Lauren--Part Eighteen

Splog # 63

Eighteen

   Lauren found herself standing on the edge of a large, blackened crater. It looked to be a remnant from a volcanic eruption. She couldn't see how deep it went; the interior was lost in shadow. The edge she was standing on seemed to be part of a path that went all the way around the rim. When she looked beyond the crater, she saw that she was in a mountain range, with peaks all around her. From where she was standing, there didn't seem to be any that were higher than her present position. There were some that were lower, but the majority seemed to be about of an equal height. She looked down into the crater again, but couldn't penetrate the darkness. She looked up to the sky, which was all white with no sun present. She stood, waiting for she knew not what, and a voice rose from the crater, a sigh whispered by the wind.

   "The time is here."

   Lauren knew that she must go into action now, this moment, so, not sure what else to do, she started following the path around the edge of the crater. She could hear the wind continue to whisper up from the inside, but no other words were discernible, only a long, soft, whooshing sound, sighing against the edges and then up over the lip to breathe at her ear.

   She walked with the inside of the crater to her left and would occasionally peer over into the depths. To her right was only a steep fall of rough, black hillside that dropped until it reached the side of one of the other mountains and then began to climb again. She was walking quickly, knowing there was something she must do and wondering how difficult it would be when the time arrived. Peering down, she was starting to see a brightness far off in the depths and wondered if the volcano would erupt again and what would happen to her if it did. She found herself back where she started, having made a complete circumnavigation of the crater. But how could she be sure this was where she had started? It didn't matter. She knew that this was where she had been standing and looking into the blackness. But now, as she looked down, the blackness had undergone a change. She was looking at a reddish-orange shimmer, like a fire afar off in the distance. The volcano was being reborn. But what was she supposed to do? She couldn't stand here while it erupted. She'd be burned horribly, she'd probably die.

   "The time is here."

   The whisper blew right over her. Lauren turned and started moving along the path again, this time practically running. She hadn't gone far when she came to two trails leading off the path, one down the mountain and one into the crater. But these weren't here before, she thought. The one to her left went down the crater a little way and then disappeared into a hole in the side. A cave, she supposed. Looking along the trail to her right, she saw only that it slanted downward as it followed the mountain around to the left. After one last glance into the crater, from which she could now feel heat rising up and observe the red glow becoming brighter, she set off on the trail down the mountain. She was feeling relieved to get away from all the activity in the crater but, to her surprise, the path ended not too far from where it left the top, in front of a large weeping willow tree. She walked around it but the path didn't continue. It led to the tree and then ended. When she examined the tree, she found it to be unlike any willow she'd seen before. It wasn't growing in a patch of soil on the side of the mountain, but was springing forth from the very rock itself. But strangest of all was the color of the tree. It was a bright red-orange, as though its roots had somehow imbibed the flame from inside the mountain and fed its color into the tree. Nor was that the extent of the color oddity. The leaves that were hanging on the bright drooping branches were of two distinct colors, neither of which seemed appropriate for a willow tree, but both of which stood out brilliantly against the trunk. Half of the leaves were a rich dark green and the other half were a deep matte black. Each branch only had one color of leaves on it. But the arrangement of the branches made the colors seem scattered haphazardly throughout the tree. Gazing at the spectacle, Lauren was reminded of a child's unique painting.