The mountain's peak sloped up in a crooked knot, reaching high over the wilting oak forest that fought to stay upright on craggy land as blustering wind knocked them each which way. The sky was a deep gray, saturated with brown tones of earth and a yellow, late-afternoon haze that permeated the clouds. Where the mountain and the clouds met high over the forests and villages below, the mountain's silhouette became dark and ominous, casting a shadow that covered the landscape below.
Zinnia clutched her stone-gray shawl as she climbed to the rocky ridge just above the forest's tree line. Removing the head covering knocked greasy jet-black bangs into her eyes, brushed away by a cautious hand as she carefully examined the mountain above.
A deep breath entered her nostrils, tilting her head back to face the sky. She shut her eyes and exhaled.
She uttered:
"Rayquaza…I'm afraid I still don't understand why I'm here… Why you left me here…"
Her fingers clawed into a dirt deposit, finding a grip with her palm on the stone face that jutted from the dirt. Slowly looking up, Zinnia traced the path mentally, seeing the gently sloping path ahead of her as it followed into a much steeper path, and then a veritable wall of rock. She looked down briefly to where her feet were and then back up to what was immediately ahead of her. Gritting her teeth, Zinnia eased her body down onto sprung legs, fully extending her arms from where her hands gripped the rock, and then leapt up, pulled by her arms until her body had been hoisted over the initial hump. A quiet groan and wince of pain came from her when her chest landed on the stone surface, rucksack on her slapping her equipment into her beneath her shawl. She shifted her ankle to make sure that the flat arch of her boot had found a grip along the rock edge. Finally, Zinnia extended out both her arms and legs to support her off the rock face gently, giving her a chance to breathe, and then climb forward.
Zinnia grunted. She clawed at the ground, trying to push herself up onto the rising slope.
"I certainly haven't lost faith in you, or your cosmic plan for us. I haven't. I pray not as a request or as someone so ungrateful would... And while I would deem it a question, it really serves as a confession, a confession that I know I don't have all the answers, and that I don't expect any, but I don't understand. Why am I still here?"
The shawl and rucksack sank with each step. Torn edges fluttered in the thick winds. Zinnia's hair battered against her forehead and eyes, caught over her eyes and sticking to the moisture that formed around her open mouth as she fought for air.
Through the cloudy mists that covered the landscape atop the mountain, the thumb-like rock formation crowing the mountain as its point came into view. A small path led up to it and around to the jagged cliffs at the front. Beyond the rock formation nothing could be seen as the path faded into the dense fog.
Zinnia crawled, half-using her hands for stability to find the ledge dividing the slope from the walkable surface. With a single, sharp pull, Zinnia pulled her center of weight over. She still crawled with her hands though her legs were half-extended. The rocky surface was short and filled Zinnia with fear, as she was having a difficult time keeping her footing on the bumpy surface. Her hands quickly found the rock formation, quickly searching for hand holds in the rock, bringing herself upright and standing straight. A sudden slip in her boot's grip on the floor made her panic, and she quickly brought her body closer to the formation and hugged it tightly. She paused, realizing she had lost control of her breath and let it skyrocket, she clung to the rock and continued to wait.
Eyes shut, Zinnia continued:
"Nothing makes sense in the slightest. I continue doing my tasks without any interference other than the barriers I create by myself, and I perpetually make more barriers. I need an out. I ask your help daily and I fear that is all I ever come to you with, but this is an outcry; I need an out. I cannot do this without you. I can't. Please, Rayquaza, this task is greater than me."
Taking another deep breath, Zinnia eyes snapped open, staring into the fog ahead of her. A solid red beam of laser light cut through the fog. Zinnia's arm released from her hold on the rock, stepping back slightly from the rock as she held her arm out in front of the rock's other side. A sliver of red light appeared on her arm. She stepped closer to the other side of the rock, sending loose dirt from the rock scuttling down over the thin cliff, finding a secure piece of the mountain to shift her weight onto. Closer to that side of the mountain brought the trees below into better view, as well as the distance between where she stood atop the mountain and the forest she had left to get up to the mountain. Zinnia caught herself looking down and refocused on the task at hand and looked at the laser point on her arm. She moved the arm out from under the laser, where it reappeared on the rock.
