She stepped out of her car and headed down the ravine, through waist high folliage. She let her body go loose, allowing her feet to find roots and stumble. When she tripped she threw her arms in the air, making a scene of catching her balance. Never forgetting she was being watched, performing incompetence as a shield. "Start picking up kindling," her intuition spoke. It was damp. Everything was damp. She knew she would never be able to start a fire with this, but she had to try.
When she got past the weeds she found a small glass jar half buried in the shoreline. She picked it up, took off the lid and filled it with swamp water. On the far side of the water she found a log near the shore. She arranged the kindling for a small fire and sat the jar on the ground. She walked to a thorn bush, where a small limb easily broke off in her hands. She thanked the plant and returned to the log.
She tried to light the fire, knowing it was futile. She tried again, and again, feigning exasperation. Until finally she gave up. She sat on the log and made a fist around the thorn branch in her hand. She was attempting to draw blood, but was only bruising herself. After several attempts the voice rose up again, "You're doing it wrong." She stopped to think. She had already given blood, this isn't about that. She picked the thorn branch back up, gripped it tightly and connected with the pain. She grimaced, she winced, she gasped, as she rearranged the thorns to maximize the pain. She thought of the Earth, suffering under the weight on industrialization. She thought of the spirits, suffering under colonization. She thought of humans, suffering under the loss of spiritual connection.
She released the thorn branch, grabbed the jar and stood up. She moved away from the log and dumped the swamp water on her head. She filled the air with nonsense poetry about what she had just felt, plopped down on the ground cross legged, said, "Listen to me or don't. I don't fucking care." And lit a cigarette like a middle finger of stardust, stood up and danced in the moonlight.