The Mountain - Part 3

Therese was a little shocked at loosing her clothes and everything else she had brought with here.  Not too far a head was a line of brush so her ran over to it and hid.  Her fear of being naked was over come by the feeling of being somewhat free, but still somehow contaminated by the city she had left. In the walled city naked flesh was encouraged but was never something innocent.  While they were encouraged to be free with their bodies there was always something licentious, never innocent.

Pushing farther in the brush she found a small river or almost a creek.  Across the river and down a bit, on the other bank, was a piece of white cloth caught in the reeds.  If she could get across she could use that to clothe herself.  She plunged into the water.  It was cool and swift.  As her head came up out of the water she could see that she was about half way across and the cloth was still a bit father down.  She felt some how cleaner and lighter than when she entered.  Twice more she ducked under the water, it was the only way she knew how to swim, and finally she came up on the other side and within reach of the cloth.  She called out to see if anyone was near who might own the cloth.  No one answered so she figured the wind may have carried it there.  Surely it had been there a while and bleached by the sun because it was so white.  She stepped out and dressed herself.  Tearing a hole for her head and ripping some off one end for a belt she was able to fashion herself a dress of sorts.

She thought she should be afraid or at least worried seeing she was in a strange country without any food or shelter and without any obvious way to get back to the city, but she wasn't.  Therese felt free and oddly lighter.  There seemed to be a light wind at her back pushing her on toward the mountain so that was the way she went.

Why was she doing this she thought?  Anyone back in the city would thought she was mad.  Stark raving insane.  Here she was following a whisper and a wind.  Maybe if they knew what she was feeling they might not have found it so strange, but really even she found it a bit odd.  Who was she? She was no adventurer, frankly no one was in the city.  She wasn't brave or particularly smart but somehow she felt compelled to reach that mountain.  Somehow she felt that her hearts desire lay there.

As she walked along she realized she wasn't the only living creature outside the walls.  She could hear noises and bird songs.  None of the sounds were familiar to her but she recognized them as animal sounds.  In the city all the animals are in cages so maybe they just sound different when they are free she thought.

Over to her right she noticed a path developing.  Not a wide path but definately a path.  Therese thought she could even make out human footprints so she thought she must be going the right way.  She wondered if the person who left footprints in the old building had come the same way, maybe some of the footprints she could make out belonged to that person.

Therese walked and walked but the mountain didn't seem to be getting bigger.  She was getting hungry.  She had drank water at the river but she was getting thirsty too.  The wind at her back continued to push her along but she thought she smelled something.  Faint at first but it got stronger as she walked along.  She heard something too.  Human sounds she recognized.  Then the path split.  She could either keep going on the way she was, hungry and thirsty but with the wind at her back or she could go the way it looks like most people went.  She could pull aside and see if there was someone there who could help her.

She couldn't really just go on without food and water and maybe she could meet someone who could tell her if she was going the right way.  As she turned down the other path she felt the wind leave her back.  The soft whisper died away.  Now she felt how truly alone she was.  She needed now to see if there was someone else down the new trail who could help her.