Zinnia smiled to herself. Though she couldn't see the cliff below where she was on the mountain, she slowly lowered herself to sit on the edge of the short rocky ledge she had been standing on. Her legs slid out over the ledge. She leaned forward, looking down to the cliff below, judging the distance. About ten feet, likely less.
"Faith... That has been the crux of this journey, at least from the beginning. If I lose my faith in your plan and yourself, Lord Rayquaza, I might have lost the entire mission."
Pulling herself up gently, turning so that she rested on her hands and knees with her legs dangling over the edge of the cliff, Zinnia lowered her weight slowly. Her knees slipped out from under her and dropped her hips onto the rocky edge. She winced, biting her lip and sealing the pain deep inside her.
"Perhaps you should have chosen a better servant, one who's faith determined the outcome of this mission... Alone..."
She counted down to herself slowly. When she reached '1', Zinnia dropped her hips over the edge, hanging on by just her fingers as they sank deeper into a crevasse in the rock.
Sighing to herself, Zinnia continued.
"Here goes."
Her fingers released and she fell down from the ledge she was on. Though she fell in a pencil dive towards the ground, Zinnia felt her body slowly tipping forward in the near-instant ten foot drop. She landed on her heels, legs sucking into her body as they collapsed together at the knee to save her fall. Rolling forward on the toes of her boots forced the blunt of the fall onto her palms.
Zinnia winced and held back a gasp of pain. The pain shot through her palms and up every finger as her hand cramped. The fight to keep her gasp in check failed as she let out a quiet whimper. Her eyes fought back tears and shut. She couldn't bear to look at her palms.
Opening her eyes, flipping around her hands to see the wound, she looked at the gash and sighed dejectedly. She stared at the open gash where no blood poured out, just twin slashes of cut skin revealing the gray flesh beneath.
"This curse... Oh... Oh this task... It must be a curse... This feeling that it is a curse will never go away... My lack of understanding makes it a curse..."
Zinnia forced her searing hand down and away from her. Biting her lips as if it'd stop the pain in some way, she forced her weight onto her hands again to pull her legs underneath her. Once she did she still struggled to stand upright, dizzy from the intense dose of pain, clinging the wall beside her. She stared ahead the opposite edge of the cliff she was standing on, muddy red eyes flaring as she saw the man.
The man was a hiker, still in the traditional hiking equipment, fallen over onto his backpack unconscious. A thin layer of gray dirt and dust coated him from resting there so long. His limbs were splayed lazily, like he had been caught by the sudden fit of sleep and fell into it immediately.
His hat had rolled and caught on a small rock that jutted from the ground, just by Zinnia's feet. She picked it up, inspecting the small dust-covered buttons that lined the fabric strap of the brim. Then, she looked over at the hiker.
She knelt beside him. Two of her fingers sank into his neck as she took his pulse. A brief smile flitted across her as she confirmed pulse.
She recited:
"For the men and women asleep, for the world asleep, one will not rest."
The wind howled even louder, catching on the rocky walls of the mountain. The fleeing sunshine of the overcast day flickered against the rocks.
As she put the hat back into the hiker's backpack, Zinnia looked up to the rock wall. The rocks flared red as they reflected sunlight. Zinnia froze as she watched this, as in the corner of her eyes everything light touched began to glow red. Slowly, Zinnia turned over her shoulder, looking to the sky.
The overcast clouds had parted, but something filled them. The thick haze of red dust poured in from the atmosphere. Over the horizon thick downpours of dust and debris rained down from the sky in dark red streaks. The outline of the sun overhead through where the clouds parted warped with the rush of dust, even darkening as the dust clouds intensified and became thicker. The town below was battered by waves of dust that rolled through the town and rushed through the forests to other towns. A rolling sea of static dust hung through the streets below and turned the streetlights into halos of bright red. Soon only tall buildings and treetops could be seen in the cloud.
