The Ravenbreeze

They came one after the other, an endless army determined to hold me down – fires burning all around yet the darkness was somehow able to keep its inky tendrils from encircling all within. Those silky fingers encircled my throat and pulled me down to my knees where the demons gathered all around. They watched. They waited. I’d have been theirs.

Too many fights, too tired – I pressed my hands into the sands below gathering the grains and watching them slide through my fingers. So wonderfully soft – such a solace, perhaps I should just lie down and let them take me. Too much, perhaps this was the peace that remained – that I had always sought.

And then I saw it. As I always did – that one sparkling light far above, beyond the oozing blackness in the beautiful quilt sky above. That one star – my star waiting for me, to take with my hands and to claim.

I had tried to fly before – but they had always stopped me, grabbed at my arms and my legs and forced me to the ground – but I had always stood up again. Terrible faces of the past, of the other side, of temptation and of defeat. And then there was always the darkness – so terribly silent, emotionless asking me to sit within and let it all go…

I smiled. They had waited too long and I had become too strong. One hand raised, I let the pale yellow sand finally slip from my fingers and then raised myself from the ground – my eyes flickering open to stare back. No longer eyes lacking self belief – no longer eyes that looked into the past and remained shackled to them. No these brown eyes sparkled like never before. I knew who I was again and I knew the truth. My tongue flickered out to lick the bottom of my lip and I stretched my arms to my sides, my hands pointing upwards.

They stood wide-eyed. It was all about to change and they knew it. Even the darkness seemed to ooze away, the light burning brighter than before, renewed vigour and strength. And then as I hunched my shoulders those glorious midnight black wings flitted into view with the heavy sound of the movement of air around me.  I stretched them – for the first time since they had become full grown and they all stepped back, their faces filled with fear. For the first time it was them that wore that mask, not I.

I shook my head at them and stretched them further, shaking the last grains of sand from them. This is when they jumped me….

So many all over, wrestling writhing bodies crumpled over me – I couldn’t breath, the weight, the pain… I couldn’t see the lights. And then I glimpsed the star far above through their figures. Just a moment. One glimmer.

I stood and they went flying – weightless… nothing, no longer demons but shadows. I grabbed the nearby torches and raised them watching the light cascade all over. Liquid yellow skimmed across them – burning acid – they screamed one last time. And I jumped.

Upwards forever, one last look down and I could see the beautiful liquid of all within obliterating those demons within. Blinding light – but no more glances downwards, only upwards towards that one star. My star.

I let those black wings beat as I flew upwards and the winds carried me upwards, other stars flickering into view across that twilight sky. Lady Night kissed my forehead that night and told me that her lap had always been the safest but now the Dawn called me. She promised me that the night would always be my solace, my peace and her strength would always find me during those silent hours but ‘they’ could find me no longer. No – all this time within her embrace has helped me. To understand. To find the peace within and to understand the truth. My truth.

Now I could begin the journey and find all I wanted… and nothing would stop me – because I knew who I was and once one knew that truth, there is nothing else that would remain. I kissed her cheek and thanked Her. The fluttering of wings, black birds in the distance – ravens – with the breeze. A ravenwind – a Ravenbreeze, all for me. I smiled again. And I would forevermore.