fabric-- Saoirse

A Story by sage

a girl's breath of freedom

The night was cold, with a gentle breeze, and a hum of silence. The wind brings the only sound, as a soft foot unsettles the dirt road in a quiet advancement forward. Not but one person breathed in the air of the inhabited night. For once in this land she felt like she could breathe. Her heart might have been heavy, and her mind was busy with too many thoughts, however when she stopped, and allowed the silence of the night’s wind to consume her lungs the tumultuous the sounds that were congesting her brain, and weighing against her heart flees with the a single gust of wind, as the cold breeze enters through her right ear, freezes her brain, and rushes out the other. Her feet stop moving, her toes finally recognizing the cold loose dirt under her skin, as her eyes process the sight of the night sky above her.
A dark sky, dotted with white specks, some bigger and brighter than others, while some are faded, and distant. It was as if they were running away from her, even when her hand reached up to grab one, her fingers could not wrap her hands around anything but a breeze of air. Her long blue sleeve, dirty from running along the ground, falls to her side as she fails to recognize the street she is walking on.
Nothing around her is familiar, not the fabric that makes up her clothes, not the wood that forms the houses, not the stone that holds up the surrounding walls, and not the dirt street that she follows. In a place of complete unfamiliarity there were some things she could recognize. The sky, the stars and the moon being some of them. The smell of a breezy night, carrying the scent of dying trees, and crying grass. The aroma of nature called to her. Nature was the only thing she could find familiarity in now that she found herself in this strange place. She could not read the street signs, and she could not recognize the name of the stores. However she could find the brightest star in the sky, and follow it, even if that meant leaving the security of the dirt streets, giving up the safety provided by the walls, as she finds her feet leading her into the darkness of the treeline.
She would lose the bright star in between branches and leaves while they swayed in the wind, however she’d always find it again and remain walking along its path. She didn’t know where she was going, all she knew is that she would not remain there. Since there was a place of unfamiliarity. She didn’t understand what the other people were saying, or why they dressed the way they dressed, or even understand why they ate the things they ate. All she understood was that she did not like it there. She wanted to go home. However she did not know where home was. All she knew was to follow the bright star in the sky, and maybe, just maybe that might just bring her home.
As the forest begins to grow sparse, her feet begin to recognize the pain of walking across fallen branches, and over prickly plants. The forest was staying behind her as she continued to step forward under the moonlight. The grass was growing taller, and the trees were becoming further and further apart until there was only one in sight far in front of her. The star still shines as brightly as it had while she walked through the forest, however now she could keep a consistent eye on it. The tree grows closer and closer until she finally is resting her hand upon its rigid bark, her eyes still caught up in the sky as in the silence of the night branches begin to snap behind her.
Her head turns quickly, there is nothing to see, but everything to hear. More branches break, and the unfamiliar words grow from whispers into yells. She did not want them to catch her again. So instead of resting under the tree, she ran. Running faster than she had ever had before.
It was the breath of freedom that kept her moving forward. She knew one thing, and that was that she would not go back to that place, she would go back home. She did not belong in this foreign land, she belonged in her home, with her mom, and her father, with her brother, and her sisters. She did not belong here, she belonged there with them, where long flowing fabrics were used in bedsheets and canopies, not dresses, and shirts.
The length of her blue cloth had been tattered from her walk through the forest, and her feet were still bleeding from stepping on the blades of nature. Her sleeves were heavy, and the thread of fabric that had been tied to her waist had gone missing, bringing air against her stomach as the fabric expands to take in the vastness of the open night air.
It was her run for freedom. With a search-party after her there was nowhere to hide in the open plain of tall grass, all the while the girl grew closer to a marsh. The ground grew damper with each step, and the heavier her foot clamored against the earth’s skin, the more she sank, raising more water up through the dirt as she grew closer and closer to the open gashes of streams running through the earth’s skin.
Finally with a loud splash, her foot fell into the first of the streams, shallow and short, she just ran through it without much thought, running deeper into the tall grass running further and further away from the foreign voices behind her.
She did not understand why the men were chasing her, she did not understand why she was brought here. She just wanted to go home, and change out of these foreign fabrics.