Finding the blossom in the desert

Chapter 4

(Lotus)

I open my eyes to feel the warm sun rays on my skin. I breathe in the dry summer’s air. I sit up and look around at the tan ground. I stick my hand in the ground and it feels grainy.

“Hmmm. What a strange feeling this is.” I whisper and smile at my hand.

I look up at the sky and the sun god was pulling the sun to its resting place out of the human eye. I stand up and wobble a little. Standing to my full height, I take a step forward and my knees buckle as I fall onto them. I growl out in frustration and stand up again. I hold out my arms to keep my balance and take a small step forward.

This time I don’t fall forward, I fall backward. My arms go in a circle as I fall backwards onto my back. The wind rushes out of my lungs and I gasp trying to get the air back into them. Finally getting the air back into my lungs I stand up and start walking around the tan earth that eats my feet everytime I take a step. Something darts past my feet and I gasp. The animal darts out of its hiding place and looks at me. I smile and reach out my hand slowly towards it. It nuzzles into my hand as I laugh.

“I wonder what you are little one,” I say and look at it again.

It bounces on its hind legs and its floppy ears bend a little way down from its jump. I giggle and pick it up in my arms. It snuggles up to me as I stand up and start walking in a direction. As the sun sets, the moon goddess rises the moon slowly as I walk into a strange place with tall things made out of metal and wood.

“Those poor trees. What have they done to you?” I whisper and touch the wooden place.

The wood starts to bloom with moss and flowers as the place begins to creak. I continue walking until I bump into a broken down place. I look down at my traveling partner and back up at the place.

“I wonder what this place was.” I wonder out loud and look at the boarded-up entryway.

I walk away from the broken down place and towards somewhere with trees. I keep walking with my little traveling partner in my arms and close to my chest. It looks up at me and its little nose twitches. I smile and continue walking until my feet touch something wet and soft. I look down and it’s something green and it smells like the Earth.

“What’s this?” I whisper and squat down to touch the substance. My travel partner hops out of my arms and runs farther into the woods.

“Come back here little one!” I say and chase after it.

It runs farther and farther into the woods as I continue to chase after it. It soon stops and looks back at me and back at a giant cherry blossom tree. I gasp and walk up to the tree. I place my hand on the trunk of the tree and feel something rush through it to me. I close my eyes and see all of nature in all its glory. I see the desert, rainforest, jungles, oceans, and grasslands. I open my eyes again and see my travel partner closer to me now. I look around and see that I was on my knees in the soft, green grass with my forehead resting against the trunk of the tree.

“Strange. How did I get here?” I say and stand up, leaning against the tree for support.

“Since you touched the tree it gave you the knowledge of the world.” my travel partner says.

“How can you talk?! I’m hallucinating, aren’t I? This can’t be happening!” I yell and look up at the darkening sky.  Lightning strikes the ground a few feet away from the cherry blossom tree and I shriek. My travel partner runs to a pond with a waterfall slowly trickling water from the stream above.

“I’m a bunny or technically a rabbit so please stop referring to me as your ‘traveling partner’ please.” the bunny says and hops through the waterfall.

“How can you read my mind?” I whisper and walk through the waterfall and end up in a cave.

“Bunny? Where are you? How do you know this place? What’s your name?” I say and look around the darkness of the cave.

“I’m right in front of you for one. Two I’m a bunny I know a lot of things. And three my names Wilis.” Wilis says and brushes against my leg. I inhale a breath from the sudden touch from Wilis. I look down and see nothing but pitch blackness.

“How can I not see in here? All I see is darkness.” I ask and sit down with my legs crossed in front of me.

“The reason you cannot see is that there is no light in here for your eyes to register.” Wilis replies and hops into my lap. I smile and start to rub Wilis’s soft ears. I turn my body to face the back of the waterfall when lightning strikes the pond water below and the water lights up purple and brilliant white. I hiss at the sudden light and shield my eyes with my hand. Then the world was plunged back into darkness.

“Are you serious? How does that light and darkness hurt your tiny human eyes?” Wilis grumbles and hops out of my lap and sits in front of me.

“At least my ears aren’t giant satellites.” I snap and look out to the back of the waterfall. Wilis has a shocked look in her eyes but he quickly wipes it away. Wilis glares at me and hops to the waterfall. The water is falling rapidly every few seconds.

“And where are you going this late at night?” I growl and watch Wilis creep closer to the waterfall. He looks over his shoulder at me and his little nose twitches ever so slightly.

“I’m going out and leaving you since you told me I have satellites for ears.” Wilis crumbles and glares at me. I roll my eyes and stand up.

“If anyone’s going to be leaving it’s going to be me, because one, you said my eyesight in the darkness to sudden light back to darkness was plain rude and hurtful of you to say,” I growl and stand up.

I run through the waterfall and feel the electrical energy run through my nerves and veins. I land in the shallows of the pond outside of the hidden cave, I look over my shoulder and see Willis standing behind the waterfall. I sigh and start running toward the cherry blossom tree where I got the knowledge of the world. Slowing down to a walk, I creep closer to the tree. At the corner of my vision, I see something run from shadow to shadow.

“Who’s there?!” I yell and my voice wavers. I silently scold myself for showing weakness to someone or something that was stalking me. The shadow thing walks slowly out of the shadow of the tree and grins.

“Nice to meet you Lotus. I’m Robert, head of the Institute that you saw when you were walking to get to where you are currently.” Robert grins and points this sword at me.