Floating Above a New World

Farren waited in line as he observed the world around him. He was on a sandy beach, waves were rolling in on his left, and there was a tall mountain poking out of the horizon to his right. Aside from the people ahead of him and behind him there was no one in sight.

The only things moving were the waves and the line. Farren asked the people ahead of him in line what was going on.

They responded with vague gestures and seemed as clueless as Farren. The entire scene had a dream like sense to it, although he had a very confident feeling he was in reality.

He slowly took a step forward every few seconds, and after what felt like an hour, he could see the front of the line. At it, a man wearing white sandals a bright Hawaiian shirt with well-groomed white hair, and a cleft chin kept popping in and out of existence. Every time he would take the first person in line away with him as he disappeared.

Farren pinched his wrist to see if he was dreaming. It stung, but that was the only evidence that what he was experiencing was reality. Slowly he made it to the front of the line. Someone had painted a small red X in the sand with a note that said: “Stand Here.” Farren was amazed that it hadn’t been worn away by the number of people who passed over it.

As he stood on the X, he wondered how long he had been in line. He knew it was a while but didn’t have an exact figure. All in all, he was glad it was over.

The Hawaiian shirt man appeared smiled, stuck out his hand for a shake, and said “Hello Farren, glad you’re here.”

As Farren reached out his hand and began to ask who the man was. Suddenly when he touched the man’s hand, the ground dropped out underneath Farren’s feet.

“I’m Merc,” the man said as they floated miles above the ground.

The earth below them was green and lush with trees and bushes. Farren noticed a distinct lack of animal sounds. No birds sang, and no mammals were rustling or growling.

“Where am I?” Farren asked. He was flying, but he didn’t feel like it was under his control. The two men were merely floating like clouds above a landscape.

“We call this place Olympus. But depending on who you ask down there you’ll get another name or two.”

Farren then had a strange realization, “I’m new here,” he said out loud.

“Yes, you are. That’s why we’re talking,” the man lifted the corners of his mouth in a slight and childish smile. “This is the place mortals come when they’ve expended all their energy in their original plane.”

“I died? How?”

Merc laughed, “That’s above my pay grade. I simply supply you with The Challenge. When you complete that all of your questions can be answered.”

“The challenge?”

“See, it’s a lot of effort to keep mortals busy,” Merc said in the tone of a patient teacher. “We originally attempted to let you live forever in your original plane however that caused a lot of problems. You mortals weren’t quite wise enough to keep away from self-destruction. Without full on immortality, you wound up using all your energy regardless of your decay rate.” Merc loked across the sky at Farren to see if he was following.

Farren betrayed no understanding, despite this, the man continued.

“We tried keeping your pent-up energy in a fiery pit for a while, but we had concerns about the long-term stability of that. Jess thought we should keep the mortals behind a pearly gate, but Wod and Sues thought that was too good for you. Wod came up with the idea of The Challenge but Sues claimed he had the idea beforehand, so they settled on calling this place Olympus as consolation. Rumor has it that Wod conceded so he could get back to a party he was hosing on Halla.”

Farren shook his head in confusion, “the hell is going on?”

“Sorry, I got sidetracked, time management goes straight out the window when you’re an immortal.” and Merc let out a small laugh. Farren wasn’t in on the joke.

“I was explaining The Challenge,” he continued. “If you look below you’ll see that there are mortals.” His hand gestured at the ground under them.

Farren looked down and saw movement in the trees of the forest. Small fleshy creatures, the only sign of life on the whole planet, seemed to be struggling through the woods. Some were moving while others were stuck in place.

“The point of Olympus is to get to the top of that mountain.” Merc gestured at the massive peak that poked up on the horizon. “If you get to the top of that we will deem you wise enough for immortality and give you godhood status.” A single corner of his mouth twisted up, “it has yet to happen but eternity is a long time. I’m sure that one of you will eventually figure it out.”

“What’s so hard about getting to the top of that mountain? Is the air too thin to breathe?”

“No, you can breathe everywhere here. All in all, I think they set it up so you can’t die here. Otherwise, we’d have to have a contingency plan,” Merc droned on and then caught himself. “The real challenge is that we tie you to a boulder.”

Farren looked up from the landscape and saw that Merc was holding a massive coil of rope. He wanted to float away from the man, but he had no control over his flight path.

“There’s some calculation,” Merc continued, “It’s above my pay grade, but we tie you to a rock and set you on Olympus. Then you try to make your way to the top of the mountain. You simply have to drag the rock along with you. You get to pick the size. However the smaller the rock, the more slack we give you. At least I think that’s how the equation works,” He scratched his cleft chin in confusion.

“Regardless,” he continued, “this is the part where I ask you what size boulder you would like.” He looked across the air at Farren expectantly.

Farren looked down and observed the mortals and contemplated his inevitable fate. He could now make out that many of them were struggling with a rope. It was either stuck or they were pulling it along.

“I can pick any size I want?” Farren asked for clarification.

“Any size,” Merc confirmed as he brushed something off his bright Hawaiin shirt.

“Has anyone reached the mountain yet?” Farren asked.

“A few, but no one has reached the top. The ones that are climbing it are slow going. But I’m sure they’ll reach it eventually.” He looked at the mountain wistfully. He added, “Then again, maybe not. Rocks tend to get stuck at the base of the mountain more often than anywhere else.”

“The rocks just get stuck?” Farren asked.

“Yeah, there’s like a lot of trees and bushes down there. And the line is pretty long occasionally it gets knotted around something and it’s too far away to untie. Mortals get so stuck sometimes that they give up and make a home on the side of the mountain.” Merc shook his head in disappointment then looked back at Farren. “So, what size do you want?”

A million ideas flew through Farren’s mind. He was aghast that someone would give up so easily, but he couldn’t imagine an eternity trying to make it up the side of a mountain. “Is this whole thing pointless?” He asked looking at the white-haired man.

He smiled a full grin this time, “Some mortals think so. But Sues and Wod both assured all of us that it was solvable. Someone even had Sid come in and look it over. That guy is the most compassionate towards you mortals, and he confirmed it was solvable although he never thought anyone would come up with the solution.”

Farren looked at the mountain in the horizon as the world floated under him. The world seemed endless in each direction. If it was a sphere, then there was no way to tell from their altitude. The curvature of the globe was unnoticeable.

“I have all the time in the world,” Merc prodded after a few minutes of letting Farren think it over, “but I’d like to get on to the next mortal eventually.”

Farren scratched his scalp and then looked at Merc sitting across from him in the air. “Tie me to the biggest rock here.”

“That’s a good start,” Merc said behind he genuine and toothy grin.

Author’s Note: This is the first part of a series about Farren’s journey through a limbo world where everyone is trying to reach the peak of a mountain but have a rope tied to their ankle. Read the next part here: Knots, Branches, and slack.