The Price of Freedom
For #57:
"So I ran like the wind to the water, please don't leave me again I cried, and I threw bitter tears at the ocean, but all that came back was the tide." -I Will Not Forget You by Sarah McLachlan
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Life is so fleeting. It is nothing more than hot breath on cold glass: a medium on which passersby may leave their marks. And it was the only thing she'd ever held so dear; her last possession.
She had fought to the death in Life's name, no matter how ironic that seemed. She had done it to honor those who fell before her, and those to fall after she passed. She had sworn to fight for the right of all others to have a life without constant fear of untimely death. She was a Freedom Fighter.
Being a Freedom Fighter, as she had soon learned, didn't come without its prices. And the merchants of that freedom she so desired only sold to the highest bidder. So, she had become a thief and stole what shouldn't have been priced. The price of this, consequently, being death. Death was something she didn't do.
Why? Death was the opposite of Life, and Life was the only thing she could lay any claim to at all. It was all she had left to hold. While she herself was the one to pay the price, she still lost a part of life she wasn't willing to give up.
She'd watched someone she'd held up as immortal, untouchable, invincible fall victim to the one side of the war she'd thought she could trust. She'd heard his last breath leave his body as she cradled his head in her arms. She'd watched the man she loved stand with bow in hand pretending to be strong, but shaking just as bad as her.
That day the Freedom Fighters died, and she came to the harsh realization that everything she'd worked so hard for amounted to a mess of Dai Li agents at the doorway and a steady stream of earth coming to bury her with her dreams.
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I apologize for the possible poor quality of this one.This piece was written after the young kitten that I'd been caring for the past three days died. Even though when we found it we knew its chances were slim, it still hurts when you lose something you worked so hard to save. However, by the Grace of God and sweet reviewers (you know who you are) I was able to turn the hurt into this.
So I thank you, all of those who review and leave kind words, not just to me but to everyone. You never know the effect you have on someone, and how it may just be what they needed that day.
"The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt"
-Frederick Buechner
mcl