Hill

Ocean 吴雨茗 230110301

Hill was on her way to the classroom, with a dull pain in her head. Today, she had a test for her course, so she had stayed up late last night to review the structure of Britain’s government. She felt detached; the distant country and her own messy desk, cluttered with takeout containers, seemed utterly irrelevant. She was quite unsure why she was here, on campus, staying alive. She managed to greet her classmates with a smile. They were enthusiastically speculating about what would be on the test. She forced herself to keep writing neatly, filling the paper until time was up.

She got out of the room and was at a loss. She was temporarily free, with no homework, test, or essay to do. But she didn’t want to do anything if no one asked her to. The dorm felt like a cage. She wandered outside until she felt hungry. The lunch lady called her “my kid”. She was finally touched by a tiny warmth of human connection.

Having finished her lunch, she watched a huge egret slowly flying through the gray sky. A group of students moved towards the library, which she used to visit frequently. It had been a long time since her last visit to the library, she thought. She was no longer the good student. She was amused by this idea. It’s meaningless to focus on grades without considering one’s interest in one’s major, she said to herself. Meaningless — almost everything was meaningless, she thought desperately.

Suddenly, the dull pain in her head exploded into sharp agony. She felt dizzy and could barely stand. She closed her eyes and fell down, but she didn’t hear the sound of her head hitting the ground. She opened her eyes in bewilderment and found her vision had changed. To her shock, she could almost see what was behind herself. What’s going on? She frowned and stood up, feeling a little different.

Looking around, she found that all the people around were staring at her in surprise. Some girls had already rushed towards her. “A deer!” They shouted. Deer? Where? Hill lowered her head unbelievably and saw the beautiful muscles of a deer covered with brown fur. I’m a deer, she said to herself, feeling the strongest excitement in her life.

People gathered around her, trying to fondle her. She was proud of her beauty but shied away, not wanting them to soil her new coat. So, she jumped out of the crowd and ran toward the school gate. Life took on a sudden, beautiful simplicity. All she needed to do was find a grassland, eat the grass, take breaks, and stretch her beautiful muscles through running.

She walked carefully in the untilled land, wary of attracting unwanted human attention. She ran, ate the grass, felt the breeze on her fur, watched the moon, savoring the simple pleasures. She encountered other deer in the city. She stopped and rubbed her neck against theirs. They expressed their affection in subtle nuzzles and shared glances. Since she needed to hurry on her way, she said goodbye to them.

The sun and the stars guided her, ensuring she wouldn’t get lost. She ran happily and slept soundly at night, exhausted but content. This simple life freed her completely from pondering the meaning of life.

The houses became few and scattered. A vast grassland appeared on her horizon. She rushed towards it and fell down among a patch of flower shrubs. An overwhelming sense of relief swept over her. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.

When she woke up again, a different feeling came over her. She knew she had turned back to human. Hugging the flower shrubs tightly, she cried.