Little One was born in the Golden Fields, in a little thatched house amidst the sunlit wheat. It was there she first saw the Living One—a young man with mysterious, laughing eyes. She could not take her eyes away from him. And one day, when he disappeared over the mountains, she followed.

The journey is perilous and full of unexpected loneliness, pain, and hardship. Worst of all, Little One is journeying without a heart—the Living One has taken it with him, leaving her bereft of real comfort until she can find it again. But glimmers of beauty on the way remind her that, in the end, the journey will be worth it all.

“Journey” is a short story and an allegory in the tradition of Pilgrim’s Progress.