The Mountain Top: Grasshopper 25

[voidtreckermods]

After the strangeness of their second day on the island for some, with memories and conversations in a cave, the third day goes calmly.

At least until mid afternoon. As the day winds on into evening all of those who have been sharing memories with others will feel a pull.

A pull to climb the mountain in the north. It is a good feeling, that mountain is where you need to be. A sense of belonging, friendship, camaraderie. You don't need to be alone, just climb the mountain.

For those that climb they will find worn wooden benches spaced around the lip of the caldera in concentric circles, the centre set up like an amphitheatre. The Jema syrup spills from crevices around the edges, running down from the peak in well-worn grooves and channels.

The sun sets slowly on Jema’grethy, slowly sinking into the ocean over a period of a couple of hours. During that time pairs of Voidtreckers will feel drawn towards the syrup, to touch the surface.

When they do they will receive a memory and find themselves back in that cave once more. For those watching it is as if they are in a trance, lasting a few moments.

People feel moved at different times and so there are always people aware, sat around the mountain top. It might be that there are other friends they wish to speak to about what they see. It might be that they wish to sit silently and avoid everything, if only their friends will allow it.

But it is a place to be together nonetheless.

Comments

[laurefindil]

"It does depend on why someone is sad, though. Sad because you miss someone is very different from being sad because you are scared," Glorfindel qualified.

"What did you see, Romeo?" he asked gently. "What scared you?"

[myblueskies]

"Something from when I was alive." He looked up at Glorfindel. "I don't got many memories, so I hadn't remembered it before..."

He leaned into him sadly. "I had a friend then, before I was in heaven... I'd seen him before... But I didn't..."

He shook his head, tears forming in his eyes again.

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel wrapped his arm around Romeo. "What is it that makes you sad? The fact you had this friend and had forgotten about them, or that you can remember them now?"

[myblueskies]

"Both." He said quietly, "It makes me sad that he was a really good friend and that I can't remember that but I just... He died..."

He looked up at Glorfindel with teary eyes. "I didn't know before but he died before I did and..."

And it hurt so much, to know that had happened, that his friend had been hurt and that his friend was somewhere else now. Not a shinki like Romeo... At least not in the heaven Romeo had been in.

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel tightened his arms around the boy. It was a hard thing, when you lost someone, permanently. His first human death had hit him like this.

"Then keep him alive in your memories, Romeo. Remember him. Remember the good times you had before he died. It doesn't take away the pain, but it helps to balance it out," he said. Some days, it was only those happy memories that could keep you going.

[myblueskies]

He nodded, "I don't got many memories. That was only the fourth thing I ever remembered from my life but... He's always in them. So he must... He must have been very very important."

He was very very important. His best friend. "I'll remember the others though, the one where he showed me how to keep my spirits up. That was a good memory."

He would hold it in his heart.

[laurefindil]

"Then, perhaps it was a good thing we came here. Because now you have more memories of your friend. Even if one of them was a sad memory."

[Glorfindel will keep holding Romeo until the other is done.]

[myblueskies]

He nodded at that, still leaning on Glorfindel. "I think it's good to have more memories of him... Even though this one was really sad."

He shook his head, "But I got to learn some more about him. I think... I think he was a really good person."