Round The Bend

I'm tired. I've been chasing this thing for a long while now. We've been zigzagging across half the world. I've never been very good at telling this tale. I will try again. It may be pretty spotty. May be haphazard but here goes.

The girl lay still, like a porcelain figure. She was, just two weeks ago, full of life, love, all the things that occupy a young girl's being. Now her once rosy complexion is like a paper mask. Her chest barely rises and falls. The eyes, formerly full of light and health, now empty, like a blank page.

Oddly, there were times she seemed animated. Sometimes at night, she would rouse and ask to walk. Even more oddly, at noonday, she was similarly almost 'antsy'.

Her condition was halted right now. She was not deteriorating nor was she gaining strength. I was there.

I stood in the breach, so that nothing more could invade her. Neither was anything going out. The more it tried to enter, this phantom malady, the more I resisted in her stead. The more it angered, the more I resisted. It tried lateral attacks. I countered. From underneath, it attempted entry. It was barred again. Angrier and angrier, it tried to claim what it thought was its property. I denied it ingress. No road in. Neither of us were alone.

Infernal allies spread their leathery wings, trying to bolster its efforts. Antipathic cohorts, led a powerful thrust. They almost marched over me, with strident discordant dizzying strength.

When I thought I could bear no more, help arrived. Quietly. Steadily. Wings of light, as they grew, seemed to emit a sound, yet soundless. But there was 'force' there. Quiet assurance. Then what seemed to be a 'rush' of light. Blinding but not blinding, loud but no sound.

During this battle, we seemed to be in the eye of a hurricane. Locked in a vacuum.

Now, there was a way out. Standing in the breach, I felt it give way. Not inwardly but outwardly. It had no choice but to leave. Expelled, it fled. I followed.

Though it tried to hide its tracks, I was on the trail.

I left the girl to the tender but strong care of others. She would grow to be more robust than before. She would grow into the fine woman she was meant to be.

As for me, I was compelled to pursue it. I knew I would not stop til it was vanquished. I was not alone. I was never alone. Sometimes it just felt like it. When fatigue let despair leak into my armor, I thought there was nothing I could do. Then, a rush of fresh air gave me the knowledge that, when all was against the wall, that wall would crumble. The chase continues.

Armed with a sword that I can never lay down, I know that round the bend I will face it. Instead of fear, there is assurance. When I face it, we, not just I will not only be ready, but win.

Beyond that, holding the same sword, I will always look round the next bend for anything that tries to ambush me. It is vengeful. But I am willing to fight anew.


Happy Halloween. The first of several dreams to which you can ascribe what you will.