'Shima,' he says. 'I'm [[Shima]].'I study the young man standing before my table. He stands with one hand holding the elbow of his other arm uneasily. He is (link-replace: "small")[(link-replace: "long-haired")[slouching]]. The several of my men who sit loosely around the different corners of my tent watch on without discernible [[interest|incuriously]].'You're too young,' [[I say]].It's a sharp evening, late in the year, although none of us can agree on the month. We can hear the truck's engine finally running outside, now all fixed up with our bags loaded in the back. It sounds as though it's fighting the cold.
'I only look that way because I'm lean. I'm a [[man|size]].'The bags in the back of the truck are filled with dried meat and oatmeal wrapped in cloth. Flasks of water. Strapped to some of the bags are blunt objects - hammers and pipes and the like - that the men call their armoury. Frantic innovations in the face of fear.
'It could be [[dangerous]],' I say.'Is it any safer to [[stay]]?'All heads turn to see how I'll settle the matter, but I'm distracted. I think of how he reminds me of myself as a kid, in the first few years after. When everything still seemed to be settling down into its new [[arrangement]].We have set up our tents here for the past six weeks, a hundred of us that remain. Food supplies are lower than ever, and this week we stopped being able to drink boiled water from the river.
What the people call pollution, for lack of a better word.
The young man named Shima is still staring expectantly at [[me]].I have a decision to make. It seems I make a decision every moment these days, with no way of knowing how long it will stay made.
I debate with myself whether to [[let Shima come|come1]] on the journey or [[make him stay|'Stay here, look after your people.']].'Stay here, look after your people.'
'My mother is dead from the water, [[five days ago]] now.'I feel my decision unravelling already.
'Of course - forgive me. It's been a long week for many of us.'
[['So?']][[I could let him come|come1]], I suppose. [[Or tell him I need the night to decide.|Give me the night to decide]]
The young Shima dips his head and leaves the tent.
I tell my men to get out before retreating to my blankets in the corner. It was tiring to debate the point with Shima, I think. I'm getting old, quickly.
I swiftly undress and put out the [[light]].I sigh and put my hands under my table.
'Pack your bag and make sure half of that is water, nothing from this week,' I say. 'Tell anyone bothered by your taking supplies to come and find me. Don't talk about it to people if you can help [[it|come]].'{
(print: "<script>$('html').removeClass(\)</script>")
(if: (passage:)'s tags's length > 0)[
(print: "<script>$('html').addClass('" + (passage:)'s tags.join(' ') + "'\)</script>")
]
}We're only hours from being on the road, and I am already impatient to know the outcome of the expedition. I try to give equal weight to the possible eventualities in case we are wrong.
Either it is there or it is not; there is hope or [[futility]].Everything rests on the dying words of a man who came our way a fortnight ago. His story is no more than a incoherent series of details that I go over every night before I sleep.
A village, in the [[mountains|sleep]].(link-replace: "Houses built from flint.")[(link-replace: "A spring whose waters one can drink without boiling.")[(link-replace:"Air so ice-sharp and clear that they once used it to cure illness.")[(link-replace: "A town of five hundred.")[(link-replace:"Including healthy children.")[[[Real families|next]].]]]]]In the dark, I hear footsteps close by to me and try to reach for my torch, beginning to panic as I struggle to find it and the sound becomes more [[rapid]].
<span class='black'>[[It's...]]</span>
<audio src = "https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/torch%20click%201.mp3" autoplay>
... <span class='black'>[[nothing]].</span>
<script>Sound.play('https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/peace.mp3');</script>
only my <span class='black'>[[heart]]</span><span class='black'>
still [[knocking away]]</span>
long after I have accepted <span class='black'>[[my fate]]</span>
And in the silence between the beats I seem to hear the absence of <span class='black'>[[another]]</span> rhythm.She used to lie here, only six weeks before. Where are you?
                       <span class='black'>[[Elena.|the kid]]</span>I am not a natural leader, but it's beginning to look like I will die acting as [[one]].
|fadeout>[[[FOUR.|2.]]]
