The Story Of Sarelle (Twilight)

Chapter 56

Every ending is a new beginning - Proverb

I gasped as I took in the forest around me. My eyes had focussed instantly; they darted around the leafy green canopy above me. It was a patchwork of leaves all criss-crossing and layering over each other to produce varying shades of green, all backlit by the daylight sun. Everything was in perfect focus, sharp and defined. Even nature's dust and pollen that dances in the air was visible to my eyes

I could feel all my senses coming back to me. They felt enhanced and amplified compared to my past self, my human self, the form of me that no longer existed and would never exist again.

I inhaled deeply and in a rush all the smells of the forest danced across my tongue. I could taste and smell: foliage, debris, soil, damp, sun, pollen, wood. The list was endless but each was discernable by my mind, adding to the intense sensory collision that buzzed through my brain. There was so much of everything.

Sights, smells, sounds, feelings.

My body was resting on the springy moss covered ground, and I could feel how it pressed into the ground. Every square millimetre was perfectly attuned to the feel of the world on my skin.

I focussed my hearing and marvelled at how I could hear every whisper of the wind, every small rustle of the leaves, even the beating sound of a bird flapping its wings a mile in the sky.

There was nothing that could escape my senses, and it gave me such a feeling of power.

I inhaled again, luxuriating in the way my mind worked, collecting and naming everything without any effort and within an instant. Everything with this mind was instantaneous. That was why no sooner had I smelt the scent than I ran with blistering lightning speed through the forest to find it. It promised a taste so sweet and so desirable that I could form no resistance to it. That heavy wet pounding sound was heavenly to my ears and my throat burned in anticipation.

Flames licked up the column and parched it until I was sure it was desiccated to the point of ash. Only that smell could quench it. It promised me it would stop the burning. It would ease my pain and make this unbelievable thirst feel like just a ghostly memory.

My feet were lithe and graceful as I dodged through the trees, never once losing my balance or clipping my skin. It was as if it was nothing more than a flat expanse open space instead of a rocky, muddy mess of cramped trees. The twigs and bracken that would have cut my feet now just tickled against the bare skin of my foot. The wind rushed against my face as each sinuous smooth movement carried me forward deeper into the greenery. It was almost effortless like water flowing over smooth stones.

My legs weaved me through the forest as my mind sifted through the smells that registered, but always focussed on that one sweet scent. It wasn't far away now and it had multiplied.

My mind roared when I heard the single heartbeat was increasing into three, then four then five. Each beat sounding out through the air strongly like a calling drum. Each beat pulling me towards them. Each beat causing the air to permeate with smells that were so gloriously delicious that my mouth watered as they drifted across my tongue.

There were subtle difference to the scents but my mind didn't really care. All it registered was the all consuming desire to have the scent as mine. To claim whatever produced such a fragrance as my own.

My ears listened intently as I made the final approach. Wheels turned on a gritty path and english voices talked.

It didn't matter the words, nothing mattered except those heartbeats.

In a blur I leapt from the forest hurtling into what seemed like a carriage, knocking it into a splintered mess on the make shift road.

A soft body crushed to my mouth, the flesh soft under my teeth, almost too soft to give me any satisfaction as I bit down. But when I did, when my teeth sliced through the tissue-like surface, it released an ambrosial liquid to pulse down my throat. Blood. The first mouthful was so sweet and thick; it swirled around my mouth in a paroxysm of taste and richness.