walked in a forest that never moved, a forest suspended in amber. creatures followed me with empty glass eyes. not a cricket chirped, not a bear blinked. they must be blind, i supposed. i was wrong.

"don't mourn us,' a doe demanded.

"how can i not?"

"we mourn you. we see eternity in our sepia bubble. we do not erode under the winds of time. you see but a millisecond. you flutter across the earth in a few heartbeats, your eyes stay quick with the things you never see."

maybe, i thought. maybe i only see a millisecond, but i see an awful lot in that millisecond. better to choose where i go and what i see. my eyes are not yet glass, and i am not the sort to let wonders come to me.

my dreams are full of strange places and stranger things, but they are mine and i would not give them away , not for glassy eyes or a millenium of sitting and waiting.