[He fell, and fell, and fell--he continued to fall, even after having lost his body to the jagged edges of the rocks.]
Eventually, \'unnamed\' stopped falling in a place of complete dark. He could see nothing, feel nothing, smell nothing, and hear nothing; he stuck out his tongue--and tasted nothing. Yet, he was there, so he moved slowly through the blackness, falling many times--collapsing many times. He grieved much for the life he\'d had. Time was futile, and space--without senses--was immeasurable. There was no apparent way to determine if he was even going in circles. After long wandering, he learned to depend wholly on the awareness of his steps, and the pressure within his joints to determine what was straight walking, but even his weight was not like when he was alive.
Forever, he walked in what seemd to be a straight line; it could have been months, or maybe years. He was beginning to forget his name, but the love for his parents kept his identity intact, and he often heard their voices in his thoughts calling him to bed, or dinner. It became like a never ending dream of memories--not really there. Even hunger and thirst were senses he could no longer enjoy or experience. There was, however, one or two times that he was aware of the presence of a passing being or entity.
Finally, he saw a small faint light far ahead in the darkness, and he went toward it. The light was coming through a long narrow tunnel, seemingly dug out of and through the murky dark mist which he was in. He layed down and wormed through the space.
At the other end was a very large chasm, but there, floating overhead like an eerie omen, was some kind of world, very different from the surrounding darkness, yet apparently part of it. He wandered in the bottomless black of this place for days, and he sensed the presence of many other beings moving about more invisible than spectres, less tangible than ghosts. He neither knew what they were, nor could he interact in any way with them--this was worse than the death he had found previously.
One day there began to fall from the floating world, glistening lights that would fade then go out when they hit the bottom. He got close enough to one to see that it was the dead soul of a previously living person. He ran as fast as he could to talk to one of them when they fell, but every time they\'d just look at him, crumple, and disappear.
He wandered the bottomless depths gazing at the arches, and pathways above him. Longing for the chance to see and speak with people--someone, anyone, somehow--once again. After an unknown amount of time [for in the bottom of Death Realm time and space are distorted in such a way that although one runs as fast as they can, the distance they cover may be great, or may be small--it is like running through black gel] he saw a glyph of weakness appear, and wondered where it had come from. Of course, it would do him no good in this state, so he left it there and wandered away. He saw a flying beast up on one of the rocks floating above him, and wondered how he could get it to come down. After watching it for endless days, he said out loud, \"Oh-h, I wish that thing would fly down.\"
Suddenly, the flying beast floated down to the bottom, and he could see it was a cackarass. It was not very intelligent and could not communicate, but he tried anyway. Then after much time flying on the bottom the creature started to return to the rocks above; Talaslaans\' son jumped onto it hanging on tight as he could (the way he\'d learned with animals on the vast plateau he grew up in) and the cackarass sprung into the sky. Amazed by how easy it was to hang on, he realized that he had no substance, and therefore did not need to strangle hold the beast until it was gasping, so then it settled back down to the rock.
The first thing he saw was an unusual looking woman with horns hack a sword through him and into the cackarass; she continued hacking until it was dead. He must\'ve been invisible as the beings below. He watched as the people came up a nearby ladder and ran down the pathway. Curious, he went to see where they were coming from, hoping that he could find a way to become a living soul again.
There, he found a magically hewn out rock with a kind of death guardian. Amazingly, he could communicate with this heart ripped mass.
\"Hello,\" he said, but there was no sound.
\"Hail, dead soul.\" The death guardian responded! \"You are dead and traveling into the Death Realm, find your way.\"
\'Unnamed\' responded, \"Uh, I am long dead, more dead than these souls here--I think.\"
The guardian opened it\'s eyes, \"So it seems. I have never encountered one like you.\"
\"Is there anyway I can become one of these?\" Unnamed questioned the guard.
\"Hmmm, there may be,\" the death guard pondered. \"If you could help me, then I will help you.\"
\"What do you need?\" \'Unnamed\' offered.
\"A soul left this rotten meat; I want to feed it to my pet, but I cannot find him, and he has not been here recently. If you could take it to him, then he will help you. He is a cackarass.\" Death guardian returned to his previous silent self.
\'Unnamed\' thought, \"Can I pick something up?\"
He tried, and sure enough he could.
[In Death Realm, things do not weigh as they do in Yliakum.]
He ran expectantly to the Cackarass at the top of the ladder, but it was not there. \'Unnamed\' searched everywhere, finally falling from the rock into the murky bottom again. He saw the light of the cackarass in the distance, and ran to it as fast as he could--finding hope, once again, for his life.
The cackarass voracioulsy consumed the rotten meat. Then stared at \'unnamed\', and began to fly up; again he had to jump and hang on. This time the beast flew to the mouth of the great rock sculpture of the death god which floated in the middle of this eerie world.
Somehow, the son of TalasLaans, knew what to do. He must go into the mouth, then he would return at the place of the death guardian. It was as if someone, or something, had put the thoughts in his head. Strangely, he also thought, \"Then the way will finally be open.\"
Continued.....(still)
