The Floating Forest

Writing Prompt: " When she had told me she lived in a floating forest, I thought she was crazy.  But no, there is was, just like she said."



We had been traveling through this old concrete city for days.  I was tired, thirsty and ready to take a long overdue break.  I stared up at my traveling companion, who seemed to NEVER grow tired, her pace steady even as she climbed over some of the larger chunks of concrete that lay along our path.  She seemed so sure of her destination, but I didn't believe a word of it.  And I can't say I really cared anymore either. 



If I was really honest with myself, the truth was simply that I just didn't want to be alone anymore.  I'd been lost in this skeleton city for days.  The dark soulless eyes of the crumbling buildings seem to cry out to me.  Weeping of memories they themselves could hardly hope to remember, as the items that lay within were mostly piles of dust by now.  No recognition of whom once presumably lived within.  No pictures hung on these broken walls any longer, no toys left lying on the disintegrated carpet, awaiting child's play.  No... just those windowless sad eyes.  If I didn't know any better, I'd think they were begging for MY help to release them from this gaping wound of despair.  But what could I do?  I could hardly remember who I was most days.  Her presence seemed to ground me.  Otherwise I'd believe I was hallucinating.



I clamored over the same pile of debri, trying desperately to remember just how I got here.  As I plopped to the ground with a large grunt, my thoughts clawing at the dark veil that seemed to blind me from my past beyond a few months ago, I stopped in my tracks. I closed my eyes as the breeze brushed my cheeks and I could smell... dirt.  Dirt and a... is that...?  It was a woodsy, sweet but dank smell of life.  And as I opened my eyes the weight of everything I couldn't recall came down on my chest at once.  The breath got knocked out of me and I dropped to my knees.  When she had told me she lived in a floating forest, I thought she was crazy.  But no, there is was, just like she said.  It didn't sit upon a cloud, or a mountain, or even an island, it was just floating there on the gentle waves of what must be the edge of the world.