Ocean Waves

The ridge rose slowly over the course of miles. She started walking along it at the very beginning, where its jagged cliffs plunged into the sea. Waves kissed the rocks over and over, their pounding growing more passionate as the tide came in. The sun was high but its warmth couldn’t take away the faint chill of spray and the cool of the ocean breeze.

She turned from the ocean and went up, always up. At first it was an easy walk, then a hike, then a scramble over tumbling rocks and old petrified trees. Sometimes she flew, just for a short hop between boulders or a trip around a particularly pointy log. Never for long though. Her glowing wings faded back into non-existence and she dropped lightly to her feet, walking farther and letting what little magic she could still conjure recover before doing it again.

There had been a time when she would have flown the whole distance in the blink of an eye. Two small stubs wouldn’t have been all that carried her either, but six glorious wings beating in sync with her heart. She shoved those thoughts away. Pining over the past was a wasteful occupation. Better to focus on the here and now: this rock, this piece of lichen, the feeling of stone tearing at her soft hands as she hauled herself up and over, over, over again.

Twilight began to fall. She looked behind her. The sea was a vast field of black, darker even than the unlit land. To her sides, the first lights were just flickering to life in the valley. The city ahead of her was fully lit already. Its spires rose high into the sky, slicing open the bellies of the clouds and raining the water within down on the inhabitants. She had made it closer than ever before. Abandoned ruins from the city’s more prosperous age already surrounded her path. The ridge had leveled off to almost flat.

Yet she hadn’t made it. She turned back to the sea and watched as the first star flickered to life over the waves. It was too late. The world blurred and spun around her. Lights swirled together with darkness until nothing was left but a gray blur. She sighed and sat down in the empty void.

Exile hadn’t seemed like the worst punishment originally. There was a simple way out of it: make it home, and she got everything back. Status, magic, fame, everything. Reality had not proved itself as simple. Or perhaps it was simple, and she had just overestimated her abilities. Regardless, here she was, once again. Waiting for the time to come so that she could try once more. Just a little faster. She had been in the outskirts already. Just a little faster, and she would make it.

The hours dragged by. Finally the gray began to split and separate. Land formed underneath her and sky above. It was noon and the waves drummed their base beat, urging her on. For just the briefest of moments she gazed over the hazy water before turning and walking, determined, towards home.