I took a moment and inhaled the crisp air. I looked down on the trees, their thick branches and leaves covering their secrets under the ground below. I let their branches brush and slip over my head, their secrets were safe, hidden down there under the moon’s protective glow. I decided to look up and watched the moon, hovering far above us, distant and completely out of reach. It seemed complicit in its silence. We stood alone, protecting each other against the outside world. We created a kind of closed system, where we set the rules and no one else was allowed in. I didn’t have to pretend to be somebody else. I didn’t need to speak in codes when we were together. I felt a great relief, all the burdens I carried with me seemed to have slipped off my back. We walked along the edge of the ridge, looking over the secret world, surveying its magic and majesty, quietly moving under the moon. I looked down and saw our intermingling shadows on the ground, it looked like we were dancing together, echoing other nights we had shared during the previous clandestine nights we shared together. I could feel the wind blowing beneath our feet, seeming to guide us forward. She moved a few steps ahead of me without fear but I was hesitant. There were things ahead I still didn’t understand, I wasn’t sure I was ready to move onward. As we walked forward, I felt the wind push me and I caught up to her. We walked for a while across the edge, navigating the path until we reached the other side of the mountain. There was no one else around, it felt like we were alone, overlooking an indescribable, impenetrable world. 

I looked over the trees, closely examining their tops and saw something begin to emerge slowly as the rustled through the night. My perception seemed limited initially, but as I allowed myself to focus, their appearance seemed to evolve slowly. At first I found it confusing and I didn’t understand what was happening. I wondered if she was behind it and at first thought I was being tricked by her. I thought about it and looked at her eyes, after a moment, I understood what was going on. She wasn’t teasing but teaching me something but she would let me discover this part on my own. I turned my head back towards the trees and they seemed more alive as I watched them. This was odd but the closer I looked, the more their appearance seemed to change and they began to resemble something else. It seemed familiar but I couldn’t quite put my head in the right place despite my efforts. It was like a giant puzzle where I could only find a few pieces that matched. She walked towards me and held onto my shoulder for a moment, I felt an icy chill that I couldn’t describe, but it seemed to cool my overheated mind enough that I could concentrate for a moment. I closed my eyes for a few moments, clearing out some of the accumulated debris. I took a deep breath and opened them again; the things I was supposed to see came into focus. I had a sudden urge and clenched my arms suddenly in front of me. Instead of looking at a series of trees on the ground, I was looking at a large pattern, the branches interlocking, almost communicating between themselves in a strange language. They were slowly changing form as the wind shifted direction. I had to look hard, and see things that weren’t there. When I concentrated, I could almost read what looked like letters starting to form, configuring into words that slowly built into a message that I knew could be deciphered. I was frustrated, I kept getting close to the answer but it always seemed to slip away, remaining just out of my grasp. I tried imagining the puzzle in different ways and I tried to push thing together.

The night grew late and I could feel the winds getting stronger. The air was growing colder as the remaining heat evaporated. I felt my hands becoming frozen, as If there was a touch of winter. I was embarrassed by my lack of progress, especially with her eyes looking straight at me. This unnerved me and her piercing gaze incinerated my concentration. I thought back to the arcade and remembered some of the games I played. Some of them also had patterns and codes that could be discovered if you played long enough. I decided to try and apply that to this more elaborate puzzle. She seemed to have set it up for me, but I wasn’t exactly sure for what purpose she had in mind. I walked over towards her but remained slightly distant. I knew this would be something she wanted me to find out for myself, but I needed at least a little support from her in some way. I took my time and closed my eyes, trying to piece things together. I remembered how slowly things had come to me when I played some of those games, so I decided to start from the beginning. Maybe I was trying to do everything at once and needed to take a few steps.  I decided to close my eyes again and take a deep breath. The air was cold, and there was almost a touch of winter. Slowly, I took a few pieces and focused on them. Small strings of letters came into view. These turned into words which I knew then other I didn’t, punctuated by numbers. I could read sentences once again, but they seemed twisted, and didn’t make any sense, like they were written in another language. There wasn’t much I could do, I felt stuck and alone up there, unable to move forward inside this mysterious place beyond my comprehension. I stood alone up there for a long time, wondering what this was all supposed to mean. I felt something on my shoulders and I knew it was her. This was reassuring but also humbling, I think she knew I was a little over my head. She steadied me for a moment and this allowed me to think. I felt her presence and decided to try again.

I closed my eyes and once again the letters returned. They seemed more jumbled than before, crossed signals it felt like a glitch, growing ever more complicated and tangled together. I felt her telling me to keep trying, the words began to fade away and I began to see something else emerge from the tangled, illogical associations. I began to see that none of it was really that important, I had spent too much time on the symbols and words, losing sight of what mattered. The letters began to disappear entirely, and after awhile, I found myself in another place. There was darkness and quiet. I finally felt at peace, but it wouldn’t last. She took her hands off my shoulders and I walked away from her. Almost immediately, things began to make more sense. I walked down the steps towards the trees once again, slowly measuring my steps. It was an odd sensation; it was almost as if I was gliding over the steps, almost like I was flying. I looked down and the winds were blowing through the branches. I looked up and the moon was gone, replaced almost entirely by clouds. I couldn’t see what was going on so I looked down and saw something going on down there. I walked further down the steps and finally reached the bottom once again. I felt a bit nervous, but I knew something was different. As I stepped under the trees, I noticed that the symbols I had seen before were gone. Only a few minutes had passed but everything felt different, and I wasn’t certain that she had this planned. I wondered why she left me, and I was getting confused. I stood there quietly for a moment and felt that I was alone once again. I needed to explore again, but I didn’t know what I was looking for. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes slowly. Taking a deep breath, I turned around and saw no one there. I was startled to see her standing patiently, looking directly at me.