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"I love you."
"We love you too."
You both hesitate at first, but soon your hands meet on the handle of the door. Together, you pull it open, closing your eyes as the hinges creak. For a moment, the two of you merely linger there in silence, both of you hesitant and unsure of the path that lies before you.
But the sound of her voices cut through the silence. " Lead us, and we will follow. "
Her fingers interlock with yours, and you grasp her hand firmly as you blindly lead her out the door. You make it off of the front porch, and move to walk the path you expect before you, but
you do not feel it
there is nothing at all
and you drop.
You hear her let out a series of gasps as she's pulled down with you, like an iron ball weighing a chain. You steel yourself, tightening your grip on her hand and pulling her close, wrapping an arm around her body. You feel the rest of her arms reach for yours, grasping tightly as if you're the only thing tethering her to existence.
(You distantly wonder if you are, but focus yourself before your doubts have a chance to clamber their way back into your mind. You know that there is no need to doubt yourself anymore.)
You feel your stomach twist and turn as the wind blows in your ears. You've fallen in forever before, but it's never lasted this long-- you always found your way back to yourself-- but there is nothing left for you to find. For now, you cling to her tighter, focusing instead on the rhythmic pounding of her heart in her chest, the warmth of her touch in a cold and unforgiving place.
...
...
...
It's not long before you feel yourself hit the bottom. But the contact is not harsh, and you do not feel solid ground; it stretches around you as you plunge downwards, but it does not spring back up.
Soon, you begin to feel the boundaries of the world constrict in on itself, its form twisting and wrapping around the two of you. It suffocates you. But it does not last forever. Eventually, something gives. After stretching itself thin enough, something snaps, and you tear into a vast land unknown. Endless realities overlap one another, infinite galaxies stretch out into forever, boundless potential and many different lives and colors and feelings that wash over you at once, an overwhelming force bigger than you or her that threatens to swallow you whole.
You do not open your eyes to perceive it.
You tuck yourself into the stranger. Her hands grasp for you. You hold eachother close.
The fall wasn't nearly as hard as you anticipated. The harsh descent you expected does not come, and instead, the two of you eventually find yourself gradually settling onto soft ground. You feel the grass underneath you. Wind blows on your face, and the chirping of insects meets your ears.
Your eyes flutter open, your vision still swimming, but you lift your head to look up at her. She's lying down next to you, the two of you still locked in an embrace, but you loosen up as you process that you're no longer in danger of slipping away from eachother. She stirs with some difficulty, but soon pushes herself to sit up, pausing for a moment as she stares at the environment with wide eyes, her faces displaying various levels of awe. But it shifts as she contemplates the situation, hope dampened by uncertainty.
" We weren't sure what to expect, when we were leaving the cabin with you. Maybe we would be trapped there together, in the Long Quiet, existing within ourselves for the rest of time, or... maybe it would just be the same woods again. But that was-- this is... " She stops for a moment, working her jaws. " ...Different. "
You pull yourself up to sit up as well, looking around.
Although you're in a clearing, you are... very much still in the woods. But, like she said, it's different. There's bugs, and birds, the wind rustling the trees, things that are not the two of you. Even the ground beneath you feels so much more alive, in a way you never could've imagined.
" I think we made it. " You finally answer, facing her once again.
Her deep red eyes meet yours. Her expression gives away to shock and wonder as the meaning of your words clicks in her mind, realization dawning on her.
" We're with them, now. " She finishes your thought, words hushed. Her expressions soften, and each and every one of her gives you a smile. She sets a hand on her chest, another on one of her cheeks, another reaching down to feel the grass underneath her. She continues, a sense of fondness leaking into her voice as she speaks of you. " Just when we thought we had seen it all, you find yet another way to surprise us. "
She rises to her feet, holding her hands close to her chest. She looks around for a long moment, finally allowing herself to properly take in the surroundings.