<audio src = "https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/2title%202.mp3" autoplay>I sit in the back of the truck and the wind pummels my face. My eyes are weeping, my beard tickling my chin. It is three o'clock in the afternoon and the sun is hidden by clouds so dense that we drive with our lights [[on]].The further we go from the camp, the stronger we find the smell. It has already made a couple of the men ill, vomiting over the side of the truck as we go. It is a [[hundred smells]] at once.It is (link-replace: "the body of a boar that we pass on the road being eaten by several birds")[(link-replace: "oil seeping up from the ground")[every tree in the forest, [[rotting at once]]]]. Personally, the smell reminds me of something you cook that falls behind the back of the oven and you forget about it.
I don't share this insight in case they recognise something in it from their [[past]].There is no room for the past when we might not survive until [[nightfall]].But without past there is no [[self]].Therefore we are no one, for now.
I tie a bandana over my face to filter out some of the smell and tell my men that it looks as though time is on [[our side|today]].I am wrong, it turns out.
The sun sets and we have hardly left the dead forest behind, which was twenty miles longer than we had anticipated. This sets a bad precedent for our maps, but I take it in my stride and tell the men that the forest is infamously difficult to navigate. It's //lucky// we've made it out before setting up [[camp]].They just look wearily at [[me|me3]].The question remains whether or not to make camp at the lower springs near the base of the mountain, as planned, or to stop here in the lowlands.
I picture the mountains lying ahead, unseen in the [[fog]].'We need to rest,' one of the men yells over the sound of the engine. 'My back is giving me hell.'
'There could be trouble if we stop so close to the forest,' another says, the eldest among [[us]].I look to the [[first|night]] man and then the [[second]], coming to a decision before they have a chance to sense any uncertainty on my part.'Our plans were made with great care. We will stick to them for now.'
Some of the men mutter in frustration, but we press [[onwards|Untitled Passage 3]].There are some stones in a circle at the top of a slow hill close enough to the road.
'[[Here|back]],' I shout to the driver.Up close, I see dew is already settling on the upright stones, glisting in our high-beam headlights. We get out and the wind goes through them. It goes through me the same.
'Get the tents up on that side for some shelter,' I say. 'What are you waiting [[for]]?'The boy, Shima, stands at my side.
'Did someone put them there?'
'I expect,' I say. 'I don't know. [[A long time ago|things]].'No sooner are the first few pegs hammered into the ground that we hear [[it|that sound]] from the other side of the hill.Every man stops dead in his tracks. Our driver flicks off the [[headlights]], leaving us in the pitch dark.
It is a sound I have only had described to me until now. I try to listen, head [[tilted]].I place my hand on my torch, wondering whether to [[shine a light]] across the field or to [[leave the thing alone and undisturbed|whimper]].skin like wet black <span class='black'>[[paint]]</span>
<audio src = "https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/torch%20click%204.mp3" autoplay>
a head bent back <span class='black'>[[too far|far]]</span>
<span class='black'>[[crouching|crouching, fingerless]]</span>, fingerless
limbs twitching <span class='black'>[[in my torchlight|limbs twitching in my torchlight]]</span>A man in my company lets out an unmistakable [[whimper]].
<audio src = "https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/torch%20click%203.mp3" autoplay>'Back to the truck,' I say, loud enough to be sure all of my men have [[heard]].Three of our four tents come down easy, but the one whose pegs are hammered into the hard earth stays a tangled mess of fabric.
I order the men to leave it, and we race back to the road with one less tent.
The men push past each other to get into the truck and not one word is uttered between [[them|ten miles]].Ten miles along the road, I finally catch my breath and reflect on the consequences of my decision.
Now we only have three tents between us. It will do, just about, but the men will begin to drive each other crazy if they're on top of each other all night as well as through the day.
That's just the way people [[are|Untitled Passage 3]].The following morning a rare patch of sunlight shines on the canvas ceiling above my head, its warmth emanating throughout the [[tent]].I step outside and glimpse the mountains for the first time, tall and violently strange to me.
A few men wash themselves in the nearby spring, splashing each other in the [[water|surface]].
<script>Sound.play('https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/in%20the%20lake.mp3');</script>
We can't know if it's safe. I should tell them to come out before they swallow any water, but it's strangely comforting to see them laughing around. I think about [[packing my things|out]] before I subject them to [[my flat, droning request for them to get out|erm]].They look embarrassed and resentful as they climb [[out]].
<div style="display: none;"><img src="!@#$" onerror="Sound.fade(0,3000);" /></div>We clamber into the truck once everyone is dressed and find the engine won't start. On further inspection we discover our remaining fuel puddled by the wheel [[arch]].
