The vision that followed didn’t make any sense. 

A certain part of the forest had trees standing as if in a line. It was incredible how lined up they were, actually, as if someone had grown them from seed. In this part of the forest, he saw the girl running. But she was just a child in this vision. She wove through the trees darting in and out from sight. Sun was overhead and it was hot. It radiated through the leaves and branches creating geometric patterns on the earth below. And then she disappeared from view.

As he searched deeper into the forest, it was dark. And the forest became more dense. So that he had to carefully push branches out of the way in order to move forward. At this point, he heard a low humming. Eyes were watching him. They blinked in the darkness and he saw the shape of a wolf-like animal hurry from its hiding spot. As it moved, it stopped and they stared at one another.

Laughter from an old man in the village and songs, broken and dissonant. Like stories long forgotten. Old man hugged his shoulders and drunkenly swayed back and forth. Laughing. Bright rosy cheeks.

And then as if underwater, there was no sound any longer. Only the feeling that the world was moving around his feet. That every step felt dizzying as he tried to remain calm. Tried to move. He grabbed for a tree in order to steady himself and it bended to move quickly out of grasp. As if dodging him hoping he would fall.

And at last nothing but a single candle and the face of the seer, the old woman, only now much younger, who told him exactly what he needed to know.

Then, nothing. No sight. No smell.  No sound. 

When he came to it was morning. She was gone. Birds chirped outside. The candles were gone. The objects, gone. It was as if no one had ever lived here. 

But this is how it always was whenever he came to her for the message. 

He knew what he needed to do. And almost at once he left without a word, without a sound. 

Still, if he had scanned the house, he would have found a single blue feather. This would have been very interesting to him indeed. 

…