Discover Top Posts Tagged with #familiar spaces

You know this place well, it’s been looming behind your house for years. You feel a call of sorts. You wonder why this place has the name of a person.

Slipping down the dirt road you trip over the cattle grate, the water underneath it doesn’t look shallow. You hike across open ground your ears open for sounds of approach. You reach the tree line and hear a engine you cannot see, the noise spurs you further into the trees, your lungs burning though you’ve only moved a few meters.

The sunlight looks different

You run for what feels like hours but may be only seconds and take your rest behind a tree you look up and it goes on forever the hand you rested on its bark comes away sooty, you see diagonally from you a tree half burnt away, nothing else around you is affected.

You continue upwards as the moss under your feet tries to slip you up, you make your way to a towering rock feature, but as you reach its side it seems inviting. Easy hand holds and a tantalising view tempt you as you climb the side. You come to its peak and look out in front of you, the landscape is spread wide but the mount that’s opposite you looks somehow more of a reflection than a seperate landmark. You look behind you and realise there is so much further to go.

You try to climb back down your pockets seem useless for the phone you so greedily stole a snapshot with. Which do you value more, your life or your phone?

You make it down and the ground is flat again, the direction you determined from the peak before seems lost amongst the sparse trees and landscape that seems to repeat itself.

You walk forward and come across a small natural creek, you follow it up, it starts from nowhere. You’ve now lost your path but you can see the mountain on your right and figure that as long as it stays on that side you’ll be fine.

You walk further, suddenly you’re in a clearing that you didn’t see before, you think it might be good for camping. You hear whispers within the wind, you look up there’s a buck standing to attention his eyes locked on you. You feel humbled by his presence and alter your course to avoid him and his mob. You look back, you see no trace of them.

You spy another creek though you are going up hill, the reflection of the trees within it seem almost more realistic than what your eyes can see around you. Your reflection smiles and vanishes, you can only see the muddy bottom of the shallow pool.

You climb higher and spot a broken red bucket. No signs of the owner, it looks like it’s been here for years.

You are distracted by dew drops.

You walk 20 meters higher there are bones, you don’t know what from.

You spy a fence, it looks innocent. You get closer it’s made entirely of barbed wire. The wind laughs.

You get through and look at the muddy patch on your knee. Why is your biggest concern the stain?

The trees become sparse as the moss turns to spikes with flashes of menacing purple, the echoing moo’s from the start of your journey haunt you. You see vechile tracks, the ground is wet they are fresh, it’s been hours why didn’t you hear them? Has it been hours?

You come to the peak the wind howls at your back, you see the names of people arranged in rocks. You wonder what happened to them.

The rocks look inviting, you sit the wind at your back. You pull on a beanie and scarf you didn’t know you had.

The wind caresses you, the sun is warm, the view is spectacular. Why would you ever want to leave?

The mountains no longer seem a reflection but bigger than you have ever seen them before. You sit with your back to your family home. They won’t mind if you sit up here a little while longer right?

#a little bit of cryptic fiction #my writing #cryptozoology #familiar spaces #fiction #or is it?

What did you most miss? Today here in New Zealand we move into level 2 which means a greater ability to move around the country, hospitality, and retail re-opening, all the while taking care to ensure distancing and appropriate sanitisation measures in place.

#change #comfort spaces #familiar spaces #mindfulness #self awareness