DC
Chapter 9: Stumbling and falling for a long time: I don't know how long or how far, for I didn't even have the sense of a sturdy earth beneath me to gauge my distance by. Some time later my sense of touch returned, and ripping a large piece of cloth from what remained of my clothes, I wrapped it tightly around my ears and eyes, useless as they were. I walked, broken but free, for what may have been days; ,my only sense of time passing was the changing temperature.Being unable to see or hear allowed me to see the world I had known for what was - mere shadows and effects; what I had thought of as real was only reality's mask. I reached a point, then, when I decided to stop. I stood near a tree; its strong roots supporting it and reaching deep into the earth, stretching far throughout the garden; beyond. I sat in the shade of that tree and knew the wanderer would not appear. The wanderer was a function of sight and sound, and I was beyond both of those now. Just as I knew that, I knew this tree was my own creation as well. The tree, I realised, was the same guide I had before, this time in a different guise. The message I needed now was not one that could be expressed in words, nor needed to be. What I had been reduced to was my salvation.. Only after losing everything else could I begin. I took a sharp rock from the earth and pricked my finger leaving a drop of blood in thanks. ... ..