<div style="display: none;"><img src="!@#$" onerror="Sound.fade(0,3000);" /></div>We march two at a time with our bags seeming to press harder down on us with each step as the incline steepens. We're in the mountains, alright.
The view from halfway up a winding path is nearly beautiful, with the black line of trees on the horizon and, closer, the various dark shades of earth in neat squares. Once fields. The mist hangs over them like smoke over a smoldering [[blanket]].'It's so far,' Shima says, and I say that it sure is.
Then, when I turn to smile at him, I realise he is looking elsewhere upwards [[into the mountains|bagsgs]].We lose the first of our company on the same day, without warning and so suddenly that I can do nothing but stare as the three men lie shivering in their blankets and then finally not moving at [[all]].It is the same men who swam in the springs [[before|earlier]].I feel the judgement of the other men at my back when I bend to close the eyes of the dead. What would the last emperor have said? Something profound and heartwarming.
As I turn to my men, the eldest is close by and pointing at [[me|me2]].'They were the fittest men among us,' he said. 'They should have outlived us all. You ought to have looked after [[them|so]].'I could stand by the fact that [[I didn't tell them to go in the water.]] Or I could say [[some kind words]] - though he doesn't look as though he will appreciate this at all.
He steps forward and hits me square in the jaw, sending me halfway to the ground before he catches my shirt and growls into my face from an inch away.
'If you can't protect your people, they'll find someone else who will [[before long]].'The man shakes his head and steps back through the group, who divide to make space for him, some putting a hand on his shoulder.
I have avoided a fist fight, for [[now|cost]].I clutch my jaw as he walks away into the crowd of [[men|cost]].When I locate Shima in the crowd I see that he is frowning and looking in the direction of the mountain face as he always does. It's as if the rest of us aren't [[here|here1]].
For a moment I imagine that is the case.
It is beginning to snow further up the mountain, and with it a freezing wind rushes down into my [[face]].I blink to clear my [[vision]].Shima is the first to put on his bag and start the walk along the path once [[again|back1]].
|fadeout>[[[TWO.|SFX]]]
<audio src = "https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/title%204.mp3" autoplay>It's the fourth night of our excursion.
I huddle up in my blanket and keep watch at the entrance of my tent, unable to sleep. I aim my torch into the distance as though it could pick up anything further than ten feet away in this dense [[mist]].the icy <span class='black'>[[air]]</span>
<audio src = "https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/torch%20click%201.mp3" autoplay>
<script>Sound.play('https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/peace.mp3');</script>
                  the <span class='black'>[[men]]</span> snoring                 who know <span class='black'>[[weakness]]</span>
       who can <span class='black'>[[smell]]</span> it on me                                        like <span class='black'>[[those things]] in the lowlands.I've no friends <span class='black'>[[here|here2]]</span>.
Men in large numbers
always <span class='black'>[[unnerved]]</span> me.
      I am only the brother
     of someone they <span class='black'>[[loved.|loved]]</span>What's <span class='black'>//[[that]]//</span>?
<audio src = "https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/short%20bear.mp3" autoplay>
                                              just the <span class='black'>[[wind]]</span>?
      or a dead branch finally <span class='black'>[[falling]]</span> from a tree?If I could find some kindness within my <span class='black'>[[company|men1]]</span>...
the only well from which I might
                                               find my <span class='black'>[[strength]]</span>...
         some warmth out <span class='black'>[[here|here3]]</span>...                                            my warm <span class='black'>[[blanket|blanket1]]</span>...I <span class='black'>[[blink]]</span>.
                                              it grows <span class='black'>[[harder]]</span> to....
<div style="display: none;"><img src="!@#$" onerror="Sound.fade(0,3000);" /></div>to <span class='black'>[[keep]]</span>...I wake at dawn to [[chaos]].They are shouting and spilling out of the tents. Some charge into the trees. Others gather and stare into the mist in [[fear|terror]].Something has come in the night, they say. Look at the size of its paw prints in the mud outside this [[tent|end]].[['Is anyone hurt?']]The kid, they say. Not hurt, but [[missing]].Then two men rush out of the mist holding something between them wrapped up inside a blanket. His shaggy hair is matted with something, and halfway down his shirt is a rip from which blood [[pours]].[['Can you hear me, kid? What got at you?'|'Can you hear me, boy? What is it that got you?']]His eyes rise up the mountain side, gazing to the distance in a way that makes him seem unsconscious.
