Journeys in the dark — Part I
What is it to see and not touch ? To hear but never really feel the sound connect with your ears. What is it to know a calling so deep, you cannot go one day, No!, an hour even without thinking of it. The life, mind and heart of our protagonist is so. He seeks his great dawn and persists endlessly long and hard into the dark unknown.
We meet him fairly into his journey. He’s already tasted defeat many times, but has also had some victories. Yet the great dawn awaits and so time is never there to rest on his laurels. Each step, each stride is fully made with the intention of attaining that great dawn.
Brief sparks and flashes of light appear every now and then, but as long as he marches on to the great dawn, life will continue to test him with darkness. He has since learned that it is life’s way of weeding out the weak and uncommitted, the undesiring and thus, unworthy. He knows the selection process is cumbersome, tiresome and taxing, but his heart is stubborn, and so with singular focus he marches on. Undoubtedly each milestone crossed brings its own light. Some are dim, some are bright. But none are the great dawn.
Now though, it’s dark again.
Our protagonist has crossed the jagged three peaks and is now in the wild plains. But first we must discuss the jagged three peaks, for it was here that our protagonist was first truly tested. It was here that the resolve needed for the main journey was built. He had come out of a bright shiny day that lingered long through the first peak but halfway through, the seasons changed. Unbeknownst to our protagonist at the time, it would be a while before a ray of light came again. The three peaks involve a massive and tedious climb to the top. Each subsequent peak, much higher than the last.
At the top of each peak waits a sleeping dragon with three eggs — a large, medium and small. To pass, one must steal any one of the eggs without waking the dragon. As you would imagine, the largest egg is the heaviest, involves the most strain to move and so brings the most glory. However, due to all this, it also has the highest chance of waking the dragon. No one who wakes the dragon survives!
The climb up each peak is treacherous and stormy and the storm gets worse as you near the peak. After a disastrous start to the climb, our protagonist loses his armour and confidence. He manages to wobble and fall over onto the edge of the first peak. His breath is heavy, his body scarred, and yet he must continue. Stagnation is unacceptable. He has never known pain like this but at least the storm is over. It is worst just before you reach the peak, and beyond that, it is calm. However, it is calm not because the worst is over. It is calm because at the peak lies our first Dragon. He gets up and dusts the grime from his face. He begins to walk toward the sleeping dragon when he notices a limp in one of his legs.
“Not now” he thought to himself.
Of all the times, this was the worst one. He would need all of his strength in order to lift the largest egg up from under the dragon. As he approaches it however, the dragon starts to breathe heavily with smoke exiting from its nostrils. It is asleep, but it can smell blood. Our protagonist looks to his leg and ascertains the cause of his limp. He’s bleeding from his knee after taking heavy lacerations on the climb. He’s starting to feel dizzy now and whatever strength he currently possesses is leaving him. He still tries for the largest egg.
He wrestles and wrestles but he can’t get it up. The dragon is starting to feel the rumbling below and our protagonist knows he doesn’t have much time.
“Why!” he wonders, “Why!”
He’s never been in this position before. He’s had to face climbs, he’s had to face dragons, but up until now he’d been a natural. What was so different now, he thought. Was it that the three peaks were so far from his native home land ? Was it the different climate ? Perhaps the dragons were stronger here ?
“No” came the reinforcement in his mind. He refused to believe that it was the external situations that impacted him. He blamed himself for not preparing more for his climb. For being careless with head and tail winds. For letting himself get cut. He took all the responsibility upon himself but nevertheless, the truth of the situation was that he was not going to lift the largest egg. He had spent so much time heaving and bleeding that the dragon was now waking up and he knew he had only one option. He abandoned the large egg, picked the smallest one and exited the peak. It was more shame than he had ever known and he vowed never to be this humiliated again.
Obtaining the egg without waking the dragon unlocked the barrier to the base of the second peak and transported him there. If he was indeed to regain his pride and honour, that journey was about to begin!
