The Archway: Chapter 2
As we walked, the colours grew brighter - orange and lemon, violet and teal. We passed another outcrop of boulders.
“Another logo!” Kiz-OO pointed. “We must be a warm audience by now!”
They were right - another symbol was etched into the stones beside us, and I was feeling quite warm.
This symbol showed another figure, legs in a wide stance, arms above their head.
It was beautiful too, but I didn’t want to stop. The music from up ahead was getting louder, and I wanted to know where it was coming from. Who was playing it? Could I capture it? Sing along?
We passed more boulders, and more symbols, but I barely paid them attention.
Ahead, colours rolled from behind the row of dunes, reds and yellows and pinks surging up and over the sand then tumbling towards us in a rainbow swirl.
We reached the bottom of the dunes and I scrambled eagerly up the side, Kiz-OO buzzing more hesitantly by my shoulder.
When I reached the top, breathless and sweaty, I stood with my hands on my hips looking down the other side.
Ahead of me, on the desert floor, loomed a huge stone arch.
“Woah!” said Kiz-OO, “What a great activation!”.
Colours danced between the two lopsided columns: purple and orange, blue and gold, red and pink, all warm and shimmering. They were the colours of the song that was resonating from the archway.
The chords surged up the dunes and towards me; nostalgic, hopeful, and uplifting. There were no words, but the familiarity of the music continued to tug at me.
I slid down the other side of the dune in a flurry of hot sand, and walked towards the archway as if in a trance.
Finally, I gazed into the swirl of colour.
Something was in there, inside the song. Someone was in there.
As I stared, she flickered into view - a hand, then an arm, an eye, then a face appearing between the columns like a silhouette cutting through smoke.
Eventually, she stood clear and bright under the huge arch.
She flickered in the morning light.
And she looked exactly like me.
The girl stared into my eyes, and I found myself smiling at her. She reflected a cheeky grin straight back at me, and started to sing along to the music.
"What do you say?” she asked me.
“Reckon it'd be best if we left - are you ready for running away?"
I don't know how, but I knew the next line - so I sung along with her.
"We could be anything."