"Whatcha waiting for, kid?"
I tried not to jump at the gruff voice behind me. I turned just enough to make brief eye contact with the man who'd appeared out of nowhere.
An older man with a long scraggly white beard started down the wooden dock towards me. His clothes were layered, brown and frayed at every sem. Tan skin that looked weathered with time and a hard life.
"Whatever the sky is trying to show me." My answer made the newcomer scoff loudly.
"You'll be waitin' all night." Was his response.
"If that's what it takes." I kept my gaze on the horizon, at the melting colors from warmer ones at the bottom to cooler ones higher up into the sky.
"Determined, ain't ya?" My irritation was growing as the man took the rest of the steps necessary to stand at my side.
Too irritated to look at him, I grabbed the corners of my jacket. I pulled the thin material around my torso tightly.
"When I have to be." I finally answered after a few seconds of inspect chirping-filled silence.
A large hand came down on my shoulder, making me jump with no time to hide it. His hand on my shoulder was the only thing that kept me from physically jumping. I finally looked at the man.
His weathered face had too many wrinkles to count. Bright blue eyes were barely visible under bushy eyebrows and heavy lids. I expected to see cloudy pupils from old age but, they were bright and attentive as the color of his pupils.
He gave my shoulder one squeeze before I could get a word out. Turning on his worn boot heel, he took a step away from me before answering.
"Good. You'll need it for the trials ahead."
Everything in my body stood alert, from the hairs on the back of my neck to the way my heart kicked up adrenaline. It was only a second that the man was out of my sight. That was all the time he needed- the man was gone. Where his hand had once been was as cold as the rest of me.
I scanned the dock and darkened woods past that for an eternity before turning back to the sunset.
Painting and writing snippet done by me 💜
