Wind bit my tear-stained cheeks. The forest path slowly morphed into a sandy silt.
The salty brine hit me before my eyes saw.
I had made it.
I broke through the tree line and found myself on a beach.
The beach stretched for miles to my left and right, with an endless ocean in front of me.
Just like in the old textbooks and travel catalogues I managed to snag before leaving the gilded city.
To my right were hollowed out structures of a small fishing village with a rotted pier jutting into the surf.
Idyllic. Something from a dream I half remembered.
Life existed beyond the gilded city, the wall, and the forest.
Even, perhaps, beyond the horizon I saw that day.
Then, and only then, did I finally found my deepest rest.
To be continued…in Breathe the Sky.
