Humpty Dumpty sat on a [[wall.]]
He sat stationary while his eyes traveled in his place. Scanning the ominous line meant to be the horizon but appeared more like the flat edge of a knife, a never-ending line that sundered the sky from the ground below. Humpty shifted, hands scraping against the bricks that held him up.
[[“Monotonous, isn’t it?”]]
Alarm rang in Humpty’s widened eyes at the disembodied voice that scraped against the air like gravel. Swiveling from side to side, the egg attempted to find the voice’s owner, and for a brief, frightening moment, he lifted his head, chin raised to the sky, and eyes landing back on the horizon where clouds grazed. Had the sky just spoken to him like in some sort of prophecy? The never-ending horizon line hadn’t separated from the land to form a mouth, to utter syllables of comprehension. It was just the same orange hue from the sunset that was slowly being digested by the encroaching night.
(text-colour:blue)[“God?” ]
A low rumbling groan responded before the sound was upended by a [[deafening crack.]]
The cracking sound grew more intense, a bellow of noise that made Humpty’s yolk jump as the very wall beneath him shook and trembled. The longer the cacophony swelled, the more it resembled laughter. Deep and thunderous but undercut by the subtle lilt of amusement threaded through each crash.
(text-colour:grey)[“God? What a disappointing meeting that would be.”] The voice finally continued after their laughter, warm yet rough.
Humpty, tense and utterly confused, finally decided to [[look down]] where the bricks beneath him had shifted.
(text-colour:grey)[“Took you a second to realize, huh?” ]
Humpty almost didn’t believe it despite the proof being right below him. Below where the egg sat was a large brick wall, a brick wall whose gray mortar glue lines parted to form a mouth that jostled the structure a bit whenever it spoke. (text-colour:blue)[“There’s no way…”] Humpty started, but his disbelieving murmur was picked up by the wall who promptly responded.
(text-colour:grey)[“No way, what? You’re a talking egg, I didn’t think a sentient wall would be all too surprising to encounter.”]
Humpty’s eyebrows furrowed before he nodded in concession, (text-colour:blue)[“I… suppose you’re right.”]
(text-colour:grey)[“You were looking at the ^^[[sky]]^^ earlier, right?”]
The momentary shock of the talking wall somehow paled when Humpty remembered the horizon. Looking away from the bricks to the stagnant line of separation revealed the sun’s slow disappearance as the darkness continued to eat away the remaining light.
(text-colour:grey)[“You could visit it, y’know. The horizon.”]
Humpty’s face sharpened into skepticism, (text-colour:blue)[“Visit? You’re made of bricks so I know you don’t have an actual brain, but… visiting the horizon is impossible.”]
(text-colour:grey)[“You’re privy of my existence for all of three minutes and suddenly you’re an expert on the world?” ]The bricks grumbled below Humpty and the egg’s fingers [[tightened over the ledge.]]
(text-colour:blue)[ “Alright, so what? You’re a wall and you can talk.”
]
(text-colour:grey)[“Mhm. And you’re an egg who has spent the last year sitting on top of me and looking at the horizon… why?”
]
Humpty shrugs, “[[Boredom?]] [[Curiosity?]] [[Wonder?]] Something not [[depressing.]]"
(text-colour:blue)[“I think I’ve always been bored. Ever since I was young, I would always just stare ahead of me and let the time…pass. Staring at the sky can sometimes feel the same way.” ]
The wall grumbled. (text-colour:grey)["Boredom is often the mask for something else. Want to try something different?]
The egg frowns and thinks to itself. What were the reasons if not boredom? [[Curiosity?]] [[Wonder?]] Something not [[depressing.]]
(text-colour:grey)["Curiosity?]” The bricks scrape against one another as if scoffing, (text-colour:grey)[“It’s the same bleak picture every day.”]
Humpty smiles at that, his legs swinging over the edge of the wall, (text-colour:blue)[“Not every sunset is identical, the same clouds aren’t present the next day. There’s subtle variety with each horizon… I like to catalog it.”]