" So this is what the world is truly like. It is... wonderful. "
Her attitude is infectious, an inescapable smile of your own tugging at the corners of your mouth. You raise a finger to your beak in a shushing gesture, glancing off towards the trees. " Careful. There could be bears out here now. "
(You're pretty sure that's the sort of threat that would usually be in a forest, anyways.)
A series of quiet, stifled laughter erupts from her, and she takes hold of your claws, pulling you along as she walks further into the forest. You nearly trip over yourself as you attempt to keep up, but you manage to get a hold of your footing in time. " Then we shouldn't give them time to catch up to us! Come, little bird. "
The pet name makes your face warm up lightly, puffing up your feathers in an attempt to regulate your temperature. It isn't the first time she's used that name for you, but it feels different. Recontextualized. She's no longer a threat looming over you, but an equal. Someone who you know better than yourself.
The two of you trek through the woods, just as aimless as the very first time. Except now, there is no goal that the world itself pushes you towards, regardless of how much you attempt to avoid it. There is no cabin waiting for you at every turn. The world does not bend itself under the weight of your will, and you are not alone.
But just as you tried back then, you've avoided the plans that fate had for you. And instead of blindly hoping to encounter anything but your destined path, you now hold no expectations at all. The two of you simply bumble through the woods with no clear destination, admiring what surrounds you. It all feels so full and lively, and you come to realize that everything He had made for you paled in comparison to the real thing. No man's memory is a perfect thing, and it would be nearly impossible for it to have matched up.
Still, this does not make your experiences any lesser. It simply makes them... different. It makes this different, new, exciting.
You admire the trees, the flowers, the animals, the person you hold. Although it is all rather small, each contains its own texture and beauty. Even the little things are deserving of admiration, especially after everything has felt so large your entire life. It's a welcome breath of fresh air, figuratively and literally.
As you two take your time making your way through your surroundings, looking at every new little thing for your eyes to behold, you stumble upon something. It is not a town, or a village, or a farm, but... a lone cabin, a place in the woods carved out by the hands of a person. It is not dissimilar to the one you are so intimately familiar with now, but it is very clearly different, a bit larger, a bit more... whole.
There still remains hesitation. The two of you glance at eachother silently, nervously.
" We should look inside. " You suggest, eventually. " There might be somebody else in there. "
They look forward, a troubled expression on their faces that does not ease. " Right, yes. That... would be a good idea. "
You do not move forward. You can feel the tenseness in them, and you're unwilling to continue forward with them like this. " What's wrong? "
They blink, turning their front head to face you, raising a hand to their mouth as they chew over the question for a moment. " It's just that... well, we are not sure if we are ready to meet another person yet. " They attempt to conjure up a smile for you, but you can see the nerves still tugging at them. Everything is so new and uncertain, and it's unlike anything they've ever experienced before. " But we will be here with you, whatever you choose. "
It always comes back to your decision, somehow.
" If it'd make you feel better, I can go first. "
They hum, glancing down at your intertwined hands. Their smile becomes a bit wider, a bit more genuine, spreading to the rest of their faces. " That would be nice, yes. "
So you lead once more, walking in front of them with a confidence in your step that, in turn, raises their own as well. You bring a comforting sense of certainty in an otherwise new and strange situation. Something for them to fall back on.
(At least, you hope.)
They move to the side, hand slipping out of yours as you approach the front door of the cabin. You pause for only a moment before bringing your hand to the handle of the door. You find that it is not locked, and you push it open with ease.
The inside is dark, the moonlight filtering in through the windows being the only light source in the room. It's rather spacious inside, with very little furniture besides a few stray chairs and a table. There's a door at the other side of the room, cracked open very slightly.
You step inside, and lightly raise your voice as you call for whoever might live inside. " Hello? "
There is no response.
You decide to look through their belongings. Purely for investigative purposes, of course. Curiosity is in your nature, and you have never been one to abandon the call.
It's mostly just necessities. Kitchen knives, a few dishes and silverware. However, as you open a pantry, your face scrunches up in disgust as a putrid scent invades your nostrils, causing you to break out into involuntary hacking and coughing as your eyes settle upon abandoned food scraps that have completely rotted from the inside-out.
