Unexpected journeys

Through cloudy skies, the wander faced the glacial currents hauling on his face, covering his long beard with gems of ice. He had always preferred cold temperatures to hot ones, so staying in a cold ambient was a breeze compared to the hotness and the dryness of the desert he left only yesterday.

Navigating through the glaciers was a new experience since it was the first time that he had pursued the North, despite his long years of travelling towards the most disparate locations. This year he suffered the summer burning in a particular way and couldn’t wish more for fall to hurry and come as soon as possible.

He could feel the Autumns breeze already in the air and after all he had passed all of the dry season sick and bored. With gratefulness, he kept flying in direction of the mountains to see if he could build a refuge up there to pass a calm and relaxing night. He was too old to travel in the middle of a dark dark night like he did when he was younger. And he could also sense that a rainstorm was coming so it was better for him to seek cover.

If he recalled correctly that year was likewise to occur a rare type of precipitation called Rain of Ascension, where the droplets instead of following down from the sky to the ground made the opposite route ascending from the earth to the clouds.

If his bones didn’t hurt so bad in these weather conditions he would be happy to find himself in the midst of this curious climate’s manifestation.

He spotted a somewhat flat surface on the mountain top, the tallest in his sight and decided to camp there for the rest of the night.

With elegance, he landed there and started planting his tent, hoping that after all of the adventures they’ve attended together his best fabric companion wouldn’t abandon him on such an occasion. He didn’t think at all to buy a new one and now he regretted this not-so-brilliant move.

In the interlude of the storm, his back and his knees were singing songs of vengeance and so he decided that it would be better for him to dig a little nook into the world that was offered to him at that moment. He took the trusty drill that helped him out in sticky situations, dismantled his beaten-up fabric house and went down a natural path that lead him to the side of the mountain he was standing on. That was the perfect spot to do a little digging without causing too much damage to the natural beauty of the world.

He was doing fine until the wall he was drilling fell apart all of a sudden and he tumbled down to meet a strange rock formation… It was a labyrinth of stones!

He had never seen something like that and even if puzzled by the fall and feeling a little bit of pain in his junctions he was mesmerized by what was before his eyes.

He stood up, cleaned his clothes from the dust and tried to cover the hole procured by his digging to not let the rain in.

He knew that in some places of the vast world he and his fellows inhabit there were wonders of ancient memory, but it didn’t imagine being one of the few lucky ones to discover the ruins of the Earth, an Earth that now was called with another name because where he now lived couldn’t compare to the splendour that was before.

He started inspecting the entrances of the various tunnels of shiny bright Marble that branched off for the entirety of the ridge and in every cardinal direction, or so he thought of it.

The one on his right tempted him to traverse it in a peculiar way, so he listened to the call and was prompted to walk in it feeling the coldness of the air become more evident with every step he took.

He walks for a few hours always following its original path until a light caught his eyes now attuned to the darkness of the environment he was in. He went toward it thinking to discover something as marvellous as the labyrinth, and his enthusiasm started growing prouder and prouder.

Despite the fact that he learned to reduce the importance of his expectations in his life he forgot to do so that time, that’s why he was disappointed enough when he arrived at the end of the tunnel and discovered that that was a mere exit to the tunnels he has explored, a cold passage to the surface.

And he knew very well that where there is an exit there is an entrance as well, and that if he was not so distracted he could have spotted it while flying… There was no need to open a wound in the side of such an old and austere peak.

Well, sunrise was coming now, so that he could take flight again and proceed with his journey.

So he did with the conviction in his heart that he must have undertaken a journey of two lives since he was at the start of a new Fall again, and he couldn’t be happier.

Inspired by Reyes del Bosque and the album Viajes I.