For
those who have fallen
And
those who were felled
For
those who were bound
And
those that rebelled
For
those above taint
And
those with sin
For
the evil without
And
the evil within
We have stood strong for you.
Lorie sighed and leaned back, drawing her sleeve across her forehead, clearing away the sweat from her eyes. Eyes of sapphire ice gazed upon the living flesh of the mountain, and the words she had carved into it stood vividly like the scars that marred her own tawny brown skin. Her skin was marked with the experience of the outside world, with the reality of it, where it had once been smooth and soft and, most of all, clean. From head to toe, the girl seemed to be coated in a second layer of dirt and grime, but it was a coat she had become quite accustomed with, had become comfortable in; one might even go so far as to say she had come to cherish it. It was a coat hard earned…and hard won. Still, a ghost of a smile did linger upon her dark rosy lips, a vision that predicted all was not lost; there was still life beating within her calloused heart that could still grin, and laugh, and do handstands. Her dusky brown hair was tied back by a loose and distracted band, the wispy locks grazing her waist. It would be hard imagining by just a look at her – this girl-child of barely seventeen summers – difficult even to conceive that Lorie had been dragged through the fiery depths of the underworld and back.
Literally.
Her arm shook against the crest of her chest, her muscles protesting the long and thankless task. The girl let her arm fall to her side and her fingers opened, the shard of stone she had been carving with tumbling into the grass below. Followed then her entire body, her rump cushioning the fall as Lorie then fell back further, and her sharp blue eyes stared up into the softer shades of sky. For a moment it was enough to be allowed to lie in silence, her body sore and aching from the task she felt compelled to complete. It was enough to listen to the quiet sounds of the mountains around her, to hear the earth's heart beat beneath her very fingertips. It was enough to know that her life's chore was over and done with forever.
"So…"
Her voice was rough against the gentle palette of the crisp, spring morning, yet inherently sweet, in its own rustic quality.
"What do I do now?"
The question floated above her head like a wisp of a cloud. Posed to the mountain, and the mountain had no answer. Asked of the sky, and the sky had no answer. Lorie drew it back within herself, and searched her heart for the answer.
Life is a battle, someone had told her once. But what did she do, now that the battle had been won? What had she been fighting for, what had she fought for so incessantly that it was finally granted to her in the end? But no! It was not the end! She had won life's battle with sweat, and blood, and tears, but not yet so with her life, and she had a long life ahead of her, if Lorie had anything to say about it. But the girl lay there, nestled in earth's bosom, staring up into the endless blue, and knew not what that long life would hold. Did it frighten her, not knowing? A bit. But the girl asked herself, how long had she lived with the knowledge of the unknown? Would it be impossible to not know a bit longer?
A sigh was drawn from her lips.
In her memory, there were so many others who would have longed to be in her position. Lost, unknowing, exhausted, dirty, alone… alive. Lorie's fingers wrapped around her stone shard and lifted it up, its point towards the sky. Squinting one eye, her vision ran along its edge and leapt off from its tip, up to the blue sky that lay above (before?) her…but even Lorie could not pierce that veil that stood between this world and the next. Well…now she could not. There was a time when that veil had been incredibly thin, as fine as parchment and just as stable. Behind those sapphire blue eyes, there lay the thought: For those that lived beyond the veil…did they regret building the wall that would eventually keep them from the world that they had loved and fought for so fiercely? Did they regret giving their lives for a world they would never see?
The girl's eyes strayed back to the mountain's wall, to the words she had cut into it…how long would it stand? How long 'til the merciless wind withered the living mountain, and her words were erased? How long until they were forgotten, and all they stood for lost?
Perhaps that's why she was left to live…perhaps it was up to her to tell their story.