Forgive me dear reader, as I have not written a short story in a long time...

Once upon a time, there was a wind. Savoring its freedom, it flew, tirelessly atop landscapes, reaching wondrous lands far and wide. It was happy, because it was in the company of glistening leaves that it collected from all over, from rare beautiful places. Such that these glistening leaves were rare and beautiful themselves. These kept the wind happy.

The wind endlessly traveled, with great speed, preoccupied with the dream to reach all of the wondrous lands it has been told of. And it was glowing inside, because of the glittering beauty that it kept. And with pride the wind went on hopping, breezing, leaping from town to town, through tree to tree. It felt fulfilled, and beautiful. Because it knew it was happy, and that it left glistening waves of that happiness at its wake.

And so on it fluttered, smiling, laughing, cheered on by the laughter of her glistening tail. Free. Now this is what freedom feels like, it thought. And so it sped on, whipping faster through and through.

Until it felt the urge to rest, and thought that it would be good to just float along with her glistening companions. But to its surprise, her beautiful tail was no longer there. No glitter, no laughter, there was just the cold echo of silence. How could this have happened? The wind twirled in panic. They must have dropped somewhere. Maybe it was going too fast for the leaves to have caught on. At that moment, the wind felt purposeless. It felt no reason for being. And most of all, it was overcome with the realization that it was undeserving of the glistening beauty. Because it failed to care for it, failed to keep it, failed to prove that it was worthy. Fate has been too kind to give it such beauty, and yet the wind, in its haste, threw it away. Without even knowing that it did so.

And so this wind, consumed by regret, flew down, descended into the darkness of the trees, into a depth unknown to it. But no matter how it wove in and out the maze, it could not find the glistening leaves it so loved. Not a single one. They were lost, and our wind sunk into the deep shadows of despair.

And then the forest felt no breeze. No flowing sense of glitter or joy. Soon, rain fell from a motionless sky. As the wind was consumed by the damp, dark ground.