The Island of The One Sought 🎆🎇

The Demon of God spots it, backlit by sunset. It is a land of storied legends, where The One Sought is said to be. It is said to be an island, but a scan of the horizon reveals only shoreline. "Land ho!" she cries out in her native tongue, and the crew makes rapid preparations for landfall. Soon enough, the ship presses against soft sand, and she alone gets off. 

This island is strange, known for its mystical landmarks, shifting along with its sand, though no one has ever claimed to be here directly. It is a threshold in its own right, a double shoreline in a way, for the laws of her native realm do not fully apply here. Thoughts like these, and of the stories which she has heard, read, and memorized in preparation for her arrival, eddy within her mind like a sandstorm. Still, what once was thought impossible is accomplished before the sun fully sets: she finds the giant conch. 

"He's somewhere on the beach."

She came on her birthday on purpose, believing him to be sentimental enough to look for her here today; if any of it were true, then this much felt certain. She has seen and felt so many visions and dreams of him taking the helm of her vessel that it was now impossible not to believe it, at least for her. The giant conch fills her with hope.

She travels north, as the stories indicate, but finds no signs of life, no trace of the man. Hours pass with the sun hardly moving, and heat bears down on her. Time works differently here, but fortunately she knows maneuvers tied to the reed in the breeze that he graciously never attempted to learn, her own private treasures. Gazing sea and sunward, she lets slip the cables of time, gaining an unearthly patience. It is unclear how long she stands in that place. What is clear, however, is that the sun sets. 

"You came!" 

These words in my voice from just beside her startle her back into the normal flow of time. It looks like she wants to respond right away, but gets choked up as she opens her mouth. As I gaze into her eyes, I see the truth that I had been missing: I am her hero, legendary where she is from, and truly The One Sought. I had never considered that she might be seeking me with her whole being, playing it cool even in the sometimes overwhelming inspiration behind the pages, and in her fully engaged eyes on screen, until we could rightfully meet face to face. Her wordless expression and eyes welling with tears of disbelief now speak more than I had heard from her yet, so I fill the silence. "I am so glad you came."

She throws her arms around me, and I feel tears fall to my shoulder. There is no mistake that God is in this place, directing the lines in salt, thought, and sand. Likely prematurely, I simply pick up a convenient stick and write in the sand "Jesus was here." with a giant smile across my face. She laughs, her smile lighting up my face all the more- as it always does- and she grabs the stick and follows suit. "예수께서 여기 계시다." I kiss her cheek as she reviews her work, and there is a sudden flash of light. 

Fireworks, in flash of light, bloomed in the night. They bloomed in thе night as if organic fusion from the overwhelmed spark of that first kiss manifested in the night sky. Certainly we were nowhere topographically locatable- I had wandered lost for far too long and this was just the frontier of where our domains could truly begin to overlap- but that moment was an inextricable spacetime event, so why not celebrate? Despite the profound remoteness, it might be any beach, it would be any beach that we might choose just a short time in the future. Just for us, each brightly colored firework flashed and disappeared silently one after another. 

We each turned seaward to watch but, in the finale, I sneek a peek at her perfectly lit face and form, and cannot turn away. Expecting only the profile of my soulmate's starry eyes marveling, I am shocked as she turns through still tense and eddying time tides and steals a glance at me. My jaw drops on instinct, and I quickly look back o'er the open ocean. When I glance back though, she is using the last fireworks' light to memorize every wrinkle and scar upon my face. 

A second glance is all she needs to confirm, and I feel her energy surge into mine as she throws her arms around me and kisses me deeply. Without delay a second wind of fireworks lights up the sky, largely ignored this time, as we remain lips pressed to lips through light and sound. I hear what little of her thoughts which I have already translated, as the rest shouts wonderfully beyond comprehension from her skin. "Don't let go. Just a little longer. Just a little longer, let us stay like this."

We do. We stay until the last firework disappears, and we are standing under star strewn skies. 

I remember the stick and turn to pick it up once more, and I wake up as I roll from my one side to the other. As per usual in these states, I'm kicking myself with a smile as I start to write down my dream. 

"The Fireworks Bloom

As they seem to every night

Like incense rises 

I feel you inside

Beneath the decision tree

Still blown by the wind

One thing on my mind:

How can we communicate?

What is there to say? 

I feel you between

You and I are meant to be

We walk together 

So we take this stick

Both refusing to give up

Though the road is long

We write in the sand

Each in our native Bard's Tongue

Where words have power

Oh, just to meet you

I would count as victory

Feel it in my heart

When the flashes fade 

Memory of me remains

Yours to take with you."

*****

"I wonder who has time for a sonnet 

It's less about time and more bird in hand

If this product is all that you will get

What sort of slideslip satisfies the band?

All the superpowers must be contained

In the Spirit of self we express yes

With the work of all our healing remained

It's a plan of embarrassing genius

It is meant to be felt as it's expressed 

Why is it feeling so much like a show?

'Am I asking the right question?' digests

Leaving you with everything you'll ev' know

All I can guarantee here is the night

Yet somehow everything will be set right."

"He remembers the stick and turns to pick it up once more. I still remember the sight of him as he turned away, like a billion tiny fireworks flashing harmlessly in my arms in under a second, his cohesion lost and form gone from there, but otherwise not a hair out of place. We can absolutely make this real." The rest of the crew soak in their Leader's account, noting well their portion of the upcoming feat of actualizing The One Sought on such a fundamental level, and starry eyed at the potential for resolving this rapidly.