1 Prolouge

I had reached a valley between two mountain peaks, high above the clouds. I thought I had escaped them, I thought the shadows had finally faded.

But I was not high enough. I was never high enough.

The valley is flat, void of trees, the sky cloudless and the sun is bright. So then why? Why do the shadows continue to overwhelm me with their never ending darkness. My body is weary, my mind is shattering. I had pushed my limits and moved the boundaries, yet, the shadows remain.

I had never feared them, I simply resented them. They were older than I. They had the overarching advantage of age, and it will remain an eternal fact.

The shadows, they protect me. They guide me when the sun is blindingly bright. I still long to be separated from them, I long to embrace the sun. For it to shine on me unhindered. I wish to bathe in its warmth if only for a few seconds.

For that, I climb to the tops of mountain peaks to higher mountain peaks, closer to the sun. So that one day I could reach a place so close to the sun that the shadows would disappear. A place, where it would be impossible for them to exist, a place too bright for them and a place where I could thrive without their consuming, overhanging forms.

Until my dreams have been fulfilled, eternally I shall climb, to escape my brothers' shadows. For I am a child, the only bilingual in a family of polyglots, a decade younger than my eldest brother, and the smartest of my siblings and I.