The Empty Pit

The temple stood at the precipice of a vast, round chasm, a gaping doorway to whatever lied below earth. Its walls were made of a strange black stone which seemed to consume any bit of light and warmth that ventured too near. Summer sun shone bright from a clear, blue sky above us, and yet I found myself shivering from cold.

There had been a network of old mining tunnels beneath the earth when water first found its way through the earth. How a small wayward stream of water could end up creating something like that gateway to the void between realms I couldn't understand. My only solace was a reminder that my understanding would come if it ever became necessary.

The temple's main hall was in the shape of a pyramid, reminiscient of the Valley temples dedicated to So and Nui as if it aimed to mock the Celestials above. Two doorways, symmetrically places on opposite sides of the pyramid, were its only source of natural light. The main entrance, from which I entered with my cold and rather quiet guide, was the smaller and humbler of the two.

The other doorway led to a long overhang placed directly above that gaping chasm which the temple neighboured. That pit which, despite holding in its grasp a certainty of a long fall and a horrible death, lured me closer with its very existence. To desire was to root oneself into this plain of pain and false hope, yet in that moment I yearned to leap into that abyss and embrace the cold, unfeeling void.

That is where I found myself, despite my guide leading me another way. At the end of that overhang built of impossible black rock, staring deep into the formless darkness of primordial depths. I could almost hear it sing to me, calling me to jump. It showed me...the fall would rip me apart, pushing and pulling until my flesh and bone was but dust. And my mind, crumbling first into madness, then nothingness.

I was ripped cruely from that blissful dream by my guide, who now led me forcefully away from the edge of that circular pit and back into the temple proper. Still I found myself gazing behind me, not fully here in the waking world. As if a small piece of what I was had already joined the emptiness which lied beyond and between our world. And I hoped, with all my heart, that one day the rest of me could join it.