An Old One

"I call you with the power within me," I said, beginning to tremble. It was cold, Wind and Water brushing over me. Then suddenly it was warm, Fire and Earth swarming around me.

"Spirits, I call you to me, to advise me," I said, calmly and smoothly. "Where should I go now? I have seen much of the world," I continued, as I sat on the grassy bank of the southern Amazon in Brazil. Spirit, the fifth element, begin to flutter from within me and caress my senses.

I heard whispers like music, and my elements played at my hair's end. Cold, North. "Thank you, Friends, I will remember," I whispered.

Spirits are forgotten in this new world. Where I came from, and island which has long since disappeared, spirits were our friends. They wish to be remembered, that is all. And so I remember them, and they come to my aid. It is not an art, I am no special being, but over the years I have learned.

I stood on the bank, and waded into the muddy water until it was knee deep. I felt ripples, about three-hundred metres away, and after some patience, stuck my hand fast into the water. It surfaced with an alligator about my wrist, and I sunk my teeth into its neck.

It is good to drink animal blood. Where there are few people and many animals at your disposal, there is no need to kill innocent people.

I returned to the bank and hauled myself up a rubber tree, stepping lithely onto the smooth, gripping canopy. I jumped from tree to tree, heading North-West to where the American continents joined. I ran and ran, and left behind the river that had been my home for the past one-hundred-and-twenty-two years.

I ran fast, flitting through Brazil and then Peru and then Colombia. Eventually, I came to Mexico after traversing all those tiny countries in between, and then, Arizona. Warm and bright.

The air was moist, almost tangeable, and as I ran through cornfields and mountain ranges that acted as my camoflage, I thought about the spirits guiding me to the cold. Yes, I had been living ferally in the warm for many years now, just over a century, and perhaps it was time I moved on to a new land.

My surroundings started to cool as I ran northwards, and as I got so far - two weeks of straight running - I hit snow. I dislike snow, so I turned back and jogged down slightly, and found myself in Washington. It was raining, and I was in the middle of a cool, empty forest.

It was perfect.

I started to laugh and smile and dance in the rain, my ash-blonde hair swirling around me and the beaded strings from my old, brown bikini jumped around as well.

I looked odd, wearing so little and dancing in the rain, so I smelled the air and followed the smell of people. I wondered how busy it would be, if there would be many people.

If I could resist.