My feet touch the ground ever so lightly. The light from the sunset that surrounds me makes the world glow as if dipped in honey. I slip out of my robe and as it slides to the ground I, too become covered in the sun-honey. I shudder as crisp air envelope every inch of my body and make the downy hairs rise.

I walk, I rise, I dance like the sea. I am all consuming. I am a fiery sun, those that embrace me turn to ash in my arms and yet I do not even stop to look at the charred bones that are left in my path.

My blood has turned to electricity and I convulse in orgasmic pleasure.

The deafening noise of silence overwhelms me.… then the voices come.

At first whispering, encouraging.

“Just a little further.”

“Go on, taste it.”

Then forcefully.

“Do it, do it, do it!”

“It’s the only way forward.”

“You can’t go back now.”

Now they blend together into a cacophony of threats and pleading… Nearly as deafening as the silence that came before

I obey and taste the air in big gulping breaths. What else can I do?

It is both bitter and sweet; it tastes of life and death. It is fire and ice; it is the breath of gods.

I know if I can just taste a little more I’ll be free… I’ll win; I’ll have the glory that always hovers at the edge of my vision. I laugh with lungs filled to the brim with golden air.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

I twitch at the bark, I cower and whimper. It is the voice that guards the gate.

The watchdog.

The chain.

I look for ways around the dog and find none, I tear at the chain and it grows tighter around my neck.

But I put the chain around my own neck and the dog belongs to me. I could lock the dog away; I could remove the chain and dive head first into the glowing, burning sky and let myself melt and merge into it.…

But I fear the metamorphosis I ache for, the prize I must inevitably pay for daring to taste the gods.

So here I’ll remain, naked, cold, staring into the eyes of the dog.