Chapter 11:

The Courage to Stride Against The Tide

Reflections


Nothing but the sound of the waves can be heard against the shore as I wash up against the familiar grains that once harboured me. I open my eyes to see the same dark and empty sky, almost as empty as the feeling in my chest. I lay completely still on the sand, the waves crawling up the shore as I fumble to find any reason to stand.

My family?

My dreams?

Myself?

Each question echoes in my mind, and yet none of them seem to give me any reason to even stand, let alone drag myself through the sand to find the exit of this trial.

I fell into this world, and I was foolish enough to believe that this was enough to make my problems disappear, and yet no matter how far away I get from my old hom,e I’m still cursed by this thing, this problem.

“I’m still cursed by me…”

The one thing I or you can never truly escape from is ourselves; no matter how far you go, how deep you bury yourself, you will never escape from yourself. I’ve dragged myself through this world hoping that I could finally put an end to this all, that maybe I could find something here…

“I guess I was just looking for a reason”

“That’s not right…”

“I was looking for permission.”

The one thing I hadn’t yet been able to grasp had finally clicked. I had spent almost 2 months in this new world, and I figured it’d all disappear eventually. I figured that maybe I’d find someone who could make me forget.

I didn’t always feel like this. From the fragments of my past that I can remember, most of it was spent helping others, or rather, trying to help them. People pleasing was just something that was normal to me, but I guess that during that process, not only did I forget myself, but I also forgot how to please myself.

Ironic, isn’t it? How can you be so intent on helping others that you completely forget how to help yourself? Do it for long enough, and you end up devaluing yourself when you’re not helping anyone. It’s a vicious, never-ending cycle of diminishing your own value and your feelings towards yourself. And somehow, just somehow, I thought that if I was the cost, then it was fine.

What did I achieve?

What was it all for?

The silence that followed my introspection didn’t help me find an answer, but rather helped me create one.

“Was there ever a point to this in the first place?”

“Does life truly have a reason?”

The waves lapping at my body, cold and relentless, whispered the endless churn of my thoughts, ceaseless, unpredictable, and powerful enough to pull me under at any moment. The salt clung to my skin like memories I couldn’t wash away, while grains of sand slipped between my hair, reminding me of the fragile shore I might one day call home. I hadn’t moved forward; I was caught suspended, neither fully swallowed by the ocean of my mind nor firmly planted on the shore of the world I longed to build.

“I guess life really is a string of our own constructs, a reflection of how we see the world,” I said, my hand gripping the sand beneath me tighter.

“I guess it’s time for me to change how the light reflects against the surface”

“If no one's coming to save me, then it’s up to me. It’s up to me to strive against the waves”.

I stand up, brushing off grains of sand that lay ingrained on my dress. The sound of the waves is beckoning, yet calming. The feeling of the sand shifting from my weight, almost like I was going to fall.

With a new sense of hope and the strength to push once more, I set out across the beach looking for anything that could help me get out of this trial.

We may not be able to control the tide, but we can at least control how we navigate it.

As I walk across the sand, the petals float with the motion of the wind, my feet drawing lines in the sand. I look at the water that now glistens with the setting sun. Warm colours now painted the world around me; it was warm and welcoming.

The longer I walked, the longer it seemed to take until I could find anything of use. Something glistened in the sand, not too far from me; it looked like a glass bottle.

What could you be? I thought to myself, pondering not only what it was but why it was here. I picked it up and held it at eye level. It was indeed a glass bottle, and inside it was a ship and what looked like a note.

I opened the bottle, took out the note and started to read.

“It seems you have found your reason to continue your journey..I’m glad.

May this boat be the vessel that harbours you on your journey.”

The note didn’t say who it was from, but I had a good idea who it might be from. I flipped it over to see if anything else was left for me to discover.

The writing looked distorted, glitched, almost as if the data that made it up was corrupted.

“Save….me”

“Save…them”

I had heard these words before, and I began doubting whether or not my guess was correct as to who had sent this, but before I could finish my thought, the words disappeared, leaving nothing but the reassuring message on the other side.

Something isn’t right, I thought to myself, but what exactly wasn’t right was something that I couldn’t place my finger on.

“Why would someone be asking me to save me and them?”

“Who even were them?”

“Who was asking me to save people?”

Regardless of who or what was asking me to save them, I think it’s about time that I face the challenges that lie in the light of tomorrow.

I clutch the note in my hand and begin walking across the sand in hopes of finding a way out.

Elsewhere, somewhere outside of the trial halls, two people were discussing something.

“It looks like he’s almost out," spoke one of the intriguing characters, sitting on his chair behind his desk. The desk looked rather small in comparison to his throne-like chair, which was plated in gold highlights.

“Y..yes, it seems as though it’s almost time," replied the priest, The preparations are almost complete.

“Good,” exclaimed the one in the chair, clearly in power as a grin crossed his face.

“Finally, we’ll be able to keep it all…”

I had no clue what was happening beyond the trials that I had found myself in, but I could feel the stakes rising with every step.

“I found it!” I exclaimed, happy to have finally found the mirror that allowed me into these trials.

I took another look at the waves, making sure to soak in as much of this into my memories as possible.

“It’s time I started facing the source.”

Once again, I reach out my hand, sending ripples through the mirror's surface as my hand makes contact with it, and I disappear from the shoreline, never to return to it again.

---

The waves crash against the ocean and carve their mark upon the sand.

“Waves can be both destructive and constructive; some rebuild the beach while others take it.”

The Shorekeeper's pale skin reflected the sun's glow, and her silver hair waved in the wind.

“A reflection begins with the source, and now you know what the source of this reflection is…

“I wonder what lies upon the surface…”

A smile appears over the Shorekeeper's face as she catches a petal drifting in the wind.

“I wonder how far you’ll grow… My little flower”

Mara
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Reflections


Tsuki
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