Terrain on The Horizon

Melancholic Dawn

"What brings you to this sacred, spiritual mountaintop?" Lia the Wise asked the novice traveler.

"Why do you ask? I just need spiritual advice, it's nothing much." Matt replied, nervous and unsure of how to handle this conversation of his.

"Well, in order to guide your soul, you must investigate your soul." Lia said, using her wisdom. "A fatal mistake some people make is that they live aimlessly: they make decisions without evaluating themselves. They act before they think and then ruin their lives."

"Has this scenario occurred at all during T7Z90's history?" Matt asked.

"Yes, many times." She spoke. "Have you ever heard of what happened to the First Algebraic Kingdom?"

"Yes." Matt answered. "Their ruler died, and a different government took over, until it got absorbed by another country called GeometryLand."

"Wow, you're pretty smart from just getting out of school." She chuckled. "Also, what do you need this spiritual advice for? Are you having soul dysphoria?"

"I need this spiritual advice to fulfill my dreams. Also, what's soul dysphoria?" He responded.

"I'm glad you asked. Soul dysphoria is when you feel like your body isn't the one your soul belongs to." She said. "This happens most often with people who are reincarnations of other people, and/or people who had past lives."

"Oh, I think I do have it. What's in it for me? How do I get rid of it? Can I un-reincarnate myself?" Matt asked, worried.

"You can't undo what has already happened." Lia proclaimed. "But, you can learn to live with it."

"How?" He asked.

"I have to find out whose soul yours is. I can't do it right now; I've felt too sick recently." She answered. "Here, stay the night here in Shandenova, and after you leave my place, I'll have your information. See you in the morning."

Disappointed, Matt walked and walked around Shandenova until he found a place to stay the night. He had wanted to treat himself to a luxury stay and reward himself for the progress on his journey. So, he found a cheap motel and stayed the night there. It wasn't very good quality, but it was better than sleeping on leaves. Matt got out of bed right before the sun rose, but it wasn't a nice dawn. He knew something was up but couldn't tell what it was. He checked out of the hotel and ran to the mountain.

"Lia! I'm back! Good morning!" Matt yelled as he inched closer to the mountaintop, but all he heard was an echo of his own voice.

"Lia! Lia, where are you??? Please, say something!" Matt cried as he kept running up the steps.

He arrived at the top of the mountain and saw a horrendous sight. Lia, Lia the Wise, his spiritual mentor, succumbed to her illness, and Matt saw her body. It was seen that she was writing in her journal when she died. Matt knelt next to the corpse as a sign of respect. He felt as if it was his duty to help send off her soul onto its future endeavors, so he said a prayer. Matt stood up, picked up her stuff, and put it in a bag he had found.

The sun was almost directly over the mountain, and its heat was beating on him. Matt knew that it was his duty as a citizen to take care of this. He would've called someone, but the cell service was terrible. He gathered some branches and laid them out into a ladder pattern. He fastened them with some rope he had in his backpack and set the structure down. He took his blanket and wrapped the body in it. Then, he tied multiple ropes around that for extra security.

On his way down, a crowd gathered at the mountain's base as Matt inched toward the ground. He got nervous but didn't fret. He carefully continued down the mountain, holding the structure, with the bag of her belongings tied to his walking stick. He eventually made it to the bottom and was quickly stopped by one of the observers.

"Hey, you! What do you have here?" The observer asked.

"It's a long story, but she has left us." Matt responded.

"Hmmm... who's famous here? Who's a famous 'she' in town?" The observer thought out loud until a colleague tapped his shoulder and whispered to him.

"Oh, it's Lia the Wise, right?" They asked Matt.

"Yes, I'm transporting her body, as I had already been running up the mountain when I discovered that she died." Matt said.

"Why were you here?" Asked the observer.

"Last night, she and I had a spiritual discussion. After a while of talking, she told me that I should leave for the night and that we'd meet in the morning. And indeed we met, but she wasn't alive." Matt said with a somber expression on his face. "I also have the belongings she appeared to have been holding before she passed, in this bag on my walking stick."

"Ok, and what's your name?" The observer asked.

"Matt DeAlto." Matt answered.

"Okay." The observer said. "We'll take her body, and may you be blessed for years to come. Farewell."