Wanderer's Affinity for Water

This is just a short story I wrote about my wanderings in a digital world and the other avatars I encountered and the effect they had on this wandering soul, mind and heart.

Wanderer's Affinity for Water

The cool of the night descends upon me but now without the suns above me. I am alone, and my mouth is still bone dry. My body has lost so much moisture my skin feels as if it wants to flak off me and slowly drift to the barren ground below. My many layers of clothes keep me warm from the bone-chilling cold, but still, I shiver. The darkness tries to extract every last bit of warmth my body contains. I look up into the night Father Sky, who was conceived from Chaos, with its pinpoints of light who shine down on Mother Earth, and I continue my journey for even the night does not offer me rest or relief. This goes on for longer than I care to remember or want to think about, cycling between hot and dry scorching days to cool barren dark and lonely nights.

Finally, one night, in the distance, I hear a sound. I walk towards it slowly, as I come closer I can tell it is music and voices. My dry eyes have a hard time focusing, but I see a fire and people dancing around it. When I get close enough for them to see me, they all shout “Come join us, Wanderer.” As I get closer to the fire and the dancers, I spy a woman dressed in beautiful blue scarfs with lovely white skin showing through very pleasingly. I see a ray of uniqueness in her that I cannot define. I somehow feel she is different from anyone I have met before in my journey. I draw close and we dance, she tells me she is the seventh child of Surya, and she is the Water Bearer, I tell here I am but a sojourner in this land. I tell her of the things I have seen and felt. I say I sense in her, a unique and old spirit, and she says the same about me. Suddenly, the tiredness from my journey overwhelms me and my vision narrows as darkness engulfs my mind, and I fall to the ground seeing nothing as my eyes close in fitful sleep.

I slowly awoke, at first I expect to see the remains of a fire and sleeping people beside me, but I look around and see no one nor do I see a burnt-out fire. It is daylight again and still bright, hot and stifling but my lungs feel minute dampness in the air. I wonder, was last night a dream? I stand up my legs are weak and tired; however, a short distance off, I see a patch of green surrounded by the dry sands, I have been traveling through. I walk quicker as I see and hope that it is real. As I get closer it starts to rain, the fat drops hit my skin, and it feels like nothing I have felt before or at least can remember, this spurs me faster towards the patch of green. Finally, my feet touch the soft wet grass, and my dry soles suck in the water. I see a pool of water. My mind can hardly believe it is there. I kneel beside it and cup my hands and dip them into the glistening wetness. My hands suck in the life-giving liquid, and I raise my shaking hands to my parched cracked dry lips, my tongue dances with joy as it feels the water pass by into my thirsty body.

I decide I can stand it no more. I strip off all the layers of clothes that have protected me from the suns and my desiccated surroundings. I lower my nude body into the inviting water as I lay down and sink up to my neck, my dry skin tinkles as the water sinks into me. Every pore of my body is invaded by it. I lower myself further down and now my ears are covered, and all worldly sounds are muted, but now I hear new sounds. As I lay there the water soaks into my dry cracked soul. In my ears, a sweet voice whispers softly, “I am the Water Bearer. I am the water, and I will now be in the very air you breathe. You are the earth. I have soaked into you, and we are now one, even when you cannot see me, we are together. Furthermore, know that when you need it, you will find pools just like this one along with your journey.” I plunge my head entirely under the water and for a few seconds, I swear I could breathe in water instead of air. The entire world dissolves into meaningless chatter. It feels like being embraced in a way I have never felt before, but reflexes many years learned to kick in, and I raise my face above the water. I reluctantly get out of the water and put my clothes back on.

I continue my journey, but now I feel the water that is in me. I know it has filled a need in me, and that I cannot exist without it, and I have a hunch that somehow I fulfill a need in the water. With each breath, I take more moisture enters my body. My muscles by some means seem more fluid and spontaneous than before. As I walk along my feet feel like they are walking on damp earth instead of the hot scorching sand, I had gotten used to, as I lift my right foot, I look down and see the wetness my footprint leaves behind. I stare at it. Quietly small tender shoots spring from the spot. I stop and look behind me and see foot shaped green patches in the ground, and I know each one tells a story, stories of my journey and of hopes for the future. I do not know for sure what all this means to my journey, but I now know the earth can share itself with the water, and the water can share itself with the earth, and somehow they are both the better because of this union.

By Seeker96 for Mo Anamchara

Reviews

[Nessly]

You show great self awareness with this story. It's lovely.

[H.L. Cerveise]

Thank you for reading and reviewing this poem. I am glad you liked it. I sometimes worry this story will not be understood. I am glad you saw it for what it was.

[Zaliodir]

I very much enjoyed the story. It is somehow a soothing thing to read. Thank you. =) (Sorry for all the smileys, I guess I just enjoy smiling.)

[H.L. Cerveise]

I am so glad you liked it. It was something that summed up how I felt about a virtual encounter and had it had a lasting effect on me.

[Diamond]

This story, I am afraid is everybody's. But many are too caught in mundane needs, to see their own physical, mental and spiritual needs.

[H.L. Cerveise]

Thank you for reading and reviewing my story. I so agree with your words, "many are too caught in mundane needs, to see their own physical, mental and spiritual needs."