Random muses and prompts

Beyond the Walls (part 2 of the unfinished story)

It's not that common. I've never heard of that.

We continue signing to one another. She tells me about her parents' incessant warnings, that the air was polluted and took years to live with. The ground burned your skin to the touch, and crystals poisoned your flesh and ate away at it. Although I had the sense of fear which reasonably affects a soul when hearing such things, I was a child, one who believed that there was sometimes good in Greater Baratrum, albeit small.

My aunt's house was known as the city hall, and it was considered the greatest home. It was also anything but grandeur. It looked like every other building made of stone bricks, as if a light wind could throw it over. The only difference was that it was two floors, possibly even more unstable.

The stone was aged and cracked from the heat of Baratrum, the sticky, red vatomour sap used to glue stones together faded into a dull brown. It was not a wide building, and I could walk from on end to another in a dozen steps. However, it climbed high, to the top of the city roof, where it spiraled outward like a magma flow.

The roof was speckled with flags and lavalights, which gave our brown, gray, and red world a bright spot of color. Although we only had red and yellow banners. I waited by the door for a moment, hesitant to go in. Perhaps the stories the servant told me gave me pause, or maybe I was genuinely scared.

She opened the door and shut it when I did not enter. I heard my aunt's heavy footsteps, and then heard her speak. I stumbled from the door. Most Baratrites have heard a voice, but it was not common. My aunt opened the door and stared at me.

Do you still wish to go outside?

I nodded and looked at the city gateway. I marveled at it many times in my life, but I never went close to it. I felt excited, or maybe nervous. They both felt the same, the flutter in my stomach and the pins in my limbs, and I chose that I wasn't nervous, I was excited.

My aunt guided me to the exit. I signed various questions, my pronunciation slurred and too fast to be understood, so I repeated them three or four times before she responded by signing much calmer.

Where are my parents?

They wanted us to go together. I know Greater Baratrum better than them.

Have they ever seen Greater Baratrum?

Your mother has.

Will my hair burn off?

If you stick your hair in fire, it will burn.

But will it burst into flames?

If you put it in fire, it will.

Finally the bumpy basalt pathway gave way to a new path. This path was rarely tread and lighter in color, and was made of ground down pumice. I could feel its edges jabbing into my shoes, as though it was a warning to avoid what was in front of me: the city's gates.

My aunt carefully began to push the door, which took quite some time to move a little. When it finally gave and a gap formed, the most violent rush of boiling hot air hit me in the face. I clasped my hands over my face, a giggle erupting from me. It did not hurt, but it was new and surprising to feel such heat.

My aunt continued to push. I dashed to her side and pushed as hard as my little body would allow, giddy to explore the area around our city. Finally, the stone groaned and shifted away from us, creating a gap that I could shimmy through. I darted by, avoiding my aunt's outreached hand. As I ran into the open world, I laughed, feeling freedom and joy pulse in me like the heat ran by my skin.

That moment of folly was truly magical. When my feet stopped running and my hands stopped grasping at the empty air, I looked around. The ground was rocky and cracked, and in some places I could see a river of lava below. The horizon was shrouded in an orange haze, and long falls of magma dripped down, decorating the empty scene. In some areas, a mountain of brownish rock stood, giving way to a mainland of rock, brown and gray in color and lifeless in nature.

It was much brighter beyond the city walls, but that made the disappointment sting harder. There was nothing that was alive except for us. I hoped there would be something new, like naturally grown vatomours, a sweet fruit which is the entire Baratrite diet. That hope was stamped away as the emptiness of our world began to fall upon me.

The heat was more intense, and it tried to burn my skin, but my skin was already burned by the prison which we lived in. Not only did we live in a lifeless world, but Baratrum's walls were gray and uninviting. We lived on a rocky island, which rose high above the lava ocean. Our only bond was to the mainland, which was too far to jump to, nor to simply cross. There would have to be some bridge system, but I didn't see any bridge to cross.

We were trapped.

My aunt placed a hand on my shoulder. It is lifeless. She signed with only one hand, which made it hard to understand, but I didn't need to be told what our world was made of. Magma and emptiness.

Is it beautiful?

I consider this. The hopelessness, the heat, the polluted air which made my lungs ache, all was not beautiful. The light created by the magma and fires was beautiful, and so was the long shadows that it cast on the ground. The fog, accented by lava flows, was beautiful.

I shook my aunt's hand off me, sliding away from her and climbing onto a large boulder. My spirit shook, my hands grasped for stable ground. This boulder, which I believed was nowhere near the cliff, was actually a promontory, and the fall would be long and right onto a magma death.

Is this beautiful? The fear of death? The emptiness?

I feel my emotions cave into themselves, as if I could become a tiny speck if I caved in enough. I glance at my aunt, my shoulders sagging. She raises her hands to sign at me, then lowers them. Finally, she raises them again.

You do not like it?

It's not what I imagined.

So if something does not meet your expectations, then you dislike it?

That's not what I said.

But it is what you meant.

I didn't respond to her, and began to gesture around me, unable to form words on my hands, unable to explain why this isn't lovely to the eye. Finally, upon seeing her unconvinced, I hung my head and gave up.

She signaled that she wished to speak to me. I looked up, and she offered me a solution. Knowing the world is lifeless, ignoring your disappointment, is it not beautiful?

I shook my head, and her expression became quizzical. Do you hate it outside?

Again I shake my head, but wonder why. It's not calming, it's not comfortable, it's not welcoming, but it is new, and I was far too curious to hate something so new. The sky, the rocky ceiling, the outer walls of a city I only saw the inside of.

Would you like to come back out?

Yes. I think I would.

She held out a calloused and long hand to me, and tenderly pulled me from the boulder, the cliff's edge. Silently, I stared at it as we wandered back to the city. The Edge, I sign to the boulder.

When I looked back at the tall, cracked walls of Baratrum, my heart rose. The dingy atmosphere was a sharp contrast to the bright and burning outside, and I welcomed the familiarity. However, the further inside the city I got, the more my mind spun.

I longed to go back out. I had a taste of freedom, and I wanted to taste it again. When my aunt took me home, she hugged me close, and then slid a key into my hand, so that my parents would not see it.

There is an exit in my house to the outside. This is the key to it. All you need to do is ask, and I will allow you out there.

I smiled, squeezing her shoulders tighter. I let her go and signed, How do I get a job?

Her smile was smaller than mine, but I got the sense she was proud.

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