The ground was pitch black, smooth and even. And so was the roof, maybe ten meters above.
It was unnatural. And it was empty.
And in it, a group of people was everything there was.
They didn't know where to wander, and yet, they did.
There was nothing to find, no edge, no wall, no exit.
And there was no joy in their journey.
They were to determined to enjoy, too focused on finding what didn't exist to even talk.
But why? Where were they supposed to go?
They didn't know. And who else would know? There was no one else.
An old and unwise man turned to a young girl and asked:
"Wanna hear a story?"
The girl eagerly nodded and so, the man began his story:
"Somewhere far, far away, there is a little mouse in the middle of a desert.
Every night, the mouse wandered. She had to wander during the night, because of the scorching heat during the day."
The girl stared at him with big, excited eyes:
"Where is the mouse going?"
The man giggled.
"To the only thing she ever knew. The sun. Every evening, when the mouse started to wander, the mouse saw a red disc of fire bury into the ground and she would only see it again the next evening. There was nothing else, so the mouse wanted to reach it.
There was simply nothing else to do.
Every evening she started to wander where the sun had set.
She never rested, she never stopped, she never looked back.
One day, when she woke up, there was something else.
An old turtle, green with little dots.
The old turtle was going in the same direction as her. They were both in need for the same thing and so, they wandered together. They spend day and night together, telling each other stories, playing games or just being silent. When they both stayed silent, it felt peaceful and comfortable.
The turtle was all she knew, the turtle and the sun.
'How long have you been wandering this desert?', the mouse asked.
'Longer than you could understand.'
One day, however, the turtle was gone.
She searched everywhere, but there was nothing to find.
The turtle was gone.
For three days,the mouse didn't wander. She stayed, she hoped the turtle might return, but it never did.
And so, the mouse eventually moved on. She kept wandering towards the sun."
"What happened next?", the girl asked full of tension and expectation.
But the man seemed confused, for a while he didn't say anything at all.
"Why would something happen next?" , he asked her.
"Did the mouse ever find the sun? Or the turtle?"
"No. She wandered everynight and she never reached the sun."
"What about the turtle?"
But the old man didn't answer. He looked back into the endless void pressed between black and black.
"You are asking the wrong questions, little mouse. You scurry towards the sun, there is nothing to reach.
The turtle never chased the sun. The turtle wandered with the mouse. He has seen countless other animals, they all chased the sun yet none of them had ever reached something as bright as the sun of the turtle."
The girls eyes were already darting far away into the depth of darkness.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"One day you will close your eyes for the last time. Either the near sun of the mouse will burn you to ash and every day of running will end in a dark without a sun.
You will die blind.
But the sun of the turtle shines warm as the turtle looks back at every companion, every day of traveling together, every day of his moment that he has loved living."