Amsel.

She walked and walked. I did. One leaden step after another, each one carrying me further into the reach of the blazing white sun. The plain was flat and barren, a dead place, and as I moved it seemed my mind, like my body, was squeezing itself into the impossible space between the dry earth and the perfect monotone of the sky. I elongated, stretching out in all directions to the very edge… but found only more of the same. Heat and dust and the pounding of my footfalls.
By the time the sun was dipping below the horizon’s perfect crest, it felt like every bone and tendon in my aching body was being called by name to the ground beneath me. I gave in with a sigh, feeling my eyes prick for tears at the thought of the goal never to be reached, the unspeakable distance that stretched between us. It was a small sigh to bear the voice of such an ache; just a breath, easing out of a hollow, arid chest.
I stood up, and looked down at myself where I was sprawled in the dirt. I hadn’t felt the landing. The girl looked so small as she died beneath the stars. With a resigned sigh of my own, I bent down and turned her body over. Then I slid my arms beneath her narrow shoulders and into the crook behind her knees. My arms felt strong. As I walked with her against my chest, they felt the weight of her less and less; it was unsettling. It felt like she was fading away.
We moved faster than we had in the day, no longer hindered by physical weight. The shadow of my legs stretched across the white-washed plain, reaching seven miles a step. The air tasted sweet now. I felt the softness of my hair brushing against my neck, and I knew I could carry her across the lengths of the land until the sun rose without tiring.
One time I felt her stir; or more of a flutter. She was still again for a time, and then I glanced down to find luminous eyes tracing the shaded contours of my face. The moonlight bounced off her and set her skin and the dirty clothes glowing softly; the face was calm. And like she was a child keeping a very wise secret, she closed her eyes again, and let the rhythm of my walking rock her back to sleep.