12

She was wild with anticipation. Her heart tore against her ribs, slamming against each crevice of skin, the beats roaring in her ears.
Her toes hung across the cliff face, pebbles digging into her soles, the wind ripping against her neck.
Raising her hands out to the horizon, she roared.
As loud as she could, pushing her chest forward so each miniscule piece of voice was expelled from her lungs. She closed her eyes, and screamed to nothing.
Her scream broke to laughter, wild unashamed bellows of joy, catching in the wind, running through the strands of her hair being torn in the air, dragging towards the horizon.
The deep blue below slammed against rocks, white foam lashing forwards, climbing for her feet before falling below, to whence it came, and as she lowered her head to watch, her eyes caught each spray of water, each escaping droplet from the vastness of its home, before returning in ripples of silent defiance.
She pulled her feet across the ground, leaning her shoulders back, the wind dragging against her shirt, whipping it across her waist, pulling it up against her stomach.
Her skin prickled with the cold, with the strength, with the freedom.
Like an invisible hand, the wind ran against her neck, running along her spine, touching each bump, each bone, each muscle, each pore, each mark, each and every piece of her shaking, laughing body.
She dove.
In aggression the wind tore against her throat, forcing it’s way through her teeth, lashing against her tongue and drowning in her lungs, her voice bellowed through the air, echoing to the horizon, as a mere blip in each sound of the earth.
Her hands reached the tip of the ocean as it began to encase her form. Running along her skin it swallowed her whole, and then, all was silent.
There was nothing to be heard.
This was another world, a world of deep blue and mystery, and in these few seconds that she sunk gently under the earth’s surface, her own breath escaping in bubbles of light above her head, she relished in the silence, in the stillness, in the peace.
As her last remaining bubbles of air escaped her mouth, a smile drew across her lips as she dragged her hands through blue, clawing her way towards the surface.
The tip of her forehead tipped the surface, the weight of her hair suddenly pulling against her face, sticking to her cheeks.
Droplets of water hung to her eyelashes, lining that glassy stare into the horizon.
Her neck rose, lifting her lips to air as she inhaled that salty fresh breath, her lungs throbbing gently from the purity.
Her clothes clung to her body, her shaking legs, still recovering from her leap, her strong arms, resting against the still blue ocean, her chest heaving in elation.
And as she grinned, as her eyes spoke words her lips never could, she would never notice the ripples emanating from her body, with each breath she took.
Ripples, like the droplets of water, in silent defiance of the horizon, in silent defiance of all.