Oct 20 20
The meat from the stranger’s horse was almost gone; just a few tawny scraps at the bottom of the pack. We took one out and held it up, eclipsing the cloud-dulled sun. The silhouette looked remarkably like Sid, our now long dead love. Tipping our hat to a cocky jaunt with our head angled in a mock quizzical manner, we imagined we resembled a real cowboy thinking about their past loves. We brushed snow from the low trunk of a fallen pine and sat; gnawing at the rotten ration, pondering the taste — distinct notes of basement water and latrine fire smokiness. Still chewing, we boiled some water and re-fluffed our bed of pine needles. After drinking some weak bark tea and picking the grizzle from betwixt our molars we laid down to bed.
Our sleep was restless, full of odd visions. One of which abutted our waking and was the clearest. It was mid day during a hot dry summer; we were back in the city standing at a podium preparing to address multitudes. The amount of people was preposterous — imbricated waves of knaves as far as the eye could see. We kept clearing our throat and straightening our paper notes, though were prevented from starting our oration, due to millions of glinting lights blinking all over the crowd. We cupped a hand over our eyes squinting to see the source. It seemed that each person was holding a small mirror. The sun was such that when a person stopped looking at themselves and let the mirror drop, for a second a beam of sun was shot directly into our eyes. The crowds grew increasingly tense and rowdy. This was likely because each mirror was attached randomly via a chain to at least two other mirrors. Millions of hot people yanking each other’s chains trying to catch a glimpse of themselves…
Upon standing we vomited a bit from the previous evening’s “meal.” When steady, we urinated on the remaining embers and set our sights above on the high, cold mountain pass. The crack of something large (a tree? a bear?) from back where we came jolted us out of any procrastination; and we commenced our bitter adventure.
Our sleep was restless, full of odd visions. One of which abutted our waking and was the clearest. It was mid day during a hot dry summer; we were back in the city standing at a podium preparing to address multitudes. The amount of people was preposterous — imbricated waves of knaves as far as the eye could see. We kept clearing our throat and straightening our paper notes, though were prevented from starting our oration, due to millions of glinting lights blinking all over the crowd. We cupped a hand over our eyes squinting to see the source. It seemed that each person was holding a small mirror. The sun was such that when a person stopped looking at themselves and let the mirror drop, for a second a beam of sun was shot directly into our eyes. The crowds grew increasingly tense and rowdy. This was likely because each mirror was attached randomly via a chain to at least two other mirrors. Millions of hot people yanking each other’s chains trying to catch a glimpse of themselves…
Upon standing we vomited a bit from the previous evening’s “meal.” When steady, we urinated on the remaining embers and set our sights above on the high, cold mountain pass. The crack of something large (a tree? a bear?) from back where we came jolted us out of any procrastination; and we commenced our bitter adventure.