Tordhir - Lost in the Deep - Part 7
Wiping my tears from the pain I almost laughed. Looking up I could see it in the distance. Freedom, a set of stairs leading up. I felt a strong urge to smoke. I imagined rays of sun touching my skin. At that moment the pain didn’t seem so bad.
The stairs themselves turned out to be a struggle. Just days back I would have ran up the steps, now I saw them as a puzzle. The easiest way was to sit on each step and face down, then lift myself up one step at a time. The process took a fair bit of time. I expected my pursuer to appear at the bottom of the steps, but I no longer heard them, with some luck they had turned away and left me.
Sweat drenched me when I reached the top. After a brief break I continued. Looking around the hope that I’d found the gates leading out shattered. Still I was sure I was on the right path out. I should have used part of this notebook to draw a map, it might seem silly but I was afraid that my bad drawings would end up fooling myself. The air felt fresher here. I was growing sure that I’d be out soon.
Having felt of high spirits, I started to come back to reality. I wondered about my lack of pain, it could be that I wasn’t feeling my foot as much as I should. I did feel cold and was shivering. It could have been due to my state, though a wind had been picking up.
Initially, I thought the breeze coming from the outside world, but there was something foul about it. The wind grew in strength and threatened my torch. In vain, I tried to protect the flame with my body, while at the same time leaning against my spear. The wind won that battle and darkness became my world.
Whispers were everywhere, on the wind or from the bad places of my mind I didn’t know. It felt like something was touching me. Over and over I told myself nothing was there but the wind. It didn’t help much though, I was sure something in the darkness was observing me, something that could see better than me in this dark place.
All attempts to kindle a flame for my torch were failing. When I thought I heard something close I’d try to find balance and trust out with my spear hoping that I’d strike a clean hit. At the same time that I hoped there was nothing to hit.
Venturing the darkness I realized the truth. I was my own enemy in this. If I broke my own mind, the reason would be my untrained mind, or that of a mind which had lost its way. My mental training came back to me. Due to the darkness I didn’t even need to close my eyes. I willed the ancient scriptures of Mother Mountain to appear as golden runes in front of me.
As they weren’t real they didn’t provide any actual illumination, but I saw them as glowing. It had been over ten years since I had last read them in full and my memory might have forgotten some phrases. Though the creed was clear here, the words themselves held no meaning. The important part was the message they conveyed. The path of perseverance in the face of inevitable doom.
I started to read the runes, as I saw them, out loud. “I am one of the stone born. Forged by the blood of the Mother Mountain. Rooted in the deep gods of core and rock. Lead by the Salt giver. Moulded by the hardships I face, I live my life deep within the Heart of Stone.”
At first the wind silenced my words, but worked, I did feel stronger. As I repeated the words over and over I soon won and the wind started to carry and amplify my words. Soon I was screaming, “my body is the anvil that shapes the world around me!”