My feet touch the ground, my weight pressing the soft warm earth into strange shapes. My hands run over my body, feeling the smooth skin, touching the tip of my nose, tangling my fingers in my soft, short hair.

The yellow and green grass rises to my middle, billowing like the ocean I've heard so much about, rustling in a way that pleases my new senses. I stretch out my arm, slowly letting my hand run over the tops of the grasses.

I walk forward slowly, enjoying every step on strong, steady legs. The grass gently scrapes my bare skin. The sunlight is warm on my shoulders and my back. I stretch my hands up to the sky, reaching with my fingertips toward clouds I will never touch again. I smile at the sun, eyes, closed, no longer able to look directly into its fierce glory. Its distant warmth is enough.

A breeze comes along, playfully tussling my hair. I smell the clean air, the smell of living. I close my eyes and enjoy for but a moment, then I continue, still carefully stepping.

I watch as bugs scatter as I walk into their lives, suddenly and without warning, displacing them and not know what happens to them. How fitting, I think.

I come upon my mate, her body white and innocent in the sunlight. I touch her shoulder to wake her. She smiles up at me as she opens her lovely blue eyes, the same color as the sky above. I help her to her feet and we stand in the sun, soaking the warmth and the wind, appreciating each other without the necessity of speaking.

I touch her, cautiously, starting at her long, red-tinged locks and traveling down her bare shoulders onto her back. Her hand runs inquisitively across my chest. We take in the sight of our new bodies in this calm and only place. She smiles at me, shyly, and I return the strange motion, enjoying the feeling of happiness that comes with the stretching of my lips. I speak for the first time, enjoying the feeling of the word on my tongue.

"Man." My voice is deep, calm, serious, matching my body. My mate seems pleased.

"Woman." She replies, her voice more melodious than I had expected. I am pleased.

I hold her hand, soft and cool, in my own, and begin walking toward the horizon. She walks beside me, silently, enjoying the new world while we can. Soon, nothing will be left.