I died today.It was a single thought, drifting through an empty mind.
I was born tonight; I died today.The world was dark; her mind was dark. It rang with hollowness, its insides smooth and untouched. The thought bounced off one side, was flung to another, reverberated over and over in her head.
I died today.A cold breeze swept across her fur, and in a violent spasm of muscles, she shivered. She instinctively pulled her limbs closer to her body, pushing her head against her arms. The sensation of chill flooded her with a feeling of wrongness. A note of discordancy entered the chamber of her mind. The thought, still throwing itself from side to side
I died today. I died today.was muffled, as her senses pushed in new sensations.
Cold. Swift. Danger.
Soft. Warm. Comfort.She was curled up into a ball. Beneath her, the ground was cold and hard and unhappy. Slowly, achingly slowly, she lifted her eyelids. Purple eyes gazed about, blinking, blinking, as light passed through them for the first time.
She looked down. The grass—though she had no names for such things, yet—was dried and yellow and flattened. It was dead, she realized. Again, the idea came not as a thought—for “dead” was not a word she knew the meaning of—but as a sensation: she felt the emptiness of its spirit, the hollow echo of what once was there, and knew it to be reflected in her own.
I died today.She turned her eyes upwards, and gasped. Tiny pinpricks of light scattered themselves upon a dark canvas of sky, patterning in swirls and whorls and graceful arcs. The sky was a-twinkle with millions upon millions of stars, dancing their way across the full extent of her view. They winked at her, they shimmered with joy, they lit up a spark buried deep inside and finally, finally,
I died today.the thought paused its relentless trek over her mind. The nighttime stars filled up her mind, her body, her soul with wonder, with awe, with a glorious exultation. Her eyes shimmered in response, straining to mirror their brilliant glow, to take in just a little more of their essence, to keep for her own, to hold and treasure and marvel at.
I died today.
I was born tonight; I was born under the stars.And in this way, she was reborn.
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