The young man was sitting in the dark forest beside a fire that had been burning since the previous night. It had been some time since his companions had slept in the tent.
The forest’s silence was not soundless.
The firewood burned slowly and occasionally crackled. The light branches of the trees danced in the gentle breeze, and the rustling of their leaves could be heard. From far and from near. The forest had fallen silent in its own way. A silence that was not without sound.
The man’s attention was focused on the soles of his feet. He rubbed his toes against the damp soil and the cold grass of the forest floor. On his foot, flames of light reflected from the fire danced, and the warmth softly caressed his skin.
Coinciding with the relatively loud crackle of a half-burnt log, he heard:
Dance!
The man turned his head around and his gaze remained fixed on the half-burnt logs, waiting for another sound, to confirm the existence of the previous sound.
The man doubted he had heard it. Again, coinciding with a crackle even louder than the previous one, he heard:
Dance!
This time he realized the sound was not from the direction of the fire. But he did not understand from which side he had heard it. He stood up.
His feet sank a little deeper into the mud due to the reduced surface area. Once again, he scanned the surroundings. The fire had dimmed. The half-burnt logs had burned and turned to charcoal.
The man looked up and stared at the sky. It seemed to him he had seen a bird.
He blinked. There was no bird.
He blinked, he saw the bird.
He blinked, there was no bird.
He closed his eyes and squeezed them tight.
His head spun and swayed but he did not fall; because he pushed his feet firmly deeper into the mud. Up to the ankle. He shifted his weight onto the other leg to pull out the leg sunk up to the ankle in the mud. His other leg also sank deeper.
Up to the ankle. struggled. sank more. Up to the knee. It was as if it had become a swamp beneath his feet. The bird sat on his shoulder.
It said: Heart heart heart
The man said: I threw it away.
The bird said: Then welcome.
The man said: Dance
The bird said: Dancing I came
The man said: Then welcome.
At dawn, the man’s companions woke up to the sound of a bird singing on a tree branch near their tent, and no matter how much they searched, they did not find him.
August 2024