It's late morning as you keep walking eastward. In the distance you can see two large rock formations, one to your right and one to your left. They look roughly cubical but they look natural as opposed to artificial. You've seen the faeries but you haven't seen any sign of human habitation. Not only haven't you seen any man-made structures but you haven't seen any sign of humans having ever been here. Usually even in dense forests, you see the trace of a footprint left by some hunter, broken plants where someone had walked through, or traces of where there had been a campire a month earlier. Here, even though this was an open field, there is no sign of humans having ever been here. Of course you know people had been here, or at least crossed the river, and you've heard stories of people who have returned. However, it was like this place was a different world, and they left no imprint here. As you near the rock formations, they are more obviously naturally occurring. You also feel that by coincidence, they happen to be of a regularity of shape that suggests something artificial. They are about 20 feet tall, 20 feet wide, and 40 feet long, with the longer direction stretched out ahead of you. They are about 100 feet apart. As you approach about 100 feet from them, you notice that they look like they are made of some white chalky substance. They look like pillars of salt left over when a salty lake dried up. As you get closer, the wind suddenly blows at you from between the rocks. You can detect some sort of sweet smell but it died away before you could remember it. Then you feel like there is a sound so far away that you can't hear but you can barely discern that fact. You're not sure if you can hear something but you feel like you can almost hear something. You stop and listen intently but you just can't hear anything other than the faintest whisper from beyond the horizon, barely at the threshold of detection.

You move onwards again. Maybe you were imagining it. You feel like you can't trust your own senses. When you need to be surest of your senses is when you are least sure. The rocks are now directly ahead of you and loom on either side. Suddenly a shiver goes up your spine. You glance uneasily back and forth between them. What are those things? You put such thoughts out of your mind. It's probably nothing. Why do this to yourself? As it happened, as you continue walking, you pass between the stones at that instant.

You feel as though you have been struck by lightning, and you fall to the ground paralyzed. The only thing you have any awareness of can not be described in words. The closest thing it could be approximated to is unimaginably incredibly beautiful music, the purest sweetest symphony, luxurious cascading harmony, enchanting hypnotic melody. It was golden sound, a silver purity that penetrated every aspect of existence. It saturates your consciousness. You feel like your body has ceased to exist. There are no thoughts in your mind other than awareness of divine rapture. In a state of genuine awe, you have no personal identity. Then this shifts. Thoughts return to you and you are aware that this was just a sample, a poor imitation of what lay in store for you. These two rocks form a gateway to another world, and what you experienced would be a poor imitation, almost an insult, to what you would experience in that world. You are suddenly aware that all you have to do to enter that world is to touch one of the stones. You have to touch one of the stones.

Reaching one of the stones becomes your purpose in life. You choose the one on the left. You can't walk, stand, or even crawl. The most you can do is drag yourself along the ground. You start furiously dragging yourself, desperately trying to get to the stone. You still hear the beautiful music, not in your ears, but directly in your head. As you hear it, it stegnthens your resolve to reach the stone, and gives you the stength to continue. He feel an overwhelming desire to reach the stone. You long for it like no one ever longed for anything. You crave it. You imagine touching it. Not being able to move faster was torture. The wait was interminable. Your sole purpose in life is to reach the stone.

Deep within your subconscious there is a pinprick of doubt. It wasn't formed in words, but if it were, it would take the form of a question. Why do you feel this urge to reach the stone? This is a legitimate question. As seconds pass, which to you feel almost infinite, the question remains in the back of your mind. There it begins to gnaw at you. Was it really you who wanted to reach the stone? Is this a conscious decision on your part? You're panting in exhaustion. Every muscle in your body is tense. You become conscious of a throbbing headache. What is the reason you want to reach the stone?

You hear the wondrous music throughout this time, and the urge to just go ahead and touch the stone is very strong. One part of you says, "Just go ahead and touch the stone. Just do it. Just go ahead and do it. Worry about it afterwards". There is an internal conflict within you. Several times you are just about to move away but at the last instant, you can't bring yourself to do it.

Do you move towards the stone or move away?

GeoCities 1

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws