A little girl sent a lighted candle floating away on the waters of the forest swamp. Hoping that the lights would reach her mother someday, she wrote her letters from the tiny flowers she piled up with a word beneath them.
Her name, Lily.
Written only her mother could read and understand but a crow dumped some of them away. Somewhere where it won't be read, the bird lied to her with a voice loud and crackling just like an old witch.
It will be different this time, she thought as she collected thousands of nutshells and beeswax from the forest for this. Her mother told her once how to make these lanterns but she had it rather simply, a floating candle in a nutshell that she filled with flowers. Now they looked like fairies floating around, with a happy face she lights another candle and float it away. Each and every one of them floated in all direction now like a waltz of lights inside a thick gloomy forest. She looked so happy for sure looking at them. She waited for this day to come, to see her mother once more and to give her a one last hug. After her brief moment of happines seeing all the lights she lied down to the ground and began to close her eyes feeling the warmth of the lights inside the forest like some tiny heartbeats. She feel them all, alive and warm. Then after sometime it dawned on her, like a lost child she had to face her fears. The mother she dreamt of wasn't there anymore. It is now too late for her to expect from her and she laid still on the ground thinking she was right. It was cold again and she started shivering, she wrapped her hands to herself and began to sit down. She looked away from the lights and stared at the ground as the lights started to fade away.
'Your Father would love this too.' A woman muttered with a warm melodious voice so she lifted-up her gaze to the woman who just spoke. With the woman's back facing at her she gaze at the blue dressed maiden in awe, looking at her she lost words at the moment.
Silence was her answer.
Loosing all hope of living her strength started to fade away but the beautiful maiden was so kind to her so she smiled back in return for her words. It was only when the maiden smiled back at her that she realized who the woman was, she was her mother, and faster than the wind she rushed at her crying like a child in her arms. All her sadness and longing became tears, she couldn't form the right words to say that all her mutterings sound like a baby's words. The maiden in blue hugged her close hushing her down, telling her a lot of things about her father and her. There was also a time when she was still so little that she giggled everytime her mother talks to her this way, just like those times she felt her mother's warmth again. She realized she was floating as her mother held her close, her eyes got so wide as she saw her mother smiling back at her. Her mother slowly let her hands go as she started to get lifted-up higher and higher, and she started giggling as she was lifted so far away.
She realized who she truly was---she was the wind, her mother was the rivers, and her father the mountains. Her giggles floated around the woods, the hills, and the mountains sending shivers across the trees and the ground below. No wonder the lights reached her mother. She never left, she was everywhere she could ever be just like her father. She wasn't alone, she was with them all along.
ABOUT ME
is an introverted night owl who enjoys coffee a lot. An otaku and a foodie, she also lives inside the stories she dreams to publish one day. You can catch her admiring her rainy and picturesque hometown in Western Leyte, Philippines.