Chapter 43 - Stupid On First Sight

Should he ever get the choice, there would be no better way to be awoken from sleep. Not the gentle chiding of his mother as her lips brushed his nose with an adoring kiss. Nor the incessant nagging of Ash as the insufferable cat repeatedly nuzzled Skyle’s neck with the fluffy fur on the underside of his jaw. Certainly not the sharp rap of his father’s knuckles against the top of Skyle’s skull, accompanied by yet another dramatic bemoaning of the woes of a humble, industrious farmer afflicted by a horde of lazy, blanket-dwelling, late-rising children.

This was, Skyle thought as he struggled to vanquish the final vestiges of sleep from his eyes with the back of his hand, the perfect way to wake, but not truly wake. Instead, the groggy-eyed boy felt he had stepped into a scene from a dream.

That was not to say his surroundings had changed, for they had not. The cold wind still bit fiercely at his face, and the gloom of the night had yet to give way to dawn. Birdy’s wings still lay draped over him in an oddly touching manner, enfolding the young boy within a precious cocoon of warmth. The bird lay still, most likely still fast asleep as Skyle should by all rights be, yet the boy found himself disengaging himself and stepping away without once diverting his gaze from the sight which had captivated the entirety of his attention from the first moment his eyes had snapped open.

The giant bird which had been perched upon the rock high off the ground was finally gone for the first time in what seemed an eternity. Skyle had been struggling under the constant struggle of her presence, always wondering whether his latest interaction with Birdy would finally be one step too far. He had been suffocating under the unbearable pressure of her shadow this entire time, dreading the moment when the apex predator would finally swoop in and end his struggles. The most ironic thing was that now that she finally gone, he almost didn’t notice her absence at all. Such was the dreamlike state Skyle found himself in, that he heard neither the howling of the wind, nor the brittle snapping of the twigs under his feet.

All he heard was the song. It was a pure melody, sublime and perfect in its simplicity. Not pretentious like some of the traveling bards who visited the town every once in a while, with their powdered faces and loud bellows. No, this was soft, like the whisper of a stream during the first melts of spring carrying the promise of brighter days. It was warm like the scent of fresh baked honey-butter biscuits piping hot from his mother’s oven. There was the light caress of an autumn rain drizzling over your feet during a sun sprinkled afternoon.

All of this, and more threatened to overwhelm Skyle in a tidal bore of emotions that tightened his throat and stung his eyes until tears began to well up, then roll down freely down his cheeks while a truly foolish smile lifted the corners of his lips.

The song, he had heard even before opening his eyes. He had been wandering in oblivion, in the darkness of unknowing, of being lost and alone. Then someone had called to him. It was not an obvious cry for attention, nor an intruding presence demanding an audience. Rather, it was the gentle tap on the shoulder one expects from a childhood friend, one whose shadow over your shoulder reminds you of days spent drinking away the sun while splashing in secretive swimming holes.

It was soft, soothing and achingly familiar.

Skyle’s eyes demanded an answer, sought out the source of these entrancing notes. The voice was unfamiliar, the words unintelligible, yet this quiet hum resonated within the very core of his being. It brought him home.

His desperate seeking eyes had finally found their mark, and this is when Skyle finally had convinced himself it was a dream. A mighty strange one, to be sure, but a dream nonetheless. For how else could he explain the fact that instead of a giant bird of prey of glittering lapiz jewels, sitting on the ledge of the rock towering in the middle of the nest he found the most beautiful girl he had ever laid his eyes upon?

Beauty is measured by many factors, and judged by even more standards. Skyle had always been aware that his family genes were outstanding. Although his own reflection did little to inspire such confidence, Adrienne Farrow was a famed belle for miles around, and still had to decline countless suitors in spite of the many black eyes and bloody noses her husband delivered. Kassandra Farrow, notwithstanding the fact that she was barely eight years of age, was already famous for her perfect, porcelain doll-like features. Already, little Kass had all the boys her age twisted around her clever little fingers, commanding a whole army of fanatical brats who carried out her every wish and command.

So all things considered, Skyle was used to being surrounded by beauty. If anyone could have the qualifications to judge the most absolute personification of beauty in all of Sunny Meadow, then such a privilege should rightly be his.

Skyle had thought himself somewhat desensitized to the effects of physical beauty. He could appreciate the fact that his family members were good looking, but looks were superficial. They were just skin and bones put together in a particularly pleasing way. More of an accident of birth than anything else. Skyle had never understood why people, adults in particular, placed such stock in something so silly.

It was at this moment that Skyle finally learned that there is beauty, and then there is beauty.

True beauty, Skyle found, did not simply exist peacefully like a simple flower floating in the middle of a pond. It was earth shattering, it was all consuming in its insistent pull upon your every sense. Skyle drank in her lines, gloried in her silhouette, and ached to reach out and touch her. His fingers tingled as they imagined tracing the glossy length of hair cascading down her back like a waterfall of black silk. Her eyes were of a startling silver color, shining brightly like twin moons suspended on a sea of stars. Her nose was a small dash of glory, perfectly placed to accent the flawless symmetry of her face. Her lips lay curled in a small, private smile that displayed hints of teeth that gleamed like pearls in the night.

