An Unstoppable Fire

Author’s Note: This is the tenth (wow!) 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, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, and Part 10

After pulling Gesa’s rock up from the depths of the ocean, the two travelers were in no rush to pull in Farren’s rope. They worked at it for a few hours every day, but their long sunrise to sunset shifts were a thing of the past. They knew what reaching the end of the ocean voyage would mean. Neither were on a rush to split paths. The only thing that pushed them forward was their eagerness to get off the cramped boat.
In their free time, they toyed with Gesa’s rock. They made idle attempts to untie the rope from it however it was as fruitless as untying the knot on their ankle. Neither was surprised by this fact, but it was something they both felt they had to try.
After months of slow progress, the shore came into sight. The next day they pulled the boat onto the sandy beach. Farren’s boulder was nowhere in view.

Farren stood barefoot in the sand wiggling his toes. His head was so used to the pattern of the waves that he felt like he was on the sea even though he stood on dry land.
“I can’t believe I went across that thing twice!” Gesa said. “Although I’m a little less exhausted this time around.”
“You’re going to get to go across it once more to head back to the mountain,” Farren shot her a big grin, excited to see what she might find at the top.
“Yeah,” She said without reflecting his excitement. She gazed at the boat. It sat tiled to one side on the sand with balls of rope overflowing from it. “I can’t believe that thing got us across.” She patted the wooden hull covered in sap to keep water from getting in. Farren’s original slack was weaved between the trunks to hold the whole thing together.
“If I hadn’t been on the thing the whole time I wouldn’t have thought it was even seaworthy.”
“I just realized; how are we going to get your rope out of the boat? It’s virtually glued in there. Or are you just going to start dragging it behind you as well?”
“I’ve been thinking about that for a few days. If the rope is truly impossible to break then to clear the wood and sap, I think we should have a bonfire.” A devilish grin lit up his face.

---

Farren and Gesa picked up wood and twigs all afternoon to set under the boat. They unloaded Gesa’s rock and rope and counted up a total of two dozen balls. Gesa let out enough slack that she had free reign of the beach, and she spent the first hour running up and down the shore and exploring the small forest that lead up to the sand.
Farren, on the other hand, started looking for rocks to hit together to start a fire. He banged them together but didn’t know what to expect. There were no sparks, but he figured that was because there was too much light to notice them. He hoped that was the reason otherwise they might have been the wrong rocks.

“Do you have to have a special kind of rock to spark a fire?” He asked Gesa once she had worn herself out from the excitement of freedom and exploring the forest.
“I don’t know. We have enough sticks here that once it’s dark, we can find something that works. Besides, we’re not in a rush. If it doesn’t work tonight, then we can just try tomorrow.”
When night came, Farren sat next to the pile of sticks with his collection of rocks. He banged different combinations of stones together keeping a careful eye out for sparks. Some rocks chipped the others. Some were too soft and became dust in his hand after his first strike. At one point Farren began hitting various rocks on Gesa’s rock to see if it had any luck. He found no success.

---

This pattern of attempting to make fire lasted multiple nights. During the day Gesa would explore the forest or swim in the ocean. She was enthralled by the unlimited mobility of having slack and land to explore.
“Do you want to come hike in the forest today?” Gesa asked Farren one day as he perused the beach for a rock that might finally work.
He didn’t blame her for her excitement about the forest and the freedom her rope provided. However, he was focused on the task at hand and had only explored the coastline for rocks. “I’m good,” he replied looking up at her for just a second.
“Come on it will be fun,” she pleaded.
“I have to get this fire started to free my rope, and I need to find the right kind of rock to do that.”
“There are rocks in the forest, come with me it will be fun.”
“Fine,” Farren said begrudgingly, he had to admit she was right.
She lead him through the paths she had made in the forest showing him all the fascinating different leaves and trees. He slowly filled his arms with rocks that he couldn’t find on the beach.

