Precipice

That towering monster, below it I have lived. Always looking up but never seeing. What is atop that great precipice? What stands at the highest of highest peaks, perhaps something, perhaps nothing? What is there does not matter only that I must know.

So I climb. For days the rocks bite into my hands but the pain leaves my hands in a stream of blood that finds its way back to the earth. To where I was, to where I shall never return. The pain does return, brief visits that remind me of my humanity. Days turn to weeks as I climb from cliff face to mountain pass only to find myself at the foot of another cliff face. The nights are cold and bitter, they tear at my resolve but I continue. For such forces to work against me a truly magnificent Discovery must wait. My hands are hard now, they feel pain no longer but the pain still visits. Every day I struggle harder to awake.

I thought I made it today but I was wrong, I stood atop the last cliff and I thought that I was done but as I looked across the barren desert in front of me I could make out huge peaks in the distance. I must reach the top. If I do not reach the top my journey is for naught, so I walk and I walk.

I have not seen water in days and food in weeks, I don’t think I have the strength to continue but I must persevere even if this drags me to oblivion. I met a man today he smiled at me knowingly a smile that scared me. But I ignore my mind for it has become unreliable and the man has food. He gave offers me meat and bread, I thank him, eating my fill when I look up he is gone. I am Invigorated, the mountain is closer now soon I will be there then the climb will begin again.

I am here, this towering behemoth before me is nothing like what I have climbed before. I survive on parcels of food left beside me while I sleep. I commence my climb and all my old aches return, I even feel pain in my hands again. It is good to know I am still alive. I have lost track of time, I do not remember when I started or how long I have been climbing. It is all I know walking and climbing. Much time has passed and that is all I know, I know I had a life before climbing, before walking but I do not remember it. This journey is who I have become; I only hope that I can remember my destination when I see it.

As I reach the top this cliff I see a package awaiting me. I remember these from a time before this mountain, images of a land so flat you could see the horizon all around you but I cannot remember much more than that. I bite into some dried meat and wash it down with water, my memory does not clear but a feeling in the back of my mind tells me I am nearly where I must be. I stumble forward.

I see in front of me a hill, a comfortable walk for any man in good condition but it is hell for my tortured body. I walk for a while before I fall to my knees so I crawl then as my knees give way I drag myself forward. The last rays of sunshine fall on my head as I pass out.

A voice awakens me; I recognise it from a long time ago. The voice asks me the question “Was the climb worth it, was the journey worth what is now before you?”

I lift my head from the dirt and direct it towards the warmth and as I open my eyes I reply “I cannot know for I cannot see.”