Skyle’s heart spluttered as though threatening to stop, nearly lurching to a halt. Finally, Skyle understood what beauty was, why it drove adults to such silly extremes. He understood perfectly well now, and beyond that, he knew he was lost. In fact, he was glad for it. Even here, lost in a nightmare realm where death stalked his every step, Skyle suddenly had the compelling thought that if such beauty could exist, then perhaps this place was not so bad after all.

As Skyle stood rooted on his feet, he did not notice himself swaying gently to the tune of her song. It was not very loud at all. In fact, it was barely audible on top of the stinging wind. Skyle had at first thought the words belonged to a foreign language, which was why he could not understand their meaning. Eventually, however, he came to realize that the girl was not forming any words with her lips. She was just humming a tune, like one casually does when they’re in a good mood, perched upon the back steps of the house in a pleasant summer night.

Skyle lost track of time. He did not know how long he stood there while the mysterious girl hummed her simple tune. The whole time, he suspected he was dreaming still, not daring to say a word nor even move in fear that he would wake up and find that this whole encounter had been nothing more than a fantasy.

When it finally drew to an end, it was faintly bittersweet. Part of him longed to continue drinking in the sight of her, while the remainder desperately ached to stretch out a hand and brush against her skin or feel her hair. Anything to draw him closer to her would do.

After a few moments of silence, Skyle finally couldn’t take the drumming of his heart any longer and opened his mouth to speak. However, no voice would come out, and his hand lay stretched out in front of him as his feet still refused to communicate with the rest of him. His hand kept reaching out further and his feet remained rooted to the ground, with a brain that was simply too overloaded to act as a mediator between these two opposing factions.

So, Skyle’s first act upon seeing the most beautiful girl he had ever beheld, was to fall flat on his face with a loud crash.

Wincing at the pain and cursing softly under his breath, Skyle didn’t even spare his stinging hands a glance as he lifted his eyes to search for the girl. A part of him hoped that the girl had not noticed, that she hadn’t witnessed the whole embarrassing ordeal, while another tiny part fervently hoped that she would notice, and draw closer still.

Skyle’s eyes traveled up the length of the smooth rock, inch by torturous inch, until they finally found their mark. The girl had noticed, after all, and as Skyle’s eyes roamed up, they gazed upon each other for the first time.

For Skyle, this was to be a defining moment, as he lay staring dumbly while his body froze, lying prone on the ground and uncaring of the wooden splinters driven into his skin.

The girl, on her part, tilted her head sideways and a small wrinkle appeared on her brow as her eyes regarded Skyle. More than surprise, they seemed to be asking a question, and Skyle cursed himself for a fool because he wished with all his heart that he could find the answer to this question he could not even understand.

The frown dissipated in the next moment, gone like a small cloud momentarily covering the sun. A gentle smile replaced it, and this warmed Skyle deep inside, sending a wave of thrill surging through his veins. He quickly decided that falling flat on his face had definitely been worth it.

While Skyle lay on the ground, still lost in fawning adoration, the girl lightly pushed herself off the ledge of the rock, well over fifty feet high in the air. Skyle’s breath caught in his throat as fear burned his previous bliss like dry tinder under the flame, but before he even had time to react, the girl spread her arms and a gentle glow seemed to spread from her hands, slowing her descent as she airily fluttered down. Seconds later, as her feet lightly landed on the floor not three feet from Skyle’s nose, her eyes seemed to be asking another question.

Skyle wracked his brains to try to find an answer, his mind running faster than he had ever worked it before. He ran through a whole gamut of possible questions, of answers and conversation topics. He worked feverishly in the span of a single breath, desperately fumbling through words that suddenly had lost all meaning and purpose. Skyle tried to work his mouth and demanded that his tongue move, but something had long exploded in the delicate connection between mind and body, and Skyle knew he was a hopeless wreck.

Just as he despaired, the girl’s lips stretched in a bright smile that reached all the way to her eyes as she held out her hand in Skyle’s direction in a beckoning gesture.

Angels sang in Skyle’s ears and his body seemed to shed a dozen different shackles in the span of a second. His limbs felt lighter than air as he gloried in that smile, and he dared not believe that this incredible girl wanted anything to do with him at all. And yet, she had just gestured to him, asking him to draw closer. This must be a dream, or dare he hope it was real?

Just as Skyle began to gather himself up, to reach out and finally draw closer to the object of his newfound obsession, the boy heard a frantic rustle of movement behind him. Before he could even wonder at its source and without any other warning, Birdy trampled all over Skyle as the treacherous little beast heedlessly rushed forward. It unceremoniously plopped down on top of Skyle’s back, driving all the wind from the little boy’s lungs as the dry branches underneath groaned in protest.

There lay Birdy, crouched before the mysterious girl, stretching its neck to gaze up adoringly at her and nuzzling the back of her hand, looking nothing more like a kitten begging to be petted.

Just like that, Skyle had his answer and knew that this could not be a dream. He knew this because his back hurt like the devil, but even more so, the little boy was certain as he had never been before, that this would be the single most painfully embarrassing moment of his whole entire life.

Then the girl laughed, a tinkling sound like raindrops out of a clear summer sky, and Skyle was struck silly by the thought that even so, this may all have been worth it after all.

Just because of the dazzling smile that lit up the girl’s face as she gazed down upon Skyle.

“Yeah”, he thought, all pain forgotten and immediately lost in blissful idiocy once more. “Definitely worth it.”