The world buzzed with the heat of summer. A young woman wound her way through the prickling underbrush of the forest, occasionally crashing into tree trunks and brambles as she sniffled. One of her eyes was swollen near shut with a large purple welt. She was more concerned by other realities though: how her lips were bleeding and scaly with how chapped they had grown, how her tongue was dry as a lump of felted wool in her mouth, how her mother had forbidden her from drinking from the well and the nearest spring was deep inside the forest.
She looked to where the blazing sun hung over the forest. It would be a few hours before the sky sank into the cool hues of twilight. For now... Which way was she going?
She tried to shake her head, but it only added a dizzy swirling sensation to her confusion.
It was hot. So hot. If she could just find a place to rest... A place that was cool and shaded.
She stumbled forward. Gradually, she noticed a slide of rocks. She knew this hill. It had many large boulders around its base. Maybe there was one she could rest beneath. Just for a while. After all, she could hardly remember why walking was so important in the first place.
There- a black sliver between two stones. She shimmied into the space and immediately slumped to the ground.
The air grew cold. This was more than a small space, she realized. It was a cave that went into the hill. Her chapped lips flickered into a smile. As she laid against the cold stone she could hardly tell where her skin ended and the stone began. It was a delightful blur of relief. She closed her eyes to rest.
"Do you intend to die here?"
The voice spun around in her head, mixed in with her shifting consciousness. It could have been a dream it seemed so far away.
"I'm not dying," she muttered.
The voice laughed. "Yes, you are. Can't you feel it? Aren't your thoughts fading? Isn't your body heavy? The whole world opens to you except in the small home you've always inhabited. Yes, yes. You are soon dead."
She frowned. "No," was all she could manage.
The voice became soft. "Would you like to live?"
"Yes." Even to herself her own voice was starting to sound distant.
"I can help. I have medicines and salves, and deep in this cave a small stream runs. But when you are going to die, do try to come die with me, yes?"
"Alright," she said, and soon after slipped into unconsciousness.