set adrift [open]

Dahlia Krearns

                                                                 


says,thinks,hears

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    I watch as I am betrayed by the very arms that nursed me to adulthood. The ocean is lashing out at us, but what have we done to deserve this?  Had she become restless from our endless boating, or saddened from our constant thievery of her fish? I feel the wind fondle my ear, the ocean thrusting into the rocky cliffside. I watch as peoples bodies are swept up into the mouth of our home. I listen to the shrills of children, and the whales of a now husbandless wife. I watch as the sea is reddened. 

    I was standing just before the docks edge when all of the commotion picked up. The boards of wood creaking and cracking, and the boats to either side rocking with tremendous force. I see the shipmen stumbling upon their boats, many of which fall into the stomach of the sea. I watch as she devours us all. It wasn't long before I saw the wave, the wave that  was bound to end me. It was the hand of the ocean herself, she was fed up with our disrespect, and here she was backhanding the ungrateful. I bundle the sleeves of my sweater into the palm of my hand, I look to the sky and I inhale the vicious breeze into my nostrils. 

    I then turn, and I run. I run faster then the wind can carry me, I shuffle  between dismayed bodies like a fish dodges a spear. I run for the hills that will bring me salvation. I am uncertain if I will make it, but I have no other choice but to run. Within moments the wind is lashing at my cheeks with greater speeds, it becomes harder to lift my feet, and my hair is whipping my vision away from me. 

    The next moments can only bring silence. I feel my entire body ripped away from this world. I feel my lunges burn, because there was no longer oxygen to my disposal. I was overtaken by the ocean, and now I would have to pray she shows me mercy. I was taken below the bodies of dead men, their bodies now lifeless down here. She brought me to her lips and she spoke to me. She told me I was of sin, that she should drown me here...and now. But she also said I showed kindness and beauty of a higher magnitude, that she would spare me not due to kindness, but because she saw herself in me. 

    This cycle of breath strokes and gasping for air had seemed never ending, but it wasn't until I awoke the next morning that I was capable of comprehension. The sea goddess had spared my life, but that did not mean the fight was over. I awoke under the wreckage of a boat. I could smell the stench of rum and blood, my body still shivering form the cold. My body had been pulled upon one of the floating pieces of draft wood, and the rest of this boats wreckage had somehow made it to shore.

    But this shore was alien to those I had become accustomed to. I did not recognize this barren shore. It was dull and lifeless, nothing like those of district four. I lift my head from my place of rest, moist blood still seeping down my spine. I had hit my head at some point in time, though I do not remember. I use my arms to reposition my body, but it wasn't until I tried to stand on these new lands that I had discovered yet another inconvenience. My left leg was shattered, the shards of bone bring me so much pain. I must  have been slammed into this wreckage. Though it was my savior, it came with a heavy tole. 

    I break a piece of soggy driftwood from the near by boat deck, being sure that it was roughly the same size as my shin. I then take my sweater from my body using it to tie the wood to my leg, the pain was more excruciating then I could have ever imagined. But this would have to work for now, I needed to find home. The sea goddess had granted me life, but she has directed me to earn it myself, and so that is what I would do. I break off another large piece of driftwood about the length of my body. I use it as leverage to lift weight onto my shattered leg. Though the pain was unbelievable, it wasn't unbearable. 

    I begin to walk out form the wreckage using the large drift wood as a sort of cane. I had found the knowledge to save myself from disaster, but now I have a journey ahead of me. I look to the sky, but it brings no resemblance to that of my home. How could the sky have changed? I decided to walk along the coast, I have chosen a direction, and may it guide me to the light. For wisdom is on my side, and the dead bodies of those I love drive my strength. 

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