He opens his mouth and closes it [[again|head]].One man has a firm hand on the wound and another is heating their knife in the fire embers until the steel is almost glowing at the edges.
I look away when they apply it to the wound. His body jerks under the men's grip from the trauma, but he is strangely [[silent]].The man from earlier approaches me.
'Me and the other men. We've been thinking it's time to head [[home]].''Home? There is no [[home|home1]].''Whatever's back there isn't as bad as dying to a beast on the side of a fucking mountain. We'll take him with [[us|us1]].''They're [[my men|command]].''That's very good,' he laughs. 'Will you come or [[not]]?''I made a promise,' I say.
He shrugs and whistles to make the men gather around him as they once did with [[me|me1]].
|fadeout>[[[ONE.|NUMBER]]]
<audio src = "https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/2title%201.mp3" autoplay>They take it all, my tent and even my spare furs. With nothing but my blanket and half a flask of water in my bag, I stumble onwards up the path with only my hiking stick for company.
Soon snow clouds descend and envelop [[me|me4]].(link-replace:"//Black Pine//")[''//Black Pine//'' is a piece of interactive fiction developed in Twine that takes around fifteen minutes to play. It chronicles the expedition, taken by its narrator and his company of men, across a deteriorating landscape and towards a sanctuary that might not exist. Seeking to earn the respect of these men as their newly appointed leader, the player-reader will need to traverse various dilemmas from which there seems to be no easy [[escape|insights]].]
Double-click this passage to edit it.The rocks and the dead branches of pines are gathering snow, and it is almost beautiful again, as it was when I stood with Shima looking out.
It can't be far now, [[I think]].
<script>Sound.play('https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/fire%20and%20wind.mp3');</script>
Ahead, I can make out a clump of snow falling down the rocks a hundred feet away despite the darkening sky. It's just as the rumours said; the fog eventually clears as you go up. My furs are already saturated with snowflakes and gradually becoming sodden.
Perhaps it is still [[very far]].I have never felt cold like this, a sensation so corrosive it has become something beyond coldness.
When the sky's darkening is almost complete I reach for [[my torch]], which takes a moment to flicker on.
       The snow fills its beam.
       The snow covers <span class='black'>[[me|me5]]</span>.
<audio src = "https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/torch%20click%204.mp3" autoplay>
I wonder, if I stand still
will I become the same in death
as the black pines around <span class='black'>[[me|me6]]</span>?           I will turn off my <span class='black'>[[torchlight]]</span> soon.
         to need it I would
         have to know where
         I needed to <span class='black'>[[go]]</span>.<span class='black'>[[Now|now2]]</span>...
         ... to let the wind and the night <span class='black'>[[carry me]]</span>.The dark is complete and I am complete inside [[it|it1]].
<audio src = "https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/torch%20click%203.mp3" autoplay>
I plunge my stick through the snow once more and take a pitiful step [[forward]].//I promised I would not join you yet.
I will break that promise. [[Forgive me]].//Over there - on the crest of that incline, where the ground and the falling snow seem to glow with yellow light - maybe I'll find my bed and [[go quietly]].//Please, for just a moment, [[push the wind against my back.]] Let me lie where the yellow light lies.////I know you've been watching. I feel it. [[Push the wind against my back.|Push the wind against my back.1]]////And I've listened to you. When it's time for me to act, I hear your voice in my ear. [[Push the wind against my back.|Push the wind against my back.2]]//Now closer to the yellow light, I see that it is more than rocks standing there as I had expected. There are walls built from stone, structures roofed with wood.
There are at least a dozen small cabins like this, circling a roaring flame. A large campfire, recently lit.
[[Who by|By whom]]?There are shadows and outlines of people about [[the cabins]].//Not yet//, I think to her. And there is something wet and not-cold on my [[cheeks]].Then there is something between myself and the light.
A great shadowy thing has appeared from the trees, facing away from me, staring just as I had towards the [[flame]].For a moment I mistake it for myself.
But then it stands on its hind legs and sniffs at [[the wind]].
