Falls

Sputtering, kicking, drowning.

Lungs scream desperately for air, she struggles against the waves in a feeble attempt to resurface. Ocean! She screams in her head, how could it betray her? It threatens to steal the very life from her body. She can feel the strength leaving her body. Mom?! She opens her mouth to scream but it is just flooded with salty water, she kicks once again. This time with a new strength, she struggles... and kicks toward the surface. As her nose breaks the surface, she feels the cold air on her face, and she screams into the inky night sky. A dull ache creeps from the back of her skull, it spreads across her dished forehead. Moments later the dull ache mutates into the pain of a thousand knives, she shudders and cries out.

She feebly strikes out, her hooves search for familiarity, she struggles against the waves. The agonizing pain thuds in her skull... she can't remember hitting her head or even how she got in the water. She swallows the growing lump in her throat, she could feel the fear boiling up in her belly. She bites her lip, hard, until she tastes the metallic taste of her blood. A gull cries overhead, she pitches her head upward. Gulls meant land! She struggles forward, her feeble legs pulling her through the water.

Stumbling, knees buckling.

Soft, gritty sand welcomes her and she succumbs to its embrace and exhaustion. She nuzzles her face into the soft sand, like a child and closes her bicolored eyes. The crashing of waves against the sand, the soft cry of gulls, lull her into a deep sleep. She doesn't fight, doesn't protest, just allows the darkness to close in around her.

Is this what death feels like? Atleast if she were to pass into the next life right now, she had picked the prime location to take her last breaths. Maybe the tourists wouldn't appreciate her final resting place... Ironic isn't it? Where others came to live joy filled lives, she has chosen to take her remaining breaths? She clinches her eyes shut, and waits... What happens next?

Minutes tick by... nothing. A gull screams overhead. The waves crash. The ache in her skull still pounds. Nope. It wasn't her time. She opens her mouth to find her tongue swollen and her throat scratchy like sand paper. She tries her voice, yet all that comes out is a squeak. Perfect... her memories of yesterday are gone and now her voice. Her muscles protest as she pulls her legs beneath her body and heaves onto her legs. The dizziness and fatigue washes over her in a fresh wave. She stumbles forward, her instincts drive her from the beach toward the fresh scent of water. She stumbles, ambles, and meanders through trees just off the beach. She had no clue where she was going, she was just following the scent of water.

The air around her was still crisp with the morning chill, she shivers against it, her thin coat offers no protection from the morning crispness. She wanders the trail, the bushes and foilage were beginning to offer blossoms of spring in soft hues of greens. A dull roar reaches her upturned speckled ears... water. Feebly she quickens her steps, until she comes into a small clearing. She skirts the edge of the clearing in a clumsy, meandering way, avoiding all eye contact. We don't accept the deranged. Are the only words the echo in her mind... and she wasn't even sure anyone had ever even said that to her.

As she steps near to the water, the mud sucks at her hooves pulling her closer to the waters edge. She drops her lips to frigid waters, and they part... she buries her nose, nostrils and all and gulps the water down her parched throat. She fills her cheeks, and lifts her head... water sloshes around her mouth and her belly. She looks back down into the water. She is in shock at the horse looking back at her. Her mane in tangles, sand clings to the side of her face, and a size-able gash with protruding crusty blood, glares back at from just below her left ear. Who was this horse? She stammers... and sputters... She honestly couldn't remember her name.