A moment in time

“Is it far?” she said, as they wandered through the woods.

The man was silent, his eyes fixed ahead.

The girl looked back down, searching the damp, pressed soil for roots and broken branches.

As each minute passed, the trees seemed to thicken, their bark withered and worn.

Up above, the sunlight flickered its way through the leaves, piercing the canopy and bringing brief flashes of warmth.

The man stopped. There was a split in the path. Like two veins, channelling their way through the Earth’s crust, they diverged and curled off out of sight.

“Which way now?” she said. There was no answer.

She looked up. The man had gone.

Gripping the edges of her coat, she moved tentatively towards the rift.

After reaching the divide, she stopped - searching for inspiration.

It was then the forest dimmed momentarily under the cloud-marbled sky. As the warmth returned, one path seemed to glow brighter than the other.

“This one,” she said.

The girl set off, following the path into the distance, until her silhouette blurred with the horizon.

And at that, she was gone.