Past the Mountains, Among the Clouds

Twenty minutes. That was the time we got in between classes on our first day. A relaxation token. I needed one. As the professor left the lecture hall, an overwhelming sense of fatigue came over me. 

Lack of sleep. I thought to myself. Between my late night encounter with a goddess and the murder of my alarm clock by my very own hands, I had slept only around five hours. I have survived on far lesser, though. I went back to our seats where my roommate sat. I signaled him to find some at the back. This was not the place for us.

My roommate, August. Yes. The name of the month. Though it was not the month he was named after, but the one after which the month was named. Augustus Caesar, the first Roman Emperor. It didn't suit him. Contrary to the great Roman Emperor. He was anything but great.

"I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble."

To one of the greatest quotes by the emperor, the best he had to offer in our brief time together was, "Nah, I'd sleep." Truly, a magnificent piece of a man indeed.

"That was an entertaining performance." He joked.

"Of course you are to say!" I retorted back.

He didn't continue. He, too, was tired after our morning adventure in the class. We climbed the stairs of the lecture hall to find some place in the back. My recent and traumatic experience in the front had me make a mental note. That was the last time I sat at the front. Although my stupidity was partly to blame. I looked around as we climbed. Students, talking with each other. Friend groups were being made. Some of the faces I recognised from yesterday, others were new.

My eyes landed on a heterogenous group, mostly dominated my girls. The boys at the front were maybe trying to make their way into it. The girls laughed at whatever those boys said. Jokes. I thought to myself. Funny ones are the most easy to approach. The most popular, superficially at least. As August and I passed through the bunch, it was at that very moment my eyes met hers. 

Hazel. Sunlight. Autumn. A binding spell. 

I found myself lost in a trance. A kaleidoscope of earthy tones they shifted with each subtle movement, revealing new facets of their intricate design. At their core, rich amber burned, reminiscent of honey touched by sunlight. A radiating charm. I could feel it from the distance. The warmth of the sun on a chilly autumn evening. My surroundings crumpled into the rich reddish brown leaves of autumn. I was no longer in the lecture hall. A forest. The sunlight gleamed through the shallow canopy of the now naked trees. A rich concoction of the autumn aromas wove through the breeze. A faint sense of earthly decay, the smell of the moss. The musk of fallen leaves. The amber of trees. Dead yet lively. Dead yet beautiful. The imitation of life being life itself. It wasn't death. It wasn't decay. It was Autumn, through and through.

August tapped me on the shoulder. I flinched. My focus shifted from the girl to my roommate. It felt like I broke out of a trance.

"Dude, you okay?" A hint of concern in his voice.

"Oh, yeah, just the lack of sleep, I guess." I replied. 

"That girl over there, pretty cute, don't you think?"

"Yes. Yes, she is." 

She had blinked. Her head turned away to someone else. It seemed she didn't notice me. It was a few seconds, but it felt like hours to me. Eyes. So mesmerizing that one might lose himself to them. I certainly did. She sat at the near end corner of the group. The same one with the girls laughing at whatever humour the two guys at the front presented. A soft-spoken recluse. Such was the image my mind conjured upon seeing her for the first time. Not just the eyes. The person as a whole. Burnt red hair. The beige complexion with an earthly undertone to it. It wasn't the cold and distant aura of the winter goddess, but the warm comfort of silence. An underlying wistfulness behind that face, yet its radiance, so warm you could feel it. She felt otherworldly. Even peculiar was that this feeling felt familiar. 

Goddess. Biera. Otherworldly. A trance inducing gaze. Cold. Comfort. Winter. Autumn. The realization hit me like a bolt of lightning. It was ridiculous. It was foolish. So foolish that I discarded it into the "thoughts to the forgotten" section of my mind as soon as it came up. Yet, a small fragment of it continued to occupy portions of hippocampus and temporal lobe.

August and I continued our way to the back. Thankfully, there were a couple of empty seats in the second last row of the lecture hall. Our classes continued normally for the rest of the day. It was boring. It was uneventful. It was simple and I was thankful for that. I prayed to the gods I knew for it to stay the same.

