Ancient race of pushers

And the moonlight flowed upon their black surfaces like a silver blanket, ripples forming as they shifted in their sleep. Three great pillars, as tall as the lords of trees, stood ominously in the serene grassy field. Each was bound to a circle of mighty chains of a dull orange steel. They were stone, the purest of volcanic solid. In their bindings each ever swayed beneath the sun and the stars.
They were objects of wonder, nameless, older than age. No one knew of their origin or reason. People of the Soral Coast wondered at them, pondered their existence. Some believed they were monuments of the ancient civilizations, reaching toward the heavens with waving arms. Others saw them reaching to the depths of the earth where the molten oceans moved them like pointers in the wind. Quiet, sad, lonely souls sometimes believed that through them was conveyed a cry of an ancient dying race of pushers far beneath the Earth�s surface, mourning the last echoes of their painful existence. Yet still others discussed the possibilities of traveling down the hollow opening found at the top of one of the pillars. It could be reached only by shallow ridges ascending its entire structure.
Mensa and Daloh swam in the crystal waters beneath the morning sun, its brilliance fluttering across the tips of the waves, writing honeycomb patterns on the sand floor beneath. �Together, all of us, should��
�What? What did you say?� Daloh flushed back his hair as his face emerged from the water, looking curiously at his friend.
This time, Mensa looked directly at Daloh and spoke clearly. As they waded in the sea there was an aura of excitement and wonder about his face. � every generation has them, yeah, we can, all of us, all of us should go down��
�What?�
�The opening. The pillar. Wait! Give me a chance to speak. It must have a reason! There must be an end! It�s an adventure for us, all of us, man, a calling!�
Daloh paused and spoke slowly like an older brother giving advice, �You�re right. There are these people that do this every generation. Mensa, fools, all of them. Don�t be a fool too. They never come back. Dead I suppose, like most others do. Their names are forgotten just as they are. Someday you�ll understand what a childish dream that is, one that we�ve all had, believe me.�
�But�!�
�It�s just a trap of curiosity. See, you probably don�t have a real reason anyway.� Daloh dove under the water and swam towards shore. The aura dulled to a state of frustration and disappointment as Mensa whispered to himself, �What truly does?� He gazed up at the blue expanse of sky with a shy heart.
Mensa strolled along the Edeus field, glancing at all the people who sat there before the pillars� majesty. Those people, the ones who spent their days, their years, and their lives sitting, watching, listening and wondering at those pillars, were called by many �the wonderers�. They were obsessed with those moans you could feel but not hear, the cries that shook the ground and echoed through the air. When listening to them in a rainstorm it was captivating beyond belief or realization. These people lost all capacity to care for themselves or others, or even the world for that matter. Their lives became the pillars. Their wives left them, they left their wives, and it was all the same story. They became corpses with eyes and ears as they sat there in Edeus wasting away in a trance of the pillars� cadence.
�Look at those two,� Daloh smiled and took a bite of a yellow fruit in his hand. Two figures released a kiss not far off from were Mensa and Daloh were seated. Young lovers, more in tune with each other than anything else. Cass, a young man not older than 16 cycles, and Dona, with her gorgeous gold hair. Before, Mensa had wished them to follow him in his dream of adventure. Only partially was he second-guessing himself now.
Dona got up for a moment and walked away. A man was passing through the field with a cart, serving portions of bread and fruit to some of the wonderers, too obsessed to even feed themselves. They learned to become dependent on the few who took pity and fed them every day. She approached the man and bought something as Cass remained lying on the field, his dreamy eyes gazing at the sky. One of the wonderers approached him, and for a moment Mensa was anxious with curiousity of why he was doing this.
�A group from the North came through the other day, said a creature was found up near their parts,� the man whispered. He was clearly a crazy wonderer, �the creature they said came from a deep fault at the bottom of a valley. Some people saw it in the distance� It was large, had skin just like ours, only, a little rougher and darker they said, and it ran like an ape they said, but seemed a human. Strong, they said it looked. Strong and fierce. Blinded by the light they said, villagers heard its awful screams like deathly shrill horror, indeed, saw it run to the forest. All the doors are locked now, people are afraid, indeed, hmm?�
�Sounds like you were lied to old man.� Cass actually seemed to pay attention to, unbelievably, another human being.
