Nameless gasps, as the visions

  flash before its

  quivering sight.

  The sight of the riverbank

  where color ends soon

  returns to greet the wanderer

  with a cold, indifferent scene.

  Nameless drops the star by

  the water, where it tumbles down

  the hill and into the

  water, doomed to a

  fate swept away by the current.

  Nameless gazes at the soil besides

  the riverbed

  and finds a thousand more

  stars littered about the grass,

  which slowly fades from green

  to gray the closer it sits to the

  current.

  Somehow, Nameless never noticed

  the multitude of stars at its feet,

  discarded, no doubt, by equally

  nameless and faceless others

  in search of answers:

  reasons not to dive in.

  The lack of others

  lounging on the shore

  answers an unspoken question.

  Nameless turns away from the water

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  betrayed.

  It believed, for a fleeting

  moment, long gone, that

  the stars around its feet gathered

  to impart upon it a unique answer

  for its unique troubles.

  Now it realizes

  that the many stars that

  litter the riverbank

  speak aloud to all yet

  no one.

  A peak in the horizon catches

  Nameless' attention. It gazes

  up at the line where the canvas

  of sky blends with the faraway

  current, which washes away

  the bright oranges and blue

  hues of the fading sunset.

  A monolith, perhaps?

  Nameless drags its feet

  up the hill and away from

  the water.

  Soon, it finds itself at

  the edge of a forest, where

  the tree branches overhead bend

  to the shape of a gate.

  The conifers and oaks loom

  a presence imposing, and

  their ancient leaves dome over

  the light of the fading day,

  through which an emerald mist

  shimmers over the lone path

  carved in dirt and loose pebbles

  ahead of Nameless.

  Nameless reaches for an errant

  leaf

  lost to the breeze.