Arrival

This too was a castle, but a different one than what I saw before. It was tiny, the home of beings barely rising to my knees. The architecture was ornate, like that of a girl's dream dollhouse. Hidden away from the world, in a valley cut by the river, the small kingdom had a secret life of its own.

The treehouse was rotting, its door falling off its rusted hinge. Boxes of toys, long abandoned by the owners that treasured them, preserved the hopes and dreams of the ghosts that shall forever play in the canopy, under the shifting light of the peeking sun.

I never saw a creature like it. If I had to call it a name, it would be a whale. Yet it equally was a dog, or even an octopus. All I know is, it wanted to play. I named it Alisha, because surely she was a girl.

The vine was winding down, dipping into the shadow. Its fruit was bitter, yet filled me with the intuition of a thousand journeys. Watching it as I felt the effects of the brambles, I understood that watching the world go by was all anyone ought to do.

A cocoon hummed, attracting a horde of insects. They were possessed by their new lord, and so formed a new body around it. The pattern of their dance, rich and rippling, portended the coming of a new order.