Withering World: Perseverance to Tranquility

Dawud sighed, clearly there was still annoyance left to him. He nodded. Annoyance could trigger his feelings for forgiveness and self regulation, thus helping him grow his emotions. He looked around, and up at endless sky. He knew this wasn't Earth, something else. Even dreams weren't this long and strange.

He looked down at the cloud land and tried to recall the past. Strange, he remembered nothing. He took a careful step forward, placing his foot and starts walking. He kept quiet, he knew if one wrong step it would be his end. Since these were still clouds and he was high up in the sky now, so now matter how solid these were they could still get soft and drop him down.

He placed his finger under his chin before stopping on his tracks. He thought for a while. He knew a lot about the shapes of the clouds and what they meant, but these were weird ones. It looked like a pure white highly decorated road to walk on. It felt like walking, as if it invited you to just walk. There were even slight bumps much far from one another. It was bloated, it was as if— the clouds allured you to jump and pop them down.

'No.' Dawud thought, 'Not a good idea, it could probably trigger something.'

Dawud sighed, this feeling was annoying, sometimes he felt something inside him and sometimes emotionless. He feelings rose again pushing himself to just step on them. But Dawud stopped, he had a resolve to not do anything unnecessary.

'No matter how much I think about, it just rings me. This scenario feels like one of those fantasy shits. If I step forward and wander around lost, one of those old eldritch bastards will just come up and greet me.' Dawud frowned, "Tch!".

'Nor can I remember anything, nor can I feel. At least if I felt dreaded or so, I could've discerned how I got here.'

True. He was just having a great fall a few moments ago, even before that, his heart was being toyed with. But he felt none of the aftershocks, which annoyed him more. This empty thought in his head, not able to figure out anything was the worst!

Dawud folded his arms over his chest and bit his lips. He snickered and spat at the ground. 'Fine!', he started walking, continued to move forward. It was the inevitable after all.

After a moment of wall or so, he could see something small on the ground, shining. It was glittering intensely in a small point. He shaked his head and walked ahead. He crouched down to the glittering piece and tilted his head to the side. He slowly moved his hand towards it, trying to carefully touch it with his finger.

That tiny thing disappeared. He knew it would happen and looked around, he instantly found another one of those ahead on the path.

'I see..' He got back up and steadied his feet, taking a ready position to chase it. Watching him, the tiny shining thing vibrated a bit, as if intimidated.

Dawud sprinted off at it, it immediately disappeared. Another one formed ahead of him, Dawud smirked and ran faster. He realised before, these type if typical fantasy situations, these tiny lights are like a guide. So whenever he got closer to each of them, they just vanished and another one formed not so far away, leading to somewhere special.

In his mind, he shouldn't be so amazed by some low effort holiness. So he ran trying to make it faster to reach his destination. He ran to them and they disappeared and formed somewhere else, this continued…

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

A long time passed since he started running, he kept changing those tiny sparkling goodies. In the middle of the run, he thought his decision could've been bad, he may have run out of breath. But soon he realised, he will never get tired here, no matter what. He didn't feel his heart tighten up, nor his stomach churning. His throat, it never felt dry, there was no sweat, nor any burning sensation.

He ran after it for so long now, it was not ending. Dawud, no matter how much he chased it. Soon he stopped, slowing down on his tracks. 'Oh no, why didn't I realise it sooner? This is…'.

In this empty sky dimension, where there was no beneath.

Where there was only cloud land seemingly without any end.

The empty was endless as well, devoid of any Sun that showered it light.

It had it's own light, it also had no wind, no sound, nothing.

Just vast clear sky.

The realisation crept in Dawud, he was stuck in here!! No exhaustion, no feeling, nor any end to it's path. It was all just infinity. He could observe everything as far as hid vision let him, the more he went near the observed destination, the more it expanded. It was just the true infinity.

'Yet, still… could it be an illusion?'

'No no…' Dawud shook his head, 'There's no use in confusing myself more. But these… tiny little light balls, they are not stopping yet. It's as if, it's just the one same tiny ball, disappearing and reappearing, yes hm…'

Dawud nodded. It has to be that.

'It could be that, whenever I tried to chased, not even getting to close to it, it sensed me coming near it with that intention. But I only thought about finishing the path, reaching the end point. Maybe there's no end point?… What if, deep inside me… Yes, deep inside me I had this feeling, I knew there was no end to it, but I was just too focused that I made myself forget that. Damn, screw me! So, it sensed deep inside me, I knew that and only wanted to catch it. Damn…'

Dawud sighed looking at the impossible in front of him, still glowing with mischievous glitter. Ian it laughing at him? Just thinking about it annoyed him. 'Heh, so this is the end, huh? I'm stuck in here forever…' Dawud had a unfazed pokerface on him, as if not much surprised after the realisation. He just hung his head down and tried to kick in thin air at the ground.

Nothing moved with that much effort, it's not like it would have moved even by an elephant anyway. Dawud held his hands behind his back and just slowly walked, his head still hung down. He saw no sign of hope, was this a test to measure how hopeful he is. Would a system just pop out congratulating him, "Player has met the requirements!!" ?

No. There was simply nothing. The empty sky was just a creepy vacant space. It felt it connected worlds, as if a transit point oriented layer by layer in a never ending quantum entanglement just to receive worldly beings. He looked at the tiny light. Sometimes it sparkled, sometimes illuminated the the clouds beneath, it was a beautiful golden glow. Brightly reigning over the clear white clouds right in front of him.

If it was alive, then Dawud and the little sunshine both were gazing up at the endless sky. Just like how there was no actual land to actually settle at, never rest, nor recharge. Both of them were assigned with the job to be at each other's company, limitlessly, for eternity. What grave sin did Dawud do? It felt like a punishment.

He didn't even try to feel annoyed, it felt like his emotions were slowly coming back. He seemed sad, sorrowful, defeated. He sighed and slowly walked, what else would he do other than this, not any breaths of exhaustion, but something beyond. Complete defeat.

Even though there was no exhaustion, pain. Dawud was dying internally. He was exhausted mentally. This place, it provided him with no reason. He unreasonably roamed around, so did the tiny light. He walked away from it, He didn't look back and just walked keeping his head hung low.

Dawud, after walking long enough, glanced back slightly, the light was still behind him, not much far away. Either the land kept him there, or the light followed him. He took a deep breath and exhaled out, letting every thought drift out of his head. He lost all his intentions, of escaping, catching. Even living in his fill.

A long time passed, sometimes he walked closer to the light, sometimes away from it and it followed him whenever he didn't look. And in that moment…

He tightened up his legs, steadying his feet, put all strength on his left leg and gave a swift hop to his right and extended his arm catching the tiny ball of light. The instant he caught it, he met with a powerful and bright explosion. But Dawud felt nothing, he just felt something pushing him away from it. At the same time, something pulling him back. They were both strong forces, yet, Dawud held his own against them both at the same time and he never let go.