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caught behind the strange overcast. One thing was clear—
something incredible was taking place.
It was the sun that first quit its station, dismissing its
courtiers of cycle and structure beyond the vast courtyards
of sky and space, which spilled and tumbled infinite and
untended through newborn gardens of lush unnamed nebulae
and the glint of foreign stars. From beneath the limitless,
vaulted grey sky came the smolder of twilight, blushing upon
every horizon, equally infinite but understated, like a child’s
first words. It dragged its own shadows behind it, each one
licked red and stretched lean and lank. Yet, as I marveled at
the rearrangement of the heavens and their ancient habits,
my view of the alien sky became obstructed by tree branches
heavy with fall leaves and ripe fruit. The forest began closing
its massive canopy of tree limbs and vines high above me,
forming an endless ceiling of interlocking foliage. The
darkness thickened beneath the roof of the woods, but did
not deny my ability to see. And while they weren’t needed
for any practical purpose, a drowsy orange light seeped from
ancient copper lamps that appeared from thin air, swinging
and glowing from the high places within the newly built
houses of the woods. Perhaps most wonderful of all were
the stars and the moon. No longer beholden to the orders
of space and time, they frolicked the heights of the great
wooded ceiling, still tucked into their infinite distances, but
no less visible for their transgressions against the rules of
the last world.
Plumes of rust-red leaves lifted from the ground at the
behest of a soft wind. They summersaulted across my body,
drawing a smile upon my scarred face wider than any I
could remember. It was then, when autumn light mixed with
summer shadow, that I first heard my reborn sisters speak
to me, their voices made from sweets and screams dancing
upon the lilting unrest of hungry children. The wind had
brought them out of their sleep, and from their place on my
hips, I could feel the heat of their thirst as they spoke to me.
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