A Deliberate Stride

Cold mist drifted across the dark turf. For an unmeasured span, there was only silence. Then, a pulse stirred within my joints. I clenched my purple-gloved right hand, feeling the quiet tension of sudden movement. Taking a single measured pace forward, my boot pressed into the damp earth, parting the swirling vapor beneath me. I reached out and rested my fingertips against the cold, rough flank of a standing stone. The silence held, but now, I was standing firm within it.