The only sound my own racing heart, my ragged breath…
A single tear slips down my cheek,
Pain, fear and loss tugging at my broken heart…

Death.
I smell it on me and know my life will end all too quickly…
My scarlet life blood running in riverlets down my fingers,
Where an arrow had pierced my side only moments before…

Love.
The knowledge that the very men who were hunting me…
Had killed my family.
And were now hunting me for the information locked in my mind…

Sea.
I could hear the ocean so close…
My hope, to complete the mission entrusted to me.
To deliver the message to those who could end this…

Shout.
A single shout pierced the air…
Ending the silence and revealing my presence.
And fifteen men ran at me…

Ran.
Without any conscious thought, my body broke into a run…
Away from my hunters and toward my target.
Cloak flying and blood leaving a blazing trail behind me…

Hope.
I burst through trees and into cold dusk…
The sublime sun sinking below the horizon,
And giving me strength I never knew I had…

The Hooded Figure.
A monk in the temple shouted to a runner of the hooded figure…
Exiting the forest and pausing, the girl looked at the sun set,
It was a millisecond, but the monk believed it to be too much…

Success.
She sprinted onto the beach that lay between the lapping sea and the woods…
And more importantly,
The temple…
Breath.
The gate open and archers took down my fast approaching persuaders…
I run into the courtyard of the temple grounds…
And fall to my knees, my last strength depleted to its very end…

Commotion.
I heard the people running around me, checking me…
Trying to call me back, wake me up,
They needed the information I had. Only me. Locked away inside…

Gone.
As people begged for me to wake up…
Sit up…
Talk, a voice told them to leave me…
Lifted my shoulders…
Put their lips to my ear…
And whispered that I was safe…
And blackness overtook me…

Back.
I felt the pain first…
But I knew I was still alive,
And safe…
It was a concept foreign to me,
“Awake I see. Leave us”
The voice was commanding and familiar…
Haunting…
“Gabriel!” I sat up all too fast and looked at the voice’s owner…
“Hello, my hooded friend.”

© September 2010 – J. Swinburne