The Bridging of The Great SunderingA Story by LA Waning A tale of a city from another world, split in two When the lands of Elephus were young and fertile with lush tropical plants and laden with stock beasts and wild game, a thunderous and sundering divide split the land in twain. A yawning abyssal crag ran from south to north with no end in sight. Thus the people of Elephus were no longer of a whole and over time two separate kindred arose. They were the Elphon, who lived on the still green and verdant side of the infinitely dark chasm, and the Elfain whom lived a horrible existence in a terribly hostile desert teaming with sandstorms created when the oceans emptied into the horrible stygian crack in the world. It was said that a day after The Great Sundering the Wisest Man in all of Elephus walked to the edge of the abyss on what would be the Elphon side. It screamed up at him as it collected the world's winds and funneled them throughout. Many of his students whom were there later claimed the old man said "One day, these lands will be united." and cast himself into the gaping maw of the unknown hell. Over the course of eight solar cycles the waters of the world ran into the jagged chasm and many spoke of this and of death. Thousands died in these few days and only a dozen spoke of the Wisest Man. Only one listened. At the cusp of midnight to bring the ninth day, the man who heard the Wisest Man's students and already knew what they claimed, the Greatest Carpenter of Elphon built a coffin. This coffin was of such craft work that it ceased to exist as a vehicle for the dead soul but as a vibrant testament to the life of an individual. It shined in both the sunlight and the moonlight, it was not spared of any fine gems or latticework murals. The Greatest Carpenter brought this coffin to the rim of The Great Sundering and there he stood it upright where not even the raging gusts spitting up from the vast pit could sway it. Thereupon he opened the coffin, stepped inside, and waited. The day after many people saw this coffin when going about there daily routines and workings. None approached at first, in awe of how the chrome casket peppered with gems could glisten so in the morning's light so close to that dreary, terrible canyon. Slowly at first, one by one, people were drawn to it. They knew that by the craft it was the Greatest Carpenter's doing. Finding no way to open it the townsfolk left it there, until a young hooligan pushed it and it's creator over the edge into the endless dark below. Dozens of years later the Loudest Warrior in Elfain awoke from a deep and alcohol weighed slumber to find a lithe, almost naked woman standing at his bedside. She wore a strange, filmy and shimmering silk robe which was to the Loudest Warrior's delight. But he was halted in his advances by an unseen hand that was far stronger than any man would ever dare be. Stunned with his body aching from the strange force that came between himself and the woman, he refocused his eyes and was taken aback in simultaneous repulsive horror and shocked, overwhelming joy at the sight before him. The woman had defied the laws of nature with a new form, one as divided as The Great Sundering. Her skin was now peeled away into a spiral ribbon that rotated slowly around her vitals, dripping and pulsing crimson droplets onto the sand in the warrior's hut where it soaked in, the dirt turning purple. Every organ, tendon, muscle, and scrap of flesh were all separated from their counterparts into a dreadful display that rotated and spun and undulated in a mockingly erotic way. From within this quivering mass of flesh came The Voice of The Spiral, which carries The Will of The Spiral, and it said: "Scream, oh Loudest Warrior. Shout louder and louder until finally these lands are once again united. Scream your way out of this scornful desert, oh Loudest Warrior, to the pit and bridge it with your cries." And so the Loudest Warrior was seen for many days afterwards, travelling steadfastly towards The Great Sundering and screaming at the top of his lungs as if stricken with lunacy. His eyes never moved, his mouth never closed as he walked to the brink of the Divide and there saw all the people of Elphon leaping to their doom in wave upon wave, falling willingly into The Great Sundering in such amass that one could start to see the corpses collecting as they floated and piled high above the oceans that drained into the canyon. They piled so high, for day upon day, that they reached the very brim of the pit. So it came to be that the lands were no longer divided and that the Loudest Man never stopped screaming for all the years he lived.
© 2014 LA WaningAuthor's Note
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2 Reviews  Last Updated on September 24, 2014 Tags: Science Fiction, Flash Fiction, Surreal, Strange, Short Story Author
LA WaningMEAboutI am a male in my late twenties living in Maine. I am primarily a poet, however I also write surreal flash fiction in the classic vein of Lovecraft, Poe, Blackwood, and so many others I consider the g.. more..Writing
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