Knot Techniques

Author’s Note: This is a continuation of 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. Start here or with Part 1.

“Are you sure that you followed the right rope?” Farren asked as they rested from their long morning of travel.
Thessius, the man who was claiming that Farren’s rope was attached to the mountain, nodded his head in confirmation. “I am absolutely sure. It’s not like there’s that many out here to follow.” He was wrapping the mess of slack that he had collected that day per Farren’s instruction.
“Hold on, you don’t wrap it like that,” Farren waved his hand at the young man’s mess of rope. “If you wrap it like that then you won’t be able to get the rope out when you need it. It will stay tight in a ball.”
“Isn’t that the idea?”
“No, the point is that it’s easy to move when it needs to move but gives you slack when you need slack.” Farren tied the type of knot he wanted the young man to do.
“That’s what I did,” he complained.
“No, it’s not.” Farren untied the knot moving his hands so fast that it looked like magic. “This is what you did,” Farren said as he tied a similar but different knot.
“That’s the same thing.”
“Nope,” Farren said offering the loose end to his new companion. “Pull.”
Thessius pulled on the rope, and nothing happened. “It doesn’t do anything.”
“Exactly, it will pull fine, but it won’t let slack out when you need it. Farren untied and retied the ideal knot. “Pull now.”
Thessius pulled on the rope, and nothing happened again. “It’s the same knot,” he complained.
“Pull harder.”
Thessius did as he Farren said. After overcoming the initial friction of the knot, the ball slid out slickly producing slack. The man’s eyes widened in amazement. “It’s the same knot.”
“No, it’s not,” Farren explained slowly. “It’s a similar knot but the second to last move is an overhand pull. You were doing an underhand.” Farren untied the knot and got to the point where the man was making a mistake. “Here’s where it matters,” then he slowly tied the overhand loop to show Thessius the right move.
“Okay thanks,” the man smiled. They’d spent just about every evening talking about this and Farren was wondering if the other man would ever remember the knots.
The man refused to tie the slack as they went and merely draped the rope around his neck. He’d build up unkempt nests of slack then let them out as he traveled to find Farren. Now he was keeping the habit as they headed towards the mountain. It stressed Farren out, and they began taking mid-day breaks just so the man’s slack wouldn’t get tangled and slow them down.

How he was traveling with a loose rope over his shoulder, Farren would never know. As Farren pulled the knot loose, he said, “now you try.”
Thessius’ face deflated as he realized he was going to have to tie the knot all over again.
“Don’t worry it’s easy,” Farren assured him. “It’s going to be important for you to know how to do this right when you go head back towards your rock.”
“I’m not going towards my rock,” Thessius protested. “I’m returning to the mountain with you.”
“I’m not headed towards the mountain,” Farren said, then added, “This is the part.”
Thessius focused on his hands holding two loops of rope. Farren saw he was about to do an underhand knot then swapped his hand’s positions and made an overhand. “Thanks.”
“I’m sure you saw someone’s rope tied to the mountain, but it wasn’t mine. I’m tied to a massive boulder that is unmovable somewhere on this world, but I didn’t ask Merc to tie me to the mountain.”
Thessius stood up excited that his last ball of rope was complete. “That’s what the mountain is. Just a massive pile of rock that doesn’t move. You think there’s anything bigger on this planet.”
“It can’t be just one rock,” Farren said in disbelief.
“I don’t know, and it looked pretty solid to me. But I’m not a geologist, and neither are you. Are you?”
Farren shook his head in confusion.
“Come on let’s go I want to see your face when you have to admit that I’m right.”
Farren sighed having no energy arguing with the energetic young man.
“We’ll be there in no time,” The man claimed in excitement, “it took me a while to get here, but that’s because my rock was being stubborn. Now we’re both picking up slack so it should be easier.”

For most of the time, Thessius’ slack followed next to Farren’s rope. The man had explained that he got to the mountain and stayed there for a while. When nothing exciting was happening with the line, he decided to investigate who was attached to the other end.
“So your rock was getting pulled closer to the mountain every day as you walked away and towards me?”
Thessius shrugged, “I guess so. I don’t really pay attention to these things.”
That was a statement that did not surprise Farren.
Occasionally Thessius had to diverge from Farren’s path because his rope was looped around one tree or another.
“So you just quit following my rope every once in a while,” Farren asked when their paths merged again.
“Yeah, that happened,” he answered nonchalantly, “I think my rock was really stuck here and I had to pull on it a bunch. Once it got free, I realized your rope wasn’t near me anymore.”
“But instead of backtracking, you continued?”
“Didn’t see the point in going back to the mountain. I already knew what was there. Besides people would make fun of me for coming back empty-handed. They said it was a lot of work for nothing.”
“These other people who are they?”
“Just people like me who made it to the mountain but thought it was too much work to ascend it.”
Farren imagined a camp of people just sitting around his rope waiting for something to happen instead of making progress. “At least they have an excuse.”
“An excuse for what?”
“Giving up,” Farren said, although he didn’t think those were the right words.
“They haven’t given up. They’re sure that something will happen, but no one can agree on what. Some think the mountain might even move or that there’s a giant attached to it.”
Farren laughed at this thought, “the only thing giant about me is my ability to get in over my head.”

Farren and Thessius spent three months traveling together towards the mountain. Over time Thessius improved at tying up rope balls. He still preferred to travel with the slack draped around his neck during the day and claimed it was easier for him to knot it all up in the evening.
“So after all this work you don’t think it’s easier to go back to your rock than it was to pull your rock behind you?” Farren asked as the man knotted his rope by firelight.
“Sure, it might be, but I’m no good at keeping rope straight. I’d likely get all the rope knotted up on the way to my rock. I made it this far just by pulling the rock behind me.”
The next morning the two men came across a tree that had Thessius’s rope wrapped around it multiple times.
“What on earth were you doing here?” Farren asked as he saw the mess that Thessius created with his rope.
“Oh my gosh, this is it!” Thessius exclaimed.
“This is what?”
“I did this the first night because I thought it would be a good way to store some of the extra slack I had pulled in. Unfortunately, it didn’t work, but it means we’re only a day away.”
Farren’s heart fluttered in his chest. “Only a day?” Farren asked.
“Yeah, I remember the first night here. It was so long ago.”
The two men continued, and Farren could see that Thessius was also bubbling with excitement. Farren was nervous about what he would find at nightfall. So far they hadn’t found anyone else’s rope that might have crossed paths and confused Thessius.
After midday, the two men began to hear voices in the distance. In less than an hour, they were clear and distinct. The two men came out of the forest into a small human-made clearing.

Farren saw a dozen or so people sitting around in shaded areas or hanging on rudimentary hammocks. A few people looked up to gawk at the new arrival then Thessius said, “I want to introduce everyone to Farren.” He made his arms wide while presenting Farren to the group of people.
Farren felt the back of his neck heat up in embarrassment. He followed his rope picking up a little bit and trying to ignore all of the stares. As Farren moved further into the clearing, his rope balls came out of the forest behind him. In the background, there were a few gasps, but Farren’s attention was focused elsewhere. His slack led a few feet up the mountain and then his eyes had to follow it the rest of the way.
On a little outcropping of rock on the side of the mountain above him was a simple knot that had a rope hanging down. That slack led to the line in Farren’s hand and through the almost forty balls of slack he had back to his ankle.
His vision became blurry as he stared at the knot that connected him to the mountain. He rubbed his eyes to clear them, and he noticed they were wet. Farren knew he had reached his rock.