Movin' On Out

10 CC’s, “Not In Love.”, has converted to the anthem of the hollow sinking sun, while the numerous, trek produced, blisters divulge themselves and progressively cover my throbbing feet. This agonising affliction synchronises with the rollercoaster of rage, accompanied by sorrow, as my intellect scrutinises over the details of the hours recently termed past. With diminutive sunshine left to bask in, I gaze rearwards to the sunset, foolishly mistaken for a sunrise, of two sunsets ago. Tonight, was the night as well… The entire motivation for this ridiculous heart piercing trip… The night of the Aurora Australis.

A veracious bewilderment that broaches the borders of imagination. The visions that bedazzled me on the arriving flight consisted of such mysteries. A timeless spectacle which possessed the generations preceding and will continue to possess the ones after. Such an array of wonder invigorates inspiration in old and young alike, encapsulating the soul’s quest for comprehending the enigmas of existence. It humbles the proud whilst elating the humble with delusions of grandeur, that man can know what rests above. The mountain, upon my sighting, became a beacon for its signal, a magnet for the extravaganza and more practically, a place to sit and marvel at the show that presented itself before me. As the moon came to dethrone where the sun once ruled and advance further in its glory, I lay neither dream ready nor world equipped, instead I pursued the non-circumstance altering practice of weeping to the words of others whose bleak experience of sentience intertwined with mine. Spotify and Googles quotes on not living become my substance of alleviation to the agonies of that heart molester, which Michael Bublé composed a deceptive piece about, herald LOVE. Ugh, this sucks! Tonight, was to be the enlightenment of my understanding of the nature of reality and instead I am bed bound in misery. No, I won’t let this mishap deter the spectacle of the night. Determined, I like Dracula rise from my coffin to skulk the unlit environment of the outside realm beyond my hotel lodgings. The destination in view, the mountain.

Disappointingly, there are no breath-taking arrays of mystical glows within the sphere of the shadowed sky. The third marathon in three days has left my lungs with incredible stamina, however, the blisters on my feet make their presence very much known. The whole atmosphere of the world tingles vibrantly as though the Heavens were alive with some fantastical hidden event they are attending. The air blows cyclically carrying within its peaceable gust an energy unlike I have ever encountered before or since. Every animate and inanimate object compelled in the direction of that Leviathan sized and natured mountain, an old tale retold afresh this precise moment of the moons reign. Life rich this evening all around however not within me. Grasping onto a sensation I cannot relate to, yet still embrace. A remarkable phenomenon swells within my animalistic spirit as I am obliged to sprint untamed through the thick reeds as the wolves on this enlivened nightfall, gazing ever so often towards that magnanimous moon to present a howl which longingly yawps for her uncoming attention. She’s loved, she’s loved and yet she will not love. After my last howl, my heart follows it in a vicious cough as I stumble from my four-legged hunt. I choke before the careless moon, looking for her eye to weep at my state, however, she does not weep instead keeps her steady glow as I suffer beneath her majesty. As my body gravitates in on itself, magnetised by the random palpitations of my stuttering heart, I howl once more, releasing the lowly humanness of mine that weighed on the liberated night. Released from the leash, I canter the open field naturally pathed in the route of the mountain.

Reaching the mountains stubbly entrance I hasten my ascent, purposed solely for the mountains conquering. On my rise to glory, a creature appears in the moons favouring luminance. My face crinkles as I snarl and bark, murder envelops my consciousness as my hind legs prepare to pounce on my prey. “Woah there buddy, easy, easy.” The creature reassures my alerted self by raising two enormous open palmed paws. “I won’t hurt you, come here little guy, you look hurt.” I hesitate as the beast shortens the distance between us, however, the tension upon my snarl loosens progressively at the outreaching of his palm. My nose inhales his scent before allowing his pillowy pat. “What are you doing out here all by yourself little dude?” The creature inquires as his form enters within my adjusting eyes view. He featured twined ice horns, frozen splintered fangs, and fur of snow with feet and palms of frosted blue. On the matter of his feet, they span the width and length of a horse while his palms brimmed out in the style of a summer umbrella. The humanness of his conversation quaked the peculiar possession I had undertook. At the remorseless shake and smear of my eyes the present situation revealed itself in a contemporary conception as I pieced together the reality unfolding before me. There’s a gigantic beast patting and conversing with me! Despite the absurd scenarios that had lately arisen, I gasped terrified in this occurrence. A fire, wizard, ghost, and of course the stars! All of which I managed to endure and survive, so it was most bizarre that this should freeze my thoughts. Presumably, he comprehended my confuddled condition for he repeated his dialogue delicately and laggardly, “Hey buddy, are you all good?” My heart racely replied no but my mind remained void of a response for a few moments till it developed this, “I… I don’t know. What does it mean to be all good?” I sighed. “Hmm, I hear you man, do you want to just sit for a minute?” He pats the mountain side sending shock waves that hurdle the lose pebbles down to their doom. My bottom thumps unmoldingly to its new habitat. “What seems to be the problem?” He begins, with his eyes more fatherlike than I have known, his beard blows willingly with the winds tender tug, and his presence resides completely in the moment, doubly on me.

