Lauren--Part Thirty-Six

Splog # 128

Thirty-Six

   Lauren was still looking down at her feet when she noticed something strange happening to the flowers around her. They seemed to be shrinking and disappearing into the ground. She was reminded of time-lapse photography films, only this one was playing backwards. Instead of flowers wondrously blooming forth from buds, she was watching them return to seeds beneath the ground. It seemed to spread outward from either side of where her foot trespassed on the border of tiny white flowers. She could follow with her eyes the change from flower to flower, like a row of dominoes falling against each other. And it wasn't the flowers only that were going through some sort of transformation. The grass around her other foot was losing any semblance of health it may have had. It was passing from its unlikely green hue into a dark yellow and rapidly to a pale tan color. And that wasn't all. As its color faded, its cohesiveness seemed to dissolve also. It was becoming brittle looking as though the slightest touch would reduce it to dust. In fact, it didn't take long for blades to begin collapsing into themselves as though turning to ash. Lauren could only gaze helplessly as the landscape she had just been carelessly strolling through transformed to a scene of desolation. Had this happened simply because she'd stepped off the path? But no one had warned her...She looked over at King. For some reason, he had lowered his two front legs and was now kneeling with his head turned toward her. Had she injured him also? She was starting to move to him when she heard a familiar rustling and turned back. She saw the snake, its head raised slightly and its body undulating through the grass. As it moved towards her, the discoloration of the grass was moving outward towards it. The snake sped along and seemed to try to avoid coming into contact with the change of color and texture as long as it could. When it reached the strange phenomenon, its undulations changed from horizontal to vertical and it looked like a sea serpent as it approached her. It occurred to Lauren that it was trying to avoid contact with the transformed carpet of grass. When the snake arrived, it moved straight to King and the two animals looked at each other for a moment. Then they both looked at Lauren. Lauren stared at them but could hardly think as she was seized by the idea of all the harm she had caused. She wanted to cry, "It's not my fault! Why didn't somebody tell me?" But she only stood frozen with tears beginning to form in her eyes. She watched, almost without seeing, as the snake raised itself up to the camel's neck, which was lowered in front of its bended legs, and glided over it the entire length of its body. When it had completed this feat, it looked back at Lauren. The girl hadn't moved since she'd first noticed the troubling change happening at her feet, and so she was now standing with her body facing back to the ridge and her head turned on her neck, practically looking over her shoulder at the two animals. The snake repeated his journey over the camel's neck and again turned to look at Lauren. When she remained insensible to its intentions, the snake came toward her and, raising up, gently wrapped itself around her right forearm and gave a light tug. Lauren gasped in a breath and then it fell out of her in a sigh. She looked at the snake, who let go her arm and moved once again towards the camel. Lauren, slightly shaky on her legs, followed the snake and, without thinking, mounted herself upon King's neck. With Lauren firmly in place, King rose and started moving steadily down the path they had been following. Lauren noted with surprise that the other row of white flowers had remained as it was when she first saw it. And the grass beyond it was unchanged from its peculiar green shade. This side of the flowers, the grass was still fading and collapsing and she found that King was walking as close to the flowers as possible without disturbing them. She hoped the change wasn't hurting his feet, as she remembered the snake's reaction to contact with the changed grass. Thought of the snake led to the realization that he was no longer present. She turned back and saw it gliding along toward the ridge. Like King, the snake remained close to the remaining line of white flowers, and still employed his vertical sea serpent undulation. Why had he come out here? And how did he get here just when the terrible accident happened? As she watched the snake pass over the ridge, she hoped that she hadn't been the cause of some permanent mutilation to this land that was so strange and interestingly wonderful. She had thought that maybe she was here to do something that might be helpful to somebody. This was just a vague idea she had from some things Splog had said and Mason's bit of a story. But here she had done somthing that seemed as if...well, it didn't seem very helpful.