Mad disquietude in a lifeless sky (part 2)

Her haunting suggestion of a smile and damaged fortitude can’t help but summon an outbreak of quiet strength; vitality inflates, seeping into these anxious pores with a fresh spurt of masculine bravo… The lukewarm hearth of tenderness warmly flares with renewed empathy, nourishing that inherent desire to alleviate her obvious discomfort…and conceal any implication of my own.  “Aye,” brims murmur quietly in response… Mournful visions arise from their earthen graves. These forests beyond the skeletal, gargantuan trees and deteriorating crags are nothing like the untamed wood where vine laden curtains would filter tawny, dappled light in the coming dawn. Where glimmering particles of dust did glisten through an impossibly tangled overgrown canopy; lush, beautiful foliage accenting the moss-covered rocks beside clear fountains. The air (though saturated heavily) was sweet with life…fertility.   Delicious, thundering water – tumbling in a mighty cascade from dozens of points. This soul remembers…though the reflection has become overcast… those long, birdsong eves. Patrolling cliffs and crowded pathways for newcomers; bearing the weight of responsibility for our people in those valleys of lore and mist. My mind/heart fixed on the image of a lovely, grey skinned woman…who was nesting close by…our sweet child tucked beneath her flaming embrace. Molars labor in the back of my mouth; temples scrunch beneath the gravity of emerged ghosts and the sense of helplessness they provoke. My skin quivers, –in spite the humid, feverous environment—goose chills reinvigorate the damp quills. Restlessly, those sun-kissed feathers loosen and resettle against my waist. Irises ascend, glancing upward impulsively; keeping watch for trouble as we transverse, though our beach appears vacant. My family is scattered. Like dust in the wind. They have become specters or worse…a refugee in this…this, “Have you lived here…alone?” Aside from Zahra, I’ve seen no one that even remotely resembles our likeness; our kind is built for social interaction and without the adjacency of kinsman…tis safe to assume our minds would unravel, decaying over time. This brief sample of her world lends sympathy, I can’t imagine the pain and terror she has endured…the untold misery she is still enduring. This neck curls, angling in her direction – offering comfort with my proximity as she openly weeps…

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