run dewdrop, run

Dewdrop would run all day until she couldn't run anymore. She had run so far that her shoes had worn off her feet. Her shirt had caught on so many jagged sticks and rocks it was hanging from her skinny bones. She would run unless the forest was too thick and she had to walk or crawl and sometimes it was so impossible it was like a wall and she'd have to go back and find a different way. All day long as she ran the forest was trying to get into her one way or another and if she rested even for a moment the little things would find her. It wasn't the big scary ones she was afraid of- no those were invisible and followed her from a distance. It was the million tiny living bad dreams that wore her down and ate her up slowly. Stingless bees each the size of a grain of rice would swarm her hands and feet searching for salt and they would cover her skin like squirming black gloves and socks. Fleas would dig into her toes if she stood still and she would try to scrape them out with sticks but more would find her and dig and grow and lay little eggs. She could feel the worms crawling under the surface of her skin but no amount of scratching could make them go away. There were leeches and snakes and walking sticks and mad little frogs and every step was its own universe of life and it was so unfair because she left everything alone and didn't kill a thing only picked the strange fruits to eat and sipped from the streams she followed. She would wrap her legs and arms in leaves and try to sleep- not the sleep in her bedroom with her cozy quilt and ceiling stars but a squiggly wiggly sweaty and scratchy kind of sleep. Dewdrop was always more tired when she opened her eyes and picked out the blood sucking creatures from all over and shook off the hundred little bees and flies and wondered how such an alive place could be so lonely.
Weeks ago back in the desert, the little drones would follow her along and they were her only friends. She walked for days without food and water and collapsed when she saw the edge of the forest and thought she'd have time to rest and fruits to pick but she hadn't imagined that a place could try to eat her whole.
Every night, Dewdrop would find the softest spot and wrap herself and wait for the biting things and remember that nobody would come to save her and there was nothing in the dark that wanted to give her safety or hope.
The bigger nightmares followed beside her always just out of view as she crunched through the hot and suffocating forest.
Monkeys swung in the canopy overhead laughing and swishing together.
There's lots of you but no more Dewdrops in the world and she was beginning each day to believe that was okay as she left more and more pieces of skin and scraps of clothing behind. One time she was sick like a fever and laid all night without minding the bees and bugs and thought to herself she might not wake up and that's also okay.
If the bees and the monkeys and worms are alright and they're not scared at night what use is a scared little Dewdrop to anything? Mommy and daddy told her one time that as frightened as she can get and as much as she can hurt and that even if there is nothing left worth living for that one night she will close her eyes and they will all be together again back in the little cottage with the snuggly blankets and the stars would be visible again like it was when they were safe.
And that's the thing, her hope had gone and left her and she never really thought about anything at all. She felt like a blank page inside most of the time now and maybe that was a good thing. What if she wanted to lie down in the cool wet soil and let the forest smother her and take her away to a still place but something kept her legs moving forward.
There was no end or clearing or hill on which to stop ever just an endless tunnel of itchy wet plants and a living ceiling of darkness.
A heaven to the monkeys and birds- a hell to Dewdrop.
Not like home with its wide open spaces where she could see the stars when she wanted to and not when she didn't.
Then one day when she was running in the forest, she came upon the littlest of clearings and sat down for a rest and she could see a slice of blue sky and she sat there remembering the sky back home and how there was not a thing to obstruct her view of it.
She tried to remember how it was they came to this trees filled adventure land after the bad thing happened and they were supposed to be safe here and it was the home of man.
That man was born here and walked out into the rest of the world after they got tired or hot or sick of the leeches and the little bees.
So they walked out and found coldness and sadness but other stuff.
Tools to take over different places so that everything could be tamed unlike this forest which could never be tamed even after the earth was burned and the sky could never open up again. Daddy said not even for another hundred years.
Dewdrop was starting to think that this forest and all of its little horrors and wonders was all that was left of life and there was no need for the sky because the sun never touched this place.
Suddenly she sensed she was not entirely alone in the clearing and not not alone like the way the beetles and the leeches and the flies were her constant company but something new.
As she spun around searching into the forest she saw pairs of eyes staring back and little Dewdrop's heart started beating but she wasn't afraid because she wasn't afraid to die anymore and that was the worst thing to be.
Worse than being alone and unloved and forgotten. She might die here in the middle of the forest without mommy or daddy but she had to cross a special bridge to get to them.
The pairs of eyes moved slowly forward towards her in a tightening circle.
They were giant orbs the size of baseballs and black- black like ones she had seen before and they were sunken into round hairless heads. The skin of the creatures was colourless and transparent.
They looked like baby birds she had seen once on the shores of the beach near home.
Two little baby birds with pitch black eyes and see-through skin rocking back and forth with each wave.
Except these were not dead eyes- they were looking right at her and she was looking back.
The creatures were tall and bony like skeletons wrapped in wet tents and they were standing on hind legs now and moving closer.
They picked up sticks and rocks to throw and they were screaming so she curled up into a tiny lump and thought this is it I must cross the bridge now.
But the noises stopped and she heard steps going back and when she opened her eyes the creatures had moved into the bush.
They were slightly hidden but still fixated on her with their big eyes.
They seemed frightened maybe more frightened of her now but they were also curious like she was curious of them.
Then she blinked her eyes and they were instantly not there and she knew that she was alone again and the deepest sadness came on so she started to run but didn't take care where she stepped. She ran right over the broken twigs and snake tails and prickly plants.
Dewdrop ran until it was dark again and then out of nowhere she was confronted with an open space.
A wide wide open space.
A big pond with reeds sticking out and she screamed and went straight into the cool cool water and cried for she had missed wide open spaces.
The moon was full and lit up the whole clearing and she could see all around the edges of the forest and the stillness of the pond.
She bathed her stinging red arms and legs that were criss-crossed with cuts and sores and ooze.
The reeds blew gently in the wind and her body was starting to ache again like last time.
Her stomach felt sick but that was okay she was too tired.
She scooped her hand into the water to drink but she felt a wriggle in her palm. There was a creature there and she almost threw it away because everything in the forest was trying to take pieces from her but something let her keep it.
It was a clear frog-like thing with arms like little human arms and a tail instead of legs. It had big black eyes like the ones she had seen in the clearing and when she stroked her finger along its back it was sticky and smooth. It stopped wriggling and pressed up on its tiny arms and looked into her eyes and she knew it understood everything that she understood.
As she dipped her hand back into the water to set it free, she could see others like it swirling all over the pond.
It was like a mirror to the sky- a million dancing stars.
She needed to go find a spot to lie down maybe forever this time and it was okay.
There was no place left for Dewdrop to run to anyway.