The wind blew gently as I wander through the desert. It whipped softly at my right, kept out of my face by the robes around my head. They used to be the robes of a nobleman, at one point long ago, or so I assume, but they're faded and dulled now. Much like everything nowadays, they're battered by the relentless storms that plough through this land.
I looked forward, to the beam of light that emanates from the mountaintop in front of me. I had heard stories about what was up there, but nothing I had heard was ever confirmed to me before I left. As I wandered on my pilgrimage I was still none the wiser.
I had wandered through the dust and the sand of the desert for a long while. Bar the occasional ruins that I had seen in the desert there was nothing to be seen but the orange of the sand. The ruins themselves look familiar, but I am not familiar enough with this area to properly recognise them.
The wind howled louder. Against my instincts I turned my back to the sound, desperate to keep it out of my eyes. As the wind dies down I look back, catching sight of a piece of red fabric twirling along with the wind. It heads for a small section of the ruins, the same area I myself was intending to scale, for a better vantage point.
The fabric is intricate in design, but more interestingly its pattern matches that on one of the narrower fabrics I am wrapped in. As I go to look closer it blows around, revealing a set of stairs I used to scale the dull grey ruins. The fabric keeps moving leading my higher up what was once perhaps a guard tower, or a dungeon cell judging by the way the windows are barred off.
My eyes are still distracted by the cloth when the wind picks up again. In my haste to cover my eyes the cloth is gone, lost to the sand carried by the relentless wind. I cower down as the wind picks up even harder, its full force pushing hard on me. In desperation I run around the side of the building, and take shelter, the brickwork providing a moment of cover and calm in the storm.
For a moment I rest. The wind has me pinned down in this position. I cannot go back the way I came until it stops, and jumping from here would leave me a victim of the full force of the wind. The gust would carry me further away from my destination, and that's assuming it didn't burry me under the sand like it has these buildings.
As the wind begins to die down I prepare to make my move. But as I begin to move the tower collapses, inwards. My body plummets downwards, and I struggle to straighten myself out as I land. I fall to the base of the tower, spun around as I fall. I landed in a dark passage, with no way of climbing back up, and no idea which way was forwards.
In the dark I wandered. For several minutes I looked around these ruins, no longer able to make out any of the details that just moments ago I hadn't even considered worth giving any thought to. Wall after wall, all lit dimly by what little light is coming down from the hole in the ceiling, that itself partially obscured by sand falling from the ceiling.
I stand alone, wondering how exactly I'm going to get out when I hear a voice quietly beckon. It doesn't call out anything specifically; it just rings around in the ruins, acting as a beacon. My ears twitch as I hear it, and I look carefully towards its source. A figure, wrapped in red cloth comes round the corner, still absently singing. They hadn't noticed me as they wandered forwards.
I called out to them and walk towards them. They turn to look at me and though I can't see their full face I think I can make out a smile. A single call comes out of their mouths, a note from a song I don't recognise, but I reply in kind, with a quiet note matching the pitch of theirs.
Wandering towards me, they offer out two more notes. Each one seems to illuminate the building slightly. I reply again with the same two notes, this time louder and with more confidence. We both nod to each other, now fully content to accept that this is not a trick of the heat. Without knowing anything more we trust each other.
We wander around together, and sing together as we walk. Though I have no idea who this other person is, nor what it is they are like or what they are thinking, we both manage to sing the same song together, alternating lines and bars. As they lead I cannot see their face, but something inside me tells me I have managed to make a connection to someone here. Nothing about them gives away who they are, or where they came from or why they are here, and at no point do I even want to ask.
Together we manage to find an exit from the ruins. We come out into the desert again and I smile. I honestly would have never found my way alone. I look to the mountain, but my companion seems more focused on what's immediately in front of me, instead of in the distance. I look directly ahead of myself to see an altar. For a moment I hesitate, I do not know quite what my partner expects from me and I do not wish to offend.
Yet I look to them and see that same hesitant look on their face, it acting as a mirror to my own. Realising we're both going to do the same thing we kneel down together, almost in unison, and both offer a short song. Our voices seem to illuminate it, the only voices around in an otherwise empty desert. Though I cannot guarantee it for certain, I am sure that we both have our eyes closed at the same time, and that I am not the only one being granted a vision at this altar.
The vision is once again not immediately obvious to me. As I look to the face within the robes across from me I don't see the same confusion. We both stand up and as I look across I wonder if we shared the same vision, or if what I had seen was truly unique to me. In either case, the person looking back at me now seems more determined while I seem more confused. I look again to the mountain, and then back across.
My partners eyes meet with mine as I look back, but they did not follow mine to the mountain. Instead they looked towards the far left of the mountain, to a distant pile of ruins. We both realised this is as far as we would travel together and parted company, both of us singing the song we sang together for as long as we could. I kept going after I stopped hearing any response to it, just in case their ears were better than mine, but eventually I stopped.
At the next altar, I offered an additional prayer, one of both thanks and of luck. For that brief window, we had travelled together and I was grateful for it. Without the help I would have perhaps been stuck in those ruins forever, and while I never knew anything about you personally, I still wish you well on your travels. I don't know what happened to you, and who knows, maybe fate will bring you back to me someday.
I am glad to have met you, whoever you were. Even though we were not travelling on the same path you helped me and I hope I helped you too. I wish you best of luck traveller, and hope you also complete your journey.
A/N This was based on my first encounter with another player while playing Journey. Even though I have no idea who that person was, I felt I should write something for my gratitude to how helpful they were turning up when I was really and genuinely lost. Thanks random gamer.