The wind howled through the deep dark mountain pass like long-forgotten hoards of spectral spirits. It whipped and ragged against the razor-sharp rocky spires of stone which jutted toward the sky as if the stones themselves sought to escape the confining chains of gravity, leaving the earth behind to join their brothers and sisters in the endless vastness of space as great planets… The battle of elements was fierce, the wind buffeted like a giant fist and tore at the mountain which had stood for eternity, an occasional rock or bolder sounded like a cannon blast as they smashed into the ground far below, the only damage the hurricane-strength wind was able to cause... The noise was almost deafening as earth and wind tried to assert dominance over each other…
As with any battle, there must always be a winner and also a loser, this was no different… The mighty wind was slowly losing, lessening in its vicious attack on a mountain whose only crime was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time… The mountain had faced countless onslaughts from wind, fire, and water… Yet still, it stood as a testimony of the ability to overcome all adversity with nothing more than simple steadfastness and time… Stand long enough and even the hardiest, often fool hardly, aggressors will falter, stumble, and fail… The wind was going to loose, and with one final charge, one last vain attempt, the wind crashed with a force so hard it made the mountain shake to its very foundation… Rocks, gravel, and boulders the size of houses vibrated lose and raced headlong down the face of the mountain, filling the deep, dark, and worn pass below, forever changing the outward appearance of a timeless creation of nature… Still, the mountain stood, and the wind lessened as to nothing more than a stiff breeze, one final howl of defeat as it blew through the rubble-strewn pass…
Thus far, black clouds like great wings of demons spit forth from hell, had covered the moon… Since the mountain had forced the wind to abandon its attack and seek a higher course, it pushed the blackness away with the quickness of a serpent seeking a meal, and the glaring white glow of a full moon bathed the blocked mountain pass in a harsh light… Shadows jumped into being as if they had been given birth to by the mountain in celebration of its victory over the elements… Creatures of the night ventured from hiding, noses twitched as their animal senses tested the breeze for any signs of danger, either from bigger creatures or from some sudden return of the wind which would toss them from the rocks and smash them to the pass below… Something screeched, its cry echoed off the stones and was swallowed by the night, a sure signal that one of the animals was not as careful as it should have been… Such is the dance of life and death…
Moonlight blanketed the face of the mountain, un-weathered rock and fresh cracks, damage caused by the wind, stood out in stark contrast to the weathered stone like new scares on tanned skin… A lone wolf bound from rock to rock in search of its next meal… Suddenly it paused in front of a new opening in the mountain, previously covered by one of the large boulders, now shattered, which lay somewhere in the pass below, the hair on the wolf’s neck ridged up and bristled like crude spikes as it attempted to appear larger to some unseen, yet sensed danger… Its lips curled, exposing rows of bright white pointed teeth and a low rumble escaped from deep within its chest as its beep golden eyes tried to pierce the pitch-black cave that even the moonlight seemed afraid to enter… The wolf crouched low to the ground as if ready to spring into action…
*****************************************************************************
I could feel the rainless storm, I had felt all the attacks nature threw at the mountain over the last few years, but my sleep remained undisturbed, until now… Rock spit, shattered, and the boulder that had blocked the opening to my private self-imposed prison, slipped and bounced away as the wind gave its final blow… The opening was now exposed to the world… Sitting up from the smooth cold gray featureless slab that had been my bed for these past years and opening my eyes, I could see the darkness move away, replaced by the light of a full moon, animal sounds filtered into the cave, sounds and smells I had all but forgotten flooded back… I closed my eyes, trying to adjust to the long-absent sensations… My skin crawled as if covered in millions of insects as nerves that had been devoid of stimulation came awake… The sounds from outside were ringing in my head threatening to split my skull, I pressed my hands over my ears, cupping my head and trying to keep the pounding in my brain from causing it to spill out onto the cave floor… Turning my mind inward and slowly absorbed the, once absent, outside influences one at a time until I was in control of myself once again… I don’t know how long I had to sit like that, eyes closed, hands over my ears, and my mind nothing more than a confused jumble of thoughts and fuzzy noises, but eventually a sense of normalcy returned…
I heard the low rumbling growl through my hand covered ears and knew it had to be very close… Opening my eyes I turned toward the sound, my vision of the outside world was assisted by the moon while the animal outside was hampered by the darkness inside the cave, deep shadows, and blackness, similar to the effect of tinted windows on automobiles… My throat felt suddenly very parched as if I had spent days in a desert without the benefit of water, swallowing only made it worse, like I had pored sand down my throat… I could almost feel the warmth emanating from the wolf crouching just outside… Too fast for the wolf to react I removed my hands from my head, pushed off the stone bed, and launched myself into the moonlight… I could feel its bones break like dried twigs, the fur felt ruff and coarse in my hands as my fingers dug into the warm flesh beneath, snapping more bones and crushing tendons… A startled yelp was the only sound the animal was able to make as its body left the ground and my teeth tore open its neck in a shower of fine red mist… Holding the big animal aloft I sated my need to wet my parched throat as I drained every last drop of the salty life give substance it held inside its veins, the heart slowed and finally ceased to beat… Without a second thought, I released my hold and watched as the lifeless body followed the path of the boulder that had kept me locked inside all these years… I didn’t wait to see where it finally came to rest, it mattered not anyway, turning toward the pass’s entrance I lighted from one rock to the next as if I was a mountain goat born to live in the rocky mountains…
It was a long travel to reach my intended destination… Several human bodies were the only testimony of my silent passage across the midnight landscape… I didn’t really know what to expect when I got there, who would be left, who would even remember me, and I didn’t really care, I knew what I had to do…
This time nothing would stand in my way…
Nothing would stop me…
Hours later I stood under an old wooden sign which marked a place few knew about and even fewer would dare to go… A place I had sworn I would never see again…
“RavenBlack City” but this was not that place... It looked the same, it felt the same, yet it was certainly not the same...
Continue
