Road To Nowhere
“Don’t know where we're going,
Got no way of knowing,
Driving on the road to nowhere…”
Bailey had murmured the pointless, repetitive refrain for a while now. Just to take her mind from the endless cold and snow. The rubbery suit Jolee had brought, for the most part kept the severe cold at bay, but not enough for Bailey not to feel the pinch.
She pulled the woollen hat over her ears and tugged gently at the scarf so that only her eyes were visible and stumbled on through the three feet snowdrifts.
¤§¤
Bailey stumbled and fell to her knees, near exhausted and bitterly cold.
Eight days. She’d been travelling for eight days now and as far as she knew, she was no nearer to her destination. For all she could tell, she could have been wandering around in circles, the thought was disheartening. But Bailey was stubborn and she pushed herself to her feet and continued doggedly, staggering and stumbling through snow that came up to her knees.
Finally Bailey couldn’t take anymore and she collapsed, utterly spent. She curled up into a shivering little ball and waited for the inevitable.
“Sorry Stranger,” she whispered, shaking with cold, “I tried my hardest.”
“You can’t give up now, you’re so close. Come on now, get up.” Said a calm voice, just above her. Bailey curled up tighter.
“I, can’t.”
“Yes, yes you can, now get up.” The voice said firmly, “I have waited too long for you my little one, you can’t give up now.” With obvious effort Bailey looked up, the speaker glowed blue and Bailey could see the snow gusting behind. The apparition smiled kindly. It was a female Steef, with long hair and huge, beautiful eyes, wearing a long, flowing shirt. For some reason she seemed very familiar to Bailey.
“I’m tired.” Bailey whispered, “I don’t have anything left to give.” The female Steef smiled warmly,
“Yes you have my little Bailey, you have so much. There are people that need you, such a bright little spark of a soul shouldn’t go out again.”
“A…again?” Bailey whispered, her jaw vibrating with cold. The Steef smiled and Bailey felt a little stronger. She struggled to her feet.
“That’s it,” the Steef encouraged, “That’s it, keep going. Come on Bailey. You can do it.” Bailey stood up and began wading through the snow, driven by the Steef’s encouragement.
The wind howled and the snow battered at Bailey as she forged on, not knowing where she was going. She looked around for the glowing Steef, but she was alone. Bailey managed a weak smile. Determination once again flowed through her veins and she continued, singing to keep her spirits up, the wind snatching at her voice and making her body cold but her confidence surged again.
“I can see clearly now the rain has gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way,
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind,
It's going to be a bright, bright, bright, bright sunshiny day!”
¤§¤
The storm seemed to worsen with every step Bailey took, if that was even possible, Bailey didn’t know, nor did she care, all her energies were focused on three words that ran around her mind like a mantra.
Just keep going.
A blast of icy wind gusted in her face. Bailey squinted her eyes and crouched slightly until it passed, before she rose and struggled onward. Cold and wet seeped through her pant legs but the rubbery suit kept her dry, for which Bailey was very grateful.
Suddenly, another great blast of air from the east crashed into Bailey with the force of a wave of water. Bailey staggered and was forced to her knees and rolled over and over in the snow, scrabbling to get a hold as she was pitched down a sharp hill.
Finally she managed to dig in her heels and grind to a halt, stopping her sliding descent. She flopped onto her back with a sigh of relief and put her mittens over her face.
“That was too close.” She whispered. Carefully she climbed to her and tried to stand up but she didn’t see the patch of ice and she hit the snow again with a hard thud, air whooshing from her lungs at the impact. Completely winded Bailey gasped and rolled onto her side. She tried to rise again but found the same results, unfortunately with much more disastrous consequences.
Bailey began sliding.
Then, to make matters worse, the snow plain suddenly dropped out beneath her and with a yelp Bailey fell over the edge of a cliff that had been obscured from her vision by wind and snow.
Her jumper snagged on something and Bailey was abruptly jerked out of her descent and almost choked for her trouble. She quickly reached up and latched onto the thing holding her up. It was a tree root, that had grown out through the cliff-face. Bailey had unhooked the jumper and taken a firm hold on the root and was just wondering how to clamber back up the cliff when she realised that the wind wasn’t blowing anymore, no snowflakes touched flurried around her.
Frowning, Bailey looked down. Her eyes all but bugged out of her head. Not far below her was a small sheltered valley, about the size of about five American football fields of which she could see only a little fragment. Bailey blinked in surprise. It looked as if it were still autumn in the valley below her, nowhere near the midwinter above. A river ran down the valley’s whole length and a good bit of it that she could see was covered in a thick forest into which the river disappeared.
But what captured her attention most, was the cluster of huts below, and the figures she could see.
Steef. Lots and lots, of Steef.
Bailey whooped in delight.
“Steef!” she yelled joyfully, “Oodles and oodles of Steef! I did it! I found them! YEAH!” a sudden crack broke into her jubilation. Bailey looked up and once again experience a bout of hated déj* vu. “Oh crud, oh man,” she moaned, “…Oh no…” the root cracked again and with a harsh screech, it snapped.
Bailey dropped and crashed through the ceiling of one of the huts below. She landed on her back with a crunch. She sat up slowly, one hand on the side of her head. Luckily she hadn’t broken anything but one of her pupils were bigger then the other and it took a lot of effort to drunkenly hold the groggy thoughts together.
She blinked and looked up, a female Steef with very pale hair and fur and startlingly pure blue eyes and staring at her apprehensively, clutching at two little Steeflings, one with pale fur and blue eyes, and the other slightly darker furred with red and burnt orange eyes. All of them gaped at the strange creature that had just fallen through their roof, their eyes very, very wide.
Bailey broke into an unsteady grin.
“Oh look,” she said dreamily, “Steef.” And then she fainted.