Dust (Of Dust and Darkness) - By Devon Ashley Page 0,5
neverending floor of luscious greenery that dance and twirl with Mother Wind. Bright streaks of white light skip sporadically across the sky and I see a flock of birds in the distance take flight, spooked by the thunderous roar above them.
As I hover over the forest canopy, I inhale several deep, cool breaths. The rain coats the land before me, saturating the soil, leaves and flowers. The earthy smell hitches a ride with the wind and makes its way toward me. It fills my nostrils and lungs, and quiets my mind. I slowly descend atop a leaf on one of the emergent trees that poke above the canopy, leaning back on my elbows and crossing my legs. The leaf sways back and forth, and jerks me occasionally when a gale passes, but I don’t mind. The movement is almost hypnotic.
I sigh with content. This is why I love my tree house near the canopy. The air’s more alive up here, continuously circulating around you, prickling your skin with goose bumps, swaying you gently back and forth, as if Mother Wind herself is rocking you softly in her arms. The others just don’t seem to get that, happy enough with the musty air expelled by the life at the bottom of the forest strata, where fungus and decaying matter pad the forest floor. But not me. The higher up the better.
Between cool breezes, I hear a rustling in the tree beneath me, but the massive number of leaves protect the sound’s maker. I startle when a figure punches through the canopy, but calm when I realize it’s just Tracker. His skin the same hue as mine, his muscles curve subtlety along his arms and legs, his body lean for quickness but not built for strength. His eyes are tan, similar to the color of dried moss that hangs off this very tree, and his hair a light shade of brown too. He pauses momentarily to take in the skyline, as enthralled by the sight as I am. “Wow. I rarely come up this high. And never when it’s about to storm.”
I softly murmur mmm-hmm as I return my attention to the clouds swirling in the sky.
“You mustn’t let Meg upset you,” he says softly. I turn to see his kind, tan eyes gazing down at me.
I huff. “I promise you she didn’t. I couldn’t care less about her little antics. I just felt suffocated down there.”
“You seem suffocated with this place in general. I rarely see you in or around the Hollow anymore.” Tracker circles me a few times, inhaling a few deep breaths himself. “But I can see why you prefer the air up here. Less…saturated.”
“How did you find me?” I ask, because only Poppy knows I come here, and because I had dipped and swayed so much through the forest I should’ve been impossible to follow.
His eyebrows lift with amusement. “They don’t call me Tracker for nothing.”
Impressed, I reply, “I had heard that you were good but I didn’t realize you were that good.”
He chuckles and nestles atop the leaf beside me, swaying in rhythm with me. “I’m not really. You were easy to follow. You left the scent of peppermint behind.”
I smile. I had completely forgotten about diving through the peppermint patch this morning. I certainly don’t smell it when I inhale anymore. I lift my arm to my nose, and sure enough, a whiff of peppermint cools my nose again.
“To be honest, I’m a little surprised you’re still here.”
My forehead scrunches. “What do you mean? I don’t care that pixies like Meg play stupid games. I’m not going to hide from them or anything.”
“I wasn’t referring to Meg. I meant the Hollow. I’m surprised you haven’t left like those before us. You seem just like them.”
The wind suddenly whips our leaves, so I doubt he notices my body snap in reaction to his words. “How so?”
“They were all loners that preferred to get lost in the forest. Pixies in general are in tune with Mother Nature, but you particular pixies are more so.” I didn’t like the way he said you particular pixies – my nose actually wrinkles – like I was similar to those that abandoned our village and never came back. “I’ve seen the way you look at our surroundings, Rosalie. It’s like you see something the rest of us don’t, and your wings glow yellow like those before you. Like you know there’s more to life out there than what rests within our Hollow.”