“You know if we don’t burn the boat I can just put a sail on it to ride back to the other side of the ocean,” Gesa said as they stopped to examine some strange brown spots on a leaf.
“Oh, and let you sail into the sunset with all my rope?” Farren asked in a tone dripping with sarcasm.
“Well, you could come with me. And even if you didn’t, you’re going to have to come back this way anyway after you find your boulder. You don’t want to have to rebuild that boat again. Especially without my help,” she gave him a flirtatious smile.
“But what if I need the slack that’s in the boat?” Farren asked as he looked at the ground for new rocks. “It just doesn’t make sense. If I leave the rope here, I’d have to use slack to pick up slack as I head towards my rock. What if I run out?”
“Farren you have a few dozen balls of rope. That’s years of travel! You’re guaranteed to find your rock before that time runs out. I don’t know why you’re so eager to burn the boat to free your rope.” Her words were strained and frustrated as she said them.
“Because it’s something holding me back,” Farren said reflecting her frustration. “Either I drag the ship around, or I have to come back here. I don’t want it to get me stuck, and I definitely don’t want to get my rope stuck at a bunch of points on this whole world. What if I find a quicker way to the mountain? What if I need more slack for another boat in the future? There are a dozen things that could happen, that might happen, and I have to be prepared for them. The boat was useful for what it did. I am grateful for its service, but I need to be moving on.”
“I have to start picking up my rope again,” he continued, “and working on finding my boulder. Now that you’ve found your rock we know it can be done. We know we can find freedom by tracing our rope back to our rock. Now I just need to do it.”
In frustration, Gesa broke two branches off of a nearby tree. “If you’re so eager to get out of here then just rub two sticks together for fire you dumb ape!” She yelled jabbing the branches at him.

Before Farren could register what had happened Gesa had dropped the sticks and ran into the forest, her rope flew behind her whimsically without catching on anything.

---

Farren picked up the broken sticks followed his rope back to the beach. He sat down and began rubbing them together as Gesa suggested. After hours of work, one of the sticks turned black in the place he had been rubbing. The black spot meant there was at least heat, and that was more progress than he’d made with the rocks. I just needed something more flammable, he thought.
After piling up some dead leaves, he rubbed his sticks over those. Sure enough, he got a small plume of smoke to float up from his leaf pile. It quickly went out, but he had a proof of concept.
Gesa still wasn’t out of the woods, and he doubted she would share in his excitement. He waited through the afternoon hiding from the sun in the shade of their old boat improving his new fire making method.

---

Farren saw Gesa walk out of the woods around sunset. He could tell by her posture she was still upset. She sat down next to her rope and rock, and Farren decided to approach.
“I’m sorry for what I said,” he didn’t know what it was that had upset her exactly, but he figured apologizing never hurt anything.
“No, it’s my fault. I’ve been trying to hold you back. I’ve known since you had the idea of the bonfire that the rocks from this area wouldn’t work. I don’t know why I just knew. You were so eager though so I didn’t say anything. We seemed free here, and I figured you’d eventually quit. I have my rope and rock, and you have more slack than anyone in this world. I imagined we would sit down and maybe make a life together. Build some houses in the trees like the Swiss Family Robinsons.”
“Who?” Farren asked confused
“I’m not sure. They’re people I guess I used to be friends with. I have some vague memories of their lives. Anyway, I’m holding you back. It’s one thing if I want to stay here, but I know the only thing you want in this world is to find your rock and make it to the mountain. And of everyone I’ve met in this world, you’re likely the only one who will pull it off. All the rest of us will be stuck in this purgatory for eternity.”

