She stood motionless, save for the scant movement of her diaphragm, ebbing and flowing with her soft but steady breathing. Her eyes stared ahead, into the distance as if to tear apart the horizon with her gaze. The breeze caught the ends of her hair, tossing them like the hands of a stylist. It felt warm, comfortable, and tempting, luring her into lying down and basking in the known world.
But part of her ached, making her breath sharp and shaky, leaving her eyes closed. In spite of the warm day, she shivered. In the expanse of the fields of wheat around the road, she felt caged. The wind no longer felt warm and comforting, but suffocatingly hot. She wanted, she needed to leave, but where would she go? A road sandwiched her in the front and at the back. It stretched far back before her yawning in her past and stretching endlessly into a possible future. To her left forked a smaller path, twisting its way at an angle. Slowly meandering its way through the yellow, it vanished in green, and faded into the blue mountain.
She swallowed, her throat ragged from swallowing tears. Her mouth hanged open, matching the stretching of her eyes. They poured over every surface in the distance, analyzing them and filing them away for furture scrutiny. The yearning seemed to only grow stronger, like the water escaping through the crack in the dam. Her eyes fell closed again as she tried to steady her lungs and calm her pulse. Dragging her head back, she looked at the long, straight road. For a moment she almost glanced back to where she had come, but stopped.
Looking down at the pale gravel beneath her shoes, she let a smile slip across her lips. Now she knew. She took one step, and then another, leaving the footprints engraved in the spot she pondered on.
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