The Traveler

The Traveler wasn’t always known by that name. They once had a life beyond the road. Their feet were once still, their shoulders unburdened. They had lived in  a house built of bricks with a white wooden door that slammed shut the second one released its knob. They came from a family full of love and laughter and arguments and resolutions. They had seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. They knew the world for what it was, for they once were a part of it. They could’ve gone through with that normal life, lived it to the fullest and done well. They are known as The Traveler now and the road has become their life.

They had claimed the sun as their guide long ago, before they really knew what they were after. They followed its rules, lived by its light, and kept it in sight throughout all their days. When it left them, however, they found new peace with the moon. They felt admiration towards its courage, for The Traveler feared the dark. The moon never left them. It waited within the shadows of night, soothing The Traveler’s fears with the dim glow of its light. 

The sun bore waves of heat stronger than ever before that day, making sweat trickle down The Traveler’s nose. For a while they ignored its journey down his face, as The Traveler wasn’t one to deny someone else’s trip, but eventually they wiped away the sweat, no longer able to stand the ticklish feeling it gave them. They wondered why evaporation never favored them, leaving them soaking wet within a desert as dry their mouth. The irony merely amused them, as The Traveler held no need for annoyance. 

The past few days they had been led through a desert, unlike any they’d been in before. The sands were pigmented blue like an ocean, the cacti bright white like the clouds. The winds that came in the night enveloped them, and the sun that stood throughout the day appeared to be a sadist. The Traveler knew there was a reason for being brought to such a strange scene, but they knew not the reason nor needed one. They were too old to doubt the road after all it had given them. And a gift they did receive.

It came late in the day when the sun began to sink and the sky consequently darkened. The sand beneath The Traveler’s feet shifted softly to an unknown tune. The sound of laughter drifted over a nearby dune, and a smile spread swiftly across The Traveler’s face. The Traveler continued onward, his focus on the rising stars. 

For a while it went this way: a few steps, a couple giggles, a knowing smile hidden between the dunes. An air of childish humor drifted across the desert, something quite unknown to the strange land where life was something to fight for, not enjoy. 

Soon the soft sounds of joy grew louder and louder within The Traveler’s ear, but they kept their head aligned with the path they were to follow. Another set of feet met the surface of the road, and another set of footsteps joined along The Traveler’s rhythm, a chaotic padding compared to The Traveler’s steady beat. A huff of air was exhaled beside The Traveler followed by the sound of quick footsteps towards the right. 

“The road is hot, is it not?” The Traveler spoke to themself. “I remember my first time upon it. I dove right off of it!” The swish of cloth answered them from the side, most likely from where the sand sat, for the sand was as inviting as a warm bath with bubbles, not that The Traveler would know as he never left the path.

              “As you can tell I did hop back on eventually,” they continued, reminiscing of a past that they thought of fondly.

              The Traveler finally turned to the child that sat on a nearby patch of particularly bright blue ground. The child looked up with wonder to the stranger they had found, and immediately brightened with joy. As the Traveler lowered himself onto the pavement, the child leaned forward in observation of their movements. 

                They sat wrapped in silence for a few moments before the questions of the child became known, “Why is it so hot? I think I burned my feet,” the child spoke, sticking out their toes for The Traveler to see. 

                 The Traveler studied each foot carefully before reassuring the child, “You’ll be okay. You just weren’t expecting it.” 

                 “Expecting what?”

                 “You know, the feeling. The sudden rush of exhilaration the moment you connected with the road. I know that feeling very well.” 

                  The child nodded in understanding. They touched their toes to the curb with care, sure to keep the rest of them onto the sands where they’d lived their whole life.

                   “Where are you going?” The child asked, cocking their head sideways until their neck began to ache.

                    “Home,” he replied instantly, a burst of pride and bliss making his answer clear. 

                    The child liked this stranger, the honesty that exuded from them, so they stood up with their chest puffed out and declared, “I’ll come with you!” 

                     The Traveler laughed, not unkindly, and arose from the ground with ease. “My home is not like yours, little one, for this road has no end.” 

                     The child frowned and pondered the words of their new friend. “It goes on forever?” They repeated, staring out at the horizon of the falling sun where the very edge of the path appeared to disappear. 

                      “It does.” The Traveler smiled, “It’s a very good thing that it does.” 

The child turned their attention south where the foundations of their own house lay, cracked and rotting from the inside out. They thought of their family, who further damaged the building with their efforts to fix it. Nothing grew on the sand, so the child always wondered why they’d settled there. There was never a way out, a better place to go. Their parents no longer cared, however. The desert was quiet enough, safe enough, and easy enough to live in. The sands were pretty to look at and soothing to the touch. The child knew the truth, however. The sands shifted too much, and were slowly devouring their house and themselves. 

“Come with me,” the Traveler whispered, excitement in his expressions. “The road is not easy on this decimated planet. It’s rocky and steep, the environments are strange and scary, the conditions appear impossible at times. But I’ll be here. You will never be alone. I’ll keep you safe. Come with me.”

Both stood side by side, one on the road the other in the sand. The Traveler lowered their arm and held out their hand to the child lovingly. Before the child could reach out, a thunderous sound came from behind them, a roar of noise that could not be interpreted. Each figure turned to the mountain from which The Traveler had come from, and in sight came a large group of people, followers, whose feet pounded against the road with steady strength. The child couldn’t make out their words or their faces, however, they saw the community and felt their sense of kindness as one felt a wave wash over the shore. 

              “Come with us, Eve,” The Traveler repeated.

              The child’s eyebrows raised in uncertainty, towards the decision before them as well as towards The Traveler, who somehow already knew their name. But when Eve saw The Traveler’s outstretched hand, the child held onto it with a reckless trust they had never been able to give before because they knew The Traveler in a way they’d never known another. 

                This time, when the child set foot onto the road with no end, they knew that it would finally lead them home.