The Sound Of Obivilion
A land born from the gaze of a wanderer, untethered from time and place. He stumbles upon it without knowledge of its history or the events that shaped it. Yet, he beholds the landscape in its entirety.
He saw it all.Join his journey to see what he found.
Read
The man's eyes,vacant and still ,stared at the horizon ."A storm is coming."an event of the not-too-distant future.
The brilliant blue sky stretched out like an endless canvas,and the sunlight was gentle, like a tender pat on the forgotten souls.The man's footsteps only left faint impressions in the dusty ground as his feet carried him across the crimson earth, his eyes drifting aimlessly everywhere.
His gaze wandered across the mountains, big and small. The red-dyed valley didn't bring tears to his eyes, but instead, felt like his eyes were weary and desensitized to these scenes.
He gazed upon one of the mountains near, where a small river flowed around its base. Sun rays danced in the cold, clear blue water until they touched the bottom. The peaceful atmosphere proved deceptive, as he soon stumbled upon the scene at the river's bottom. As the light touched the depths, their gentle sparkle transformed into something horrific when it embraced a body, entwined with its blood.
The river, once polluted with garbage and debris, now flowed with bodies instead. The ruthless rulers and demons, driven by a lust for land and blood, had turned the mountain into a cemetery - one of many graveyards out there, which would only continue to grow.
The moving clouds concealed the gentle sunlight, and the cold water washed away the remnants of once hot blood, leaving no place for it to return. He turned away from the river's horrors to continue his sole journey. The memory of the river's unsettling scene lingered, like many others, but the man pressed on as the mountains towering peaks beckoned him forward.
He continued walking until he reached the swamps, where the air grew thick with the stench of death and decay. The silence was oppressive, but the soft squelching of mud beneath his feet accompanied him.
The frogs and fish of the swamps have vanished , the swans avoided the ponds where they once swam. The forest stood empty and silent, devoid of life. Perhaps it was because their colors had changed, or maybe it's because they had been occupied by people. Unlike the power-hungry rulers, these dead ones were merely food for the insects and nature's predators, however they too had disappeared. Their scattered blood and limbs adorned the landscape, like gruesome decorations. Maybe the rulers found this view appealing.
As he continued, he found a mother, her body battered and bruised, lying in the murky waters. Her child, wrapped in a tattered cloth, was submerged, only tiny, pale, and lifeless legs visible. Fleeing from enemies, drowning in the swamp, a fate that seemed to be the new future they had heard about and envisioned.
When the mother surrendered to her fate, and her weight crushed the child deeper into the swamp, what had gone through her mind? Was it relief at accompanying her child, or did she curse herself until her breathing stopped?
Still, he continued walking without stopping, leaving the tragic scene behind. Perhaps he was trying to escape the haunting screams of the dead mother and child, echoing from the swamp, or maybe this view would be forever etched in his mind.
He was walking through a graveyard of dreams, where the innocent were slaughtered, and hope was extinguished. The swamp seemed to be a manifestation of the darkness that had consumed the world, a bleak reminder of the fate that awaited them all.
He continued to see the echoes of lives brutally cut short;a naked body in the bushes, her limbs broken, lips dried and pierced. He looked into her eyes, filled with a mix of horror and relief. Was she, too, a mother? The only signs of struggle were some scratch marks on the ground beside; her faint whimpering.Perhaps the last gasps of someone who had succumbed to the same fate.He knelt on the ground beside and closed her eyes, offering what little he could, and decided to carry the weight of her story within him.
He walked against the wind, albeit slowly, unlike the people who had crushed and rushed through the area. Then he stopped to observe a new sprout of grass in the pool of dried blood. He plucked it from the ground like a treasure, slowly sensing what it had to say. His large, calloused hands wrapped around it, safekeeping it.
For a moment, he saw the land once again, but now it was all green.Then he heard the screaming and pleading of countless people. He slowly watched how the land transformed into hell.
'Was it worth it?' he murmured, but no one in the mountains replied. 'What was it you sought? Did you find it?' He continued his questions, but the mountains didn't dare to echo his words.
He stood up and started walking again, still murmuring and asking. While continuing his traveling, he unexpectedly met a living being - a dog.
Its paws were caked with blood and mud; was it searching for someone? .The dog tried to run away with its life, seeing the man. But the man knelt on the ground and looked at the dog with tenderness in his blank eyes. He called out to the dog, which looked into his eyes for a long time, perhaps finding something familiar. Slowly but cautiously, it walked towards him.Its boney chest moved heavily as it breathed.
"You don't have to be afraid of me," he reassured. "This is your land; you own it, so you are free to do whatever you want. The people passing through here are only mere travelers.Standing here, in your land, you don't need to be afraid." He patted its head, feeling his boiling blood cool.
The clouds moved away and the dog ran around him a few times and then dashed to the highest hill around. He stood there until the dog reached the top and barked, and the mountains joined in: 'I'm not afraid!!! I won't cower! This is my land, and I'm its owner.'
A small smile bloomed on the man's face as he continued his journey. Beauty and innocence still exist in this broken land. But it wasn't enough.
Once upon a time, the lands were filled with vibrant life and happiness, a sweet melody. There was music in every corner. Nature; the embodiment of happiness and a avid lover of music. She had been trying to share her music with humans, just like she did with her other children, but they were deaf and mute.
As time passed, this continued, and she lost her love to the very thing she cherished. The elder children of the past had overcome their pain with her music; they loved their mother's warmth. Now all of it was lost, hidden in the forgotten past.
If only she could talk, she would have roared, "STOP!", until they would hear her. But now they wanted to own her, so the humans isolated her, killing her other children.
At that moment, he looked at the dark ominous clouds gathering around the land spanning across the faraway horizon, the distant sound of thunder roaring.
The sweet scent of rain now threatening the world,anger of Nature
The war is coming.A one-sided slaughter without mercy.
He was witnessing the Sound of Oblivion; the eerie silence that would forever follow the end of all things. And he could only watch, for he was just a stranger.
THE END