Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.
- Ernest Hemingway
Beauty isn't always visible yet it is always there, it is so alike breathing that it is sometimes scary. Yet just like breathing we never know it's there until we no longer have it.
- Kath
Getting out of town was easier thanks to the tattoo, but I wasn't expecting to get surrounded by children small and grabby handy ones too. I smiled softly, oh sorry kiddos I do not have a single penny on me. I thought before sinking to my knees.
"Hello kids, what can I do for you?"I asked tilting my head just a little, a tiny kid with bubblegum pink hair stepped forward,her skin and hair was so dirty that the pink was almost gone in the mess of brown and black.
"Do....yow.... have...anythin'....to eat, sir'?" She asked brokenly. I shook my head and showed them my pockets, hiding the one with the objects from view.
"I apologize, but I have nothing apart from the clothes on my back and the bandages that hide my injuries. But I have a small solution to your problem. Find your talents, everyone has one after all, whether they are small or massive, it does not matter. Then use them, perform them, and place a fabric of small size by your feet or even a hat. Perform them where it is widely populated or crowded and be patient. You will receive money this way. If you can not use your talent for performing find other ways I am positive you will find a way."I told them slowly before standing and striding away rather than having them accost me again. I kept my guard up as I walked through the slums, one side was a blind spot after all, and when someone is desperate enough they would do anything. The sun was setting so very slowly in the distance, bathing the sky in a wide array of oranges and reds. It was surprisingly silent yet not enough to make me wary as I passed through the ruins of the slums.... why do they do nothing about this? Why do such things as rich and poor exist? Why couldn't everyone work in equal measures? Why does no one lend a helping hand? But... aren't they supposed to find a way themselves? That isn't so riddled in danger as living out here? I shook my head, must I bother about this as well? Perhaps one day I'll find a way to assist just enough to push them to work. I breached the treeline with these thoughts heavily spinning around my already busy mind. Spinning and weaving so quickly that in mere moments I was lost in my own mind. But the sudden and deafening roar of life blanketed my mind so completely that I had frozen in the place I stood. Listening as the forest came to life as the night descended. Hundreds- thousands-millions?- of animals waking or busy heading to their respective homes within the monstrous woods that nearly shadowed the stars from sight. A canopy of leaves almost hides the sky from view. Yet it was still visible and bled slowly into a gentle blue. I hadn't noticed before, I think. The beauty of the place that so many in my world had sought to destroy, to misuse. As if wide areas of forests were nothing more than to be used instead of just there to give us shelter, to give us food to give us life. The colors were too many to name. A dizzying array that flowed seamlessly with the brown of the bark and ground. It was like the bustling world of people, streets, and work-life had faded and been forgotten, left somewhere to be remembered when the world once more brought the dawn back to light. I stared for a moment before climbing a tree to watch the world from above. The leaves glittered as the moonlight touched them, slipping like sewn silk threads of milky white spilling down on the busy forest floors. A herd of stag walked cautiously below. As if in doubt of the safety the night would provide. They weren't the same color as those from my world. They were elaborate shades of green, with vines and flowers growing freely from their antlers. Birds so colorful that a person couldn't help but notice them hung like bats from the greenery that grew from them. Small nests were made within the impressive and integrate antlers the stags had.
My eyes widened in stunned silence as a crystal transparent blue substance formed in the air just above the stags. Unfolding like a flower at sunrise. The blue quickly formed excited little wisps that whipped so very quickly around the stags, that it almost seemed like it was weaving a long complex path between them, leaving behind flakes of light that fell gently to the ground. Luminous flowers grow in their place. I was startled so badly when another wisp formed right by my nose, that I gripped the branch that I had managed to reach and sit on comfortably, my body swaying to the side so that I hung upside down. The wisp somehow followed me even as it unfolded. As soon as it did it kissed my nose and zipped away like a frightened animal. While my body tenses up in shock. Oh. Well, that was certainly unexpected. And confusing too. My eyes flickered to trace the path the wisp left behind. Following it as it flowed and spun between trees and the leaves, bushes, and night creatures that had awoken. None seemed too unfriendly yet. Though those creatures might just be hiding among them. Who knew? Maybe there was one on the very tree I was hanging from. I shuddered and scowled at my own train of thought, losing sight of the tiny wisps within my moment of distraction. I climbed back to my original place and leaned against the trunk of the tree. I sure hope no predator was up here or they'd get a really nasty surprise.