Beating Hearts are not so Silent

The embers reminded me of the fireflies who would come to kiss our hands and cheeks the way they danced on the gentle Wind, who laid Her hands over the Mountains to mourn. She had tried to calm the Flames from the explosions and crashes, but the Flames were consumed with frenzy. The Wind could see the terror in the Flames as He took the Wind's strength against either of Their Wills. The rubble shifted around me as I held my ears and screamed with the Wind.

This was not like when the Assembly took control of our land with negotiations and false democracy or when the soldiers came to town giving candy to our children and replacing our traditional, handmade wreaths with the flags of a foreign country. It was even different from when they destroyed our burial mounds for their homes and cut down our trees to make room for their surveillance atop every streetlight or patrolled our streets with the androids that came to replace the soldiers. This was a slaughter. I felt the crunch of broken bones and the sting of blood in my eyes before I felt the heat of the Flames- captured by selfish, arrogant men chopping at branches they used to stand above us all. The branches finally gave way. We lived in hiding from the Assembly and believed our hamlet to be safe, far away from the prying eyes of the Assembly and their drones. How many times did humanity have to destroy the world before the learned better?

The Flowing Waters heard me scream- weeping with me from above and snuffing the Flames, who was finally set free from His bondage to man's devices. The Flames didn't enjoy being destructive. He loved the world and its little magic, much preferring to sustain life. He gave a place to chase the chill from frostbitten hands and to warm the seedlings the Mountains held so dear until they reached their sleepy vines from the earth and reached toward Him, trying every day to hug His warmth like He had embraced them in their slumber.

The rain gave way to cold silence. I waited for the sadness to lift just a little before I tried opening my eyes. It was a slight relief to see the blurred shape of my heart-shaped locket still glistening around my neck, even amongst the ash discoloring the ochre of my hair and the stinging the lacerations that littered by bruising skin. I wiped away the blood-caked over my eye and stumbled to my feet. Only the cornerstone of our home, blessed by the Wills of Nature, kept me alive. The Wind had already taken the bodies of my family to the Otherworld, but the new souls who still had so much to learn couldn't take their bodies with them. The smell of their charred flesh made me gag on the sob ripping from my throat. I was all alone. The incendiary bombs had decimated the buildings in my hamlet, Aiteall, and the few remaining buildings didn't look like they would be standing for long. There was no home left for you to come to, and you were the only home I had left. It was amongst the silence and smoke I heard it for the first time:

Ba-dum. Ba-dum Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

My eyes shot up to the blackened sky, then to the tree line that separated us from the Mountains, and still then to the river that flowed through Aiteall and beyond to the port town, Iombha. My tears stung the raw skin of my cheeks as my eyes passed over the scorched cobblestones, the marred earth, and the grey rubble that was once my place of peace. The lullaby that had sent me drifting off into the world of dreams for so many years echoed louder. How many regimes rose and fell to the beating of that heart?

Ba-dum. Ba-dum Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

I stumbled forward, clutching your golden heart in my hand. The cover of smoke hid me from any insidious eyes, but I could see more clearly than ever before. The Assembly had wanted to eradicate those of us who still respected the Will of Nature. They had wanted to erase the traditions of our ancestors. My footsteps pounded the earth toward the river, driven by the steady heartbeats echoing around me. I didn't know if they had figured out your true lineage, but I knew I had to find you and protect you if they did. We could endure. This would be nothing more than a charm on our hearth and we could live our days in peace until the Otherworld welcomed us together.

I pulled myself onto a make-shift fishing boat spared from the carnage. It would get me to Iombha, no farther, but it was enough. I didn't want to see the charred remains of Aiteall as the Flowing Waters pulled me toward refuge. Instead, I opened the small latch on my locket to mourn with your image. Your sweet smile, your amused brown eyes warmed with love were the same as yesterday and the day before. The world may forsake me, but you remained constant- Unconditional. We did not live like these mortal men, and we would not die like them. We had lived through destruction and death before, and we would again.

Soon, your black hair blurred into the darkness creeping up from my periphery until darkness was all I saw. Your heartbeat persisted until I fell asleep, and it didn't feel like my voice when I said your name before the beating stopped.

"Faelan..."