My lungs heave as if they are pumping all the world's air. My heart races with a beat only slightly faster than my footsteps. As I move swiftly through the greenery, the ground beneath me crackles with the sound of fresh leaves, recently fallen from the overhead branches. The river beckons me with a dull roar; it's flow causing a mad thirst within me. As I come up to the banks, I slow, and soon stop. As I discard the surrounding material, I feel free as a bird in the sky. With one small movement, I bend my knees and spring into the cool waters.
A small brown speck moves in the liquid, as slowly as the light wind sways the trees. I recognize what it is as it comes in my general direction. Why, another human, where did they come from? I was sure I had taken a trail covered with many years of growth. I only knew of it from my childhood romps through the forest with the best of friends. Many times over had I jogged this trail, stopping at numerous intervals to stretch and do calisthenics. The figure waved at me, and I see now that I know her. Or, should I say knew her.
Back in my younger years, before I learned to be a leader in the most gruesome of ways, I had been a carefree schoolboy. I loved to get out of class for the day, run with my friends to the nearest pond, and jump in, clad only with nature's swimming trunks. We would laugh and play, occasionally starting a splash war, and then get out and lie in the sun and allow it's golden rays to reach out and touch our whole bodies. It was a time before girls were women and boys became men. It all ended, though, once we got older, and it was no longer appropriate for boys and girls to swim unfettered together.