[color=bdbdbd]There she is again. Suspended as she is in this place far detached from where I reside. A breath of life in this forest. A forest that whispers endlessly. Wordlessly. Interrupted only by those who live within it's embrace. Interrupted mostly by me and yet somehow not by... [i]this one[/i]. She speaks volumes. She's finite and yet so much more than the infinite expanse stretched out before us both. So I visit from time to time and I watch. Watch her move as she does. Easily. Like water over smooth pebbles. Like the creek twenty-four nearly identical trees... [i]that way[/i]. I waited there yesterday for the trout snatcher but tonight I am here. With her.

She cracks another log and I look around.

Where's the other one?

The window where I enter is always open. I think it's to let the cool air in. To let this place breathe as easily as she does. So a breath eases me inside and lays me gently atop a quilt I've seen before. Maybe a hundred times now. It's somehow warmer to the touch tonight and smells of... dirt. Fire. Dust. Lavender. Like nothing I've smelled before and yet is a scent I'm very familiar with. It turns into an instinct scratching at the back of my mind. Into a warning... or a dare. Into a path almost as visible to my eyes as it is to my nose and rolls off the edge before me onto the ground below. I watch it crawl into another room and turn the corner before disappearing. It's leading me to her I know... and I'm inclined to follow. Or maybe I'm not. Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe the other one is waiting... but I jump down anyways.

I've brought a gift tonight. I've brought them before. I don't know yet if you've noticed. Little things from where I rest my head. A reminder that you live with me and I with you. I carry it gently as I pass under these wooden arches. Hold my breath as my feet scratch lightly at these dust smudged cold boards. Hold my breath as my eyes dart toward the shadows that loom behind me. Where stray light falters and where [i]she[/i] could be hiding. But she isn't.

Perhaps not tonight.

Safety carries me the rest of the way. Past relics of a life I don't really understand. Through the last archway and back outside to where the ocean of a cool night consumes me. It's darker here but that's where she is. Alone. As she often is. My last gift is nowhere to be seen but this night may be different. It has to be. So I fluff my feathers, spread my wings and half jump half throw myself on top of the pile of wood before introducing myself... finally.

I'm [color=ffffff]"Ke-ke-ke-ke"[/color]. I'm actually a bird. Not sure what kind. I've never seen myself and if I have I don't recall. But this feels like a good introduction and a good time to drop this peculiar stone from my bea-

[center][i][color=ffffff]...Wait. What in the fuck? That's not that I wanted to give you...[/color][/i][/center]
Shits on the wood pile.
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