A Trial of Rock and Rope: Chapter 1

Author’s Note: This is the first chapter of my latest novel A Trial of Rock and Rope. It will be available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Paperback April 22nd 2022. It’s an updated version of the Rocks, Ropes, and Mountains series that I released on this blog years ago. Hope you enjoy!

He waited in line on a sandy beach. Waves rolled in on his left while a tall mountain rose out of the horizon to his right. The only other moving thing was the line, as each person took a slow step forward every few minutes.
He asked the people ahead of him what was going on, but they responded with vague gestures and seemed as clueless as him. Everyone wore white linen clothes, but it didn’t feel like his typical attire.
As he moved forward, he noticed a man with well-groomed white hair wearing flip flops and a bright red Hawaiian shirt. The man repeatedly disappeared with the person at the front of the line. Soon after, the Hawaiian shirt man would reappear only to vanish with the next person in the queue.
To check if he was dreaming, he pinched his arm. It stung, but it didn’t convince him he was awake. The person in front of him disappeared. On the ground in front of him, someone had painted a red X in the sand. Written under it were the words “stand here.” It was amazing that the people in front of him in line hadn’t worn away the markings.

Looking at the X, he wondered how long his time in the line lasted. It felt like his whole life, but he only had a brief memory of it. Either way, he was glad it was over and felt excited to see what standing on the mark held for him.
He stepped onto the X, and the Hawaiian shirt man appeared, smiled, and stuck out his hand for a shake. “Hello, Dr. Ferruccio Monteiro. Glad you’re here.”
“Just call me Ferrun,” he said instinctually. The name fit better than the clothes, and he grabbed the man’s hand, grateful for the introduction. Ferrun wanted to ask who the man was and where they were, but before he could ask his questions, the ground dropped out from below his feet.
“I’m Merc, the god in charge of orienting you,” the man said. The two floated like clouds above a landscape.
“What are we doing up here!?” Ferrun asked. He didn’t think he was afraid of heights, but anyone would be terrified looking down at the ground from a mile up.
“This is the afterlife. Well, an afterlife. Specifically, yours.” Merc rolled over like he was merely swimming in a pool. “Obviously, it’s yours since you’re here, but you’re sharing this world with thousands of other ascension candidates as well.”
“I died? How?”
The man groaned and rolled his eyes. “Everyone wants to know that. Unfortunately, it’s above my pay grade to know. I simply supply you with your Divine Trial.”
Ferrun squirmed in the air, trying to get comfortable with the fact he was a few thousand feet above the ground without any support. “A what trial?” was all he could sputter out.
“Most of the time, your consciousness, the thing that makes you Ferrun, just gets recycled, and parts are passed to other humans that are dragged into existence. It’s a messy primordial mix of consciousness. Every once in a while, some conditions are met, and people are selected to skip the recycling, and they’re given a Divine Trial like this one. You and the others here,” he gestured to the trees below, “met that condition.”
Ferrun didn’t think that sounded like him. Then again, he didn’t remember much before the queue on the beach. “What did I do? Why can’t I remember anything?”
“Amnesia is normal. It will come back to you. Not sure what you did, I’m just the messenger, and I have to get on with explaining the Divine Trial. We don’t have all day.” He cracked a childish smile, “a bit of afterlife humor.”
Ferrun returned the smile with confusion and looked down. Before looking away at the terrifying fall, he noticed movement between the forest trees below. People were littered throughout the forest, and they were the only sign of life below. Some seemed to be struggling through the woods while others moved quickly through the trees.
“The trial is to get to the peak of that mountain.” Merc gestured at the mountain on the horizon. “If you get to the top, you’ll ascend to godhood.”
“Have a lot of people ascended?” Ferrun asked.
“No one’s pulled it off yet, 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? Is the air too thin to breathe?”
“No, you can breathe everywhere here. All in all, they’ve set it up so if you get hurt, you are healed by sunrise. If your body is fatally wounded, we put your consciousness into a holding pattern until it’s healed.” Merc wiggled his toes as he laid on his back, and a flip flop fell to the ground below them. Shrugging at the lost shoe, he continued, “you don’t have to eat and won’t be hungry. You’ll have a day’s energy in the morning, but if you over-exert yourself, you’ll get tired. So, no daily marathons through the woods.”
“Thanks. I guess. Why’s it so hard to get to the mountain top?”
“A boulder is attached to your ankle.” Merc raised his foot, and the flip flop had reappeared at some point. “Then we set you somewhere in this world, and you begin to make your way to the top of the mountain. We let you pick the size, and the gods pick the length of the rope. So, we’ve now come to the part where I ask you: how big of a boulder do you want?” He looked to Ferrun expectantly.
Ferrun looked down and observed the people and contemplated his inevitable fate. He could see that most of them were struggling with a rope. Most of them were stuck in place while a few dragged it over their shoulder.

“I can pick any size I want?” Ferrun asked for clarification.
“Any size,” Merc confirmed as he brushed something off his bright red Hawaiian shirt.
Ferrun didn’t know much about himself, but he knew he liked puzzles and a challenge. Maybe that’s what made him suitable for this Divine Trial. “Has anyone made it to the mountainside yet?”
“A few, but no one has reached the top. The ones that are climbing it are slow at making progress. But I’m sure they’ll reach it eventually.” He looked at the mountain reflectively. “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?”
“Yeah, the trees and bushes get thicker near the mountain’s base. Ascension candidates 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 Ferrun. “So, what size do you want?”
A dozen possible solutions went through Ferrun’s mind. He was aghast that someone would give up so quickly, but he couldn’t imagine the strain of dragging a rock behind him for eternity. “Is this whole thing pointless?” He asked, looking at the white-haired man.
This time, he smiled a full grin, “some candidates think so, but Sues and Wod both assured us that it was solvable. Someone even had Sid come in and look it over. That guy is the most compassionate towards you candidates, and he confirmed it was solvable. Although, he had doubts about how many would succeed.”
He tried to imagine what dragging a small rock would feel like, then what it’d be like to carry a large rock behind him. Neither seemed like great options. Although he doubted there was an optimal-sized rock to get tied to.
“I have all the time in the world,” Merc said after letting Ferrun think it over for a few moments, “but I’d like to get on to the next candidate eventually.”
“Tie me to the biggest rock here,” Ferrun finally said. Despite the ridiculousness of the choice, it felt like a decision that suited him as comfortably as his name.
“That’s an interesting start,” Merc said with his familiar grin.

A Trial of Rock and Rope will be Released April 22nd 2022!