The Transcendent Shore

In decades past there has been recorded a great number of civilizations. These great peoples were lost to time and forgotten just as the inhuman peoples that came before them. It is in the nature of great things to eventually fall into disrepair and finally be forgotten by time. It is told that these lost peoples and the places in which they did reside are taken away to a land beyond an undiscovered shore in a distant land that holds no place in time or space.

My last unrestrained venture to this undiscovered shore and the land beyond it was a simple yet, at the same time, complicated ordeal. I was not prepared for such an adventure at the first instance in which I did move forth beyond the bounds of our own corporeal realm of existence and I was most certainly not prepared for the last. It was, as I said, a simple and yet complicated ordeal.

This first venture beyond the corporeal realm of existence that we are all essentially tethered to was a wholly inadequate venture to say the least. For what I saw was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. This first venture brought me to a long beach of golden sand that shined with pure sacrosanctity. The fluttering leaves of the palm trees blazed with a kaleidoscopic variety of brilliantly colorful hues of red, yellow, blue, orange, green, gold, and silver. The sky was painted a beautiful steel blue and what clouds were visible looked as though balls of cotton had just floated up to the boundary of the stars and formed together. While I was able to spin around on spot and take in the whole of my surroundings. This wonderful field of vision would eventually give way to my further excursions into this realm beyond that supernatural undiscovered shore.

When I awoke from the first venture beyond, I had to take many hours of rest before regaining my full faculties. Looking back to that moment, my continuation of the wonderfully innocent excursions into the land beyond what is considered, to common humanity, tangible and realistic, was probably not the best of ideas. I did feel so marvelously detached from reality, as if my mind and soul were both transcending the known world when one of my adventures came to a close, that I dubbed the beautiful undiscovered shore that was the beginning of my adventures the Transcendent Shore. This shoreline was the focus of my return to the place that had captured my interest.

The first time that I returned to the Transcendent Shore, which was in retrospect my second venture, was one trip that I will never forget as it is burned into my memory. I retired to my bed the night of my first return and closed my eyes. Like the first time I escaped the bonds of the earthly realm, I closed my eyes and I slowly drifted off to sleep. However, unlike my first adventure, I was prepared for this excursion.

I opened my eyes to a most pulchritudinous sight. I was once again upon the beautiful beach that I had seen before, but it was different. I was now aware of my surroundings and of the place that I was in. With this self-awareness, I was able to move about freely and of my own volition go beyond the immediate sight of the beach. I walked along the sand for a few minutes to get my bearings until I came to a path that led to a small patch of jungle. I turned onto the path and began strolling along the tree line looking at the magnificently diverse selection of plants and animals. I heard a caw from my right and as I looked up I saw a beautiful shine of turquoise and silver. I at first thought it was some kind of metal or architecture, but upon closer inspection I saw that this beautiful combination of colors actually belonged to the animal that the caw came from. It was some sort of parrot or macaw type bird and its colors rippled when it made any kind of noise.

To my left there was a group of bright fiery red-orange monkeys. They were squealing at the top of their lungs swinging from branch to branch via a network of vines. They would unclasp their hands to move to another vine and a small spark would escape from their fingers. This spark seemed to call your eyes gaze even with no noise made by that individual action. My stare followed after them and my feet began taking me to that same place they were going. With every step I took I began feeling weaker and weaker as if straining against a chord of an extremely strong elastic substance.

I made it to the edge of the woods where the strange fiery beasts were stopped. They looked out upon, what appeared to me to be an open plain, but before I could confirm my observation I was shocked to the bone by a bright ever reaching light. It threw me backwards with a sort of soft push. I began spinning uncontrollably, or the world did, I was not certain which.

I awoke upon my bed covered in sweat. I felt a small pang of sadness in my heart that I could not explore those lands of the Transcendent Shore a little more. I felt tired, drained of all energy except for what I had mustered into myself. I moved about my abode drinking water, eating bread and cheese and my strength began to return. I went back to my bed and lay back down. I felt ready to return to the place of my not so unreal dreams. As I drifted off to sleep however, I did not land upon the beach.

I awoke once again upon my bed, but without sweat and wholly filled with energy once again. I resolved to wait until the next evening to try again to make another trip to my paradise. I did the usual things a lone man would do to pass time. Walking a little walk whilst humming soft tunes to myself, preparing a meal for myself and reading a small novel were a few things that I did to pass the day. When the time came to go back I lay down upon my bed and drifted to sleep. Again, however, I did not go to my paradise. Again I awoke in my bed brimming with energy and readiness yet unable to explore.

