Nameless gasps, as the visions

flash before its

quivering sight.

The sight of the riverbank

where color ends soon

returns to greet the wanderer

with a cold, indifferent scene.

Nameless drops the star by

the water, where it tumbles down

the hill and into the

water, doomed to a

fate swept away by the current.

Nameless gazes at the soil besides

the riverbed

and finds a thousand more

stars littered about the grass,

which slowly fades from green

to gray the closer it sits to the

current.

Somehow, Nameless never noticed

the multitude of stars at its feet,

discarded, no doubt, by equally

nameless and faceless others

in search of answers:

reasons not to dive in.

The lack of others

lounging on the shore

answers an unspoken question.

Nameless turns away from the water

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betrayed.

It believed, for a fleeting

moment, long gone, that

the stars around its feet gathered

to impart upon it a unique answer

for its unique troubles.

Now it realizes

that the many stars that

litter the riverbank

speak aloud to all yet

no one.

A peak in the horizon catches

Nameless' attention. It gazes

up at the line where the canvas

of sky blends with the faraway

current, which washes away

the bright oranges and blue

hues of the fading sunset.

A monolith, perhaps?

Nameless drags its feet

up the hill and away from

the water.

Soon, it finds itself at

the edge of a forest, where

the tree branches overhead bend

to the shape of a gate.

The conifers and oaks loom

a presence imposing, and

their ancient leaves dome over

the light of the fading day,

through which an emerald mist

shimmers over the lone path

carved in dirt and loose pebbles

ahead of Nameless.

Nameless reaches for an errant

leaf

lost to the breeze.