Light the way Forward

I R I S Iris waited for sunset before making the trek up the shoreline and round the worn stone steps of the lighthouse. When she reached the top the ocean spread out in front of her, the last beams of light rippling across its surface. It calmed her, enforcing her determination, but the vibrant waters also brought on a strange sort of sadness. She would miss these shores. Although she felt she possessed the strength to leave them, it would be a while before she acquired the strength to return. She walked to the altar, placing on it an assortment of flowers, ginger, amaryllis and anthurium. Between the colorful petals, she placed a pearl. It's shape bent and imperfect, she had found it while diving not far from Aumakua. She had come hoping for a blessing. She hoped for life. A chance to discover who she could be, now that the only person who had truly known her was gone. "I hope to receive a bit of protection from the shadows at my back." She would do the rest herself. She sat down onto the stone and looked back out at the ocean as it slowly descended into darkness.

Despite the fact that the shrine is inside, a breeze picks up. The flowers are caught in the wind, the petals pulled apart. They dance like sprites upon the wild zephyr, circling Iris and the room. A pretty little whirlwind, growing faster and faster and faster and faster- -until it leaves through an open window, and you find yourself alone.