Another night, another walk alone. Don’t worry, no sadness followed over me like a cloud; I took off into the night to find a break from my work — to have a little fun, believe it or not.
Out from my cave I went, layered up to combat the brisk air’s touch. It didn’t stop my lungs from getting that special chilled-burning sensation, but that’s okay. I like it, the same way I like my nose and ears nipped at by the cold. Most goblins might not like it, but there’s something about it to be enjoyed.
I think it makes me feel alive. Not in the adrenaline-pumping way, but in those small ways: basking in sunshine with a light summer breeze; jumping stone to stone over a murmuring creek; crunching an autumn leaf beneath each step. They’re all common happenings, but indescribably important and impossibly difficult to explain how they make one feel. I experienced another moment to tally with the rest during that night of walking.
Down by the water, once again, I stood at the edge of the bed. No jagged teeth of rocks poked their crowns out to break apart the current — it flowed undisturbed, the full-moon lighting its path. Under the surface of the water: rolling clouds of fog raced in a tumult, overlapping and enveloping one another, speaking little more than a whisper. All lied perfectly flattened by an invisible weight bearing down, and I understood.
I understood that in a silent chaos existed something that was entirely whole, and that it invited me to be whole — entirely whole but entirely different. I accepted its offer, as I walked away to continue my walk.
The specifics of what I now understand? How to describe the inviting nature of a simple stream? Explaining the totality and insignificance of it all? All of these questions, and so many more, are impossible to answer with words. Like so many other moments in our lives, they can only be felt; only be known; only be understood.
I understood.
“The Goblin Cave” weaves vivid imagery and prose with reflections and commentary on the world around us. Written by Ethan Reisler, “The Goblin Cave” looks at society, reality and culture from a far away land not unlike our own.