My toes waded in the cool waters of the cove. I breathed in
the scents that could only be experienced in this small part of the world. The
moss on the rocks behind me. The upturned soil in the field where creatures
burrowed about looking for their next meal. The droplets of dew that fell from
the brightly green leaves of various giant plants jutting forth from the ground
like some victors of a desert race, for in fact that was what they were. Strange,
lonely winners unknown to the barren world around them. I was their guardian.
Their keeper. Their gardener. I alone knew of this hidden oasis, buried beneath
the sands of time, neglect, and radiation.
It was always funny to me the way the others of this dying
world would fight over land and wares until there was nothing left for which to
wage war. My entire existence, I have always chosen peace over violence. This
left me with nothing, so it made no difference if I scrabbled and clawed in
defiance like my fellow people or if I simply walked away. For nothing is
nothing and there is no difference in the end.
However, it was I who now wielded the key to this garden. I was
he who nurtured the life thriving outside the scope of human predators. Though
they took everything, I still had this place. This sanctuary. Nothing was
nothing, except when nothing leads to something.
Daily I ponder the steps that have led me to these waters,
and the ageless question remains. A question that has been asked to every child
from birth and to every adult until death: What is the best thing found in
nature? No one ever could answer justly, for what is beautiful in the drab gray
of our decaying planet? What joy can be derived from the parched land across
which we endlessly trudge and toil in our vain pursuit of a survivable home?
Should anyone ever discover this place, they would
undoubtedly proclaim this garden to be the best thing found in nature. This gem
would be their answer at last. They would rise up to claim it as their own,
trampling out the very beauty they wished to seize. Once the dust would settle,
they then would erect barriers to keep out anyone who might steal it from them,
harming even more of the scarce life struggling to thrive.
It would be chaos. It would be death.
Nevertheless, my own answer would not be the same as theirs,
even after seeing the radiating glory in every corner of this paradise. I would
not place the label of the greatest thing in nature here, for there is an even
greater mystery beneath the face of the waters that even I had not known for
quite some time.
I slid into the water and sunk to the bottom. Deeper I went
until the light of a tiny orb pierced the darkness. My lungs began to burn, but
I pressed on. Downward. Until every last bubble of air shot out of my mouth and
my fingers finally touched the warm surface of the orb. I traced the letters
etched all around it in an unending string of languages.
“Breathe in.”
I placed my palm on the only part I could understand and
drew in a sharp breath. This is the greatest thing in all of nature. Somehow,
buried beneath the waters of a hidden garden, I found a door to a new world. A
door locked shut until someone followed the instructed and inhaled their final
breath underwater. Or at least so they would assume. I have done this five
times so far, and never has it been my last.
Rather, a shimmering light bursts from an even deeper orb,
beckoning me. But I’m afraid. I fear that once my fingers slip off the
intricate carvings, I will lose the ability to breathe underwater, and then
that will be my last breath.
So, I admire this beauty from afar. This greatest thing. I
allow it to be. The garden above is enough pleasure to me in the face of this
desert world. As long as I stay here, I shall never know of thirst or hunger or
pain again.
What more could I want?
In the Steps of the Queen, a magical short story.
Available now for only 99c!
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