Treasures For The King [Part 2]

The trees began to drift past me, and my feet continued their forward progress as they followed the broad straight path that cut through the forest floor. My journey continued on, seemingly unending. Days, drip by drip, flowing into weeks and then years. Over time my treasures couldn’t be contained in my pockets any longer and I had to carry them in a large sack slung over my shoulder.

My steps had become much slower, the journey was much more toilsome, and the sack of treasures was becoming a great burden indeed. The journey had sucked much of the life from my bones and I found with each new waking day, a little of my self lost somewhere on the trail behind me. Another ingredient that added to my lack of desire to move on was the uncertainty of the journey itself. For as long as I had been on the road I never had seen any sign or marker indicating that I was heading toward the Great City. This aimlessness occasionally brought mild levels of discomfort into my heart, intermingled with varying degrees of loneliness and anxiety, but not enough to turn me around, never enough to turn me around, or even to ask counsel of others for differing routes of travel.

Finally, I came upon the end of the road. But it didn’t end at the gates of a Great City. Instead it ended at the mouth of a dark and dreary cave. The rumors were true. Over the many miles, various travelers talked of this cave, and spoke in hushed and dreaded tones of the monster that laid within its walls, lurking in the darkness for its prey. They said that it was the last enemy of the journey, and its power was so great as to swallow a man whole, stifling his screams of pain and fear as he disappeared down its black hungry throat.

At earlier points in the journey I used to scoff at the idea of this villain, thinking that if ever I had to face him, I could resist him in the full strength of my being. But now I looked at my feeble legs and my withered skinny arms and doubted that I was any match for the monster that loomed before me. This enemy had placed itself at a very strategic spot where all of its victims were weak, tired, and spent from their years of near endless striving. I tried to see into the cave, but from the distance I stood at, could see nothing but its black murky darkness. What I could see was that the path I traveled on changed subtly in two ways. It slowly descended down into the caves yawning mouth, and as it did so, it narrowed to the point where only one man could enter at a time. You would have to face this last enemy, and you would have to face it alone.

Fear wrapped its ugly clutches around my heart and began to squeeze. There were many things in life that I did not know, but the one thing that I did know was that I did not want to meet this last enemy. Just as I had settled this decision within my hearts inner counsel and was purposing to turn and begin walking back along the trail, I noticed that the mouth of the cave was opening, was getting larger, like it was readying itself for a new meal. Then it dawned on me, the mouth of the cave wasn’t getting larger, I was drawing closer. My feet stood motionless and yet I continue to move towards my awaiting enemy. The path was slick as ice and I could not resist its downward pull. In desperation I tried to grab onto something to keep me from being swallowed up, but the surroundings of the cave were bleak, barren, and lifeless. With one last effort I turned my back to the cave and threw my body onto the ground, screaming for help and clutching my fingers into the rock hard ground. My downward progress did not stop, I was slowly being dragged, feet first, to meet this last hungry monster. As my feet slid into the cave I could hear the enemies heavy breathing, could smell the monster’s rotting fumes of death, and suddenly felt its claws and fangs upon me. My body disappeared into the darkness, loud gulping noises could be momentarily heard, then all was deathly silent.