Shadow-play

“I have lost my shadow,” she told the gate-guards. “I must find it before dawn.”

She walked through the city gates into the desert.

“I have lost my shadow,” she told the watchful desert fox. “Have you seen it? I must find it before dawn.”

The desert fox scampered away.

She walked weary hours, finally reaching the giant paws of a sand-blasted sphinx.

“I have lost – “ she said, then stopped. Hidden in the eyes of the sphinx she saw her silent, secret shadow.

You have found me. What now? It asked.

She answered just as the sun rose.