I originally had this posted up in Story Net but lets see who reads it here. Its not really to futuristic but tell me what you think about it.
The Traveler
By KnightWind
There once was a boy who lived in this world. Who knew little of fantasy or dreaming. Much of his life was shrouded by darkness, a solemn and disgraceful friend in the eyes of others.
It didn't take this boy long to understand that what he was destined for was more than most could comprehend. For years he searched, traveling the world for something to fuel him, to give him a purpose and an understanding of what life had to offer him.
For years he wandered and failed. One day while lost in his own pain he stumbled across an enchanting palace. He could not take his eyes off the marvelous masterpiece.
All his years of pain seemed to drain from his body with each step he took towards this mansion. He was bewildered by its mysterious power over him. Upon reaching the door he looked around. No one seemed to notice his strange behavior. A warm sense of belonging over took the traveler and as if his longing for a home were sustained, he opened the door.
Peering inside he could not be more confused. The house looked as modern inside as any other home in the community. The moment he closed the door behind him it locked itself. Spinning around the boy quickly grabbed the door and vigorously attempted to open it. Unsuccessful, he decided to find an alternative route. Another look at the house, made him realize that he was no longer within the confines of the modern looking house which he saw when he first glanced.
Bracing himself he stepped forward. Now more than ever, he feared for his life. He did not want to die before he found the answer to his question.
"This isn't the time to panic." the boy whispered to himself as he cautiously continued his search about the manor.
"I am sure that there is a reason for all of this." "My life has taken me across the world, upon mountaintops, under oceans, and beneath the earth to places most have dreamed." said the boy as he examined the pictures and faces on the walls.
Dreaming, was the key that our young traveler had yet to learn. For within this palace was the answer to our traveler's question. It would also be here, that he would understand the meaning of his journey. Shortly he will understand that he has achieved something greater than anyone else could have done. For hours it seemed he had walked the corridors of the enormous palace. For every time he wandered into a room he wandered out the other end with even more questions. He started getting light headed and a swirl of colors rushed through his mind as his body began to spin around the room just before falling upon the floor in dark silence. Our traveler had passed out.
During his unconsciousness he dreamed for the first time in ages. Every thought in his mind rushed through and around him. Everything started to make sense yet confuse him. He started to run. Moving his feet first and then his arms. Rushing faster and faster through the world in his mind, he attempted to get away from the excruciating pains caused by the images in his head. Finally, a door appeared within our traveler's mind. When his hand reached the knob, our traveler's eyes shot open as if suddenly released like rubber bands. Dizzily the traveler arose to his feet. He stumbled slightly as he grasped a door.
"This door..." The traveler's sentence trailed off.
Something peculiar came over him. This door that now stood in front of him seemed to grasp our traveler's attention, just as the door in the front of the house did. Quickly he seized it with both hands, hoping that this door was the way out. A slight pause and then a jerk of the door and it opened quickly. The door slammed against the wall and fell off its hinges to the floor in a thud of aging wood and rust. The traveler could care less, for his stare was fixated upon what lied beyond the door.
He was brought to his knees by the light that burned brightly overhead. The door had led him to a desolate wasteland. Every inch meant only a mile more or emptiness. Squinting into the vast that was the wasteland, our traveler slowly stepped forward. He fell a foot below where he had stepped. Getting himself onto his feet the traveler noticed that the door he had stepped through no longer existed. Looking back he only saw miles of desert plains.
"I don't know why I am here, but I am sure I'm here for something." The traveler said to himself as he brushed off a remainder of dirt and continued forward.
The sunlight beaming down upon him began to make the traveler dehydrate rapidly. He eventually found himself removing small articles of clothing to protect him self from the intense heat. He had to find water fast or else he would surely die.
The thought of finding another door seemed pointless because as far as the traveler could see ahead of him he only saw an infinite desert. He began humming to himself to take his mind off the heat. Slowly he could feel his skin burning from the prolonged exposure to the light. Unable to be intimidated by his seemingly undefeatable obstacles, our traveler continued to walk the endless sand trap.
Each minute seemed an eternity to the traveler. The sun never left its place atop the cloudless sky and the wind only brought more dust and more heat to the traveler. It wasn't until the traveler started day dreaming his travel to an underwater cave were the great masters of Xeonoxaga lived that he was able to take his mind off the heat. These great monks lived deep under the ocean where they could remain at one with the ocean. To the traveler these monks seemed to posess knowledge as vast as the oceans themselves. Our traveler wanted to know if a part of that knowledge was the answer to his question. For years he studied with these amphibious monks and while the traveler grew an understanding for many things, he soon felt that his answer did not lie there with the Xeonoxaga.
The traveler had since closed his eyes during his daydream and reopened them when he walked into a tree.
"A tree, in the middle of nothingness?" exclaimed the traveler.
When the traveler lowered his head from his gaze upon the enormous tree, he found himself standing at the entrance of a deep and seemingly dark jungle.
Stupefied, the traveler looked behind him again.
"Why didn't I see this tree before?" the traveler asked himself.
"I am definitely sure that this tree was not here when I last looked." "It appeared after I had..." once again the traveler's voice trailed.
He had heard the sound of rushing water, which could only mean that a stream was nearby. He hurried into the forest and as he did the desert background faded and disappeared behind him. The trees in this forest were extremely large and tall. The traveler was happy that he was finally out of the burning sunlight. He took a few more steps then stopped to gaze at the site he was aching for. Before him stood a majestic waterfall and the traveler watched it in awe, as the water seemed to slowly travel down its perfect seeming ledge into the crystal clear and transparent pool at the base. Kneeling down he gently touched the water with his fingertips, making the waters bank ripple with life. He lent forward and cupped his hands filling them with water then placing it to his lips.
