This story is part of the Wanderer series.
Sitting on the porch, leaned back into the chair, she gazed beyond, the vast worldscape taking over. Surrounded by green hills and towering ridges, the cottage appeared miniscule in its solitude. The ground rippled like great tides of an ocean as the tallgrass swayed, the land sparsely dotted by an occasional bush. Its vigor pulsed as the sun dipped in and out of the clouds, thick and nebulous. A gentle breeze brushed the wind chimes, ringing them in an assorted melody, different each time, yet quaintly familiar.
Taking a deep breath, she could smell the fresh spring atmosphere, with hints of the mountain giant hyssops. The shimmering forest, just at the foot of the ridges, could be heard all throughout the valley. The warm breeze brought down its magic to her, fulfilling her bones and muscles with vitality. As she closed her eyes and reached out with her mind, she acquired a heightened sense of the world around, its life and energy entrancing to the soul. Projecting herself beyond the cottage, through the grass, through the small mice burrowing into the ground, beyond the wooded forest, with its shrubs, owls, deer, and dense collections of energy, beyond the sheer ridges, rough and jagged, its flat faces deflecting the wind into every possible angle… Rising up the mountain, she flew into the sky, beyond the low lying cumulus, through the hawks and eagles, past the thousands of little insects beginning to emerge, beyond the high flying wisps of clouds streaming across the continent…
And then she managed to detect something. Something unusual. A large, dense mass, looming high above the horizon. Invisible to the Earth, with no sight, sound, or scent, but evidently there. At least, evident to her.
Opening her eyes, Chiyoko stayed still, listening to the wind for a while longer. The chimes continued to ring as if there were no change in the wind.
Eventually, she stood up, and disappeared in a blink, without a trace.