Outworld/The Carved Land

Is Anybody There?

Author: Ribs

Blistering winds, desolate valley. Emptiness settling around her. A place that is not home.

A few vagrant steps out into the Land. The difficulty of knowing where to start. Forward movement, steady pace. Peering all around - nothing. Phantom crowd, just like a phantom limb.

Walking briskly. One hour twenty nine minutes. Landscape falling away beneath her feet. Calling indistinctly into the wilderness. Nothing.

A deep breath. First spoken words since she returned.

“Your Shaper’s here. Don't know if you care. Aren't I your god? Aren't you meant to think that?”

Three minutes. No response. Wind; white noise.

“Right. Well. Fuckin’ okay then.”

Step. Stride. Pace. Twenty-two minutes. Exiting the valley, entering the plain. Unending grass. Little red flowers. No sound but the chimes.

“Rags said it might be me doing this. My subconscious, that is. Care to verify that? Give me a fucking clue, maybe? I bet you know something. If you're even here.”

No sound but the chimes. Absence of the sun; the cover of darkness. An upward glance - aerial leviathan. Business as usual.

Story carved on its underside: person violently splitting in two. The symbolism is unwanted, intrusive even.

“I'll self-analyse on my own time. Fuck off.”

It slowly drifts away. No sound but the chimes.