Bedlam in Goliath
He opens his eyes to a googloplex of specks pressing to his body, the pressure pushes him out of the disintegrating earth into the world like a newborn child from the womb. He lies their on the cool sand collecting his senses, sand spilling out of his disheveled hair. His robes are soaked in sweat and piss and torn to shreds. And without hesitation nor second thought of where or how he is he jolts out of the desert tent into the shining day leaving nothing but unanswered questions and a trail of dust behind him.
Quickly he scans his surroundings, a couple of tents, six unattended camels, a large block of ice withering in the heat, a scorching sun soon to melt away his already decrepit clothing and an assortment of maps packed away in a small knapsack. Like electricity he collects what is needed in a frantic motion...first the maps, second a chip of ice, third a fresh set of robes (these of which he so covertly snatches in the displeasure of another's slumber) and lastly a robust camel of hump and grandeur of which he mounts and begins his journey across the endless plane of shifting sands and dessicated air.
T'was a long journey, but with aid of maps he stole and the knowledge of the Northern Star's position he approaches his destination ever so hastily. Along the way he suffers from internal fissures and relentless fluorescent bludgeoning. His loyal camel humps and rumps every step of the way without grumble nor complaint and ever so often he feeds him the evaporating crystalline. It is only a matter of time before the sun incinerates them to the ground and just at the verge of blacking out he saw through his dust covered eyes a sign of civilization. There past a sea of vicious heatwaves stands an ancient town composed of mud brick houses.
He arrives soon thereafter to the town and dismounts his trusty camel. He continues his journey on foot and walking past the battered houses he notices the town held an eerie silence to it that troubles him. He spots a small tavern sitting across a large statue of a man looking towards the sun; his hands blocking his face from the perpetual sunlight. This splendid effigy got the man thinking; the amount of skill and time thrust upon the statue was slowly being annulled by centuries of pressing sand and then the man understood nothing under this sun survived for much time, even that of stone and earth.
He enters the tavern ever so casually and after adjusting to the lack of light inside is greeted by a room full of half drunk taciturn men. They are cloaked and as they turn around to see who the stranger could be, scowl at the burning heat he let in.
"Close the door ya damn fool." yelps one of the drunkards. He pays no attention to this and walks up to the bar, "Greetings, two Ta Henket will do." While the bartender slowly concocts his drink he peers around the room. The tavern is small and dank, the stench of men and booze fills the sultry air. Many sit together at tables in hoods and robes looking cunning and crafty. They soon forget about the wandering man and continue their silent parle. It is the strangest sight to the stranger, how these native people speak in mute tongue. And then something bright and abrupt caught his eye; a golden amulet whose luster was that of the desert sun.
He approaches the old man wearing the amulet for he knows who he belongs to, the Hidden Dune Clan, and they hold information he seeks. With drinks in hand he sits across from the hooded figure and offers him one. The old man tilts his head towards his direction and even behind the darkness that cloaks his face the traveler could sense his disposition.
"A mans death goes unnoticed under this sun."
He then takes the drink and chuckles in the security of his shade,
"What is it you come for, speak quickly."
"I seek the whereabouts of the Relinquished Library."
The old man snickers and then quickly in a serious tone said,"I hold this information and will pass it unto thee but what will you offer me in return?"
"I will grant you Sage also what you seek, knowledge."
And then the old man digs his nails deep in the table and whispers in a menacing tone "Fool, I am all knowing and omnipotent; what knowledge could you possibly have that I do not?"
"I hold words lost in the heat of the morning desert sun, faces spat away in the great blood river, thunder hidden among maps and compasses. I hold a purpose that I must carry out."
"Tell me, young seer, tell me your name."
"Jinn."
At that second the Sage tenses up and begins whispering words of an indiscernible language in quick succession. The tavern lights dim, the undertow of men conversating flushes away and his focus upon the sapient old man increases. He then notices the dark veil that obscured the sage soon dissipated and behind was an ancient visage that has seen the world twofold and suddenly he could hear him in his head...
"Two days to walk,
two nights to scry,
your third eye the hawk,
will guide you by.
Remember the path,
it is hidden but seen,
do not look to far,
past the ravine."
The moment passes ever so quickly and soon enough he is back in the dank tavern but this time he is sitting alone. He walks up to the bartender and orders in a new found certainty,"Let me have two water skins and two loafs of bread." The bartender looks at him inquisitively and then softens his expression,"It's a journey then aye?"
"Indeed."
And like snakes slithering in sand he slips out of the tavern into the cool night. He looks upwards into the night sky and begins following the Northern Star. He soon is out of the town and back in the sea of churning earth. He walks and walks....until the sun draws from the horizon...until the moon steals the sky.
A day has gone by and he has yet to find the library. He sleeps horrible nights under cold intensity, enough only to regain his strength for another day in the blistering heat. The next day soaring high above him is a brown hawk with large talons, was it the one mentioned in the Sage's wise words? The bird does not change direction, it must be.
The sun slowly makes its way from one end of the world to the other and in between that precious time Jinn struggles to stay on his feet, but he is strong and holds a steady pace. The environment takes a toll on his body leaving his exposed skin to suffer from light burning and his entire body to exhaustion and exasperation.
Dusk slowly approaches and a milky blood red sun bathes the desert terrain. Jinn continues his search with no luck, has the Sage duped him, is he to die unnoticed? He pushes these thoughts away and focuses on the path in front of him. But suddenly he slips down a steep hill so narrow he hadn't seen it prior. He is sliding down the hill and just when he is about to reach the bottom a trapdoor reveals itself under the sand and he slips right past it into the lurking shadows. These tunnels were just big enough to hold a man and stretch for miles for it took Jinn much time to exit them.
He soon arrives to a room full of darkness and set his torch ablaze. Surrounding him are rows and rows of bookshelves filled with ancient books stacked up in what seemed to be a ceiling-less space. The desert was slowly making its way into the library through small cracks and splits in the walls.
"This library holds humanities primeval thoughts and conceptions.
I will be the only man alive who will know fully my ancestors lexicon."
After eating the last of the food he has left Jinn drifts through the aisles looking for the archaic tome of his people. Finally after hours wandering through this maze he finds a large book in a display case. It's cover is made of leather and the pages are thick and yellow. The title translates to "Son of Ra".
Jinn marvels at the book of bountiful knowledge and in a greedy state says,
"Finally the knowledge that will propel me past my contemporaries, to be the last reader of this book is my destiny."
He then ever so carefully props open the glass case but to his dismay the dry air snatch's away his fortune and reduces it to dust.
He stands there in such a state of deception and astonishment that he drops the torch and lets it roll near the shelves. And suddenly out of the darkness the looming voice of the old Sage booms overhead,
"Fool! You were never worthy of such wisdom! You showed this through your own selfish actions. Pathetic human, you are not a seer, now I condemn thee here forever to dwell in anguish."
Jinn grabbed a hand full of the dust in the display case and cried in the air, tears flowing down his face,"NO! This cannot be! How...how can it be..."And slowly around him bursts of fire began emerging, licking away at the books long kept pages.There is nothing else he has to live to for, nothing else to persevere for. Soon the whole library is afire...
"Take me away flames of malediction, take what is yours God, for I have failed."
