The Elements as Prompts Part II

This piece is part of a series I’m doing on using the elements as writing prompts. I started with snow in winter. Technically, spring is here. Things have started to bloom but it still feels like everything is taking an eternity. I keep checking on the peas, lettuce and radish. They’re definitely taking their own sweet time. I thought it would be fun to take the same character of Paldi from the snowy woods in winter to the ones just barely coming to life in spring. The toy astronaut was a bonus backyard find. 

Paldi’s mind woke to the sounds of birds singing. His eyes still closed, he smiled inwardly. One more minute he said to himself before eventually opening his eyes, taking the comfort of his sleepy subconscious to meet the waking day. 

His eyes shot wide open. Panic flooded his veins as he jerked up to a half sitting position. He looked around with confusion not recognizing the cool dirt pressing up against his palms. The leaves on the trees had not quite set in yet and he could see the sky above him except it wasn’t one that he recognized. Taking in his surroundings, he pushed himself up, leaning on a tree trunk for support, feeling the weakness of his legs. 

Its vibrant red giving it away, a cardinal was perched nearby and seemed to be watching him. He thought he heard water but quickly realized the wind had just pushed around dried leaves on an oak, remnants of a season past. 

For a few moments Paldi did nothing, his thoughts still racing to catch up with his body. His only movements were his blinking eyes. Slowly, he risked one step forward and then another, his hands barely grazing the tree just in case. 

Buds on a branch, a nest, life in different shapes and hues of green pushing up through the dirt. With every step, Paldi saw something different. Then memory after memory flashed across his mind, the cool air around him taking him back to the woods he used to wander as a child with his parents. When he tried to remember the time after, and the time before now, he couldn’t. It was as if his memories were stuck in infancy, stuck in an eternal spring.