Cinnamon, Part 17 - Sleep Deprevation

We walked in the dark for hours. For longer than I thought the night should last, but it never got any lighter. Neither of us ever spoke a word - the only sound around us was the sound of Celer's hoofs and my feet against the warm, weird snow the whole of White Island was covered with. The Will-o'-the-Wisps led us along. It seemed to me I never saw anything else, except the next blueish flame ahead of us, and the trees around it. Time passed and I got tired. I didn't feel tired, but I somehow knew I was. My muscles didn't feel like they were hurting any more, but I knew they were. I didn't feel anything, really. I just somehow knew, that I was tired, exhausted. Hurting, hungry. I knew all that without actually feeling any of it. It was like someone outside of my body was telling me how I felt, and I believed it without actually feeling any of it, because a part of me knew it must be true. I think Celer's hand in mine was the only thing keeping me sane through the darkness, the only thing that made me to keep on.
From the corner of my eye I saw something move, not very far away from us in the dark woods. For the first time in hours I snapped my vision off the lights and to what ever I had seen. My head began to swirl. I felt dizzy. My vision went blurry, though I know I could still see clearly. There was nothing there. The feeling in my head returned back to normal. I had just turned my head too fast. I turned it back slowly, to face the light again. I squeezed the hand in mine.
Celer was looking at me. Not directly, but his head was turned a little and his eyes were staring right at me. I looked back at him.
"What is it?" he asked. I'm not sure if his voice was even as loud as a faint whisper, but it was enough. I heard him.
"I thought I saw something", I answered, not hearing my own voice.
"It's nothing", he answered, but he looked worried.
"You're sure?"
"You're just tired, that's all", he said, "There's nothing out there."
"Are you telling me, that in a world filled with creatures people in my world can only imagine, there are none of the creatures who live in dark forests exist?"
"We will be fine", I wasn't sure if we was trying to convince me or himself, "Just keep your eyes on the lights and we'll be fine. There is nothing here besides us. Us and the lights. They are taking us to safety. We're safe."
We continued to walk in silence. I never took my eyes off the next light on our path. Not even when I could swear there was something moving on the edge of my vision. There was nothing there. I knew it, the same way I knew that I was tired. A part of me knew, that all those flashes were, were my brain not having had enough sleep. I hadn't slept for... I didn't know how long. I had woken up in the morning, before we began to move the camp. It was... It was so long ago. I couldn't believe all that had been just the previous morning. It had been ages. For ever. So much time had passed. It couldn't be. Then again, I didn't know how time actually passed in this world. I didn't know, if all the nights actually stretched for weeks, for months. I just went to sleep after it got dark, and woke up again when the sun had risen. I didn't know how much time passed in between. I just had never come to think the nights could be longer than I assumed they were. Or maybe nights were different length if you were asleep than if you were awake. The nights of the ones awake stretch on for days, driving insomniacs crazy. Or maybe it wasn't about the length of the night. Maybe it was this place. Maybe the lights had lured us into a place that was forever dark. Into a night that never ended. It made sense. Weren't Will-o'-the-Wisps, in all stories I knew, the ones that guided inexperienced and careless travellers onto swamps and other places where they drown and die and are never found? I thought that was right. Was it? Although Celer seemed to trust them, so maybe I was wrong. Maybe these were friendly fires leading us into the darkness. I was so dark. I couldn't see anything. But it was warm. Not hot, just gentle warm. Soft warm. Dark, soft warm. The kind you never got back at home. I noticed I had started to hum my mother's tone, in a very, very low, soft, almost indistinguishable voice. Somehow everything felt better, then. The creatures in the dark, or in my imagination, seemed just a tiniest bit less scary.
And we walked on in the dark, following blueish, flickering flames.
I opened my eyes. I could see Celer's face right above mine, in the gloom glow of one lonely flame. There were no more lights to follow. Just the last one, and Celer's calm face.
"Sleep now, Cinnamon."
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You just forgot? You forgot. Awesome.
I had to write the 15th post when I did, I was running out of time. I wasn't gonna postpone it until past midnight.

Oh, oh, oh. On a more positive note.
Let me represent you.
The gingerbread house (=towers) of 2013.

First one to have a photo up here!
I am oddly proud of building a gingerbread house (castle?) that cool.
People have been asking me: "How did you make the towers round?"
My answer to those people is: "I'm simply that good."

Your topic for tomorrow: Red.
Don't ask. I have no idea.

~matu