tales that even the adults heeded.

It was ironic, to her, that this river was the only place where she was safe.

She could hear the boys in the woods behind her, moving stealthily as only people raised in this wood were able to do but talking loudly enough that she didn't need to strain her ears to find their position. They were several meters back from the line in the trees that marked the end of their village and the beginning of the wild land. They paced and swore and jeered at her, calling her all sorts of names. Coward and weakling were the mildest of them. But all she could do was smile. Was she the coward, when she was the only one brave enough to come here?

So instead, she stretched her arms over her head and laid back on the rocky shore of the river, shutting her eyes to the sun and drinking in the peace that only this place could afford. There were prettier places in the woods, to be sure - calm as the river was, it was far from beautiful, flanked on one side by trees half dead and on the other by mounds of fallen leaves from trees long dead, and home to only the water skimmers and gnats. But whenever she wasn't required for school or chores, whenever she had a day to herself, this was always where she went.

She didn't know how much time had passed before she heard bubbling in the river, an even rhythm to it like breath and distinct from the regular noises of the water. Smiling, she turned onto her side and then pushed up to her knees, gazing out over the water. She always had to take a minute to find the source of it, so fully did her friend blend in with the water's blues and greens and greys, so smoothly did she move that she looked like only a current when she swam. The water wasn't clear, either - centuries of leaves and dirt and schools of tiny fish moved in it to make it hard to spot anything she wasn't looking hard for.