Once Upon a Time/1

Something I've been working on, but I am a bit stumped. Maybe if I share it here, I will be more inclined to finish it. Based on a very bizarre dream I had a long time ago..

Water was floating from every direction, she could feel it clog her throat as she struggled and flailed, her arms trying to skim the surface. Her legs seemed to be attached to chains, as she slowly continued to sink. She always woke up before anything happened. She was in constant fear of drowning, just as in the dream. However, the dream, which she had been having since she could remember, was of her own early life. She was born into a country where people naturally knew how to swim since they were babies. The parents all over the land, once receiving their child in the world, almost immediately threw the babies into the water, waiting for only a few seconds as the babies started swimming.

That had not happened to her, she had been thrown into the river and then she had began to sink. Her parents had watched in shock as she kept sinking and didn't float back up. Finally, an old man from the crowd had dove in, against protests from the parents, and saved the drowning baby. He had pumped air into her little lungs and she had breathed against the will of a whole kingdom. After that day, she had never seen her parents except when there was a national event. They had turned their backs on her as a baby, and had never reached out to her since then. She grew up with the kind old man, who had taken pity on her and saved her from the swirling waters.

It had been eighteen years.

She still struggled to swim, always playing against her natural instinct. She would dip her toes into water, wiggle them in and once at a deep spot would feel herself sinking even as she fought from going under. Sometimes, she would sit at an edge of a cliff, watching as her peers splashed along in the water. She longed to be a part of it, swimming, breathing and living.

She walked away from the sounds of laughter and splashing and headed into the woods. Branches rustled as she passed by, gently touching the leaves to her fingertips. She sang softly a melody, making it up as she weaved through trunks and overgrowth of plants. Finally she arrived at a small round body of water. Water had managed to find its way to this naturally built hole and she had come there since she was a child to practice her swimming. The water came right to her hips and if she ever thought she was sinking even in that water, she just had to stand up to snap out of it.She lowered herself into the waters and sat on the ground. She felt the mushiness under her and closed her mouth as she looked out from the water. Without realizing, tears rolled down and became a part of the water she was hiding herself in.

A year passed by.