The next months were filled with failed and not quite failed attempts to access the beach again. I made it a couple of times only to be thrown back into my bed immediately upon my arrival. With each day the pang of sadness and depression I had felt had grown stronger and more bothersome. I stopped going to town to gather supplies and I did not eat as much as I should have over that period of time.

Finally, after many months of maddening failure I was able to return to the Transcendent Shore. I again found myself upon the beach, and I again followed the macaws and the monkeys to the edge of the woods. This time I was not shot back like before, by the rubbery tether I had felt over these few months that has pulled me back over and over again. No, this time I was able to see beyond the light. Behind that magnificent shine stood a towering white city of marble adorned with precious gems and metals. The towers, parapets and flag poles were bright in the high noon sun of the plain. I was taken aback by the radiance of this magnificent land that I had so desired to see. I knew not of anything but that city for the next weeks. No rubbery band pulling me back, no bright lights throwing me away.

It was a few weeks after my arrival at the gates that I met a man carrying a small cane. On the head of this cane was carved a interesting creature. It had the body of some kind of lizard or dragon but its head was that of a wolf. Its tail was long and serpentine with a sharp dagger-like point upon the end. His feet were that of an eagle or maybe some kind of reptile that resembled an eagle. It was a monstrous sight as it was carved and crafted from precious gems and rocks fused together. Its body of pure black onyx, its feet were made of glimmering opal, its tail of emerald, and its head was made of white marble with eyes of dark blood red rubies.

I spoke to this man at some length and though he did not speak as to scare me or doom me to some unnatural end, his words were shocking. He spoke of a great being that had called forth a tribute from the earthly realm, an adventurous spirit to come and venture to this undiscovered Transcendent Shore. He spoke of a time soon to come when this adventurer would meet his end at the face of this being, the beast upon his cane, the one he called Alook Tikolarus, the Reaper of Souls. I had no reason to fear this being but the pang in my heart returned. Not out of sadness, but out of fear. I stayed within the city another day then left its walls to return to the woods.

Halfway across the open expanse between the woods and the city I heard a foul cry of twisting agony from the sky behind me. I turned and looked up and what I saw caused my heart to stop. It was Alook Tikolarus coming for me. I knew then that I was the adventurer the man had mentioned; I was the tribute for the Reaper of Souls.

I burst into a run, picking up speed with all the power I could muster. The agonizing cry that had come before came again, but this time it was distant and faded. What came instead was a voice, deep and rumbling like thunder from the heavens. The voice said, “You cannot run fast enough to escape me. I own you, I own this land, and I own your soul. You will not leave.”

I stopped running, paralyzed with fear and anguish. I was to meet my end with an unnatural death. I stood and face my pursuer with all the courage a mortal man in an immortal realm could muster. The beast landed in front of me and grasped me with large leathery hands adorned with claws of a golden hue. Up close now and with my eyes frozen open in horror, I could see this creature. The man’s cane was not a misrepresentation. The beast looked exactly like its effigy. The worst part of it though was its eyes, blood red rubies that penetrated to deepest recesses of your soul

All at once from my position in this creature grasp, I saw a light reflecting upon this creature’s body and I heard it hiss in disdain. Immediately after, his other front claws tore into my flesh but without outward damage. The claws began to rip and tear at my soul, I felt the chunks falling to the ground, and I could do nothing to stop it. My mind began to unravel and slowly I started to fade away when all of a sudden the bright light fell upon us. It ripped me from the claws of Alook Tikolarus and launched me like a rock in a slingshot back through the woods and back to my earthly realm.

When I awoke these events were burned into my mind and although I had survived, I was not a whole person. I felt my mind beginning to break and so now I am writing this in the hopes I will not forget. It is up to you, the reader, to take this and do with it what you will. There is a place that transcends time and space. A place I called the Transcendent Shore that is within our reach. So, if you decide to venture beyond our corporeal realm of existence then go to the Transcendent Shore, but do not talk to the man with the Reaper’s cane or you will be torn as well. I expect that by the time anyone reads this I will be long gone, but I can take solace in the fact that there is a saving light that protects mortal men in that immortal world called the Transcendent Shore.