AesaLina's posting

See how many rhetorical devices you can find :)


My fingers wiggled against the back of my neck as I lay on my back watching Sun arch across Sky. The southern breezes ruffled my hair against my shoulders; I shivered. When Sky blanketed itself in a chasm of blackness, I climbed to my feet. Grass beneath my toes bent under my weight; I listened as they snapped toward Sky again when I passed onward. Their whispers sounded different though I did not know how; I would speak with him.

“Adam.”

He looked up from an armful of leaves gathered tenderly in his arms.“Eve.”

“Grass speaks differently to me. I do not understand.”

He tilted his head downward. I could not see his face in Moon's milky mist and Star's silhouettes as I whispered, “Trees are dropping their leaves.”

“Why would they give up their voices?” He asked. I took some leaves from his arms then looked around us. The forest behind our temple thickened with the eldest of Trees—many branches sliced naked through Stars, leaves cluttered Ground.

“I do not know.” He carefully laid the leaves he held back on Ground, his hands hovering above them for a moment. We waited to hear words, but the leaves spoke silent now. Adam walked away, deeper into the forest.

I pressed the leaves I held against my breasts, smelling for life, but all the smell I sensed was rotting. Suddenly, Air caught in my throat and I ran toward our temple. Through the arches, down the hallways, until I reached the front courtyard where Soul grew. Had her voice been lost? Had her words died?

Soul was a slender tree—white bark, silver leaves, golden fruit, tender voice. I enjoyed listening to her the most of all Trees; she spoke of things I did not understand, but they felt calm and soft inside my mind, not harsh and dark like the way Grass spoke. I did not want Soul's voice to fade for who would tell me stories? Certainly not Adam. He shared no stories.

I fell against the trunk of Soul, hugging, allowing Soul to gather me inside her branches—her voice tickled against my skin. Her leaves still fluttered in the southern breezes.

“Soul, why does Grass speak differently? Why do Trees let their voices fall to Ground?”

Soul faded from white and silver to pink and purple as Sun flew up from behind Mountains. Her fruit, though, still gold. I caressed my cheek against one perfect golden sphere.

Keeper comes. Tell him your story.

Soul’s branches lifted to embrace Sun and I slipped away from her hold and hurried down the steps that led to the road in front of our temple. Keeper pulled a cart behind him as he approached me. He looked different—taller, thin lines of shadow below his hands and next to his lips. I look for his smooth skin and found not what I sought.

“Keeper.”

“Eve.” He set the cart down, pressed his hands against his back and leaned toward Sky.

“I have a story. Grass speaks different. I asked Adam why, he did not know. Trees are dropping their voices to Ground. Soul told me to tell you my story. I do not understand. It is thick and hard in my mind.”

Keeper head snapped toward me like Grass does after I move off them. His eyes rounded like Sun. “You spoke to Adam?”

“Yes.”

He turned from me and ran down the road. He left the cart. I watched him until Dust stopped dancing and went back to sleep on Ground. I closed my eyes, my head hurt with so much to not understand! I wanted to understand. I wanted to know!

Stumbling to the cart I slid my hands into the treasures piled inside. I brushed, pressed, and grabbed each item trying to guess what Keeper had brought without using my eyes. I felt beads along a thread. I held soft strips of cloth. I tapped the smooth glass of many, many bottles. I caressed—

“Eve.”

My eyes opened and I turned.
“Adam.”

“Where is Keeper?” He asked.

“He woke up Dust when he ran down the road.”
“Why did he run?”

“I told him about Grass and Trees.”

He came to stand next to me, his left hand picked up a bottle. “What is this?”

“A bottle, so Keeper says. My treasure.”

He looked at my face. He put the bottle back into the cart and reached to me to hold my hair instead. Sky darkened and I could not see his face, but I felt his knuckles as they slid down my arm until his hand fell from my hair. Rocks giggled beneath his feet as he walked away. I shivered once, twice, and once more. I wrapped strips of cloth and beads on a thread around my neck, waist, and arms until Sky paled enough for me to see the bottles.

I carried my treasure into our temple.