A Love Supreme, Pt. 3: Pursuance (Day 224)

(My internet was down yesterday.)

Aisen took a long drink of the stream water in his cupped hands. It was cold and refreshing, soothing on his parched throat. The air was choked with mist but he felt no moisture in it. It was a substance made up of mysterious eneriges--he was sure of that. Perhaps it was responsible the enchantment that seemed to have fallen over the forest. It was responsible for constantly leading him astray.

This situation was his fault. He knew that. He had suggested that they split up and search for Casnie--but he hadn't understood at the time just how strange and mind warping the woods were. After being violently ripped from the Exod by a stranger from half a world away, Aisen had to wonder why he still expected his surroundings to behave in a predictable way. He lacked foresight. Maybe he was being too hard on himself but he couldn't help but feel frustration when he considered his predicament.

But at least he had water. It was soothing--and in a strange way, filling. He felt the hunger gnawing at his stomach melt away as if it had never been, like he'd just eaten a refreshing meal.  Not too much, not too little. Just the perfect amount of fulfilled. He glanced at the perfectly clear water dripping from his outstretched hands. He didn't need any more of it. He wished he could bring some along with him, but. . .he had no means by which to transport it.

Aisen also had no idea where he was or where he should go. But there he was by a stream of lifegiving water--which evidently possessed the mystical quality of entirely satisfying one's hunger--and he wondered why he should leave. There was a chance he might find his way, but considering the progress he'd made in the last hour he severely doubted it. Would he have a better chance if he just stayed put somewhere he could conceivably survive? Would Terakiel find him? Would Casnie? Oh what irony that would be if the one they'd been looking for had found him instead.


It wasn't giving up, he reasoned. It was the safe thing to do. Here, by this wellspring of life he would be guarded from the dangers of the deep, misty forest. Here, everything would work out. This was where he was meant to be, perhaps all along. This was where his life had been leading him up to this point. This was his final destination. The end ofa  long journey. Aisen laid his head down to rest and he felt his eyes flutter and then close. The world disappeared, and he felt that perhaps, so did he.