Miles away, a thick concentration of dust moved in towards the mountain at high speed, moving like a cloud, directly towards the side Zinnia and the hiker were on.
Zinnia snapped out of her stupor, looking down at the hiker. Bracing her arms, she stooped over and slung her arms beneath his, pulling up sharply. Zinnia met with at least 250 lbs of dead weight, stopping her sharply, but as the roaring wind of dust seemed even closer she pulled again. His legs straightened and dragged over the rocky floor, and Zinnia quickened her pace as she backed them both away from the cliff.
Behind her a tall dark crevasse loomed, offering some semblance of shelter. A pile of rocks filled it, but Zinnia quickly got to work kicking them out. She propped the hiker's shoulders up against the crevasse and pulled his legs in to the side so that he was mostly protected. A moment of pause filled her as she realized the crevasse in the wall had been filled and there would be no room. She quickly continued by pulling her shawl off of her shoulders, undoing the metal latch around her collar beneath a folded flap of the shawl, stuffing it beside the hiker. She opened the hiker's backpack and rifled through, eventually finding a dark green wool blanket. She knotted the top corners of the blanket and shoved it into a smaller part of the crevasse so that the lower half draped over him without suffocating him.
As Zinnia went for her shawl, the cloud hit. An oceanlike roar filled her ears as pounds of dust slammed into the wall. Clusters of dust exploded and knocked the dirt off the rocky cliff floor, surging up in waves and filling the air, knocking dust from the high cliffs towards the mountain top and hanging in the air. Dust from the sky poured endlessly and rained around the mountainside.
Though she eventually got her shawl up over her face like a mask, enough dirt had entered her nose, mouth and lungs to make her cough and wheeze. The overwhelming sound and choking sensations made her drop to her knees. Dirt battered and rushed around her.
The mountains stopped and trapped the red dust on the side by the town. Though dust continued to rain down even on the other side, the wind trapped the dust up against the mountain.
"It could be hours... Days... I was never promised anything by you... This storm is surely the sign of you fighting the war we wished was waged, but is surely a war that gets harder... This is early in the day for you... Rayquaza... Forgive my expectations... My task will be impossible..."
Zinnia's fingers cramped from holding the shawl like a mask. She knew that she was close to the edge of the cliff, though she could not see it. She couldn't see the hiker either, and thoughts of concern began filling her head. With one hand holding the shawl, Zinnia crawled on her hands and knees towards the hiker blindly, fumbling over shifting dirt and the rocky surface beneath.
The burning sensation from before in the gash on her palm flared. The dust in the air was seeping into the wound. She let out a cry of pain as the searing pain returned to her hands. Her arm collapsed beneath her abruptly, rolling onto her side. The shawl fell away and landed on her chest, barely caught as her arm reached for it. The sound of wind outside of the shawl was ear-shattering. Her eyes stung with an intense pain, even without opening them.
She rolled to the side, catching herself on one hand. Her legs were limp with the pain that surged through her body. Her foot didn't land on solid ground, instead dangling off the cliff. In her painful struggle, Zinnia had slid back several feet unknowingly. Her one hand covered her eyes as she tried opening them, immediately getting dust inside of them. She shrieked briefly with pain and closed them, but again forced them open. She looked down behind her, seeing the short distance from the cliff she had moved to. The hiker was still safe and unmoved.
As Zinnia tried pulling herself up again, a second blast hit. She felt as though her eardrums had shattered. The warm gust of wind and abrasive blast of dirt and dust grazed her and made every inch of exposed skin on her arms and shoulders burn. Her face burned hot with pain.
Though Zinnia felt herself slipping backwards, fighting to keep herself on the cliff's edge, she felt a dizzying, tingling sensation start to tear through her body. It was like a song, a song playing loudly in her head, ringing in her ears, infectious in tune and inescapable.
Zinnia blacked out.