On the Journey pt2 ...

by **Valdoran** on June 7th, 2014, 1:22 pm

Valdoran was walking down the road that the merchant had pointed out to him. He had an uneasy feeling being alone on this road where the Zith and the Highwaymen apparently liked to opportunistically kill, kidnap and rob those on the paths. He looked to the cliff face and saw a large cliff face with a small ledge atop it. Seeing this and climbing up using his symenestran abilities, not particularly quickly but fast enough so nobody saw him.

Traversing this thin ledge was harder than simply walking, however due to his life spent upside down or on his side to the floor, he could traverse it just as quickly as moving along the ground, this meant that when people began walking and carts began to appear beneath him travelling the same path as him, he could hug the wall where the shadow generated by the sun being between him and the mountain, he could effectively hide in the underside of the ridge, meaning that he could pass by several opportunist hunters on the road and he heard several screeches from the Zith, unable to see him in the sky due to his current position under the ridge.

Occasionally he’d right himself, crawling from under the ridge and sitting on the top, mostly this is where he felt the wind too, since underneath it had the most shielding, but nevertheless he sat there, drinking his bruka deeply, but trying to measure his intake of it. Although it was quite full, he needed to make it last, seeing as he only had this much food for the most part. He was back of his journey, under the ridge, until he saw the ridge he had clung to for so long was coming to an end, however, he did see some 4 meters away, another ridge. He knew it would be close, and if it was lower down, it may be easier to reach from where he was, but no, it was the same height roughly, and he had to carry on.

by **Valdoran** on June 7th, 2014, 1:24 pm

He crawled on top of the ridge and began to walk backwards, he gave himself ten meters on top of the ridge to the other. Running as fast as he could by the time he reached the ridge was what he hoped for, so he though and moved back another ten meters, he psyched himself up, a lot, he needed it, this was the most dangerous jump he’d made, seeing as there was a thirty meter drop to the stone pathway below. He began to move to the edge, and from about five meters away he hesitated, attempting to stop, turned and only managed to stop when he slid off the edge and caught himself falling with his hand as he yelped in the thought of him dying so early in his life. Yet alas, he wouldn’t give up, he had to keep going and he thought about what to do.

He smiled at the different prospects now that he opened his eyes a little more, assuming his old position he started the run again, confident in what he was going to do, a very scary prospect indeed as this was his all or nothing, he’d live or die at this point, he just needed to make sure it was the first one he managed to do. He set off running at this point, achieving his maximum velocity he made his jump, at the wall the ridges were attached to, attempting to run along it for a few steps, he only managed the first step however, then out of desperation he planted both of his feet and kicked off, sailing through the air at the ridge on the other side. During his air time, he felt like time had slowed down, everything seemed to disappear as he looked around, seeing the crumbling of the edge of the ridge he jumped from.

Then it all caught up, he managed to notice that he was falling just under the ridge, his pitifully short life flashed before his eyes as he saw his grisly birth, his mother dying, all the beatings he had from his father, all of his ‘aquired’ goods, all of his telling offs, and then the more recent memories, his father shunning him, telling him to leave, then it came to this point, was it his father’s fault if he died here. No, It was his own fault, it was down to himself, and as a result he needed to redeem himself, he needed to live on. To prove his father and himself wrong, he needed to get better, to become truly great in his life, however short it may end up being. But that wasn’t doing to end right now, he wasn’t dying, he wasn’t going to fail, he wasn’t going to die, by any means.

by **Valdoran** on June 7th, 2014, 1:25 pm

He twisted his hips and it rotated the rest of his body, managing to face the ridge above, rotating his palm so he can spin on his momentum rather than dislocate his hand and planted it into the rock above, sticking down, he spun around 180 degrees and planted his other hand, panting deeply, he crawled to the top and openly laughed, he laughed for a long time, as in much longer than he expected, not thinking about his tiredness or the sun being near the horizon, he just wandered along the top of the ridge for a change for about two hours, giving up his stealth act for the rest of the evening as he walked, more sauntered atop the ridge, lost in his own thoughts, he didn’t realise where he was or what time it was, seeing as the moon was out, and he needed to rest for the next day.

Finding a small cave just big enough for one man after a short climb higher up, he rolled out his bedroll and crawled into it, out of the cold and wind. He considered his father and what he would be up to, probably turning in for bed after a hard day’s business. Due to this he got to thinking about his life and what transpired earlier today, who was his father talking about when he mentioned not turning out like someone, he knows it had an m at the start, but what he wasn’t sure who he spoke of, seeing as he couldn’t have said me, Valdoran’s father? He didn’t see it as possibility of his boring father being a criminal, not in a million years. Despite all of this, he wondered if his father sent him away for a reason other than not wanting him any more?

Everything that took place in his life was thrown into question, was it possible that his father wanted to prevent a dark spiral because he didn’t want another boring old man in Symenestra, overall he’d fallen asleep before he could conclude his argument, drifting into a deep and tired sleep before he could consider another possibility for his father’s real intentions, maybe he just left it at he loathed his son, but no matter, Valdoran was not to return to Symenestra, much to his dismay, he was never going to see his father again, the girl he’d been sweet on just a few days earlier and stole a kiss from, or any of his friends ever again.

He hoped during his sleep, while uncomfortable on the cold hard ground, still had him less concerned about himself and more about his past and what he decided upon in his relatively short life. His theft although wrong was him, and he felt that as this was part of him he needed to keep doing it, to keep going, despite himself, the crime, the potential to get caught, all of it, Valdoran was going to become truly great, and as a result, may be killed, may be worked to death or imprisoned, but he was vowing to try and become the best he could be. He wasn’t able to sleep well with all of the new thoughts and revelations running through his head. He awoke quickly and before dawn, he turned in his sleep and had a sharp stone jab him in his side.

He rose and rolled up his bedroll, taking another few mouthfuls of his bruka given to him by his father, sitting with his legs dangling from the cave mouth and dropping down onto the ledge once more, crawling back under the ridge and continuing on his journey in the cold crisp morning mountainous air, which slowly chilled him once more since he was out of his insulated warm air, into the frozen wastes that made up Kalea once more, to finish his journey, wherever he considered would be a good place to stop. He didn’t know if that was the next city, the city after, or wherever that may be. He felt like he needed to get far enough away from his father to help him cope with having a bad son.

by **Catastrophe** on June 9th, 2014, 5:35 am

e

Valdoran :

Notes :

Flashback On the Journey pt2 ...