#depth of words

[outspokenblogs]

The worst thing you can do to a person is mistake their pride for arrogance.

[outspokenblogs]

The kite runner

~Khaled Hosseini

I can never find the right words to describe how absolutely amazing this book is.

It talks about the life of two afghani boys coming from very different families bond with the innocence of childhood. As they grow, we see how the emotional need for validation corrupts their thought process and drifts them apart. We read about the differences in their lifestyle, how differently life treats them and the role war plays in their lives.

The diction of this book is as beautiful as can be. The way in which the author describes things really puts a picture in your head, one that is hard to get out.

It's a book which can be called an emotional roller-coaster and it really helps develop one's character. This is a book that changes perspectives.

I am never getting over this one. 🖤

[herpelagesofine]

Gone

There were things about that day that Xhuuya would always remember, no matter how hard she tried to forget. The sun through the trees, dappling Briona’s copper hair in vibrant gold and deep burgundy shadow. The way she laughed, high and long, at some joke Xhuuya had made. The dip in the hollow of her throat, perfect for a gentle kiss. The sloping curve of her hips as she shucked off her pants down to her swimming suit. The way the light on the water was almost blinding, making a halo around her as she turned to smile at her.

It was hot, that day in the middle of July, with nothing around except the trees and the water. Quiet, private. Just the two of them. Briona lived in town, just a couple miles up the road from her people, and her mother and father owned the grocery store there. They didn’t know about them, about what they were to each other, but it didn’t matter. They were going to go away to college together and never look back at the dreary, sleepy town. Two more years, they promised, two more years and they would be free. Headstrong, mischievous Briona has plans to go into counseling. She’s always known who she is and what she wants, but she knows that not everyone has that luxury. Xhuuya wants to be near her to soak up some of her sunlight and her complete faith in herself. Xhuuya wants her to help her know herself, and Briona is only too willing to oblige.

But today it’s hot and today was a day for swimming at Miller’s Quarry. Early in the day, so all the other kids would still be asleep. So the surrounding woods were painted pink and gold and purple by the dawning light.

It happens in an instant.

One minute Briona is standing in the shallows, laughing and splashing her. The next she takes a step backwards and just vanishes. Xhuuya waits a beat, expecting a prank, and grows more worried as seconds pass. She steps forward, stumbles when her feet don’t meet more sandy bottom. It’s a pit with no end and she gags on an unexpected mouthful of water, coughing just at the surface. Her knee bangs into a rocky outcrop just a foot away and she cries out in pain. Her feet are suddenly freezing, the chill traveling up her legs. She claws desperately at the side of the pit, barely catches her breath before something surfaces nearby. Copper hair, matted red and black. She swims over, still choking, and drags Briona into the shallows, repeating a litany of ‘no’s over and over.

It’s a lost cause, she knows it in the back of her mind, but she tries CPR anyway. Every time she presses on her chest, her head bleeds more, and all it does is expel more water from her lungs. Briona never takes another breath, just remains pale and blue around the lips and bruised around the eyes.

Xhuuya carries her body back, slowly and painfully. Her knee is a bloodied mess and the flies are biting at her, and she forgot her shoes and shirt at the shore. But that doesn’t phase her because in an instant all her dreams have died in that quarry pool.

There is no going back.

[herpelagesofine]

The Garden’s Tale

Though it was dark she knew her face, had always known, ever since she’d seen her so briefly in the greedy eagle’s firelight. Her hair was long, straight, and red. Her eyes were like pools of silver, so gentle and kind. Like the moon’s soft light on one’s face, a cool reflection of the sun’s heat and vibrancy. 

She had always known her face, like she had known her own.

His face had been a little mysterious, at least at first. So small, so fragile, difficult to make out like the most distant of stars. She had loved him with her entire being though, this tiny creature that never once cried.

His eyes were copper, a hint of red to his gold.

She had known them and she had loved them. When they died, swallowed in the dark waters like the others, she knew. She would never be truly happy again.

And there was one person she could blame personally for their loss, for hers.

There would be no forgiveness.

[herpelagesofine]

Firelight

The dark had never bothered Xhuuya, not in the brief period of awareness that followed the Void. The Void ate light, a wide and endless expanse of nothingness and yet somethingness. But, when more came and joined, there was much that darkness then left to be desired. As Xhuuya slowly assumed physical form darkness became an inconvenience, a barrier to other physical forms. The endless bumping into each other, the tripping, the newfound sensations of pain and discomfort.

Then Gray Eagle discovered something extraordinary. Light. Light held inside it warmth, and from light came vision, and from vision came appearance. Physical forms became more and more distinctive, differentiations. Xhuuya chose for themselves white, because white was the opposite of the dark and even in the dimmest of light they would be visible as a beacon in the void.

Gray Eagle guarded his light jealously, only allowing glimpses of it when it suited him, when it would bring him the most pleasure by which he could feel proud. Gray Eagle liked the sensation of Proud. So he held gatherings to which all felt obligated to attend.

He kept it in a little home in the middle of his lodge, so that it was the center of attention. It sat there, making crackling and spitting noises, little motes of light flicking off it and floating up, glowing. It was breathtaking.

And it was gazing at that light, that glorious and beautiful thing, the Xhuuya first saw her. Gender had never meant much to Xhuuya, the separation being fluid and inconsequential. But this creature, staring at them across the light, this creature was all that was feminine and grace. The light reflected from her eyes, silver and gleaming. Her hair cascaded down her shoulders. Red, what a novel concept red was. Xhuuya touched their own hair self consciously, almost regretting having chosen white when there were now so many more options. The woman smiled, a slight quirk of her lips, a mischievous narrowing of her eyes. She tapped her chin, regarding them with an amused tilt of her head.

In a moment, in that sly smile, all Xhuuya wanted was to bathe in her light as long as they could.