I walked to the window of our hotel room the moment I woke up. 

The glass was sprinkled with raindrops, and the street beneath was full of people carrying brightly coloured umbrellas, looking like huge flowers floating on the surface of a swiftly flowing river. It had been raining the whole night... 

Never mind, a little water would not spoil our last day in Japan, I decided.

"Sabina! It's only eight o'clock in the morning, let me sleep!" Ian groaned, glancing at his watch then burying his head under the pillow that I snatched away from him as I sat on the bed, urging him to get up.

"But you promised..." I complained.

"We'll go, Sabi, but not now. Later..." he said, his words coming from under the pillow slurred with sleep.

I shook my head, knowing that if we would not go now, we would not make it. 

We've been in Kyoto for three days during which I followed Ian obediently everywhere he wanted to go-- crowded streets, posh shops, famous restaurants, ancient temples and galleries of modern art-- places full of noise and light. Whereas the only place I really wished to see in this city was the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. It has always been my dream, my yume... And it would not come true if I did not get Ian out of that bed somehow, right now. The time was ticking, our tickets for the plane that would take us back home were booked for tomorrow.

If I really wanted to visit the Bamboo Grove, I either had to drag him out of this room with me, or... 

On a whim, I grabbed my jacket and my handbag and walked to the door alone.

"See you later, Ian," I said, counting to twenty, giving him time to join me. When his faint, "Sabi, please..." was the only answer, I shut the door and walked into the dim corridor, then down the stairs leading to the reception on my own. 

This was the first time since we arrived in Japan that I was alone, and suddenly, the place around me looked different, much more how I had always imagined it. It felt as if the moment I left Ian, with his love of noise and bright lights behind, I finally managed to perceive the infinity of shadows surrounding me. As if they had been waiting for the right moment to approach me.

It seemed that they walked out of the walls of the old, wabi-sabi building, seeping through its very fabric. The shadows were awaiting me in the darkness of the corridor, but even in the ambient light of the empty reception. They were in the air I breathed, and in the gentle rain falling outside...

The rain so light that a few rays of the sun hiding behind the heavy, waterlogged clouds managed to pierce their way through them, adding magic to the incredible subtlety, the otherworldly charm of the rainwashed streets of Kyoto, making them look like one of those delicate, translucent watercolours through which, I believed, I could see into other worlds.

Surprisingly, the water soaked streets were deserted, the crowd of tourists, which I had seen through the window before, had vanished. I was alone, except for the shadows lingering like a veil of mist all around me, and one more, a little more distinct than the others, beckoning to me from the bottom of the street...

I followed it without hesitation, smiling as I realised that the Shadow was leading me towards the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. 

Even this place was deserted today; we simply walked through its open gates, my Shadow Guide, and I.

Once inside, the shadows became clearer, and as I took a deep breath of the air filled with thousands of different scents and flavours, I inhaled some of them too; they became a part of me.

My Shadow Guide waited patiently, watching as they found their place to settle inside of me, and after a while, thanks to their presence, I could see his form morph-- he took the shape of a man. 

He beckoned again, smiling, and I, smiling back, walked behind him, like a shadow.

The Shadow Man led me down a narrow lane, towards an ancient temple, then, through a garden full of trees shedding drops of water off their fragile, colourful leaves as we walked underneath, to a large lake. 

Here I paused, attracted by the colourful, always hungry koi fish swimming to the water's surface when they noticed us, disturbing its perfect stillness. I watched the sunshine, which finally dispersed the rain clouds, reflecting off their wet bodies and the moving water, creating more shadows even as it shed more light. 

After a while, my Shadow urged me to follow him again, up the hill this time, towards the Bamboo Alley.

Here, the sunlight filtered by an infinity of tall, green, supple stems and moving leaves of the bamboo trees looked like pure magic, a perfection of darkness and light. Komorebi, there was no better word to describe what I was seeing. I reached out, trying to capture the shimmering rays of the sun, smiling as they kept eluding my fingers, always a second too slow, a moment too late.

But my Shadow did not stop here for long. As I followed him up the hill again, for the first time I realised that I could hear nothing apart from my laboured breath and the sound of my feet slipping on the wet cobblestones of the centuries old path. It was... as if I was walking through a dream, unable to alter its events, simply taking part in what had been prepared for me.

When we finally stopped at the top of the steep hill, I realised that it was much later than what I had thought. Together, we looked at the mountains spreading in front of us as far as we could see, painted in moving shadows of the passing clouds, and Hozu-gawa, the river of two names, rushing past, glowing in the twilight... 

"Kawaakari," I whispered.

When my Shadow smiled and spread his arms, I walked into his embrace and breathed him, the spirit of this place, in. 

As we walked down the hill hand in hand, following the river, in that place where its name changes I knew I changed myself, I became one of the shadows, a part of this place, too.

My dream was fulfilled. I would never look at darkness and light again without greeting all the shadows filling the space between, separating them even as they bridged them at the same time...

"Wake up, sleeping beauty," Ian's voice started me, shattering my vision. "If you really want to visit the Bamboo Grove, we need to leave now. It's still raining, though..."

I shook my head, trying to disperse the last remnants of my dream.

But had it really been just a dream?

I glanced at Ian, puzzled by how different he looked this morning. For the first time, I noticed that there were shadows inside of him too... Or maybe it was only one Shadow... the Spirit of the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove who followed me from my dream...

"What's wrong, Sabi?" he asked, watching me observing him intently.

"Nothing." I smiled, ruffling his hair and kissing him.

Then, following his example, I got dressed quickly, and we walked into the dim corridor of the timeworn hotel together.

"Can you... see all the... shadows?" Ian asked softly, his eyes straying towards the darkest corners.

"Yes..." I whispered. "Aren't they beautiful?"

🍃🍂🍃🍂

This story was written for AmbassadorsJP Shadow of Darkness contest.

Prompt: You walked in the rainy streets of Kyoto and followed a shadow to the forest of Kyoto's bamboo. When you came out, you became the shadow. And you had one word in mind-- Dream. For English entries, they must have Japanese theme.

Ok. For me, who has never set foot out of Europe, this was one of the most challenging prompts I found on Wattpad recently 😁

Feel free to let me know what I did wrong 😄

Thank you!