A young girl in a long white dress stands in the middle of a never-ending mountain meadow. Tall blades of grass dance to the unheard melody of the wind, sweeping from side to side around her knees. And among them are little blue flowers shimmering like diamonds.
It's bright and sunny but there is no sun in the sky. The sky? It's pink. Why is it pink? the girl wonders. But her confusion is merely momentary as she realizes she is in a dream. A dream she recognizes.
She smiles.
Everything seems hazy. She hears birds that can't be seen. Water, running down by her feet, that isn't actually there. And voices she can't identify.
The wind pushes against her long black hair, and she stumbles, falling onto the ground. The world around her shakes. When she stands up again and pushes her messy hair away from her face, her eyes widen in surprise. A giant willow tree has appeared in the middle of the meadow. Towering in front of her, with thin branches slowly swinging all the way down to the ground.
Slowly, she approaches, carefully pushing the branches away to pass thru. She hears a gentle female voice speaking in an unknown language.
She finally makes her way to the thick trunk of the willow. Sunbeams passing thru the branches flicker on the ground in a wild dance. She finally sees the birds sitting on the tree. And a small water stream is twisting around the trunk by the feet of a stranger.
A woman whose image seems surreal. A mirage. She's tall, covered in a long, silver dress and what appears to be a cape made of golden feathers sparkling in the sunbeams.
She can't properly see her face. She never could. This is not the first time they're meeting. And yet, she feels familiarity.
"You've come to visit again, Arya." She speaks with a gentle voice that fills the girl with happiness. But Arya herself can't say a word. No matter how much she wants to. How much she wants to ask who she is and why they've been meeting here. Because she knows that the moment she speaks, the dream disappears.
And so, she waits.
The woman makes her way to the girl across the water stream, which ripples. The stranger strokes her hair, but she doesn't feel a thing. Arya tries to look at her face, but it doesn't seem to hold a place. Still, she smiles.
"Soon," the woman says.
And so, she waits.
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Ripple Like Water || ONC 2023
Fantasy"When you touch a mirror, and it ripples like water, dive in." Those are the words that send Arya on a wild goose chase to uncover the secret behind her aunt's disappearance. Arya always loved a good mystery. And when she learns about the existence...
