If a boulder could smile I would have opened this old granite face of mine wide and
let my big stoney teeth show from ear to ear.
"She Knows!!! SHE KNOWS!!!" I was overcome with joy.
"Someone finally knows that I'm here."
I wanted to speak with her, but could I? I understood people, but could people understand me and an ancient language known only to the four winds and the forces of nature? Just then Cameron let out a small groan, or maybe it was more like a whimper, we rocks are unfamiliar with such things.
"Mommy?" Cameron whispered as if in a dream.
Susans attention quickly snapped back to her injured son. "Cameron, Cameron, hang on son I'm sure help is coming." "Please, please, If it is you doing this miracle,please send us help!" Susan was almost begging.
"Please help us!"
"Help" I thought,"Yes I must help, but how?" I pondered the question for what seemed an eternity (which is a really long time if you consider the lifespan of rocks) "EUREKA, I HAVE IT!!!" I knew what I had to do. I conjured my mind and concentrated like I had never concentrated before..........
...and though I strained with all of my infinite might, it just wouldn't come. I had failed. I could not do this thing that was so desperately needed, yet seemingly so far beyond me. I began to tremble inside with the knowledge of a grief that I did not know that I possessed, a grief born by the knowledge that I could not truly help after all...
"Oh!" Susan gasped, "where did you come from?"
Pulling my thoughts from deep within myself, I looked out from my stony solitude and saw Susan standing quite close to a near-mythical being, one every bit as ancient as my own stony continence is.
If it is possible for a great chunk of granite to feel the emotion that is known to humankind as 'surprise', then that is how one could best describe my reaction upon seeing what my molding of the earths forces had produced.
For I had not directed my thoughts towards any specific being or animal. No. I had thought only of that which was pure and clean and strong. Of a force that transcends sorrow and guilt and deceit. A being that soars as high and as gracefully as eagles, yet is no eagle. A creature that runs with the strength of a charging bull, yet has the beauty of the liveliest butterfly.
This beautiful creature turned now, and delicately stepped up into the coolness of my shadow. Looking up at me with eyes as old as my own, he spoke to me. "Know that I am called Gaynor, old Ancient One", the unicorn thrummed in his deep flowing voice.
No, not voice, it was his thoughts! Just like with the humans, I was able to feel and decipher the thought patterns as if they were my own!
"Do not be so surprised", Gaynor thought with an overtone of amusement. "Once there was a time when your powers were without limit."
Looking sad now, this beautiful creature sent his remembrances into my awareness, and I saw a time of bleakness and despair. A time when all that had been, all that was, and all that might have been, was torn asunder and destroyed by greed and hatred.
A time when no living thing walked upon this planet. A time of great languishing, and aloneness. A time that could only be escaped by long slumber.
How long of a time, I had no way of knowing. But it would seem that of all of the great and ancient creatures that had gone into this great slumber, I was the only one to have awakened.
And that would explain why I had always felt this unending sense of aloneness. For I had been missing those whom I had not even remembered the existence of.
But here before me was one from my own time! Looking out towards the human known to me as Susan, I saw that she was cradling her young sons broken body in her arms, tears silently streaming down her face, as she watched us with the anguished longing of one who hopes beyond the expectations of known reality.
I asked of Gaynor, "Can you heal the human boy?"
Snorting gently through his nostrils, Gaynor walked with the slow measured grace of all his kind. Reaching the humans, he stretched out his long muscular neck and gently touched his muzzle to the human child's ear.
The lines of pain that had become so deeply etched into Cameron's young face, in such a short time, were smoothed away. And Cameron's clammy skin become dry and took on a more healthful color.
With a look of wonderment, Susan reached out with a trembling hand and touched Gaynor lightly upon the cheek. "Thank you", she silently breathed.
Turning back to look at me, Gaynor replied, "Yes old Ancient One. I can heal the small human. Though the female human must leave him to my care. Can you make this known to her?"
Straining my thoughts into a fine gossamer thread, not wishing to hurt or bruise my way in as I sought to reach her awareness, I sent out the most delicate of caresses, just a slight wisp of energy, to send my thoughts into this fragile-seeming humans mind.
With a nod of her head, Susan loosened her hold on her beloved son, and brushing a quick kiss upon his forehead, she stood and come over to sit at my feet.
Resting the back of her head against my smoothly solid exterior, she looked over at Gaynor. And we both watched as.....
"It's you isn't it?, You're the one making this happen."
