Dawn of Womanhood

Dawn of Womanhood

I was running. Running fast, through the forest of Evergreens I knew grew beyond the town. My bare feet stomped the damp earth as I progressed deeper and deeper, trees becoming close knit, branches obscuring the lightening sky. Although the day was brightening, the world was getting darker around me as I threw myself into the thick of the forest. I was running from something, this much I knew, but I was running toward something as well. What I was running from I did not know, but I knew it threatened me. My very life. I could tell by my panicked heart and gasping breath. And I knew I had to reach what was ahead of me in order to survive. So I pushed. I pumped my legs and arms as fast as my body would allow, barreling up hills and down shallow valleys. The trees seemed to part their branches for me as I passed, or maybe it was just the wind helping me along my route. Keeping my long hair from catching in my lashes. From where ever the assistance came, it was welcomed and appreciated. I covered a great expanse of ground in what seemed a small amount of time, finally glimpsing light blue sky as the forest began to thin. The dark red trunks and deep green needles started giving way to a tree-lined horizon and lightening dawn sky. I caught glimpses of fading stars when I glanced above me, just visible through the wind-swept canopy.

Then suddenly, the trees stopped. I tore past the final line of them and tried to halt, but my momentum was such that I needed to grasp a low hanging branch to keep myself from running off the cliff face. The drop left an untold amount of leagues between myself and the tree covered ground below. It also left me unable to breathe for a few moments. My throat closed and my chest contracted after a sharp intake of air. Another foot and I would have been flying toward the amber oaks below. I closed my eyes and steadied myself, willing my heart to slow. After three slow breaths I opened them and looked before me. What I saw was a long valley, carpeted with old growth amber oaks and Rustwoods. Beyond the valley were the mountains, some tree covered, the highest bare Moonrock. Beyond the mountains was the lightening sky, a gradient of indigo, light blue and almost white where the sun was about to rise.

Then I felt it. A sort of stillness in the air. Anticipation.

Then I saw it. The sun. It peaked the top of its white gold face over the furthest, highest mountain. Spears of sunlight moved down the valley, reaching the cliff face, then me. One of the spears came directly at me, piercing my stomach. I felt the white-hot pain of its touch and jumped, because how could sunlight hurt me? But my jump put me off balance and I felt my feet leave the earth and I was tumbling down, down through the air but then-

I awoke to a sharp pain in my lower abdomen, as if someone had taken a carving knife and begun to whittle away at my innards. My eyes slowly opened, taking in the dark blue light of early morning. My hand moved to my lower belly under the rough wool blanket I had stolen from the back of a traveler’s cart and clutched at the flesh between my hip bones. The pain was subsiding, but it had been savage enough to jolt me from my dream. I rolled onto my back and sat forward from the bail of hay that was designated my bed, a strange lightness in my head. I shivered as the cold morning air hit my back, which was unlike me. I never felt the cold so harshly it made me wince at it’s touch.

Hesitantly, I pulled the blanket from my chest, down to my knees, exposing my old, grey, tattered nightdress. A nightdress now stained with blood. The stain blossomed from between my legs, marking the worn fabric with a deep crimson.

I stared in shock, then acceptance flooded through me. I was somewhere in my late teen years, high time to start my moon cycles. I looked to the window of the abandoned barn I often took shelter in, contemplating my future. This meant I could now bare children. The thought made the hairs on my arms stand on end. This also marked me as a woman, according to the people of the town. I now felt older, but I had been a woman long before this. The pain inside took hold of me again, making me clutch my stomach and double over in the hay. This simply would not do. I would need herbs found in the Forest to help the pain. I rose from the ground, pulling the wool blanket around me, and moved toward the entrance of the barn. My bare feet touched the dust and dirt and straw that littered the earthen ground of the old barn. I made my way across the empty space, through the dimly lit early morning. Once at the entrance, I pushed the old, splintery door open just a crack. I surveyed the parcel of land surrounding the decrepit structure that was my barn. It was the dark blue hour before dawn, and I saw the sky lightening in the west. The rest was just flatland and shrub and the path that led into town, no rabbit or bird stirring yet.

I saw no one or thing with my eyes, but to be certain, I closed them. I listened for the rustle of rabbits in the rosebush, for the ruffling of feathers or the first notes from the songbirds.

Nothing. I tried to stretch my hearing past the parcel and onto the town my barn bordered, but I could not sense any other humans waking. It was safe for me to move toward the edge of the town, to where the wild plants grew, where the Forest started.

I pushed the old wood door open fully, then stepped out into the morning. I walked around the barn and followed a shallow path in the wheatgrass. The plants began to grow thicker and more abundant the more I progressed up the path, until I reached the crest of a hill, where an old Oak resided. I stopped under the oak and surveyed the view from the top of the hill. This was a place I would often sit and reflect, but it was a highly visible vantage point, and being seen was something I tried to avoid. The day had lightened, and I could make out the shapes of dwelling places in the town, the church being built, an entire city being constructed, and just beyond, the river and what lay on the other side. A faint breeze blew my hair from my face, and on it I smelled salt. The birds had awoken by this time and they were calling to one another, to the rising sun. I halted my journey to watch it peek over the horizon, echos of my recent dream reverberating through my body. A calm settled in me, and my thoughts and pain stopped for the moment it took the sun to rise fully. But then the pain began again in my stomach, and the thought came to me dawn of womanhood. With it came the remembrance of the purpose for my venture, and with a sigh, I wrapped my cloak around me tighter and turned from the sun, continuing on my path.