The wall doesn’t respond. Seems like that wasn't the response it wanted. Humpty frowns but thinks to himself. What were the reasons if not curiosity?? [[Boredom?]] [[Wonder?]] Something not [[depressing.]]
(text-colour:blue)[ “I always wondered what could be over the horizon. It's a wonderful thought.” ]
The wall rumbles beneath Humpty in response.
(text-colour:grey)[“If it were truly just wonder, you would not sit atop me and grumble to yourself for all these long months. Be honest with yourself, egg."]
Humpty frowns but thinks to himself. What were the reasons if not curiosity?[[Boredom?]] [[Curiosity?]] Something not [[depressing.]]
The bricks shift in another laugh from the wall, this time, however, Humpty veers off to one side, and if it weren’t for the wall settling, he probably would’ve fallen off. (text-colour:grey)[“You seek to be filled, it sounds like. A trip to the horizon could solve that emptiness.”]
Humpty, pulling himself back upright, glances down. //He never realized how high this wall was.// Something about the way the brick wall’s mouth opened up to reveal a hollow void made Humpty shiver. What did this sentient creature eat? Did it eat? Could something made by man’s hand hold authentic life?
(text-colour:blue)[“How would I get there?”] Humpty chooses to suppress his thoughts, not liking the way they creep up the back of his shell and linger there.
[[“You just fall.”->Fall]]
(text-colour:blue)[“Fall?!”] The word cuts like an execution when it slips past Humpty’s lips, “you’re crazy.”
(text-colour:grey)[“And you’re a coward.”] The wall counters quickly, its gravely voice grating on Humpty’s fragile shell,(text-colour:grey)[ “You sit up here on this wall and do what?” A pause, “you rot here, cooking beneath the sun and cooling beneath the moon with nothing but the excuse of your mind keeping you rooted to me.”
]
[[Humpty blinks.->The answer]]
The wall was right. //Wasn’t it?// He had been sitting here day in and day out, just churning over thoughts until they turned into dull mush, slowly drip fed down Humpty’s throat until he choked on his [[own mind.->So]]
(text-colour:blue)[“So… I just…?”]
(text-colour:grey)[“Just fall. [[Look->suspicion]] at the [[horizon.->The Fall]] You’ll wake up on its border.”]
Humpty wondered how this brick wall could’ve possibly known how to get to the horizon. He wondered if this was all some sort of plot against him, but what for? Why would this [[brick wall->So]] have it out for him?
Standing on wobbly legs, the egg finds himself looking outward toward the now almost black horizon, its line only illuminated by the silver glow of the watchful moon. When he glanced down the ground didn't even look flat. The long strands of swaying grass looked more like choppy waves that thrashed from the brutal wind and suddenly the way the wind almost picked him up made Humpty painfully aware of how heavy gravity suddenly felt pressing down on his shell.
Lifting one foot in the air to let it hover, Humpty kept his eyes trained on the horizon, the faint line was barely visible above the grassy ocean but something within Humpty, maybe [[hope->The Horizon]], forced him to shut off any warning signs that blared in his head. For once, [[stagnation]] would be worse than death.
The wall was quiet now, or perhaps the whipping gusts of wind were too loud. Either way it didn't matter now. He couldn't tell if the repeated echoes of //"fall, fall, fall"// were from the adrenaline of his rushing thoughts or the world around him, coercing him, seducing him, lulling him, guiding him. He couldn't tell, he couldn't make sense of anything except the sky when he tipped forward.
Darkness splintered by (text-style:"blink")[(text-colour:yellow)[twinkling]] eyes watched the egg fall from above the horizon lines. The ground below shuddered as if bracing for impact. But all Humpty felt were the few seconds of (text-style:"sway")[freefall], the space between the sky and the land, the horizon.Stagnant. That's all the egg could be right now.
(text-colour:grey)["Frightened?"] The wall spoke. (text-colour:grey)["As I said... A coward. Need a nudge, then?']
And before he could fathom it, a gray brick from the wall pupped up and out, sending Humpty soaring off the wall. Soaring... free. Fear still seized his heard, but it was also overcome with something else. Something a little like faith. That faith carried him on and on throughout the horizon, even as his body lay shattered on the ground.