Salt Water

Untitled Part 1

I am most fortunate to see her before she sees me. She lies on her back with the sun glimmering against her face. Her smile is broad, her red lips curved up and kept closed around a little pink tongue that danced out briefly to catch something unseen as it made its way up a perfect cheekbone, carved out of fine shards of glass. Her eyes open up and survey the surrounding area that is made of lush grass and stooping trees that stoop to protect her from the shade, making her eyes dull in the shadows. Her skin is a silk cloak made of shimmering copper sun, stretched over a powerful frame.

I stop where I'm standing, heart beating against my ribcage furiously, bathed in a sheen of sweat and delight at having found this luxurious monster.

She draws in a breath, long, and sits up; a river of white hair falling against her iridescent skin and shrouding her.

"I feel you..." She breathes. I do not breathe; in fact, I hold what little breath I have in my mouth until it fails me and I snort my exhale out through the passage of my nose. She runs her hands up the length of her face, pushing her hair away before stooping forward onto all fours, her clawed hands splaying in the Earth which seeps water around her as she slinks closer and closer to where I stand. "You're here." A golden claw parts the bushes and the trees, sharp as a dagger before finding the curve of my chin to trace it, slowly, drinking in the delicious elixir of my fear. "Come out, boy."

I put my face between the parted branches and face her; I find out her eyes are as legend says, black.

xx

It is a rare treat to find what you are looking for in these forests, to even find yourself alive after this long among the trees. To meet my fate at her hands would be a most gracious way to go.

"I like your words." She flips through my journal as if it is a pamphlet. Her long fingers walk the worn papyrus like an avid reader; she's seen this sort of thing before, but it still amuses her on a good day.

I lie paralyzed in a sheet of webs, only able to move about the room with my eyes. The space is small but adorned with many things; leaves and ribbons, and hair and silks. Paper lines the dirt floors, ink rubbed away with holes left behind. There is a small pile of bloodied skins cast away to one corner that I try not to focus on. She moves about the room, this towering monster, from her talon feet to her golden horns that spiral over her head and threaten to graze the ceiling. She squats down beside me, catching my eyes and reading me a note from my own journal. Her voice is deep and lurid, so warm I could almost sleep if it weren't for my dire straits.

"That's right, I may be the greatest adventurer to ever live."

"To die." She adds.

"I found you, though, didn't I? People doubt you're even real."

"So?"

Let me prove you're real to the world."

"So they can wrap me in chains and drag me to your courts and fine me, lock me up for the men that've gone missing?" She taps her chin once, twice for effect, and then sighs. "You mock my intelligence."

"I can assure you I do not. I've never met such an intelligent being."

"I've read all there is to read. Seen every one of your picture films and I have senses beyond---" She waves her hand at me. "whatever yours are."

"You're cocky." I smirk and lay my head back on the floor.

"Superior."

"To whom?"

"Everyone. Have you seen me? Felt my presence?" Indeed her presence has power. The heat she emanates makes sweat drip from my temple.

Her eyes are glossy like wet rocks, switching back and forth between watching me squirm and surveying her surroundings. She licks at her lips again, then smiles at me.Two rows of sharp, dagger teeth mean that I'm as good as dead when she wills it, but for now, she's busy playing with my sensitive skin, dragging her talons along my temple and tearing the fabric of my shirt.