Grane – Day 5: The West That Weeps
Day Five – The West That Weeps
Weary in body and spirit yet still pressing on, Grane and Rock had become more than situational companions, the two had become something resembling friends. She had never had the heart to leave him, but getting attached was the opposite of her intentions. Still, it was a nice change. Even if he wasn’t much for conversation, the long time stoic Grane enjoyed the company. Maybe maternal instinct wasn’t that easy to shake. It must not have been one of the things the blight took from her way back then.
She had no idea why she was different from the rest. Others would say destiny or fate or the will of the gods, but she knew better than to believe in such childish things. She was a blip. Just some noise in the data. An interesting case study, but nothing more than an aberration. Yet this had dominated her life and continuously guided her path. She thought to herself that she had finally figured out the reason she sought the blight with such dire aim. When this was over, her true birth would be at hand. She would no longer be elbowed around by a moment in her past. She would make her own life out of her own thoughts and her own desires.
As the two headed west ever still, the horizon began to rise up. It was odd at first. A hill or a dip, perhaps. As they walked, however, it didn’t stop rising. It was a wall wider than the biggest village and taller than the highest tree. The pair exchanged glances before returning in awe to the sight ahead. It looked sheathed in oil, dripping and streaking downwards as a rainbow of colors burst off as the sunlight hit from the eastern sky.
The noise came soon after. First it was a constant whisper or a distant chatter. As they closed in and the wall grew the whisper became a rumble and then a storm. The rocky barrier was being ever beaten as something flowed down from atop its mighty peak.
“That’s water!” Grane exclaimed, her voice cracking in excitement. Rock’s face wriggled in though before a grin grew upon his once-weary face.
An endless cascade of water poured down across the entire length of the thing. Thousands upon thousands of gallons. It was more water than they had ever seen combined. It was more water than anyone had ever seen. Their conservative gait turned into a jog and then into a sprint.
She closed in on the wall, skidding to a halt a mere yard before it as she found the ground beneath it had sunk into the abyss. The water fell down into the deep black nothingness, disappearing into mystery. Something like this doesn’t happen in an instant, Grane thought, this had been here for many moons and still the pit below it had not filled. How deep must it be to make that possible? And how much water must be above for it to flow so fiercely after all this time?
“Bleh!” a voice coughed nearby, bringing Grane out of her child-like state of wonderment.
To her right, Rock coughed and spat. He had reach out with cupped hands and taken a drink of the water before them. He tilted his head and then did it again, this time getting it down, but grimacing after the fact.
Grane reached out and collected a small sample for herself. Bringing her hands to her mouth she sipped up a small bit of water. It was odd indeed. It tasted quite unlike the oases and wells they had used before. It was salt. The water was polluted with salt. This wasn’t an elixir flowing from above. No, the mountain was crying in their presence.
“The west that weeps.” Grane muttered to herself. She had arrived. Her journey was coming to a close after all this time. One question still remained, however. Now that she was here, what in the sands was she supposed to do? Leaving Rock to his own devices, she began to walk, tracing the edge of the crevice down the length of the wall whilst hoping for some insight on her next move. Then she sighted something behind the curtain of tears. It was an opening, the mouth of some sort of cave. If the blight was born here, what more majestic of a place would there be for it to build its den?
She yelled for Rock to join her, having to call him a half-dozen times to bring his gaze to her rather then the incredible view before him. He joined her across from the cave and Grane rummaged inside his pack, taking out the length of rope that had served them well the last time a pitfall was about. She wrapped it once around his waist before tying it tight and secure. Rock looked at her in fright, worried about what crazy thing he would be using her for this time.
“Stay still.” She said holding out one had with palm shown and fingers up. He nodded in understanding. Understanding that she hoped was real and not imagined. Still holding the other end of the rope, she took a half dozen steps back before sprinting towards the edge. Rock shouted her name in surprise as she leaped off the edge, sailed over the gap and landed inside the cave. She looked around, hoping to find something to brace herself on, but the mouth of the cave had been beaten smooth by the water that it hid behind. Bracing herself, she yelled and motioned for him to join her. He shook his head. After a solid minute of egging, he finally made the jump. To no one’s surprise he didn’t make it the length of the gap. Rather, with a piercing scream he began plummeting down three fourths of the way across. Grane leaned back as the rope drew taught. It met its limit and yanked with the force of Rock’s body-weight. Grane skidded forward, grunting and pulling back with her entire being.
Her feet hit the ledge, with her toes now peeking over towards the unlimited abyss below. She stopped her skid, causing Rock to swing towards her side of the gap. With a loud “oof” he gracelessly hit the wall. Grane turned, hefting the rope over her shoulder and began a painful march deeper inside. Rock stared down, scared witless at the precariousness of his situation. Feeling himself slowly rise calmed him little. Soon his head began to peak over the lower lip of the opening. He desperately clambered inside while spewing curses at his companion’s temerity.
Feeling her burden disappear, she spun around to find Rock on hands and knees kissing the solid earth beneath him in relief. He looked up and gave her a fierce glare. She beamed a smile back. She turned and began to walk deeper inside. He looked to the ground, caught his breath and began to keep pace.
The light from outside soon gave way to darkness, forcing Grane to light a torch. The roar of the water outside too eventually faded out, being replaced by eerie silence interlaced with hollow echoes of their own footsteps. The tunnels never seemed to end, proceeding further and further away from the desert, but also in a slow and steady incline. Always choosing to go up when multiple paths presented themselves, Grane figured that there could only be so much traveling upwards before they would emerge somewhere.
It felt like days, but without the sun rising and falling, neither truly had any real idea of how long they had been down there. On the first few rests, Rock satiated his curiosity by drinking some salted water he had collected. However he soon grew lethargic and pale, puking up anything he managed to get into his stomach. It made little sense to either, but the people of the desert knew dehydration when they saw it. Grane forced regular water on him and the symptoms soon passed. The cliffside’s tears were not meant for human consumption. Every so often, small creatures would be seen squeaking about. They were lithe and hairy with leathery whip-like tails. When they managed to catch one now and again, little meat was found inside, and the little that was tasted putrid. Nourishment was nourishment however, and a small amount was forced down to stave off starvation a little bit longer.
Eventually the pair rounded a corner to find themselves blessed by a ray of light piercing through. The end of the tunnel was near. Rock cheered, the thought of fresh air renewing his weakened will. He raced forward, Grane jogging to catch up. They emerged outside, squinting as their eyes adjusted again to daylight.
Grane let out an audible gasp. Green foliage as high as her ankles painted the ground around them with red and blue and yellow plants dotting the landscape. The assault of colors was dizzying, even almost sickening in its beauty. Rock giggled and began to run around, absolutely overjoyed by the scenery around him. She smiled, pushing away the uneasiness of such foreign ground. Could something as evil as the blight truly be from such a beautiful place? As her partner laughed and played, she took in the surroundings. To her right she could see the green eventually give way to the familiar color of sand. It wasn’t a desert that met there, it was a short interval before an eternal blue that vanished into the horizon. A grand oasis of endless water! This must be the source of the tears that rained down back from whence they came.
To the left, midway to the edge of vision a lone shelter was spotted. A house that would be nondescript as they come if not for the material it was made of. A wooden house. Truly this was a land of bounty and peace. Maybe all these years, a higher power was just outside of the horizon, for she felt unworthy of being in such a lovely place. This had to be the land of the gods.
“Rock!” Grane called out. He stopped his playing and gave her a look. She pointed at the house and started walking towards it before nonchalantly explaining “We’re going to go meet God.”
