The work that went into breaking the stones down was making me truly reconsider the ancient ways of simply swallowing them whole. The complete one being only a centimeter in length made me want to reconsider my planned approach. Breaking them enough to make them more bearable was definitely possible. However, when it comes to learning the trade of an apothecary, something in me just couldn’t bear to consider cutting corners or taking the easy path. Call this professional ethics or personal OCD, but I was going to do it right!
Admittedly the thought that I was tripling the dose of crystals didn’t register as offensive in my mind. It was probably since I was the only one who might be negatively affected in the potential long term. In my opinion, this was a worthwhile risk to be taken for the promising rewards.
Finally, after all the components had been properly broken down, I mixed the various ingredients together and set them over the portable fame I had lit.
Looking somewhat like a Bunsen burner, I carefully managed the beaker full of ingredients over it to encourage equal distribution of heat application. Utilizing a crystal stirrer stick to better blend the components, I continued stirring until I saw a dull brown glow come over the entire solution.
That was the sign! It was done and now simply needed to cool down. Leaving it in the original flask, I left it open to the air to allow the steam to more easily escape, instead of transferring it to a smaller tube and corking like Victoria had done. This was specifically for me and not going to be given to another, so longer term preservation was not my concern.
Sitting down in the depression which I had been making within the stone wall, I positioned myself with legs crossed, back bare skinned and flush against the middle section of roughhewn and jagged stone. I was barely able to fit and hold my staff crosswise on my lap due to the width dimensions. The ends of the staff were almost scraping against the walls to either side of me.
As my body was able to fit within the 3 enclosed sides with a fair bit of discomfort, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling a little hesitant about consuming the potion here. A part of me wanted to wait until I could be overseen by my master during the attempted assimilation. However, I didn’t want to inconvenience her by requesting her presence at the falls, nor did I want to reduce the initial benefits to be gained by going to her in the shop.
With my mind made up, I swished around the beaker one last time to better disperse the denser particles throughout the solution. Then closing my eyes, I raised the dull greyish brown and glowing potion to my lips and drank. *Ugh!* Despite my care in grinding down the stones, I could distinctly feel the grainy particles as they swept across my tongue and down my throat. After draining the last dregs of the solution and feeling reluctance at not having the foresight to keep my water close by to clear the residue, I carefully placed the beaker on the ground away from me and waited.
I had been informed previously that no two individual’s experiences had been exactly alike. Unsure of what would happen, I struggled to even out my breathing and ignore the jagged ground and wall digging into my crossed legs and back.
.
.
.
It didn’t take long before an odd sensation of earthen and dusted stone spread forth from my abdomen where the potion had settled. The rush of chills and warmth unique to my ability then rose up in symphony to embrace it. Together, both energies appeared to magnify each other as they spread throughout every corner of my body, leaving an earthen and grounding trail in its wake. I then felt a tug on the massing energy through my senses, as if it was trying to ascend to a higher level of my being. However, it seemed as though it fell short of achieving some integral requirement, thus dispersing and settling within my physical body alone.
As the energy settled, so too was my vision taken, and my body became paralyzed. Amidst these new symptoms I felt a growing pressure being visited upon every aspect of my physical being that I could recognize. While I was undergoing this baptism of bodily compression, my conscious mind was stolen away on a venture as if the very earth was forming me into stone. Bones creaked, my skin became chapped, and blood vessels burst as if gravity itself had named me as an enemy, bearing its weight with a vengeance upon my mortal frame.
My mind was tossed about as if on a journey from a distant place, being crushed along the way and then pushed higher to the surface. Once there, I was taken to be shaped and weathered by heat and water, all to end up in my current state of hardened stone by Niagara Falls.
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Darkness continued to plague me, and after some time of sitting still within this abyss of only stone, did I notice a calming of the energies.
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.
.
No longer being tossed about or crushed under gravity, my mind began sending out new signals of panic. Air! I could not breath! My limbs were restricted, and I could not move from my position!
In my growing panic of acute claustrophobia, I began reflexively trying to thrash about. Something moved, and I felt myself tilt and then come crashing down on my side. *Crack!* My head rang at this sudden impact to both my left shoulder and scull, but then I felt a trace flow of air ease into me! Finding partial success, I continued to thrash about. I heard and felt various cracks forming across the surface of my body resulting from my efforts. First my left arm, then my right became more mobile. Soon after, I was able to loosen up my now cramping legs. I felt as if I had been dipped in concrete and then allowed to dry with a thin layer all around me.
