Pathways
2 images
Mushroom Lantern Vigil
First light pools blue through the tall oaks, like a page from a turn-of-the-century storybook. A ring of amber mushrooms glows low to the ground, their warm undersides spilling soft light across moss and small roots. Pale deer stand in the mist with bodies held long and still, noses and ankles taut as if listening for a child's step. Above them, tiny pinpricks of light spell Where Vojta? and the question hangs like a lantern. The forest offers only gentle witnesses and slow hooves; no small figure answers, yet the little lights make a playful, ceremonial vigil. The search goes on beyond the trees; Vojta remains unfound, and the dawn scene holds a quiet promise to keep looking.
Twilight Arch Whisper
I found the arch after crossing thirty ridges that rolled like bronze waves, each one darker than the last. The sky clung to twin moons and a smaller sentinel, pinned there like an omen none of us were eager to name. Under the bruised orange glow, a river shimmered with impossible hues, as if the earth had split open to bleed rainbows instead of water. When the wind shifted, smoke curled upward from the stone span, forming letters so blatant they mocked my tired eyes: WHERE VOJTA? Legends say the desert only speaks when the search has nearly broken you. We had no banners, no horns of victory—just this spell of color and the absurd mercy of dawn sliding up behind serrated peaks. I touched the arch expecting heat, felt only silence pulsing like a second heartbeat. No footprints lingered beyond; even the river spiraled off into exile. And so the question still flickers above empty sand: he is not here. Not yet.