“I… well there is, huh, there was… this girl.” My words flow staggedly with the wind docked to a moment no longer claspable. “Woah, woah, woah. Say no more man, if there’s one thing I know, which I am almost certain is nothing, is this, woman troubles. Woman, pheesh, a different breed. Just…” He paused and with this pause came the halting of my person’s thoughts, past and future, as I dare not travel in either direction until, I had been equipped with his insight. “Don’t get hung up on what you thought it was. You gotta look at it as it really happened. You know, like were you really that into her, and who was she? Did you see what your mind led you to see or was it all real? If you knew her then maybe you have reason to sigh, but if not, you were…” His hesitation again forced me to bark, “Were... were what? What were we?” His inhalation vacuumed up my hair before releasing its captor again as he exhaled, “I don’t know man, the truth isn’t always what we want to hear…” My soul’s windows pleaded with his, “But it’s what we need to hear.” I reminded. “True, true, maybe you were just in love with love. And that’s like totally radical man but not totally righteous, it’s not totally real.” His truth proved true in the analysis of my heart, this time my exhale impacted the stillness of the night. “On the plus side mini man, it does mean that any girl will suffice. As long as you pursue wholeheartedly a love that’s pure. Honestly don’t know what that looks like, so my advice is wait until you do or the one you know becomes the one you love.” He stroked my frizzled hair back to its former appearance, as we both gazed out into the oblivion. Somehow what I witnessed and the reality he envisioned were on two entirely opposite spectrums, for the intense enveloped glare he bestowed the partnerless night spoke of an ethereal intimacy that captured the depth of the words he had uttered. He bore the knowledge of the cryptic enchantments of quiddity that eluded the ceaseless seizes of humanity. The eyes, expanding in awe of nature, unlatch for a moment of liberty from the constraints of his finite mortality to unite with the limitless embraces of the heart theft night. Though brief in their heartbeat of unification, the moment proves nothing short of profound as his person returns from his voyage. “Hey wanna see something really cool?” He shatters his fraction of utopia to adventure the unexplored hours of the darkness with me. “Of course!” I reveal too luridly my eagerness, however, his smile sits pleased across his face at the intensity of my response.

We completed the climb of the mountain which felt like a breeze especially when completed atop a giant’s shoulders. He profusely instructed that my eyes remained covered for the remaining part of the summit till he determined the time in which they should be opened. With my lids partnered, the thumps of his movements intensified as my body jolted synonymously with his trunks planting and uprooting. The blare as well matched the crunches of light munching trees in a stormy feast before disappearing in search of another object to consume. “Ok, we’re here.” I divorced my lids as my lotus’ submerged from their muddy lakes to welcome the scene that unfolded itself in my presence. A lake, concealed behind the mountains self, reflected the dazzling illumination of slithering threads in shades of orange, green, purple, and blue, although I am certain the… my friend that stood beside me detected a sequence beyond a humans comprehension. We both stared motionless and lost for an amount of time I neither knew nor cared to know, together entranced with the encounter of the transcendental complexion of the archaic wonders being displayed once more. “What are they?” I eventually came to the forgotten ability of formulating meaningless fragments of untamed sound into a comprehensible sentence. “Those, my friend, are the reuniting of thousands upon thousands of roaming souls. Unremembered by those of recent birth, these wandering spirits voyage from many realms to bond in an ancient dance of harmonising the thousands into one single entity. Into one concurrent energy of connection. A connection so deep it goes beyond old and young, rich, and poor, time and nature. The effect of such a bond, well you can see it. It’s… it’s… it’s well beyond my vocabulary.” He leave his paws gesticulating towards the spectacle as I finish his meaning, “It’s that word we hate to hear but die to know.” I mutter. ‘What was that?” His gaze falls upon me. “Oh, I… it’s soul parting. A realisation that you are both nothing and apart of everything at once. The intricacies of the universe paired with its enormity creating a bewildering effect on the psyche that we cannot withstand.” I respond as his head rises and falls, “Totally, righteous, man.”

We stayed intertwined with the display for hours before parting ways. He disclosed tales of endeavours too marvellous to repeat in one sitting as my ears drunk deeply of every imagination invoking word he parted with. Fortunately, he eased the dilemma that presented itself before me at one in the morning by giving me his shoulders for a seat in the journey back down the mountain and further to the hotel. Despite his generous nature, I was never gifted with his name, but I concluded a name would serve only as a limit to the perception of him with those previously encountered twinned in name, so perhaps it were best I had not been privy to it. It eludes my recollection of the trek to the lodge, which means between the descent of the mountain and my arrival to the bed I must have fallen prey to the lutes of the vision invoking fairies. There is no sorrow portraited moment of a goodbye merely the throbs of an anxious heart desperate for a previous friend discovered on a former nights mountain. Though maybe there is wisdom in the permission of time to pass, after all-in-one short holiday I had embraced two peculiar friends, one a ghost and one… well perhaps, one more human than us all.