�Lied! You think so!? I heard this tale before, six times, maybe. A lot of folks come through here. Creatures they say. Larger than a man, walks on his hands, skin like leather, roughish and worn, cannot bear the light, screams with fearful fright. You may think I�m crazy, and really I am, because I�m starting to catch on to some of the size of the universe and the things in it, very frightening indeed! We�ll talk again, but I�m hungry now, yes hungry now, five or six times, beast, lock the doors, deep places. Wait young man! You wonder what I think, huh? Yes I believe you may already know. They are the pushers, those poor lonely souls condemned to the depths of the Earth. They escape from time to time, you know. I am just beginning to get a clue of what they are trying to say. You watch these pillars long enough, you might too, hmm?�
�Crazy old man, don�t let him scare you or get you thinking,� Daloh seemed relaxed as he lay back on the grass. Mensa was a bit startled and curious. What the man had said seemed, real? Cass too, lost all the dream that before had been in his eyes.
Dona sat looking over the edge of the ocean cliff, her face worn of tears, unconsciously thinking of flinging herself from the edge. Mensa and Daloh had left her alone. Two days ago two men had disappeared. A local wonderer and a young man, they said. They all knew where the men had disappeared to; every generation has men like that.
Mensa�s desires of traveling down the pillar had turned to sort of vengeance, courage, and friendship. The breeze was cool and refreshing on a midsummer�s eve beneath a clear night of stars and a full moon. Mensa strode slowly down the field with his friends. There was no question of going after Cass. They had all just taken and accepted their departure without speech
Dona walked slowly gazing up at the stars. Daloh, the mature collected, older friend now seemed calm and confident. Never before had Mensa seen him this content.
They were grand, such as the ancient statues of kings one could know nothing of yet feeling that presence swear an utter allegiance, captivating. Beneath it you felt but a wanderer who had missed all the kingdoms and glories of great Earth, striding in the shadows of time long past, reflecting, and longing for that time, that experience. �How should we�� Mensa did not even finish his sentence. He always seemed to change thought while he was speaking and often spoke unfinished sentences. Everything about him was youthful curiosity and innocence. There was so much left for him to know about the world.
�Wait until it has leaned far to the east and then, with flight, scale the ridges as if your life depended on it, because it does.� They looked at Daloh curiously as he confidently spoke, �A wonderer told me that once.�
And so they did wait for hours until the pillar had leaned far to the east, and the ridges glinted in the moonlight like a mighty ladder. Daloh told Dona to climb first, and together beneath the stars they reached they very top. There the wind gave them more fear then the black hole before them.
Mensa sat with his legs dangling over the edge, glancing out over the great expanse of land around them, and the sapphire ocean not too far off. Secretly he knew it would be the last time for such a thing. He wasted no time with goodbyes and shifted his weight so that he slid directly into the event horizon. Dona almost unconsciously followed, and Daloh waved to the stars and jumped in also.
Three more disappeared, they said, three days ago.
Mensa lost consciousness immediately as he fell, and for miles he did fall. Daloh looked up just as he began, and the moon was hovering above wondering, what are they doing? They never saw each other again on Earth.
Mensa found himself in a very shallow pool of chilly water although it did not feel cold at the time. He was surrounded by a luminescence in the water. There were microorganisms producing all shades of green and violet, and it was quite beautiful. Far off, a light seemed to be peering from the bottom of a valley. He got up and walked towards it until in the faint glow he realized he had come to a gentle waterfall. He did not realize it at first because it made no sound. Although he could not see it, he could sense that the space about him was greater then the grandest cathedrals and halls of men. The sound of the waterfall of course, was lost into the abyss into which it flowed. There seemed a star in the distance. Mensa leaped towards it, and fell, only this time awake, for ages it seemed. The star slowly grew to the size of the sun. Mensa felt the heat about him. Just before he fell into the light, he saw for himself the heart of the planet. He saw the wonder of the universe and held it in complete reverence. He realized how the reason fades away at the far end of the spectrum of reality. His name was forgotten, just like he was. Mensa closed his eyes and returned to the mist.