Clarity

I was climbing through the snow, reminiscent of the fall. I had felt nothing like that ever in my life. It was as if I was falling into something very deep, and I had no control over my body, I twisted and turned…. then the feeling went away and I looked up.

I saw all my fellow explorers way ahead of me, each of them making very good progress. A red light had spread over the mountains.

I tried to optimistic, thinking of the world, but that world seemed to be far away. There was no sign of human life, all snow and mountains.

After sometime Loghi stopped, ‘Do you see that mountain?’ she was pointing at the massive of the lot, ‘He is the one who took us down! I will never ever get into a hot air balloon again’

None of us would.

‘There is magic in this place!’ said Surya; he was a young writer, he was climbing immediately before Loghi, ‘they were saying, the people below. There is some sort of mountainous tribe here, and they are magical. They are the one who protects the ice sheets falling and who melts the glaciers enough to provide water’

‘The gods?’ I smiled.

Loghi took a deep breath, as if she had enough of the storyteller already. I saw him, I saw her. A very uncanny carelessness had swept over us; we were not worried about surviving. The fall had brought us into a very different psychological condition; we were not yet hungry or thirsty and the cold seemed to have no effect on us.

We decided to halt, with our eyes seeing nothing but the shadows created by obliquity of the celestial body above and itself. We were to take rest and I slipped into some intense form of sleep.

______________________

A few hours later we woke up to daylight and to find that Loghi couldn’t continue. Her wound had made her very weak, she was in agonizing pain. Philip and Surya were seeking a resolution on what shall be done, the vast stretch of mountains lay ahead of us and we had very little equipment for a spatial analysis.

‘Lie down!’ said Surya when he saw Loghi struggling to get up.

She was really weak, she nodded and lay down.

I sat beside her as she said, ‘Don’t leave me here to die!’

I removed my scarf and covered the injured part, the flesh wound was deep and it stretched from her knee to upper thigh, it reminded me of the fall. Once again that feeling came back to me, I was terrified and felt like I was falling and I had no control over my body….

At last they decided, Philip was to continue with seven of us, while Surya stayed with Loghi until we reach somewhere and send them help. I heard this patiently and suggested that Surya would need help in taking care of Loghi, I volunteered to stay behind.

Soon the company of six was off and I, Surya and Loghi were left on those mountains, alone.

The sun was high. Loghi was now guilty, she was thirsty and hungry and she felt we had to stay behind because of her. I consoled her; I said she would have done the same for us. Surya was silent; he sat in a modest thoughtfulness and very rarely said anything.

‘It all feels like a wonderfully performed loop. I’ve been here, as close as this to death before’ Loghi was saying.

I was oblivious to the hunger and thirst, but I felt like I’d go and explore, I said so to Loghi.

I stood up and led myself east. I looked at the sun and made sure where I was headed to. Surya joined me, but I said that I should be going alone.

‘She can’t be left alone’ I said. He agreed.