Royal Blue
I remember as a girl, standing at the forest lining, my feet planted into the earth, my lungs filling with tree musk. I wouldn’t move. Not a muscle stirred within my body except for two that I heard vividly. My heart was hushed; drown out by my lungs that sang with each inhalation of purity. My eyes would not leave the forest. I saw it before me, yet I didn’t. It was there, yet not. At an infant of three, my eldest sister once told me the woods were cursed. Cursed with unfathomable, loathsome creatures. With faeries that attacked any human that entered until the human subsided into the final harmony of death. With elves that’s heart pumped poison....with elves that consumed your soul. She forgot she told me such silly tales...But I never forgot.
The danger was what brought me to the forest. Yet my craven, spinelessness always restrained me from entering. Or maybe it was my ration. I first came to the woods wishing to see something, wanting something to come before my face, something for me to feel. Anything tangible to validate all my wonders that I dreamt about every night. Even if that being was merciless and slain me. I didn’t care. After so many months, I lost my original reason to come. I came because I had to. I would simply fall over dead if I did not see the forest every day.
And when I was there, at the brim of the woodland...I was in a different place. As my feet rested over the fertile loam that the trees dwelled, I felt like I was a part of that forest. Like I was a tree myself. If only my feet could dig a hole in that earth and then root like wood...
I saw nothing, ever. All my eyes viewed upon were the docile trees that spiraled with growth; the sweet grapes that suspended from the green, firm vines; the low brush that was so thick, you could suffocate in it; and the wild rose bushes that could slice open your skin like it was nothing but butter. The forest was mine.
One day, my world changed. I was standing next to the wise, old oak that I always stood by. Everything was so real that it was almost faux. I felt everything; my senses were acute, zealous, that day. I was not lost in that hypnotic daze that I was normal plagued with. I felt rigid bark of the tree against my hands. The chilly gust of wind as it tangled around my small body. The grass that entwined between my toes. Even the diminutive, trivial ant as it traveled over one of my foot. My eyes glanced up towards the endless woodland when there he was. I thought I had dreamt him up, as if I was asleep. Like I wasn’t even there at the forest, but tucked away in bed at home. But “Royal Blue”, a scanty teenager, was really standing before me. I had never seen him before in my entire life.
He held a rose between his long, thin fingers. A meek smile cracked on his lips. His eyes were lowered so that all I saw was the glint of his blue iris’s and his dangerously long lashes. A cold squall danced between us once again. I was mesmerized the way his short blue hair wafted heedlessly in the breeze. How did he make it flow like that? Though nude, I never took my sights off his face; his flawless skin; his small blue tattoo below his right eye that was circled by two blue gems; his pointed ears; and his fine blue hair. And elf he was, but he was far from malice. He was an angel hovering before me. He was the innocence of my childhood. I saw him move, but I was too taken away by his peculiar, foreign stance to take note. I felt the softness of the rose petals greet my shaking hand. I gripped the stem of the rose, my fingers overlapping his for only a second. He was warm, he was real.
I squeezed the rose with lingering amazement when I heard my name being called from behind. I didn’t move; couldn’t move. I watched Royal Blue back away, but not in fear. And after a short moment, he seemed to evaporate back into the brush that he birthed. My sated lungs deflated, letting my nerves redeem perception of my body. The sun was dispersing quickly behind the charmed forest. My name continued to sound behind me, coming closer to my ears. I could hear the trampling of feet scuttle the mystifying earth I stood upon. My name was respired behind me, yet I didn’t motion; I didn’t turn; I didn’t reply. My mother scooped me into her arms, and worry struck her face.
“Baby! You’re bleeding!” She cried. I felt no pain, what could she be talking about?
“Let go of the rose!” She demanded as she began to pry at my fingers. “Let go!” Mother repeated. My hand grew ill with fatigue, and my grip on the rose loosened. My mother grabbed the blood-soaked blossom and tossed it to the ground.
“Oh my, oh my!” She muttered fearfully as she carried me away. “What happened?” My throat ran dry with astonishment at the blissful trauma that the faerie creature bestowed to me.
“Wh-who were you talking to talking to, my child?” Mother asked as we walked farther and farther away from the enchanted woodland.
“Royal Blue.”
Even as I sit here at the age of 86, I still dream about him.
