Excerpt: Home

The curious trail ended at a rounded arch. It was an unusual arch, but unassuming. It was tall, about eight or nine feet high, although the actual columns were only about seven and a half feet tall. Each column had a relief statue of a beautiful woman, wearing nothing but what looked like a crown of flowers on her head.. Both of the women had perfect faces, a straight nose, almond shaped eyes and full, heart-shaped lips. Their hair was long and was modeled in a way so that it appeared to fall over their shoulders, covering their breasts and their private parts. Both of the faces were pointing upwards and towards the center of the arch, and their arms that were closer to the inside of the arch were pointing to the top of it, where there was an inscription that said “Primum viveri deinde philosophari”, decorated with elaborate flowers and designs. The letters were so weathered that they were almost indecipherable, but the four teenagers were able to pick them out.
“Primum…what?” Julia asked, intrigued. She could see what it said, but she didn’t know what it meant.
As expected, Dameon answered. “PREEM -um VIV –er -ee DAYN -deh fee –loh –soh –FAH -ree. It means ‘live before you philosophize’. Or, in other words, ‘leap before you look.’”
“I like it”, piped up Kaida.
“You would,” said Taylor. “You already live by that.”
Beyond the arch, the trail continued, stopping at what looked like ruins. There couldn’t have been more than four or five lumps of what used to be a stone wall coming out of the ground. It was all covered in ivy, and had a very rustic effect to it. Behind the ruins, they could easily see the beginning of the slope downward, as well as a few glimpses of the valley below them.
The four friends approached the place cautiously. These days you never knew what kind of people would be hanging around a place like that, and to be perfectly honest, this only excited them more. Unfortunately, the only creatures hanging around the place were a few rats and a butterfly or two.
“You guys, come over here!” Kaida’s voice called out. The other three eagerly rushed over to where she was.
Kaida was standing in front of what seemed to be the only wall higher than two feet. About half-way up the wall there was a large square hole, most likely a window, through which one could see a magnificent view of the valley directly below the ruins.
Julia walked towards the window, and bent forward, as if to lean out of the window.
“Stop!,” Dameon called out. “We don’t know how long these ruins have been around. The entire wall could collapse on top of you.”
Stunned into silence, Julia stepped back carefully.
“It’s not that great, anyway,” Taylor said, coming to her rescue. “Let’s get out of here, I’m bored already.”
They all filed out of the “room” they were in, and left. As they were passing the arch, Kaida inexplicably stopped.
“What now?” asked Taylor exasperated.
“There’s something about that arch…I want to go through it.” She replied.
“No, Kaida,” said Dameon again. “Remember what I said back there? It’s the same thing. The arch could come down on you. That’s a lot of stone right there.”
“Dameon,” she said. “You’re philosophizing. You’re looking. Just leap.” And with that, she walked through the arch, and disappeared.