(March '17) Prompt #2 - "The water was deep, but I couldn't drown."

[.Karma.]

March's 2nd prompt is "The water was deep, but I couldn't drown."



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**You can thank a good friend of mine for the silly prompts this month**

[ArtisticVicu]

"Have you ever had one of those dreams where you wake before you hit the ground?"

He looked over at her but didn't comment. Her arms were crossed and resting on the railing, shoulders high but her gaze was situated towards the horizon rather than down at her arms like he had expected. Her entire stance screamed exhaustion but her expression, the fact that her gaze was still straight ahead, spoke of something stronger than the exhaustion itself.

"I've never had one but I've heard people talking about it; how they wake with with a jolt still feeling like they're falling." Her gaze dipped downward slightly. "I never really understood what they meant till last night."

He frowned. "You dreamt you had fallen?"

She shook her head, her gaze coming back up. She didn't look at him, though. "I dreamt that I was swimming. I was swimming with no sign of land in sight and I was exhausted. But I couldn't stop. For whatever reason, I just couldn't stop. But then something wrapped itself around my ankle and dragged me under. The water was deep, but I couldn't drown. No matter how far down it went, I found that I didn't drown even when I sucked in water as if it were air. It had been like I had air trapped around me and I had sucked that in instead of the water but the tension - the initial panic was still there and I couldn't get free even though it seemed I could breathe." Her words stalled and he saw it in her expression. She blinked rapidly a few times before offering, "I woke up sucking in a large breath, exhausted and slowly coming to. I know it's no where near what people experience when they wake before hitting the ground but I couldn't help wondering if it was close enough."

He looked forward, watching as the sun set behind the mountain range. The mountains were taller than any he had ever seen, even back on Earth, so it was still rather early as night began to fall. It probably didn't help with how close they were to the pointed peaks to begin with. "I dream I'm burning," he comments, letting the words tumble forward without a thought. If he thought about it, acknowledged it, he would shut up and shut down. "Sometimes I'm burning, sometimes I'm burning something. Or someone. It varies but, for the longest time, I was the one burning. It was before we knew of any of this." He made a broad, encompassing gesture, but he knew she understood that it was not directed to the world they were now in alone. "When we got more information, when we started learning and accepting these new parts of ourselves, I started dreaming of burning down places. Sometimes it would vary between home and some random location I've never seen or barely knew. More times than not, I was only creating damage and the dreams were rather tame, considering what I had been dreaming. They were stressful, don't get me wrong, but I would classify them as simple dreams where the ones where I'm burning alive were nightmares."

His mouth was suddenly dry and he took a moment to wet his lips. "Well, that was until I started dreaming I was burning others."

His gaze fell beyond the railing to the ground far below, huddling into himself in a sort of comfort. He wasn't sure if she was looking at him or not but he didn't want to know. He didn't want to see her expression. "At first, they were minor burns, accidents to strangers I didn't know once I woke up. But they slowly progressed into dreams where those closest to me were burning and I couldn't do a thing to help them. No amount of trying to do anything with the fire ever stopped them from burning. It's gotten to the point now where I'm surprised I don't wake up with third degree burns on my hands and arms after having spent the entire dream trying to pull someone out of the flames."

"You probably would have if your brother hadn't come back."

His gaze snapped to her out of surprise. While he had known she had been there, he had not expected her to speak, let alone say that. "What?" he asked weakly.

She looked at him. "I take it he hasn't told you?"

"Told me what?" he ground out, but it sounded breathless to his ears. He gripped the railing, not sure his legs were still under him. He couldn't feel them.

"He's been in tune with fire just as long as you have. He's only now being able to actually do anything with it."

"But he can't learn fire," he choked out, now seriously using the railing as support. "His first element won't allow him to."

"It would seem that his first element had been fire, like yours," she offered with a shrug. "He just happened to have taken to earth before actually doing anything with fire."

He looked to her, not understanding. "But why?"

She shrugged, looking back to the horizon. He was thrown off. Even as her words had inflections, her entire demeanor seemed nonchalant, as if this was just simple information exchange rather than an in depth, emotional conversation gone wrong. "It could be that he saw that each of us were starting with just one and went with the one element not in use. He's intelligent like that. That and he probably figured no one would have liked to have seen him controlling two elements where everyone else was starting out with one." She looked at him again, her gaze curious even as her expression was blank. "Did you know that your grandmother reigned from earth and your grandfather from fire? Your mother took after her father but still managed to pass on the earth element to you both. It would seem your brother took to it more than you had."

