Mt. Sensan-Ghi

Act Six - The Long Walk Down

Only moments after jumping and feeling his body drop, Estavir hit solid ground. Unlike what he was expecting he had fallen on his back. He opened his eyes and after a few deep breaths, gathered himself and stood up. Somehow the long vertical shaft had become a tunnel or corridor in which he would have to walk horizontally. He looked above and behind him but could see nowhere he could have fallen from. The hole that he had jumped into no longer existed and he was surrounded by stone on five sides. The space he was given to move around in was very limited. It was only just higher than he was tall, and as wide as it was high. It was impossible to tell how long it was, though.

The surface of the stone was smooth as silk and there was not a single scratch anywhere. There were no bricks or loose rocks or gaps anywhere, as if this long tunnel had been carved from a single solid stretched as far as the eye could see. This was when he noticed how strange it was that he could even see at all, considering there was no light of any kind.

Seeing as there was only one direction to go he walked down the corridor. He ran his fingers on the sides of the stone out of reflex. As there was no light, his body moved on its own as if he was blinded, which most certainly wasn't the case.

As he walked he noticed how the walls were getting warmer the further he walked. He turned around to see how far he had walked only to find that there was a wall immediately behind him preventing any backtracking. He faced forward again, took only one step and turned around again. The wall blocking his path was there again, it had moved exactly one step with him. He tried sprinting as fast as he could for a few moments and turned around again right after, the wall was right behind him again. Frustrated and annoyed he then tried remaining facing the wall then walking backwards. This seemed to work as the wall didn't move and stayed at a distance, it wasn't following him. As he was walking backwards he couldn't help himself from looking over his shoulder to see an unchanged, long and endless black corridor. When he turned his head back, however, the wall was right there again.

At this point Estavir decided he would continue to walk backwards without ever looking back, maintaining a steady look forward at the wall. He kept walking for hours in this fashion before he needed a break. He made sure to sit himself down while still facing the direction he had come from. He had not seen the wall for a few hours now and took solace in the sight of the long tunnel as a measure of progress.

In a way to relieve some tension in his muscles he tried to lean backwards onto his hands to stretch his back, only to be met by a wall. Alarmed he felt with his hand to confirm what he was feeling with the back of his head, it was in fact a wall. He pushed with his legs and leant into the wall, stood himself up, partially as a test of disbelief, but partially out of fear that his way forward may now blocked. He felts with his hands as far as he could reach without ever turning around, his suspicion seemed correct. He was afraid to turn around but needed to confirm for sure. He turned around to be met by a wall. Without realising it, he staggered a little bit backwards only to be met by a wall in his back once again. He turned back again and the wall had returned yet again. Everywhere he now turned, his passage was barred by a wall, he was completely surrounded. He fell to his knees in exhaustion.

I should have climbed down was all he could think about as he wrapped his arm around stomach and curled himself into a ball. In a moment of defeat he ended up so far forward that his forehead touched the ground. He ended up recoiling when the touch of the ground felt as cold as ice. As he recoiled from the cold he ended up with his back against the wall and noticed immediately how warm it felt. He turned around and put his hands against the way, one nearer the floor and one as high up as he could reach. To his surprise the wall was not uniform in temperature. The wall felt colder on his lower hand but warmer on the other. He felt around with both hands and the higher up he felt the warmer the wall got. He felt around all the walls in the small and narrow space left to him, looking for the hottest spot. He ended up finding it at eye level to his right. He placed his hands around the warm spot and in defeat leant his forehead onto the wall, closing his eyes.

What do I do now? He thought to himself as he felt the warmth of the wall on his head.

Where do I go from here? He whispered to himself in his head.

In an attempt to comfort himself, for the first time since he had embarked on his journey, he experienced longing. The warmth of the wall flashed in his mind, it conjured an image of home. The warm comfortable atmosphere, the familiar smells, all the things that cemented the memory in his mind, all were present. The memory compelled his body to walk forward. His body, acting on its own, took a step forward. He was thrown off balance when his body moved forward unimpeded and he fell to the ground, his eyes still closed. He opened his eyes only to find that right in front of him, at the same distance it had been every time, there was a wall.

Though the space had been only just big enough for him to stand a moment ago, it was now large enough to accommodate him lying down. Without a moments hesitation he got up, closed his eyes, felt around with his hands for the warmest spot, put his head to the wall and thought about the things he was missing. Once again his body etched itself forward but this time he let it take over completely.

His body moved forward as if the wall had completely dematerialised the moment he let the pull work its magic. He took his first step, steadily this time as he was prepared. Then came another step, followed by another. Before long he felt his body running, eyes still closed, clinging tightly to the thought of what he would be returning to. Not least of all he was doing everything in his power to forget that he was inside a stone corridor with nowhere to go.

After several minutes of running unimpeded he felt a relief in his mind and in his heart, like a weight was lifting. He had forgotten the corridor. Now that he had forgotten where he was, he had started to feel the air move around him, started hearing and feeling the beating of his heart and eventually he felt the weight on his feet disappear. For that one moment he felt as though he was soaring through the air. He took one leap, spread his arms and enjoyed the moment of pure bliss that was the nothingness both in and around him. The moment lasted an eternity, he didn't move, he didn't think; he simply experienced the moment.

At the moment where the moment lasted long enough for him to feel he may forget his own existence, a hard cold slap hit his entire body. It stun like a wall of countless needles boring right through before swallowing him whole.

His body was surrounded by a cold dense liquid and he struggled to move. He knew he shouldn't but he couldn't help but open his eyes to see where he was. He opened his eyes to see that he was no longer in the long stone corridor. He couldn't see much but from what he could tell he was surrounded by darkness everywhere with the exception of a small but bright light some distance ahead. With nothing else at all around him he tried to move closer to the light but that proved to be more difficult than it seemed. The dense darkness around him pushed back every time he moved and it took all his energy to stretch his arm out before him, in an attempt to grab the light. As soon as he managed to grab onto the small orb of light, he felt a burning sensation creep from his hand, up his arm and spread across his entire body. The burning sensation blinded his senses completely. The burning was all consuming and he felt his body burn up in a hot white flash that enveloped his entire existence.

As soon as he felt the last of himself burn away, he felt his body suddenly drop then hit the floor, face first. He lay motionless for a moment before trying to fell the surface with his hands, it was wood.