Knots, Branches, and Slack

Author’s Note: This is the Second 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. Catch up by reading Part 1.

Farren woke up to find himself laying on the hard ground. His arm had fallen asleep, and it was buzzing with pinpricks as the feeling came back to it. As he sat up, he noticed that a thickly forested area surrounded him. In front of him was a clear path. It steeply climbed straight up the mountain. A few thick ropes lay on the path while others cut across it. He was still wearing the thin white linen pants and shirt that he wore while waiting in line at the beach.

The conversation he had with Merc as they floated above Olympus came back to him. Among other things the man had said if he climbed to the top of the mountain his questions would be answered. As he picked himself up off the ground, he determined that this was the base of the peak he was supposed to climb.

Farren took a step forward to start his ascent. Suddenly there was a yank on his leg, and his feet were pulled out from under him. Farren fell forward hitting his head on the ground.

His ears rang, and he had a pounding headache from the fall. As soon as he was able to think straight, he looked at his foot. There was a thick rope tied around it. He picked at it to untie it, but the knot was pulled tighter than he could undo. He searched for a thin rock or stick to help him get leverage on it.

The only direction he could go was back into the forest. His legs collected scrapes and bruises from wading through thickets and brambles. After following his rope back a few yards, he found a clearing full of downed branches, leaves, and small loose rocks. He found a branch that looked like the right size to fit into the knot to leverage it.

It slid into the knot, and he started to maneuver it to get the leverage he needed to loosen the knot. After finding an angle that would move the knot but not break his ankle he pushed and pulled at the branch. He wiggled around on the rocky ground trying to get his foot and arms in the right position. He eventually found a place on a log where he felt like his orientation was stable enough to get some good leverage. Farren started pushing the branch with all his might. Eventually, he put enough force onto the stick that it snapped, and he fell off the log and onto his face again.

The rocks scuffed his cheek and his mouth filled with dirt. After brushing himself off, he examined his ankle to see how much progress he made with the knot. Unfortunately, it was as tight as it had been when he started. He began searching for a rock that would suit his purpose and not break.

Farren tried a dozen rocks that didn’t fit before finding one that slid into the small gap in the knot. He wiggled and twisted to get the rock back into the spot where the branch was. Farren leveraged himself into a precarious position against a tree. Leaning on the tree, he was able to get the leverage he needed he pushed on it with all his remaining energy. There was immense pressure on his ankle, and it felt like he was about to break it. Ignoring the pain, Farren kept pushing thinking that surely the knot would give before his ankle. He refused to quit and continued to try to untie the knot for what felt like a few minutes.

“Please, stop! It’s hurting me to watch you.” A voice came out of nowhere.

Farren lost his focus and released the leverage between the rock and the knot. Unfortunately, it was the same pressure that held him upright against the tree. He came tumbling down the ground landing on his shoulder with a burst of pain and the beginnings of a large bruise.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” the voice said again.

Farren lifted himself off the ground using his good shoulder and looked around. Across the clearing was a young woman sitting on the log he had fallen off of a half hour ago. She had long brown hair that was pulled back into a ponytail and held in place with a long root or vine. She wore the same white shirt and pants that Farren had on although hers were covered in marginally less dirt than his.

“How long have you been watching?” Farren asked wondering how ashamed he should feel by his seemingly goofy movements in an attempt to get the right leverage.

“I heard you fall and I was in the neighborhood with some slack, so I came to see what it was about. You were so focused trying out rocks you didn’t notice me and I wanted to see how far you would get. Then it looked like you were going to break your ankle, so I felt like I should stop you.”

“Thanks, I guess,” Farren responded looking down to examine the progress he had made on the knot. The rock was shoved tightly into the knot’s small gap, but its hold around his ankle was just as tight.

“You can’t get it off,” she said as she walked up to him. “Everyone tries at first, but no one has any luck. Allegedly some people have set up shop near the western base of the mountain and are trying to make tools to cut it. I don’t know how far they’ve gotten considering they don’t give us a lot to work with down here.”

Farren looked over to her ankle and found a matching knot without a rock wedged into it. He looked up at her disappointed, “I guess I should have known that. I’m glad you stopped me before I hurt myself I wouldn’t make it far up the mountain with a broken ankle. I’m Farren,” he said as he stuck out a hand to introduce himself.

She shook his hand firmly saying, “Nice to meet you. I’m Sarah.” Then she unceremoniously plopped down onto the ground sitting cross-legged. “So, how big of a rock did you pick?”

Farren gently took a seat across from her in the clearing. His ankle was still sore from trying to break the knot so instead of sitting cross-legged he stretched his leg out. Farren rubbed the back of his left hand with his right as he tried to remember. “I think I told him to give me the biggest rock they had.”

