On a cold autumn night, someone looked up at the Milky Way shimmering above the world and felt they could feel the true orientation of the entire galaxy ...

A 365-word Tale.

oOo

If you ever sit atop a granite boulder, itself perched on a high hill, a hill that overlooks a wide valley, the valley rich with lush forests and fresh lakes, and you look down to the ground from your perch in the blue sky of day, you see the world in all its glory laying before you: all scent and sound, life and running waters, verdant and beautiful.

The world, you think, is a beautiful place to be.

Should you stay on your high granite boulder and wait for the bright orb of the Sun to drop down low, to kiss the world farewell in a blaze of blush, after its touch has been swiftly forgotten by the amnesiac earth and the heat of the sky fades like a memory to a purple bruise, the truly blessed—like you—gain an infinity.

For there it is, stretched across the crystal-strewn vault: the Silver Trail; a path that draws you up and away forever. You realise that the land and this small world are no longer sturdily level beneath your feet. The trail itself is that new ground. You are being drawn up — no: drawn in to the glow. The old world slants as you slowly topple to one side. How beautiful it could be if you might leap forwards, to find yourself floating towards that shining band where all things resolve themselves; where there is no hunt, no fear, no chase, no death, no terror.

The Silver Path slowly rotates during the bitter darkness. You revolve with it, keeping your bearings over the star-bridge of light, the heaven’s answer to a tree across a river. The infinity of sky hangs above, the finality of earth remains below.

The eastern horizon brightens all too soon and, with the dawning of the day, the path fades once more. You shiver: cold and hungry. You should feed, but you need sleep more. During the day you rest on your granite boulder, drawing upon your last reserves for another night, for you are in love with that different balance: you can not remain on this skewed world when the Silver Trail still calls to you.

oOo