Hanging half fetal and half crucified, Sadak stretched his weary arms across the rare flat overhang of red granite. Left leg dangling above the black abyss, right knee pressing against the ledge, swollen fingers gripping the cracked slab, he hauled himself out of the shadows into a fleeting pool of sunlight that warmed the quivering muscles of his bare torso and legs. His red sweat-drenched shorts clung to his buttocks and puddled like fresh blood. Sadak lay face down panting. The thunder of the raging white falls on either side of him drown out his thoughts. After a brief rest, he staggered into a head-high wall of unyielding rock glowing in the sunset.

Once again he struggled up, over, and nearly fell into the swift current. His shoulders slumped and chin dropped onto his chest when he saw the river yawning below his bare and bruised feet. He stared across the rushing water and shook his head to clear his vision or in disbelief. "Is that really a cave?" he thought, almost laughing from fatigue. "Or more illusions."

He studied its mouth and what appeared to be light glowing from its depths. He sighed and collapsed. His gaze wandered above the cave, first to the right and then left. Strewn above the cave like giant molars waiting to crush him, jagged boulders titled at crazy angles. In the gap between the second and third boulders, he saw the thread-thin silver-white river zig-zagging off into an unimaginable distance into yet another lake. Sadak's line of vision was pulled up sharply to the left by the brilliance of the sun spilling below the mountain's peak, bathing the crags and peaks like poisoned wine. Even dreams of flight could not transport him beyond that vastness scraping infinity with its sharpened spine.

He forgot the purpose of his quest. He knew he must reach the summit. All he remembered was the last step, the last handhold he had won moments before. He prayed that the purpose was locked somewhere in his exhausted muscles, and he began the climb again, counting aloud, "One. One. One. One..."