“The biggest rock they have?” Sarah echoed. “You’ve got to be joking. They did explain that you’re supposed to get to the top of that mountain right?”

“Yeah, I’m not sure why I did it. I guess I like a challenge.”

“Well I told them I wanted a rock the size of my hand,” She held her bunched up fist between them turning it to inspect it. “I think that’s a reasonable size. Although in return they started me so far away from the mountain that I couldn’t see it on the horizon.” She stared up at the mountain that poked out from behind the trees. “But now I’m here.”

“I guess I’m lucky that I got put right at the base,” Farren responded.

“Maybe. But if you can’t move your rock, then you’re going to have a hard time getting anywhere.”

Farren switched which hand he was rubbing and continued to try to think of a solution. “Do you think that I could untie the rope from the rock?” He finally asked.

“Doubt it,” Sarah answered quickly. “But people don’t see their rocks. At least not me or anyone I’ve met. It’s taken me years to get this far, and I’ve met a lot of people. But I’ve seen plenty of other people’s rocks.”

“Have you tried to untie any?”

“Hell no. If I have to drag my rock around then, they have to drag theirs. Although I have unstuck some. There’s nothing more frustrating than having your rock caught somewhere that you can’t unstick it.”

“Is that normal around here or are you just extremely generous in helping others.” He asked as he prodded at the shoulder he bruised after she surprised him.

Sarah shrugged, “it’s normal I guess. I’ve had my rock stuck hard before and spent days tugging at it. Eventually, I go to sleep and wake up with it free. Then I gratefully move on. The only explanation is that someone else fixed it for me. So, I try to pay it forward. Plus there’s no better feeling than an unstuck rock.”

“Why don’t you just follow your rope to your rock and pick it up to carry it with you?”

Sarah let out a laugh from the bottom of her stomach. “Oh man you’re so new here you don’t even know. Yeah, these ropes,” She said as she picked up hers, “they’re ludicrously long.”

“But we have eternity right?”

“Yeah I guess,” She said with a shrug. “But let me tell you, I’ve followed ropes for months and never seen one end or the other. When I didn’t know where the mountain was, I merely followed ropes to get closer. They’re so long that even if you followed them, you would knot up the slack you would have to carry with you. It’s infeasible.”

Farren’s back started to hurt more than his ankle, so he switched how he was sitting. “I don’t think I have any choice. I’m going to have to find my rock and push it. I’m going to break my back trying to pull it.”

“Not a bad idea, you could put logs under it and move it like the Vikings moved their ships.”

“The who?” Farren responded confused.

“Uh, Vikings, they’re,” she paused to think. “Well I don’t know why I remember them, but I remember they moved ships with logs and constantly had to move the last log to the first. It’s been years, and my memory still hasn’t come back to me,” she complained. “Some people claim they know their whole past since they’ve been here so long. But I don’t believe them. More likely that they made up a story to help themselves sleep at night.”

“I don’t remember anything before talking with Merc.”

“Yeah, that’s normal. Nuggets will come back to you like these Vikings and me.” She then stood up and picked up the little slack on the rope that she had. “I’m glad I got to meet you, Farren. But I have to go. I want to see the first incline of the mountain before nightfall.”

“Thanks for the tip about the Vikings. You think it will take me long to track down my boulder?”

Sarah shrugged, “Bigger rocks typically have shorter ropes. However, I didn’t see it on my approach, so you’re at least a few hours away from it. Good luck finding it. You might be the first person around here to find your rock. You’re definitely the first person dumb enough to pick a rock you can’t drag,” she teased.

“Thanks for the help. I guess I’ll see you around,” Farren responded with a smile then stretched out his hand.

Sarah took it and shook it. “I sure hope not. This place is big, and I plan to be out of here soon.” She said with a gesture up to the peak of the mountain. Then she started letting out the little slack she had to get closer to the incline.

Farren began picking up the little slack he had scattered around the clearing before setting off to find his boulder. Heeding Sarah’s warning about slack becoming a problem he made sure to wrap it in a way that it would be easy to carry and collect more. In the end, he had a small ball of rope the size of his head.

Farren looked over his shoulder to see where Sarah’s rope was going. She had left the clearing, but her cord still cut across it. It was moving and jerking, and it appeared that her rock was stuck on something. “Good luck,” he called out at the top of his lungs. But if she heard him she didn’t respond.

Farren left the clearing with his ball of rope under his arm hopeful that he might find his boulder before nightfall and start to get to work heading to the peak of the mountain.

Author’s Note: This is the second 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.