The Butterfly Pool

She ran.

Trees roots tripped her with every step, and more than once she found herself on the ground. But, although she was not the fastest of runners she had always been quite athletically able and could carry on running without getting tired over long distances. She had always particularly enjoyed cross-country and that should have made her the perfect person for the predicament she found herself in. But it was not so, for as she ran she felt her consciousness slipping slowly away from her. She felt she would faint and it was only the fear of the voices that were biting once more at the edge of her mind that kept her feet moving.

'Run run run as fast as you can.' they whispered mockingly 'the longer you run the longer your in pain, they'll catch up eventually, so for the moment we're content to watch you struggle.'

Her feet pounded loudly against the hard earth, and she suddenly remembered Lizzie. The butterfly had been with her when she was with Grace, so she must have disappeared somewhere in the forest. Ciara would not usually have forgotten about her little winged friend but in her sudden terror she had not thought to make sure she was still with her. Now she felt her absence like a hole in her heart.

It was as she was worrying about Lizzie, not paying attention to where she was running that she tripped on the tree root. This time as she feel she felt a snap and screamed out in pain as her ankle broke.

She couldn't get up, couldn't run. Her ankle buckled when she tried to put any weight on it, with another flood of agony, and she still felt faint, her eyes longing to roll back into her head, her body refusing to go another step. But as she lay there cruel cold laughter filled her head and she felt a breeze that had not been there before blow in her face, the air thick and stale, leaving a bad taste in her mouth when she breathed.

Clenching her fists in determination she got to her knees and crawled slowly on all-fours into the undergrowth. The bush she had crawled into was very leafy and dense with thin thorny branches that caught in her hair as she slid across the ground.

Staring out the other side of the bush she saw a clearing with a strange clear pool of water with a waterfall plunging into it. But it was what was flying above the pool that caught her attention. Hundreds and hundreds of tiny butterflies of various colours were dancing, almost lazily, above the surface. Among these tiny butterflies was another much larger than the others with big black wings. She had found Lizzie.

Checking to make sure she could see none of the twisted black trees Ciara crawled out of the bush and made her way on her knees toward the pool. When she reached the edge she waved her arms and called out quietly.

"Lizzie." she said "Lizzie, come here."

But it seemed something was wrong because although the butterfly seemed to recognize her and tried to fly toward her she didn't appear able to.

And then Ciara looked in the water and a strange feeling overcame her. The water was a beautiful light-reflecting pale blue like the sea or a swimming pool in a brochure for a holiday resort. Around one side of the pool beautiful purple water lilies sat on bright green lily pads, while in the water fish of every colour swam in large shoals, their wet scaly bodies sparkling in the sunlight that poured into the clearing from above. The waterfall was on the opposite side of the pool from the lily pads and the plunging fall sent ripples through the water making the lilies dance and pushing them as far to the other side as possible. This left a large empty area of the pool, just perfect for swimming in, Ciara thought as she stared at the lovely cool water. She looked at her reflection and though she couldn't feel herself doing so, saw herself smiling up at her from the surface of the water. Her reflection seemed so happy to be there in the cool ripples that without stopping to think she sat down on the edge and lowered first her good leg and then her other leg into the water. It was deeper than she thought.

From outside the water she had been able to see the bottom, which was covered in smooth little pebbles of different shades of grey and brown. It had made the water look only a meter deep but as she reached out her good foot she could only just brush the bottom and it got deeper the farther in you went. Usually this might have worried her but the pool was still casting it's spell on her and found she couldn't remember how to worry. Another effect of the strange pool was that as soon as her broken ankle had entered the water it had stopped aching and she was very glad of that. As she started to swim fully clothed around the pool a strange urge made her stick her head under the water and see just how big the pool really was.

The pool was much larger under the surface than it had appeared from above, and being a large pool anyway once under the surface it was gigantic. Ciara swam downwards marveling at the light that reached even to the very bottom of the pool several meters down, making it as bright as the surface. She also found that she didn't need to go to the surface to breath, apparently in this strange place it was unnecessary. Sitting on the bottom, she ran her fingers through the stones; they were as soft as silk and as bright as precious jewels and not one trace of mud or algae was anywhere to be seen. In fact, the pool was clean of everything other than the stones, fish, and lilies, and Ciara wondered what the fish ate. The only other object in the pool was a large rock that stood near the middle of the pool and stuck its head out of the water, like an iceberg hiding its bulk beneath the surface.

It was toward this rock she swam, the sparkling fish gliding with her, to have a look around, but before she reached it something grabbed her from behind and she felt herself once again losing consciousness.

Reviews

[Eira Anchor]

I AM good a cross-country!