A touch of the sun

I trudge up the trail to the highest peak of the mountain. A gravelly voice confronts me, splitting into the voice of many, each speaking through the other. It echoes around me, and I run, for death is not done with me yet.

I see in the far distance a sunbeam that is ready to shine above the valley of trees. I hurry and promise myself in silent prayers that it is only one more climb. The wind stiffens my muscles, wrapping tight around my bones, and the sun ascends higher before my body finds its last strength to reach my hand upward in the air until my hand warms.

A shadow of a figure creeps behind me. It murmurs and my throat scrapes like sandpaper. The heart trapped in my chest does its daily fight to get out.

“Not yet,” I promise.

I stretch out in the field until my limbs are close to forgetting what it feels like to be used. The distance between me and the shadowed figure grows farther. Secure enough in my position away from it, I step away, letting the sun lead me. My hand wanders over the moss-covered bark
of a bent tree, the soft flowing water, and it greets an ambling deer.

I already forget my time and see the sun slipping away from me. I desperately dart to follow, but once again, I am beaten. I bring my body back towards the start, hoping to outrun the dark. I’ve not yet reached halfway when my knees scrape the ground as I lose my strength.

I hear its whispers behind me, jarring, low, and ever tedious. I can’t make out what they’re saying, but it’s familiar, and I know it’s nearing. Death is catching up to me, and I sit still.

“Does it get tiring, running from the day?” Words spit like venom. I ask, eager to satisfy my curiosity.

“No,” she states simply. “I don’t judge which light you see.”

There is a clinking of metal and a cracking of sparks lightning. The grass blades beneath my feet are lit. I turn to see death holding my lantern in her boney fingers. I close the gap, quick to my feet, and take it out of her hands. The musty air coming from her fills my nose so distinctly, I step back. A moth naturally dances circles around the light.

“You assume you either have one or the other. Death or day. It’s false.”

With a bowed head, I follow Death’s steps. She leads me down a different path than I expected. I make sure it doesn’t reach an end.

“Are you lonely?” I wonder aloud.

“I am not. I am alone, yet not without company.”

A little door of my lantern squeaks open, and the bracing air nearly blows out the light. I quickly close it in time, clutching it to my chest. Death disapproves of something I can’t quite understand. I blink and she is nearly out of sight, along with the lantern. I sprint to catch up and
steal it back, but my eyes adjust and the stars, as bright as they can be, show the way.

“Why give it to me if you will just take it away?” I let out an unintended sharp edge to my voice. “Where are we going?” but I’m met with silence.

A distant clomping of hooves grows louder. A suit of armor clanks before me. My heart takes a leap and I nearly fall. Four others parade past me and drop their sharp steel. Their blades nicks at my skin and builds me a prison. They proceed, galloping beyond my reach, after a silent
greeting from Death. I shout and curse when they fade out of sight, but it doesn’t free me. I pick up every sword out of the ground and haste forward. Death is nearly too far.

I look upwards through the trees, enraptured with the rustling of leaves that I miss my heart being stolen. In surprise I jog in search of it, but I am lost. I wander around, hollowed out. A curious long-limbed creature hangs from a branch, questioning why I plod. It climbs closer with
a tilted head.

“It’s my heart.” Unsure how my nearly unspoken words leave me.

In response it offers a barter. We negotiate and discuss what treasured items I can part with – although I can’t find my connection to it. It stops me and shows interest in something different.

A cold, yet not unwelcome feeling enters when the lantern back at my waist along my friendly moth leaves my grip. A warm, fluttery feeling comes back to me when I cradle my heart close, and it brings me back to ease.

The creature warns me with a hushed voice, while smiling at its light, that at the end of the road is a king able to return the heart back to my chest, but to be heedful of rumours of his greed.

I saunter back on the newly cleared path it points to.

The castle is found under brooding clouds. The garden is more wildly overgrown than neat. The tall fortress makes for quite the vision with each individual structure carefully carved. Each painting in the hall, as far as the eye can see, tells a different story. A pillar interrupts my path,
more crumbling and shattered at each of my sides.

A principled stone king, as tall as the ceiling can possibly go, sits at the end of the long-spread room. Rows of decent people sit, quietly, awaiting my arrival. A front row of suits of armor stand, civilly. And I am sure that I have traveled too far towards the end of the road.

I bow low in greeting.

At last, the king asks me to present them the sun, and the realization settles abruptly. I don’t know what gives them that impression, but I assure them that it’s not me that can give them that.

Death’s stench is distant, but present. I don’t know whether to be worried about not knowing how long she was gone, or glad to meet my old companion. She mumbles under her ragged breath, something I can’t make out.

The king frowns at me, and although I can’t feel my heart in my chest, I feel his scorn. He sits so still that I wonder if I have misinterpreted him as living and he is not more than a statue. But finally his words boom across the room, vibrating through me. He declares that I have ventured
through the lands, and I alone will help them reach their destiny out.

The people stand, nearly snapping their necks to get a look. Their bones creak, stiff, and I wonder how very long they have sat there.

I hand each of the armored suits their sword as they bow to me. The king promises to return my heart to my chest and keep it safe until after I lead them. Remembering the warning, I keep it away from his grasp. I thank him, but refuse, hoping there will be another way.

We travel through the dark lands, parading back upward, through the green hills. In the bright sunlight that welcomes me back with joy.

I close my eyes, and hold my heart close to my chest. I have to squint when a sudden brighter flash burns. When I open my eyes I laugh loudly in relief, to see my heart returned to its rightful place, beating a little softer.

We sing, dance all day, even as the sun goes down, and we celebrate after a long journey. I don’t know how I saw stone in them at all.

I step away when I notice a shadowed figure in the distance.

“Will I now go on without you?” I ask in the night, suddenly worried.

“Yes,” Death answers shortly. “Don’t dread. You have better company than I can offer.”

“I will miss you,” I say solemnly, with a raised head.

“You won’t,” she says, almost fondly. She disappears before the first break of morning.

I turn back, taking a last look at what we’ve reached, before heading into the shadowed lands to lead the sun in the morning.