A Quest Through The Starlit Desert
In a time when starships were nothing but a fairytale, a lonely traveler by the name of Ariadne pursued a quest like no other. She had forsaken comfort and familiarity to tread the vast and encompassing Starlit Desert, all to go beyond the horizon where an ancient civilization supposedly hid a secret of cosmic significance. Scorching days, freezing nights, and cosmic energy that could manipulate time were just the normalities of a journey across the Starlit Desert.
Ariadne was no ordinary traveler. Her skin held the subtle sparkle of stardust, a unique characteristic of the descendants of Cosmic Voyagers who could travel between star systems. Ariadne, although she herself was grounded to this earth, dreamed of the cosmos with the longing of a lost child missing their forever home. She had only the stories passed down by her ancestors to feed her cosmic yearning.
On the dawn of what seemed the thousandth day, Ariadne felt the time draw near. She saw something glimmer past the horizon, and her heart began to race. Despite her body’s cry for rest, she pressed on, and as she neared the crest of the desert dune, her heart skipped a beat.
A magnificent relic of shimmering crystal stood nestled between the dunes under the glow of the stars. This was the dwelling of the ancient civilization that she had been seeking. Could this relic hold the secret she had been seeking? A cosmic portal, perhaps? With heated hope burning its way through her veins, Ariadne approached the mysterious relic and laid a gentle hand upon the cool surface.
With her touch, the ground beneath her seemed to quake and the relic shimmered with sudden luminosity before it split open. A staircase made of the cosmos descended and led into the belly of the relic as if calling her into its cavernous depths. Ariadne took a deep breath and descended down the celestial staircase and soon found herself standing before an ethereal, starry gateway.
As she approached, words etched in ancient linguistic sprang to life across the arched gate, ‘The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’
Ariadne placed a tentative step into the gateway.
As her foot touched the other side, she felt an indescribable surge of energy course through her veins as if she was becoming one with the universe itself. Her skin shimmered more vibrantly with stardust that slowly drifted off her skin like a nebula. She felt light-headed, but not out of illness, rather out of the sudden removal of earthly weight as if gravity no longer held her down.
She found herself not in some different star system but in another time on Earth–eons past when civilization was budding. Here was where her ancestors lived, cosmic voyagers, drifting between Earth and the cosmos. A deep sense of belonging washed over Ariadne, all the scattered pieces of her life finding their rightful place in a cosmic jigsaw. This was the secret of the cosmos she had been seeking, not some artifact or tool but a profound understanding of her heritage and the knowledge that she could walk amongst the stars while remaining bound to Earth.
The traveler who dared to quest across the Starlit Desert witnessed the harmonious confluence of the cosmic realm and that of hers. She was Ariadne, the descendant of the cosmic voyagers and a Cosmic Voyager herself, living between eras, between the earth, and the cosmos. She had found her home.
Journeys can take you further than the destination. Ariadne’s journey took her across time and space, all the while bringing her closer to herself. Such are journeys - You walk a thousand miles only to return to yourself. But, throughout her journey, she found that the true treasure was not just at the end, it was the journey itself, and she was richer for it.