Dream
Water.
There was water all around him.
It adored him. It wrapped around him and cradled him in a reverential embrace. He slipped through it as though he were part of it, knowing its currents, its tides and waves, its ever-shifting form. He was part of it. It was part of him. It was his river, his domain, his charge; he was its master and protector.
His river was swollen from spring rains, reaching greedy hands beyond the ordinary limits of its banks, rushing gleefully through its turns and bends like children at play. Something caught his eye, and he drew closer for a look: a little girl's pink shoe, caught in a swell of white foam. In recent decades humans had drawn closer and closer to his banks, building their dwellings over the fertile ground near his shores. Ordinarily he paid them little mind, but the shoe interested him--no, not the shoe, but the spirit of a girl that clung to it. He nosed at it, pushing it along the swells and dips of his currents.
Something broke through the surface of his water, a body brilliant with the same spirit that clung to the shoe. A flash of panic, bewilderment, fear. He reacted instantly, arrowing through the water until he could wrap the child in his secure embrace.
There was water all around him.
It adored him. It wrapped around him and cradled him in a reverential embrace. He slipped through it as though he were part of it, knowing its currents, its tides and waves, its ever-shifting form. He was part of it. It was part of him. It was his river, his domain, his charge; he was its master and protector.
His river was swollen from spring rains, reaching greedy hands beyond the ordinary limits of its banks, rushing gleefully through its turns and bends like children at play. Something caught his eye, and he drew closer for a look: a little girl's pink shoe, caught in a swell of white foam. In recent decades humans had drawn closer and closer to his banks, building their dwellings over the fertile ground near his shores. Ordinarily he paid them little mind, but the shoe interested him--no, not the shoe, but the spirit of a girl that clung to it. He nosed at it, pushing it along the swells and dips of his currents.
Something broke through the surface of his water, a body brilliant with the same spirit that clung to the shoe. A flash of panic, bewilderment, fear. He reacted instantly, arrowing through the water until he could wrap the child in his secure embrace.