You decide to close the pantry.
Unfortunately, now that you have opened Pandora's box, the smell has escaped and infiltrated the rest of the room, pushing you to hurry forward in order to escape the smell of rot and mold. As you make your way further inside, up the stairs, looking through everything to check for any signs of life. But you find little else. Whoever used to live in this place seems to have abandoned it long ago, leaving no clues of who they used to be or the life that they lived here. Seemingly, they've just left the house behind to rot. You suppose that all of this is a good thing. Although you were rather eager to find someone new, it's likely for the best that nobody is here. For both of your sakes.
It gives you time to settle in, time to figure out who you are.
You move to return downstairs to meet your princess once more, but upon turning around, you realize that they've been following just behind you. Just as they said they would.
" You couldn't find anyone. " They rub their wrist, clasp their hands, and put a hand to their chin all at once. They decide to keep their thoughts on the matter to themself, but you can tell that they're a bit relieved. " Well... we should leave now, shouldn't we? "
You glance to the side, briefly, but your eyes quickly snap back to meet hers when you respond. " We don't have to leave. "
Their expression shifts to confusion, the furrowing of their brows more exaggerated on some faces than others. " But... somebody has to have lived here, and they will have to return. "
You take a glance around the room once again. You look at all of the space, the empty containers, dusty surfaces, you think of what remains. You can't help but wonder what had happened to whoever lived here. You want to believe they simply moved on to somewhere else, but you find it easy for your mind to drift to something bleaker.
You decide not to dwell on it, for now.
" I think somebody used to. But they're not coming back. "
They pick up on the implications of your statement rather quickly. Some of their faces open their mouths in shock, the others simply adopt a small frown. But they soon lighten up, and they speak, with the smallest twinge of hope in their voices. " If this home has been left behind... then something new must come. A new start, for this place and for all of us. " They smile. " Yes, we would like that. "
And that's what you do. The two of you spend the next few hours cleaning the cabin up. Dusting it off, removing cobwebs, and ridding yourselves of the rot. You do end up finding more of the previous owner's discarded belongings as the two of you comb through the place, but nothing truly indicative of the kind of person they used to be; merely basic necessities and discarded scraps.
Still, this is enough for a home. It's enough to live.
You will have to find society at a certain point, inevitably. You will have to face people for the first time in your life.
But you know that neither of you will have to do it alone.
Luckily, the cabin not having much left does mean cleaning up is far less work. Although the task feels long and tedious, you're able to fix it up easily, and it goes by much quicker with teamwork. By the end, you feel a sense of satisfaction... as well as exhaustion. It's much more dull than the kind you're used to, though, which is a welcome change of pace. The most horrifying thing you've really set your eyes upon thus far is the monstrosity of what used to be a food supply-- which you so bravely took care of so that she didn't have to-- but that was less "scary" and more "gross".
Now, you get the chance to relax. In the second floor of the cabin resides a bedroom, which contains little else but said bed, but it's as good a place as any. You sit down on the mattress next to her, and, for the first time in an eternity, you allow yourself to finally rest. It almost feels easy, in her presence, although it is very much foreign to you. You think she must feel the same way. But this is what the two of you have been fighting for. The moment would not be what it is without the hardship that lead to it.
(You know that's what She would have said, too.)
You watch from the window as the sky begins to shift. The cold darkness of the night begins to pass, giving way to pink and orange and yellow hues that paint the sky in vivid color, colors that you've never seen before. It grows and grows and grows, the sunlight finally finding its way to you for the first time.
Time has always been an elusive concept to you. You know that it is true and definite, but you have never experienced it for yourself. It is always the woods. It is always the cabin. It is always night. It is always you. You have seen her change, but you have never grown. And yet, here it is, and here you are.
You rest your head on her shoulder. Your hands find their way to hers. The action feels natural, and as your hands intertwine, you feel your fingers fit together as if they were puzzle pieces, like they were made for this action and this action alone. Your eyelids become heavy, and you begin to drift off.
It's a new dawn.