Traverse the Soul: First Two Sections

Traverse The Soul

         Long ago there was a world much like our own. Large cities covered the landscape and the people went about their lives as they pleased. Out of those people there were two particular people who stood out beyond the others. They were called Altan and Helen.

         Altan and Helen had been friends for about four years, their friendship had been filled with problems and they had almost decided to stop talking several times. But in the long run things had gone well, and their lives were filled with love, as were their hearts and they said that it would last forever. But that was not true, several years later they fell apart, though not out of love.

         Altan had never been all there, though he could speak beautiful words he never realized that actions mattered just as much. He never tried to earn money and when he did find a source of income it was always short lived. He often times would lie to make himself look like he was trying, but when it came down to it, he never seemed to try.

         When he had promised himself to Helen he had known little about the way the world worked, and never thought any problems would arise, but on the day she spoke those words his whole world was torn to the ground. He fell into a deep depression that he never thought possible, but it only made him more irresponsible. One day he knew he had to do what he had to do, but what did he need to do? Did he just need to get over it and do it? Or was there more to it than that? That night as he fell to sleep, he swore to the world that he would do what he needed to.

         The next day he awoke to the world, and walked through his home calling the names of his family, but none called back. Frustrated that his family would leave him like that he went back to his room and it was there that he saw Helen sitting on his bed. She looked at him and he looked at her, and she stood and walked. Altan followed her as she left the house. As they walked the streets of the city, Altan saw that no one was outside, or even inside as far as he could see. The two walked for an hour or more and they came to a large field where there was a tree, the two has spent many moments there, many of those moments were monumental for their relationship, and when they got to the tree Helen turned to him and said, “Altan, there's only one way to get me back, why are you not even trying?” Altan tried to explain it away, but there was no way to deny that although he loved her, he hadn't even tried to win her back yet. He had never really tried anything, all he did was hope, and it was never enough. Helen walked away, but Altan did not follow.

         The ground beneath his feet began to shake violently, and he fell to the ground. He got back up just as the ground around the tree began to shatter, and in fear of falling into the Earth with the tree, he ran from it. As he left the circle of crack marks on the ground the entire circle of around the tree lifted up an entire six feet. The six foot pillar just sat there for a moment, Climbing on top of it he saw Helen on the other side, she looked at him and simply said, “Good luck.” With that he felt the ground tremble again, as a massive fissure appeared to split the entire field in half. The shaking again caused him to fall backwards and hit his head on the ground as the then six foot plateau burst forth from the ground in a massive explosion, almost instantly followed by a massive wall the grew out of the fissure. The sound was deafening, and the sight amazing. What was once a large raised area became an impossibly large tower. The tower was shooting out of the ground at a speed of hundreds of hundreds of miles per hour. Though it seemed to be made out of many different materials, it was impossible to tell at such an awesome speed.

         After over an hour of waiting, the tower now had finished growing and faded away far past the clouds, and the wall that once divided the whole city now seemed to divide the entire world. The only thing left to do now was to get to the other side and get back Helen, no matter how unreasonable the whole thing seemed to be, his only clue to what he had to do next was a sign that read, “Proceed to Climb”. So, he did.

The Climb

         Soon after he touched the rocks, he realized exactly how sharp they were, cutting him and stabbing him any time he rubbed against them too hard.. Every now and then he found a ledge to rest on, though he didn't dare doze off due to the risk of falling over the edge. It was an hour later that he found himself somewhere around sixty feet off the ground.

         He could have made better time, but he had never climbed anything before, especially not anything this steep. He felt accomplished about what he had climbed, but didn't feel ready to climb the rest of the tower. After another hour had passed he felt even less capable when he realized that the next portion of the climb was completely vertical. The wall before him looked like it was made entirely of thorns, and when he got close enough to it he came to realize that it was just that.

         He rested for a while and then stood up, grabbed a thorn and pulled his foot up onto another thorn. He began to climb the wall of thorns. From this point on there was no rest, only work. It might not have been the best, or the easiest, work that he could do but it was the only way. Several times he would puncture the skin on his hand as he grabbed for the next thorn up, but other than that the only test was that of will and endurance. The sun was falling toward the ground at an alarming rate, and when the sun no longer let its rays onto the tower he had no option but to climb using only feelings and hope. He had a long way to go to the top, but when he would get there we would rest for a long time.

         He ended up on a sort of autopilot, he thought long and hard about what he had done. Many times he had told Helen that he would change, this wasn't the first time that he had been left by her, but every time he just assumed it would clear up, but this time it had not, and it had resulted in the loss of the most amazing person he had ever met. He train of thought was interrupted by a painful sensation as he stepped onto a thorn and slipped forcing the thorn he had been holding all the way through his hand. His mind told him to let go and he did, but it was not the grip that help him up the the thorn through his hand.

         The thorn curved up at a rather large angle, so he got off the only way he could, he thrust his other arm up and grabbed onto another thorn, and he pulled up with both arms, further straining the flesh that held him in place, and he pulled hand free from the thorn. His only option was to keep climbing, and so he did. His hand bled for hours and his body began to ache badly enough that he could no longer go on. But against all odds he kept going. To his surprise his hand did not find a thorn on the next thrust upward, but instead found a flat surface, and with the little energy he had left he thrust himself upward, a thorn slicing him deep in his leg. There he lay, panting, near to death, the only thing filling his mind before he slept was Helen. He fell asleep and the same held true and he had dreams for hours of Helen and his feelings for her.