He shook his head. "I'm sure my brother knew. He's a genius like that."

[m139]

The water was deep but I could not drown.

The desert place was sandy, and I know not how long. Miles and miles of those tiny bits of ground rock stretched around me, front, back, left, right. I know not how I came to this place, nor even where I came from. All I know is that suddenly, there was sand. And with this appearance of sand, I knew that I must have water. And yet, my feet stayed put in the sand, as if they were anchored there. After all, I had been without water for so long... And there was no water to be seen. I did not move for some time.

Then, suddenly, from an unknown source, there seemed to be a voice. "Go." it said. I hesitated. Had I really heard something? And to where would I go? All around me were countless miles of unending sand. "Go," I heard it say again, urging me. And this time, I took a single step forward. It was a small step, but it was enough to increase my confidence. I took one step more, a bit unsteady, and then another. I stopped again. Had that sound left? "Go." It said again, soothingly. And so I went on new-found feet.

I came to an oasis. How exactly I came to it, I do not know. One second ago, it seemed to not be there, then the next, my feet had touched the edge of its cool waters. I bent down, and took a drink of the water. It was cool and delicious. I looked up again at the banks. The world suddenly seem to sing out in color. The trees, which had always been green, now seemed, if it were possible, to be greener. The sky, once a boring old blue, was, although the same blue, more vivid. And the water... I looked into the water. There was no way it could have changed so greatly in such a brief time, yet it seemed to be more itself than it was a moment before. It was clearer, and the small spring seemed to gargle more happily, and the swirls seemed more rapid. I took another drink. And then I realized, the world was not changing, and had not changed at all. Rather, it was me.

My reflection stared back at me in the pool. I still had the same hair, the same eyes, the same face as before. I brought my hands forward- they, too, were the same. What then, was different? I looked at my reflection again. Then, I saw it, and at that moment, I could name the difference, put a finger on that change that before I was unable to name, unable to recognize I was even without. My eyes sparkled, gladdened. For the first time, I was beginning to feel happiness. The voice spoke again. This time, the Voice said, "Stay." And so, I stayed.

I cannot tell you how long I wandered in that place, although I can say that it was the most wondrous time of my life. The trees were large and full of fruit, and the animals were both beautiful to look at and were friendly. From time to time, I was careless and tripped, but the water from the pool cleansed my wound and I was soon was better and able to continue to explore this small place. The oasis itself, though it seemed small, was filled of such wonders that I knew I would never know it all if I tried, yet I delighted in learning what I could.

But my days there soon came to an end. "Go," came the Voice again. Go? I thought to myself. I looked towards the desert from where I had come. It was barren, friendless. It lacked the beautiful trees, the friendly animals. For the life of me, I could not imagine how I had managed to live all those years there without the water, without even knowing there was something more, before the Voice had come. And to go back?

"Go." the Voice said again, and when I hesitated, continued, "Find me there, as you have found me here."

I looked at the desert again. It was harsh and intimidating, but did not look quite as bad as it had a moment before. After all, I recalled that the Voice had been there even in the desert. The Voice had also taken me to this place I found here. Why would someone go through all that work for nothing? I felt a soft wind caressing me, and knew that is was time for goodbye. I lifted my foot, took a step forward, and was back in the desert again.

And so I wandered the desert again, although this time I was not so lost as I was before. The Voice never left me, although at times it word seemed far and distant. From time to time, especially when I though my strength was at an end, the Voice would lead me to another Oasis, and, although it was beautiful there, when it was time to leave I did as I must.

I plod along the desert still, and though the sand sometimes stings my eyes, and my feet sometimes are weary, I will not give up. I know where I am going, though without guidance, I likely would never have moved. I would have stayed where I was, where the sand bit and the heat killed, yet I would not have known how miserable I was. Yet the voice called, and though it brought attention to my miseries, it also brought the promise of something more.

Sometimes, I hear my final destination in the dreams, the sound of crashing waves somewhere far off in the distance, the shore of that far off- though every day nearer- sea. The sand that I have traveled then will not seem so course, and I will immerse myself in those waves whose total volume will never be fully explored. That day will be the greatest day of my life. I will be consumed, yet I will be more myself in those cleansing waves than I have even been in my life.

The water, I know, is deep. And I will drown, yet I will not drown.