“You’re not going to go back to the mountain?” Farren asked. He’d always assumed it’d be the first thing she tried to do.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said with her head bowed poking at the sand with her feet. “Right now I’m comfortable. I have all the rope and slack I need. Who’s to say getting to the top of the mountain is just completing level one. I might finish it, and the gods would give me a new challenge when I get to the top. Maybe one day I’ll go, but it’s not any time soon.”
Farren thought about how Merc said that there were people who camped on the side of the mountain so stuck that they couldn’t make any more progress up. He wondered if people did that before the ascent as well. And if Gesa would wind up being a person like that. “You’ve made it so far!” Farren pleaded. “You deserve to get to the top.”
“And I’ll go one day,” She said in an assuring tone. “One day when I’m tired of being comfortable here, in this world. But now I just want to travel and explore. This world has so much, that forest is somewhere that you can get lost in and find different plants around every corner. The wood here is completely different from the other side of the ocean. Why? Why are there no birds or animals here?”
“If you made it to the top of the mountain you might know why.”
“Maybe,” Gesa said with a shrug. The sun set on the forest behind them. “It doesn’t matter what I do next. Let’s burn the boat, and get your rope free. I trust you got the sticks to work?”
“Yeah,” Farren said a little disheartened.
With an excited smile, she said, “come on then let’s have a bonfire!”

---

Farren showed her his method for consistently starting a fire. Even with the two of them and the improved technique the start was slow. They had difficulty getting all the wood to burn at the same time. One side would start smoking so they’d switch to the other, but then the first side would blow out. Eventually, the majority of it caught, and even the ocean’s breeze couldn’t put it out.

Gesa and Farren sat in each other’s arm on a rope seat they made as the boat caught fire. It was spectacular. The sap Farren had suggested for waterproofing the ship was more flammable than the wood, and soon the entire thing was roaring with crackles, pops, and put off so much heat that the two had to move away because it was unbearable.
“If the gods weren’t watching us cross the ocean then this fire should be bright enough to get their attention,” Farren said.
Gesa smiled, “I have a feeling that they never stopped watching you.”
As they sat on the two-person rope cushion they had fashioned Farren asked, “Can I say something?”
“You just did,” Gesa said as the firelight revealed parts of her smirk.
“Merc, one of the gods, told me that people just kind of got stuck here in this world. Their rope got stuck and they stopped, or they got bored and stopped making progress. I couldn’t fathom it.”
“Now that I’ve been here a while,” he continued, “and I’ve lived with a rope on my ankle, I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it.” Farren rubbed the back of his neck as he thought of the next words he wanted to say. “I guess I don’t want the same thing to happen to you. Hell, you’re the last person on this world who has an excuse to get stuck. And I know you’re not eager to make a beeline for the mountain. And that’s fine, it’s your afterlife, and you can spend it how you want. But I would be remiss if you to quit moving after accomplishing so much.” Farren smiled, and Gesa returned it.
“No, you’re right. I was thinking about it while we were trying to get the fire to start. I was thinking about how once you light one fire, you can use it to create a second one. Then you have two fires. That doesn’t work with food or sticks or water. There are only a few things that you can duplicate without taking away from the first.”
Farren gave her a puzzled look encouraging her to continue.
“Anyway, this whole follow your rope back to the rock idea, it’s one of those things I could tell others about without taking it away from myself. And I’d be proof it worked!” Her tone and face were both excited, and the fire exaggerated the whole expression.
“That would be amazing,” Farren said as the pieces fell into place. “People just laughed at me when they saw me traveling away from the mountain picking up my rope. But if you showed them, then you’d have proof that we can be free! Man, I wish I could see that happen.”
“And honestly, I’d be doing it for you, because of you. You’re the one who gave me this idea. Without your help, I’d be on the other beach still pulling at my rope.”
“You’d figure something out eventually.”
“Maybe! Or maybe I’d be another one of those people stuck in one spot for eternity. Regardless, I’m here with my rock. What’s important is that you shared your fire with me. But it was your fire first. I’d feel bad beating you to the top of the mountain.”
“Oh don’t worry about that,” Farren said. It was something he’d never considered a problem. “Likely I’ll never be at the top with the size that my boulder is. Maybe my whole purpose was to be stuck here. Stuck so I’d have the idea and spread it to others so they could be free.”
“I don’t think so, Farren. I spent a lot of time with you on that boat. You’re not the kind of person who stays stuck for long.” The firelight was caught in her eyes and danced around her pupils.
Farren kissed her, and her lips and body warmed him more than the bonfire across the beach. It was a warmth that would stay with him as far as he traveled in this world.

The Man Lost in the Desert