She sat facing the shoreline, her salt coated brunette locks floated gently in the evening summer breeze. I couldn’t see her face, I could just make out her silhouette in the back drop of the west coast sunset.

It was the first time I had set eyes on her, and yet I felt that pull toward her, as though she was a magnet, and I a fleck of iron, edging closer to her.

Strangers are a common sight here, the long beige beaches, open seas and mystical history brought revellers from across the globe, but she, she was different. She had arrived that afternoon, but it felt as though she had been here forever, as though she had always been sat right there in the sand.

What was it that brought on the feeling of belonging, and worth, and love, like kindred souls destined to find each other. I took a deep breath, and I lowered myself next to her, slowly so not to disturb the trance like state she was in.

I wasn’t really someone who put any faith in anything, taking life as it came, no higher power, god or deity got my prayers. I never understood why people where so fascinated with the idea of ancient beings, or why people flocked to my quiet corner of the world, in search of some kind of answer to an unanswerable question, in the shorelines and hills that surrounded us. But they did.

She was tracing out a swirling sun in the sand in front of her, over and over again, while her eyes remained focused on the coming tide, unfazed by my presence.

‘Take my hand’, a low yet almost song like voice chimed ‘take my hand and let me show you the way’.

I hesitated, I don’t even know why I sat down with her, but I couldn’t help myself. I questioned ‘why?’ I wanted to resist, unwilling to hear the ramblings of yet another mystic pilgrim, preaching stories of ancient goddesses that rode the shorelines, of white witches and healing mists from the seas.

‘I need to show you, so you can finally understand why your here’ she whispered. She took my right hand in her left, while never breaking her gaze at the sea or her tracing of the sand. For a moment I felt an overwhelming sense of peace, then nothing. Then it was as if we had been transported, not to a different place, but to a different time, the sand, the tide, all the same, but every other person had gone. What was bustling beach now lay empty, aside from us.

I can’t tell you what changed inside me that day, I can’t tell you who she was, or where she came from, but she moved me, like I’d never been moved before.