THE FOURTH REALM: GREEN — Room for her own steps

There was often dancing in the meadows. Dances began without anyone calling for them. One creature started to sing, another found an instrument, someone kept time with paws or wings. The group grew like a wheel finding its own motion.

At first, Skyblue thought they all knew a dance they had learned when they were young. They followed one another so naturally that she didn’t dare join in, afraid of getting in the way.

Until one day, her body began to move before she had decided to.

First a paw, then her tail, then her wings. Before she knew it, she was among them. No one corrected her steps. There was room for her own.

The music seemed to rise from her body. She felt a tickling in her belly, as though a host of butterflies had woken there. She laughed and heard the others’ laughter answer. They sang, turned, and let the rhythm bring them together until, gradually, silence came.

They stood looking at one another. Some embraced; others rested a forehead, a wing, or a hand on whoever was nearby. Skyblue felt her heart fall into rhythm with theirs.

Then everyone returned to their tasks. They parted as naturally as they had come together.

Time alone took on a new meaning, too. The people of the meadows called it a journey within. For Skyblue, who had once feared finding only emptiness inside herself, it was now a time of connection. She remembered Arthyr Aurelio’s words and how she had fled from them. She didn’t reproach herself for having been afraid. She was glad to have reached, at last, a place from which she could understand them.

She didn’t know how long she spent in the meadows. Days no longer seemed like containers she had to fill. Some were for work, others for conversation or silence. Every one held something that needed her attention.