The story of Aldorem

Chapter One: Part I: A little journey

A fresh breeze blows over my face as I sit here in my favourite spot. The sun is shining down on me, and I feel its warmth from tip to toe, which is a welcome change after the cold, rainy weeks we've had. As I thought of the last few rainy and stormy weeks, a chill ran down my spine. Back then, while hell was about to break loose outside, I had been sitting within my oppressing small chamber, waiting for all this to end to finally be able to go out again. And today the weather finally allowed me to do so, so I went outside, away from my little home, far away until I finally came to this place. I went up and down, through wet grass over slippery stones, through an omnious forest, to finally arrive here.

On the way, I could see all the destruction the storms had caused. In the forest, many trees lay on the soil, blocking my way; other trees seemed to have been split from top to bottom through inhuman powers. Outside of the forest, it wasn't any better looking; there were lots of branches and leaves lying all around, making this whole scene look like a gigantic battlefield of gods. But ignoring those thoughts as I arrived here, I sat myself down on a relatively dry piece of wood I found nearby and moved beneath an ancient tree so that my pants wouldn't be wet from the grass.

I sit in the shadow of an enormous tree atop a small rise. To the north, a once-gentle stream now flows strongly from the distant, barely visible mountains in the east. Until here and then falls in a straight, beautiful waterfall many hundred meters down into the most gigantic chasm existing, where a human-built contraption redirects-the only available water source in the chasm-over the unknown deep chasm to the city of Aldorem. It is there, where I live, used as the main water source.

I can see Aldorem; from where I am sitting, the city has been embedded within the whole west side of the chasm wall. The city goes deep within the wall, so far that not even a little sun-ray could reach there, but for the better of it, long ago there had been lanterns invented. Those light up the city in a shimmering blue hue. The only reason the city hadn't been crushed from the hundreds of meters of stones over it is due to many supporting pillars being left behind while expanding the city.

In Aldorem, there is only one way in and out; it is a road, which is too built within the chasm walls and goes steadily up. It makes it way from Aldorem to the southern side of the chasm; there one was still a good bit beneath the surface but still made two-thirds of the height difference. But there at the most south point the road makes a sharp curve into the chasm walls, where then a straight tunnel goes up to the surface area, freeing all travellers from the dark, damp, and depressing cleft.

I personally think the city's location is awful; the air is bad, the walls are all gray, there is near-zero vegetation, and sometimes rocks fall down from above. This makes the chasm a desolate-looking and dangerous place. But when I asked my parents why the village is located in the cleft, they told me it needed to be there because many people live from mining, which they can do more easily in this chasm where three gigantic mines are located. My father is one of them; he works at the mine located in the south.

The chasm has a further bad side; the sun can only shine in it for about 8 hours a day. This is due to the chasm being nearly round with gigantic, rocky walls at all sides. The chasm walls do open a bit the higher they go, but not nearly enough to get the sun to shine more in it.

Even as a little child, I had always desired to depart from the city; however, I was not permitted to venture outside. But while playing hide and seek with my friends, I discovered a staircase in a narrow side alley that sparked my curiosity. It began at the end of the street and went up and up; it seemed like it never ended. As I went the first few steps, this feeling didn't change. And so I thought it would let up to the surface, but at first I didn't have the courage to go up. So the next week I collected myself, got my courage together, and made a plan on how to go away without my parents knowing anything. The day came and I told my parents that I would visit my friend, but instead, I went on a journey up the staircase; it went for most of the time northward at first before a straight part came, going for quite a while east, until breaking free from within the stone and revealing an unimaginable, terrifying view down in the chasm.

On a big rock that lay on the side where it goes deep down, to protect all people using the way from falling, I sat myself for a little eating break. I intentionally faced the stone wall while sitting so as not to get terrified from the deadly end I would have when falling down from the stone the false way. And yes, I know I could just sit myself on the way or anywhere where it wouldn't be as dangerous, but I am me, and I wanted to sit here.

The break wasn't that long, and I went on, over a steep path going north-east; many stones lay on it, some more loose than others; sometimes on the really steep parts there were still a few stairs to help, but most of the time the way was a whole chaos. So it went on and on, until finally, in the end, a last huge staircase came leading outside. I stayed up here for another 2 or 3 hours, but didn't find many more interesting things, so I went home again. With this, I was really happy, as I knew, that there is a real possibility to go outside unnoticed from all. It was like I could vanish in thin air, whenever I wanted now and so I did more frequently and in the end, I found this gorgeous spot, I now visit every few weeks when I want to escape the terrible air in the chasm.