𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐕𝐄𝐋

The earth is a living, breathing thing.

The swamp waters are warmer today, stirring from the depths underneath, being filled from the belly of the earth itself, and blessed from the rains above when they make their way downwards. Tiny fish and other creatures swim happily through the clear water, coming up for warmth and light near the sunbleached mangroves, perpetuating the quiet yet thriving ecosystem. Plants growing on its surface feed the air with oxygen, permeating the water below, allowing the creatures to live, and the marine plants to bloom and remain alive. A part of life’s own infinite, and yet confined to just such a small part of the area here.

It’s on this day that our little symprite, whose name is Bayou, has decided to move out of her comfort zone just a little bit. For the past few days she’s remained close to the safety of the massive, open tree that she calls home, wanting to take in her surroundings and become more familiar with the area without having to leave it. It’s been nice, so far. The swamp is quiet and pleasant, and there are plenty of mushrooms growing around for her to pick pieces off of and nibble. While the raindrops are large to such a small symprite, creating terrific splashes as big, fat drops rain down from the leafy trees above and landing on the fallen trees and the shelves of nearby growing mushrooms, it’s not scary to Bayou. The rain is almost soothing to her, in a way. The sound of distant, gently rumbling thunder is more peaceful than anything, and the scarce bit of grey clouds and muted sunlight that she can see between the ever-shifting leaves of the towering trees is gentle on her tiny eyes.

The large mangrove root that she’s sitting on is wet, but Bayou doesn’t seem to mind. Her little legs dangle over the edge of the root, swinging them in a lazy but carefree manner, and giggling as her hooves make even more ripples in the rain-rippled water below.. She’s restless and she’s eager to explore, and she’s not about to let the rain stop her.

Carefully, she scrambles down from her perch, and hops her way back to solid ground.The terrain is wet under her hooves as she finally touches down. Cool water clinging to the tops of fallen leaves make her feet soaked, and Bayou is delighted with it. She takes a few steps away from the tree before hesitating, slowly turning around to look back at it. She stares at the mushrooms for a moment, as if committing them to memory, or perhaps as if asking for permission to leave for a little bit. A few seconds later, Bayou giggles out loud, and starts trotting away from the tree, eager to start exploring. She doesn’t want to go too far, but she’s so curious about the world around her that she simply can’t wait another second.

And then, there in the distance, she finds it. The holy grail of a rainy swamp. The perfect depression in the ground to create a puddle that has yet to be touched by any living being. Bayou does not hesitate to clumsily run towards it, and hesitates even less to fairly run into the middle of the puddle itself. Since the ground here is soft, and has depressed further under the pressure of the water inside of it, the water in the puddle comes nearly up to Bayou’s thighs, but she is hardly deterred. She happily stomps and kicks her legs in the water, turning the consistency a little murky and muddy, but does Bayou care? She absolutely does not care at all. She rarely splashes in puddles like this, and every time, it’s everything that she’d never dreamed of and never knew she wanted until this very moment. In a way, it’s even more magical than the day she was sprouted. If this is what it means to live, being able to just have simple but wonderful experiences like this, Bayou wants to keep discovering what else could be out there. Exploring beyond the woods someday might be fun! There’s always going to be bigger puddles than this one.