He sighed a great deal of relief when he satisfied himself with ample water.
He expected to hear the sounds of birds chirping and the rustling of leaves and the normal sounds he remembered during his times in forests but they did not come. An eerie silence then fell over the jungle making it slightly defining. The traveler rubbed his hears and rose to his feet. Even the sound of the waterfall seemed to quiet.
"I don't know what has happened to life here but I hope that it returns soon." said the traveler.
Most importantly, the traveler wanted to answer the question that brought him to this place. So he set himself off once more into what now seemed an endless forest. Once many years ago our traveler was in the mountainous lands of Xelqina, a place widely known for its large forests and even larger mountains. Immediately upon arrival in the center of Xelqina, our traveler couldn't help but notice three people were packing for what seemed like a very long expedition. He was quick to make friends with these strangers and it wasn't long before our traveler had been allowed to go with these people to what was supposed to be the home of a Shadow God. It was the Shadow God that interested our traveler into joining the trip.
"If he is a God then maybe he can tell me the answer to my question." the traveler proclaimed to the group.
Traveling up the mountain was long and difficult. It was with the help of our traveler's fellow strangers that he was able to reach the summit of the Shadow God. Proudly and anxious as the four of them were they still slightly feared what they did not know. They confessed to each other that they did not want to anger the Shadow God if he were truly a god so they decided to ask only one question each.
They all took turns presenting themselves before the God of shadows and after returning each of them had a distinguished look upon them as if their world was open to everything.
Our traveler was the final person to enter the cave and greet the Shadow God. Never had he seen a God before and never had he ever had the chance to speak with one. The Shadow God turned to the traveler and stared at him with his very large eyes and the traveler stared back into the eyes of the God. The God sighed and waited for the traveler to speak. It was obvious that the God already knew that our traveler had a question for him. It was then that the traveler felt sad. He had traveled to the highest mountain he knew to ask a God to answer his question but he felt no satisfaction in doing this so he turn around and walked away.
When our traveler appeared from the entrance of the cave to the summit the other member's of the expedition greeted him. They had asked him what happened, and they wanted to know if his quest had finally ended. Sadly the traveler looked to the group of eager people and told them that he did not find what he was looking for there.
"I will find my answer when my heart finds the answer." the traveler said to the group, and that was the last thing he said before he started his solo decent of the mountain.
Time didn't seem as still in the forest as it did in the desert for it had become dark during the time that the traveler took thinking about his past. The traveler stared at the ground as he walked through the piles of roots to continue his journey. He was trying to remember what he was thinking about before he had seen the waterfall.
"I've been through many things already and each of these things change every time I remember something about my past." the traveler said to himself.
"But what I don't understand is what does my past have to do with what I am going through right now?"
Our traveler would have had more time to deliberate if it weren't the fact that he ended up in front of an old temple. The traveler thought about how the temple looked as if it were Mayan in origin, even though it was difficult to tell with the mass amounts of vines and the poor condition the temple appeared to be in. He started to climb up the temple sure of himself that this time he would find something to help him through this place. A step into the temple and already our traveler was in for a suprise. He landed on a slide, which descended a great distance into the temple. The longer he stayed on the slide the faster he accelerated and the traveler didn't want to end up smashed against a wall at the end of the tunnel. Although it was very dark the traveler bravely stuck his arm out and managed to lock his hand onto a ledge even though the sudden stop jolted his body, almost making his fall again. He pulled himself up to safety where he rested for a second and rubbed his arm. He regained attention to his surroundings and headed down what seemed to be the only corridor in the temple like a blind rat in a maze. He turned a corner and found a row of torches lit and leading him straight into a large room.
With a torch in hand the traveler stepped into the room anticipating some sort of monster or guardian but instead he found a hieroglyphic room filled to every corner with carved images.
When our traveler took a closer look at the images he noticed that many of the images seemed to closely resemble him and the places he's been. It was then that his memory kicked in and many of the things he had long since forgotten and put out of his mind returned to him.
A lifetime of what he felt were disappointments rushed back to him simultaneously which made the traveler feel light headed again. He took a second to breathe and then stood in the center of the room and said,
"Why am I being showed my failures?"
There was a loud rumble and the temple shook making dust and small pieces of rock fall from the ceiling.
"You were brought here because you are searching" a voice echoed throughout the great hieroglyphic hall.
"Yes, yes I am here to find the answer. What do you know of it?" the traveler's emotions were spinning now.
This was the first sign of life that he had seen anywhere since he stepped into the palace. He was eager to find out why he had to endure so much.
"I know that you feel out of place in your world." the voice replied.
"Yes, I know. I do feel out of place and that's why I traveled the world in order to find my place." the traveler responded.
"You are different from other men Traveler. You don't understand your destiny." the voice echoed through the traveler's ears like an endless void.
"Where do I belong then?" the traveler was beginning to feel grief come over him. "You belong" the voice began, "where your heart takes you."
"What does that mean?" the traveler asked. He knew that it was best not to ask to many questions but he had to know the answer.
"It means that you Traveler are meant to go where you feel most needed and that your home is not a material thing. Your home is in your heart, your soul. Your experiences and memories are your home."
With those last few words the traveler fell quiet and the temple began to shake again. Suddenly the floor beneath the traveler's feet fell through and the traveler disappeared into complete darkness. He re-awoke at the front door of the palace that he first entered. Standing up he looked around. The neighbors were beginning to stare at him. He brushed himself off and walked away from the manor. The traveler finally had a sense of happiness in him. He finally felt that enjoying his life would make a home for him whenever he thought back about it.
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In the darkest of night he stands alone
Watching, waiting, learning.
Before you realize it your already stone
Your heart as cold as the ground.
He stands over you, cleaning his silent blade.
The knight grows tiresome
He must find new game.