The See...I

There was a girl with stars in her eyes.
  She danced and ran through the fields,
  chasing after the vision
  that played, always, just one step ahead.

Closer and closer, she drew,
  yet always the vision eluded her.
  But, the girl wouldn't give up.

'Why would this vision come to me,'
   she thought,
  'if not because I am to follow it?'

So she continued her chase,
  bounding over rocks,
  climbing hills,
  gaining strength and clarity
  with each step.

One day, she happened upon a pond,
  and in it, she saw a beautiful young woman.
  Startled, she stepped back.
  And, the beautiful young woman disappeared.

She crept back to pond,
  and looking therein, saw once again,
  the beautiful young woman.

The young woman gazed back at her,
  stars dancing in her eyes,
  arms and torso strong,
  blonde hair waving gently in the breeze.

For a very long time, the girl gazed
  at the young woman.
  Finally, she decided it was time to move on.
  The vision would not be kept waiting.

So, with tears in her eyes,
  she bid the beautiful young woman, 'good bye'.
  And as she stepped away from the pond,
  the young woman disappeared.

She ran, swift as a gazelle,
  feeling the roar of a lioness building
  in her lungs, sensing the changing seasons
  against her skin,
  led always by
  the vision.

Sometimes, she felt herself lift off the ground,
  saw herself flying among the stars,
  felt the touch of angels.

She ran, danced, flew day-upon-day
  until one bright morning,
  she came upon a vast, churning
  sea.

Across the sea, she saw
  stones, spaced evenly apart
  stretching into the distance...
  and beyond that, her vision.

She sensed something different,
  ominous, perilous, foreboding.
  Even as she drew back from the water,
  she saw, once again, the woman.
  Only this time, the woman was older,
  stronger, with a confidence and deep faith.

And she realized, the woman would take
  her safely across the sea.
  So, she stepped onto the stones
  and began her crossing.

The waters churned as if in anger.
  The wind whipped at her face.
  The stones slipped beneath her feet.
  Yet, she continued - her vision before her,
  the woman at her side.

Days passed, the skies grew dark,
  and the stones disappeared beneath
  the broiling sea.
  No shore was visible, only
  the stone upon which she had not stepped.
  And, the woman melted into the
  frenzy that was the water,
  leaving the girl alone, cold, frightened,
  feeling a growing sense of death.

In the dark, she discovered she could
  still see her vision in her mind, even if only dimly.
  So, she closed her eyes and stepped forth,
  one foot after the other,
  feeling the stones beneath her feet.

Thus she strode, into the growing darkness and cold.
  Until one day, she stepped upon a stone that gave way.
  Quickly, she withdrew her foot and saw
  the stone was, in fact, a turtle.
  She could not step on it without killing it.

She turned her gaze back to the stones upon which
  she had come,
  but they were no longer there.

She was alone in the great, angry sea,
  with nowhere to step except onto
  a being that could not bear her weight.

Fright grabbed her heart for she knew
  she could not hurt the turtle
  and she could not turn back.

Holding tightly to the memory of the woman,
  eyes closed to see her vision,
  she stepped off the rock
  into the sea...