2:40 p.m. The last bell for the day rang. A sense of rejuvenation dispersed through the tired crowd of students. People stretched their backs and limbs after hours of sitting. The professor had left the hall. I could hear plans for the evening being made. Exploring the neighbourhood of the campus. Short treks. Going to the nearby town. Trying out local cuisines. Ideas came to life one moment and were extinguished the very next. I, for one, couldn't care less. I wanted to go back to my room and sleep. August had other plans, though. It seemed the emperor in him was not just limited to his name. His hobbies, the best of which I knew, were taking naps, also included going on treks. You could imagine his excitement upon hearing people's plan for the evening. He left as fast as Hermes.

A sigh. That's all I could do. I sat alone on the bench of the lecture hall, arranging my stuff back into my bag. The number of people inside dwindled as fast as air through a large hole. A few still stayed to discuss up on the class matters while I just glanced at them from the distance. I had nothing better to do. Well, I had the yearning to sleep, but something felt wrong. No, the lecture hall suddenly felt way too comfortable and cozy. My eyes wanted to close then and there. I felt drowsy. I felt relaxed.

An extended stay at the lecture hall.

I thought to myself.

What a lame decision.

I thought to myself.

So lame that even the one discussing the study matter on the very first day of class looked much better compared to me. My eyes grew heavier and heavier. Perhaps it was my enhanced physical capabilities. I could see the faces of the people on the other end of the hall in a very detailed manner. Eyes. Nose. Hair. Their mouths moving when they spoke. Burnt red hair. The earthly beige complexion. A tiny nose. Eyes. Hazel eyes looking at me. 

"Huh?" I gasped.

Is she looking at me? A question conjured in my mind. The same girl from the morning. Something about her had felt odd. Her behaviour now only seemed to cement my suspicion about her. Her hazel eyes. Bewitching eyes. Eyes to catch you in a trance. The subject of their gaze. I. It appeared she had noticed my gaze, now and back then too. I waited in my seat with a sense of impending doom at what was about to come. If my hunch was right, running wouldn't do me any better.

She spoke to her group. It was different from the one in the morning. She appeared to be a quite soft-spoken recluse. I didn't expect her to be part of different groups. Let alone groups of such contrasting nature. The moment her mouth closed, the all thorough, intense discussion on the matter of what appeared to me the first problem of the homework numerical stopped. It seized. A moment later, they had left the hall and the two people that remained were me and her.

"I feel this is not a very appropriate place to have a discussion now, is it?" She called out.

Marshmallows. Roasted marshmallows. My very first thought about her voice. It felt fluffy. It felt soft. It felt like the proper companion to autumn. A slight rasp like the charred outside of roasted marshmallows, yet comforting like the soft and fluffy insides.

"You seem to know what I am." She said, breaking our silence as we walked through the mountainous trail.

I never knew that such a path existed in our campus in the first place. Regardless, each step I took was with utmost attentiveness. Her intent was unknown. Precaution is better than cure, they say.

"You don't have to be all quiet, you know?" She tried once again to spark some words.

"You are the one to have called me. It's only fitting that you say and I listen."

What else could I even say?

"You must've a lot of friends." Sarcasm. I could tell.

Oh,great. Now, I have met two supernatural beings with a sharp tongue!

"Have goddesses had nothing better to do than to throw sarcastic comments these days?" I couldn't help myself but utter the retort.

"Now, we're talking. Ah, so you already knew."

You scheming girl!

A goddess. An otherworldly existence. A higher being. It was naïve of me to have thrown this thought when it first came to my mind. 

Freya Pomon Archion, the Goddess of Autumn, the Queen of the Red Leaves, The Keeper of Lost Souls, The Ruler of Decay, The Imitation. Dead leaves. Dead trees. Decay all throughout. She was autumn, through and through.

Another goddess. Or like the case of Biera, a fragment of one. On my second day, just after being warned not to get involved any further. A day I was happy to have spent uneventfully till now. A day I prayed to be normal. 

God did not answer my prayers. The one I knew didn't, at least.