EA#00:

The Mountain in the Clouds, Part One

“
We were heading towards the mountain. Well, we weren’t just heading, we were flying. We were flying towards the mountain. My friend and I.

He has wings. My friend. I forget how he got them. I recall it being a long story.

Anyways, we have been friends for some time. It feels like forever, though I know exactly the moment he entered my life. Because my life was forever changed.

I had just gone through a painful divorce with my wife. My kids were involved. I haven’t seen them in years. The town expelled me for what I did. I shudder to think of it only because I know the guilt they all laid on me. But to this day I do not feel that what I did was wrong. I was in love.

Now that has been taken from me as well, my love. I don’t know what they did with her after they forced me out. I really wish I could find her, just to know if she were still alive, doing well. To hold her in my arms, again…

Alas, that is the past. This day I was flying towards my future. We were flying towards the future, in so many ways. My friend and I.

My friend? Yes, he is an interesting one. Winged, did I mention? I did? Ahem.

Something about a quest he completed, to rise above the darkness. I guess I didn’t fully understand it at the time. But today he promised me that I may begin to understand. He was showing me something new. Some place I had never been before.

“Will you go to the high mountain with me?” asked my friend in his poetic way of talking.

“Sure, I suppose,” replied I.

So we began to fly. I don’t know why in all these years I have known him that he is only now sharing this with me. I can tell by his demeanor, an extra air of solemnity, that it was important.

I tried to hide my excitement. But I’ve got to tell you, my friend has never carried me anywhere before. Not once did it occur to me that he even could do it. He is, after all, shorter in stature than I. To his credit he is built like an ox.

He seemed to lift me with ease. Somehow, while holding me on his back with his hands, he still found the freedom in his wings to lift us off the ground together. My weight honestly didn’t even seem to slow him down a bit. He flew as fast as I had ever seen him fly.

There were courses of mountains below us. Beautiful, coated in cool, misty blankets of purple, pink and orange. The evening sun revealed some of the forests and shrouded valleys in shadow.

And the peaks loomed ahead of us. Tall, billowing and white, with the perfect hues of violet and rose wrapping them in a halo.

The clouds were sparse but fluffy and grand, stretching their bodies across the sky between wide open patches of darkening blues.

The smell of pines and spruces wafted up from below.

It was the most thrilling experience of my life.

But let me tell you, it was nothing compared to what I was in store for next.

At last we seemed to find the highest point in those mountains. It flung its peak so high that even the clouds seemed reluctant to rise to meet it.

Yet that is exactly where we headed. Straight to the top. My friend and I.

As we neared the tallest peak the air filled with moisture and looked like thick fog. We passed through a heavy cloud, getting damp as we did so. What a feeling.

Then the view cleared on the other side, and what I say there was wondrous to behold.

There was a vibrant city on the very top of that mountain. A place no one could see, that no one could reach. It was teeming with life… other winged men and women, bustling about. But their bustle was less of the hustle of the streets I knew well in the cities of my past. Unlike those busy places, the people here flew with ease and with absolutely no sense of urgency.

To illumine the city, grand light fixtures, candelabras, lanterns and torches were ablaze from every parapet and rocky crag on the mountain.

Every wall and stone was glazed in resplendent colors, glowing crystals and mighty gems. Blues and golds and violets and pinks, emeralds and sapphires and rubies and diamonds.

In the center of the city was a great beacon, so it seemed. A powerful light that exploded from deep within the mountain, shone out from the top of the tallest tower, and spread its radiant light into the endless sky. Streamers of its energy sprayed out in all directions, as if they could light all the world.

From this height, it seemed to me that I must be in heaven. There was no place else like it. Not in all the world as I had known it. Not in any of the story books or tales I have ever heard or read. No account by scribe or bard or paladin or knight has ever claimed to witness a place such as this.

“Where are we?” I attempted to ask my friend, despite the howling wind.

My friend didn’t answer, only tilted his head to the side and grinned a knowing grin.

As we glided over the rooftops, I could make out more detail. There were indeed streets below, cut into the mountain top between rows of shimmering homes. Some of the winged people were down there, doing all sorts of normal sorts of things. Walking, shopping, trading, talking.

I even heard dogs barking. I could not imagine a dog would live here, but I heard dogs nonetheless.

And the wind howled on.

That is, until we reached the center of an open plaza, right in front of the tall tower in the center of town.

There we landed, and at once the wind ceased altogether.

“How’s that?” I asked my friend.

“Magic.” He said.

Of course it was.

In the middle of the plaza stood a group of winged men and women. They wore the vestiges of officials and seemed to be waiting for me.

My friend indicated I should approach them.

“Welcome,” said one as I walked closer.

“You are here for your ascension,” continued the same voice, woman in the middle of the group. Just then I noticed the additional garb she wore that no other there had…

It was a massive headdress with what honestly looked to me like none other than phoenix feathers. There was no way I have seen feathers of any other creature burn so fiery red as this red-gold plumage. It must be from the bird of myth itself. But then, it couldn’t be a myth.

“Ascension?” I asked.

“You will face seven trials. Each one will test a part of your merit. But it is not our evaluation of your worth so much as your own that counts. You must come to find your own merit, your own worth by what you choose to do next.”

The woman paused.

“Should you choose to accept, you will be tested for your wit and intelligence, your wisdom and your truth.”

“And if I decline?” I inquired.

“You will return the way you came and forget all about this place,” was the answer.

The winged woman waved her hands through the air in from of her and a perfect rune of faint blue light appeared for a moment, then vanished.

I’ve certainly never seen that done before.

”The first challenge will test your discernment,” continued the woman with the headdress. “If you succeed in completing this first tribulation, you will have a brief repose before entering the second. I will tell you more then, provided you get that far.”

I stood there, pondering her words. I was still at a loss for what I was getting into. But the whole thing intrigued me. What was the ascension? Was it something I wanted to pursue? And at what cost? I had no idea what I was doing or what manner of challenges I might face.

The winged woman stood before me, noble and firm, waiting for my response.

”

READ PART TWO

Please comment below. And share if you like the story so far.

Blessings to you all.

Matthew

DAY 19

P.S.

Day 18 of 30 Day Challenges

The blog series in which I am completing my challenge from 30dayblogchallenge.com!

As well as a self-made challenge inspired by Abraham Hicks in which I self-soothe myself through negative emotion.

At the end of this 30 day journey I intend to be more fully on my life’s path, “all systems go.”

Quick Check in On Progress

Ninth blog challenge: find inspiration for posts. Check. I have no end to that, thank God.

Eighteenth self-soothe challenge: ask my daughter and I still get frustrated. Who doesn’t sometimes, right? I don’t see any perfect humans, perfect parents. Ideal is great. At least I have methods to work my way down more quickly and efficiently. So check there.

Still working on uplifting my abundance mindset for financial and career success. Writing is calling more and more and more and I love it.

Still healing some wounds inflicted to my energy systems from toxic people. Made some headway here today, some. Feel I could have made more, but it’s ok.

Still calling one thousand angels, or even one hundred thousand. That’s not greedy, God’s energies are boundless. And those angels help and support us all. You can call them too, whenever you need support.

Which led me straight into writing the first part of the story above.

Thank you for reading this postscript. Blessings.