My continued efforts to free myself from this unintended stone coffin gave increasingly positive returns, as thin stone shards broke free from holding me in place. This involved much thrashing about and repetitive movements of my limbs and overall body. Once the worst of it appeared to be over, I simply lay there in a shuddering heap. Stone particles still clung to my body in varying degrees, mostly caught up in my hair, across my arms, and legs, but they no longer inhibited my movements. Most importantly, I could breathe again!
With that one triumph I recognized another discomfort. My eyes felt gritty and dry with traces of stone dust clinging to my eyebrows and lashes. Closing my eyes to reduce the irritants, and after several breaths spent regathering my personal bearings, I was finally able to shuffle over to my pack and take out my water canteen. Clamping my left hand over the mouth hole to reduce the exit space, I then squeezed down hard on the leather body of the bottle to create a pressurized water stream into my eyes. I would pause on occasion to using my hands in order to pick away the clumps of wet stone dust before once again dousing them with water. Only after emptying nearly half of my canteen, did I feel more normal.
Casting my now clearer eyes about for a solution to the rest of my dust and stone riddled body, for the first time I took a more measured look at the nearby falls. At the very edge of the curtain of water crashing down on the scattered boulders below, there appeared a potentially bearable spot to settle at and attempt a shower or power wash of sorts.
Previously my mind had automatically balked at traversing through that treacherous field of wet boulders to reach the closer edge of the curtain of water. However, this time I felt a confidence that I had not felt before. The haphazardly strewn about boulders resulting from thousands of years of water erosion gave off a sense of familiarity. Earthen stability radiated between my bare feet and the ground as if promising a new level of reliability I had never known before.
A part of me felt a thrill at this new development, and so I embarked on my journey. I still had enough caution in mind to set my staff aside, as I had no desire to accidentally drop it and lose it in the deeper depths of the pool below the falls. Wrestling my precious staff from the tight grip of a young kraken was not on my list of things to do before I die.
Making my way over the precarious and slick rocks to my destination, I slipped several times and fell twice without the stabilizing aid of my staff. One of those falls was particularly nasty. However, what should have been an impact injury leading to painful throbbing or potentially even a fracture from that more serious fall only ended up as a minor sting which resolved quickly.
Testing out my right forearm which had taken the brunt of the impact, I only felt a minor tenderness and saw a slight reddening of skin at the point of contact. My eyes widened at this new development. If this was the result of my assimilation of stone and resulting tempering of body, excitement raced through me at the possibilities from both this and future assimilations of other elements!
Throughout all of this, as I was crossing the rock-strewn path, upon gentle physical contact, I began to experience unique feedback. My mind began interpreting what I was feeling. It was as if I had become acutely aware of which rocks would provide stable footing and which might shift, slide away, or even simply crumble underfoot. This simple sensory feedback from but a single touch held me in awe of the potential. “Hahaha!” Laughing aloud to myself in thrill at this new awareness, I felt that if I were to retain this level of sensory feedback in real life, that I would be able to advance my rare casual practice of rock climbing to a far higher level of difficulty.
* * * * *
Prior to when I had tried out rock climbing, if I were to go on a simple hike and look at a rock wall bordering the trail, I would consider it simply as a form of guidance and shade from the angled sun. Since I had taken up the occasional venture for indoor or outdoor rock climbing, those sheer rock walls took on an entirely new form in my perception. Instead of being a passive barrier keeping me on the trail or a shade barrier, I saw it as a potential challenge to be overcome.
New experiences and exposures to life’s many facets can open up paths that had previously appeared as being insurmountable or nonexistent. Sometimes all it takes to challenge the unthinkable, is a new experience by which to broaden your horizons.
* * * * *
Here I was jumping across water and moss slick boulders of varying sizes which I never would have previously considered taking on to this degree of recklessness. This was all done in order to reach the air reverberating and crashing waterfalls. With sonic waves smashing over me from the close proximity to the dense waters, I reached my goal and stood beside the pounding deluge of millions of gallons of water coming down from over 100 meters in height. The falls that didn’t even qualify as a world wonder in real life only reached 51 meters in height. Here though, there was far more to it as it dwarfed its mundane counterpart amid its magnificence.
Testing out the water with my bare hand, I felt the sprinkling and torrent of water as it progressively pressed harder when I moved it deeper under the deluge. Bracing myself for impact and deciding to test out the limits of my new resilience, I stepped beneath the water and was immediately smashed down into a heap on the rock below. It was a desperate struggle simply to keep my clothing from being stripped from my body and carried away with the current.