The waters here are less sparkling, less clear, less welcoming, but there are small animals lurking amongst the reeds and lilypads, and when I wade in they greet me as a friend. It's only hunger and exhaustion which drive me from their side, into the wider woods to see sustenance and succor from those I might find. The people themselves seem absent, but there are signs of their passing - warm food in a pot on the stove, cushions piled up with a blanket invitingly nearby - and the weariness of my body soon overcame the scruples of my mind.
I woke without sign of the people, but with sign of their passing - a lovely wooden tray of toast and eggs, a basket of fruit and cheese with sandwiches tucked along the edge and glass bottles of lemonade. My back ached and burned along the wounds left by the Winter Court, but my heart was warmed by such unexpected kindness. I left a scattering of the sparkling "lindens" from my pouch and a small lotus flower that had come off in my palm at some point the prior day.
I was rejuvenated the next day, something in the rest and warm food giving me a lighter step as I explored the woods - not quiet as the last had been, but alive with rustlings and bird song. As the sun rose toward it's zenith, I heard the sound of water in the distance, and toward evening the woods parted for the flow of enormous rapids, and at their head a waterfall grander than any I remembered. Many heads above me the water fell from some unknown river, greenery clinging to the many rocks and flowers twining around buildings up narrow stairs to the top.
I slept near the bottom, in a small open building where the scent of oranges wake me in the morning, offering up more bounty for my basket to replace what had been lost to my hunger the day before. Each step is worn as if by a thousand invisible feet walking over it, and the lack of handrails is dizzying. In the lake above there are wide nets capturing up fish as they leap and flow, and it is into the mouth of the largest of these that I dreamingly walk.
( More pictures here. )
Credits:
Location: Heavenslough
Light Settings: Sim Default
Water Settings: Sim Default
Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only
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