Part of my 500 word Iron Author daily challenge series. A stranger blurs the lines between reality and imagination.

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Comments and critiques welcome.



Something New

In all things and for as many years as have been lived, there was no more beautiful a venue nor a more meaningful sight than the open sky. Without trees to cloud the periphery of one's perceptions, to see the sky is like gazing into infinity.

With no terrestrial obstructions, all sense of direction is lost. One moment you're laying down, gazing up into a towering vault; the next, you're hanging from your back, staring down into a gaping azure chasm. The body tingles with the anticipation of falling into the undeniable void that is the sky.

He lay there, still, as the blue daytime sky shone down with it's radiance. He basked in it, and since time had no meaning, what was a moment became an eternity. An endless summer day. An immortal heaven. Those clouds, jovial in their nonthreatening fluff, hung motionless; the striations of white marble in a flawless sapphire gem. There was a frozen bird that was nothing but a blemish against blue. Wings mid-flight, a beak turned away, and feathers crisply rigid. So still.

“Hello, David,” chirped a voice, perfectly enunciated in a European tenor.

The figure stood above him, bent at the waist, wearing a curiously trimmed suit of charcoal wool, mahogany cotton, and black satin. Staring directly at him through amber eyes, however, was the head of a fox. It's fur was a russet-hued red, with black upon the ears and snout but white from the chin and below. The two hands that hooked into the figure's waistcoat were not hands, but paws; wrapped in ebony fur and tipped with onyx claws. A ring glittered upon one figure. It's teeth flash in an exposed smile.

“I'm sorry about the haste, but time, you see...” The anthropomorphic fox said, vertically-slit pupils darting to the side as he trailed off in some unspoken insinuation.

“You will probably come to hate me. I could not blame you for it. See it as a curse or blessing, what I give you is something...new.” The fox's smile grew broadly.

A feeling of motion returned to him and David's eyelids flicked in a blink.

* * *

“Hey, Davey!” asked a voice, exuberant and casual in tone.

The figure stood above him, bent at the waist, wearing a vibrantly red jersey stretched over football shoulder pads. The boyish face of his teammate dipped lower, and a palm slapped at his cheek. David blinked again.

“You with me, buddy? Hel-lo.” The face lifted and away and turned. “Hey Coach! I think Dave's got a concussion!”

“Well don't move him!” came the surly reply.

David blinked a few more times, able to feel his legs, his aching head, the pinch of the football pads beneath his shoulders and the grass beneath his hair. He stared upwards, still dazed, remembering everything; the hit, the game, his day, week, and life...but as he gazed into the beautiful summer sky, he felt something. Something different. Something new.