THE THIRD REALM: YELLOW — A narrowing path

And so the days went by. Skyblue wandered the realm without direction, ate anxiously, and searched for shelter before dark. She slept a great deal but never felt rested. Sometimes she sat motionless among the ruins, going over a scene from her childhood and changing it in her mind to include everything she wished she had said.

The more she thought, the emptier her stomach felt. She tried to fill the hollow by eating, but it only left her feeling heavy. The delicacies in her satchel seemed more tasteless every day.

She retraced her steps and stumbled over the same rubble. She scarcely noticed the fugaíns unless she had to dodge a blow. Her thoughts were still defending the little girl she had been, in an argument the others could no longer hear.

One day she stopped and looked around.

“What am I doing here? I could be with Ernesto, peaceful in my tree. Is this what I set out for?”

A fugaín collided with her side. Skyblue drew away with a growl and went on talking to herself.

“Every place is worse than the last. I’ve seen all I need to see. I want to go home.”

She thought of calling Helio. But instead of asking for help, she began blaming her for abandoning her in this place.

Then she remembered Evarista.

‘It’s easy for her to talk about the journey. She stayed behind, perfectly comfortable in her tree. Perhaps she never even had to go through anything like this.’

She grew angry with her parents, too. If her mother hadn’t insisted on giving her that name, perhaps everything would have been different. And why had her father allowed it? He should have put his foot down.

Even Ernesto ended up accused.

“You were my best friend. You should have stopped me, told me not to go.”

She could no longer clearly remember how happy she had been to set out. Every memory reshaped itself around her unhappiness, as though her entire life had been one long preparation for leaving her alone among these ruins.

When night came, she built a shelter out of stones and half-destroyed objects. She fell asleep and woke at the slightest sound, convinced that something was approaching. The next morning she began again, tired before taking her first step.

A long time passed before she could remember another dream. She saw Helio fluttering above her head, trying to tell her something. But Skyblue was busy threatening the fugaíns with her torch. She didn’t want to listen. At last she had a way to defend herself.

When she woke, she decided to find the way back. She pictured her home, and it felt remote, almost imaginary. Then she remembered how powerful her torch had been in the dream.

“When I get out of here, I’ll go wherever I like,” she said aloud. “I’ll visit all the enchanted regions. No one will ever tell me what to do again. And if anyone tries to bother me, they’ll find out who they’re dealing with.”

She drew herself up as she said it. For a moment she felt renewed, though the torch seemed larger and she seemed to have grown a little shorter.

She put it down to tiredness.