in California
April 25th, 2006
Prologue
If you were an observer standing and watching the ancient village of Sranu from afar, you would see a village that existed in the Himalayas at the same time as the ancient Egyptians existed in Egypt and the ancient Chinese existed just north of where Sranu lay.
You would see dark-skinned villagers who wore thick fur coats to shield themselves from the cold and the ice of the place where their village was. You would see them worshipping the mountain that the village was built at the base of. And if you could hear their voices from where you stood, you would hear them speak of how, when a person dies, they go to a sort of heaven if their soul is good. This heaven, the villagers say, is located on top of the mountain, where the gods live.
You would also hear them speak of the place where bad souls go. It is a place of eternal pain, slavery, and endless burning and fires. It is inside the great mountain, and is a sort of hell.
And if you were observing on one particular day, you would see a man named Eldin coming home from his writing lessons. You would see him meet up with his girlfriend, Kya. And then there would be an earthquake that shook Sranu until buildings and houses began to fall away from existence. And anything that was not killed by the earthquake was killed by the avalanche. The giant mass of snow, ice, and rock released from the mountain by the vigorous shaking. It buried all of Sranu, and that is why it has never been seen or uncovered to this day, and also because of its isolated location.
But you would see also two figures running across the snow away from the village, the only two survivors of this disaster. It would be Eldin and Kya. You would see them take shelter from the avalanche in a cave inside the mountain, and you would see the looks of pain and anguish on their faces. And then you would no longer see them, because of the boulder that fell and blocked the cave entrance.
They were trapped inside.
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