The bear is like nothing I have seen, rising up twenty feet tall. Its fur is black as coal.
It falls and begins to move, casting great amounts of snow aside as it lumbers forward. The people outside the stone cabins don't seem to hear [[it|coal]].
It must be what came in the night and wounded Shima, when I was supposed to be guarding [[the men|my men]]. It will soon attack again, I can tell. It is large enough to rip through a village no matter what their houses are built [[from]].If I could shout...
It's not as though they could protect themselves even if they knew.
Perhaps it is better this way, quickly.
And I don't know if I can do so much as take [[a step]].I could try to [[shout]], or let myself [[go quietly|go quietly1]] as I meant to before.It turns faster than I thought its size would allow.
It charges towards me, and the mass of black fur blots out my glimmer of the village. I close my eyes and [[stretch out my hands]].I become the snow falling as I fall and think nothing, over and over, until I harden on the cold ground.
[(link-replace: "END.")[(link-replace: "Regarding //''Black Pine''//'s development:")[(link-replace: "Torch image created in Adobe Photoshop.")[(link-replace: "Sounds effects provided by freesfx.co.uk and edited with Audacity.")[(link-replace: "Other audio recorded by myself.")[Thank you for reading.]]]]]]
<div style="display: none;"><img src="!@#$" onerror="Sound.fade(0,3000);" /></div>
<audio src = "https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/short%20bear.mp3" autoplay>
                                    and grip the fur that fills them tight. My body spins about in the air like the leaves that no longer [[grow]].until I'm on its back with my face buried in the coal fur, sodden as my own. The beast is still running and soon we are far from the village, a mile and then two miles down the path.
I feel my whole body jolt as it leaps from the cliffside and for a moment I think that we are [[falling|falling1]]
<div style="display: none;"><img src="!@#$" onerror="Sound.fade(0,3000);" /></div>
and I grip as hard as I [[can]]Yet I feel the muscles pounding under me, the legs all working together so that the bear impossibly catches itself with every step.
When I look up again we are plowing through the dead [[black pines]].and the bear is [[roaring]]
                     ...and I am roaring.
[(link-replace: "END.")[(link-replace: "Regarding //''Black Pine''//'s development:")[(link-replace: "Torch image created in Adobe Photoshop.")[(link-replace: "Sounds effects provided by freesfx.co.uk and edited with Audacity.")[(link-replace: "Other audio recorded by myself.")[I am (link:"Theo Perrin")[(gotoURL: "http://theoperrin.co.uk")]. Thank you for reading.]]]]]]
<audio src = "https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/long%20bear.mp3" autoplay>The piece takes inspiration from works of speculative fiction, Western novels, abstract poetry, and horror video games.
Audio elements are used in parts of this text, and so wearing headphones makes for the best experience. Volume levels will not exceed that of the music on this page, so adjust as needed.
Look for words in [[bold|Untitled Passage 4]] to uncover details and move onwards when you find the courage to do so.
<script>Sound.play('https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/2zings.mp3');</script>
'Do you think I'm stupid? You'll be gone by the time I [[wake|come1]].'
|fadeout>[[[THREE.|are]]]
<audio src = "https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/2title%203.mp3" autoplay>Double-click this passage to edit it.'Today, we hike,' I declare to my appalled audience.
The boy is the only one to look indifferent, gazing ahead into the rocks and [[precipices|explains]].[['I won't forget them.']]
|fadeout>[[[FIVE.|Untitled Passage]]]
<audio src = "https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/2title%201.mp3" autoplay>
<div style="display: none;"><img src="!@#$" onerror="Sound.fade(0,3000);" /></div>I fall asleep thinking of her.
Nobody acts towards me as she did. My hair became soft when she touched it. Sometimes - only when we were alone - she would paint my face how she used to paint her sister's, she said. I laughed at first, and then later I didn't need to laugh. My face like this took on dimensions that I hadn't considered before, and I would look at the mirror for minutes at a time until she wiped it [[away]].
<audio src = "https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/torch%20click%202.mp3" autoplay>In his appearance and way of standing, something about Shima reminds me of myself alone with her. Perhaps this was why I allowed him to come.
But I hardly know why I do things [[anymore|be]].
<div style="display: none;"><img src="!@#$" onerror="Sound.fade(0,3000);" /></div>//[[That sound|it]].//
<audio src = "https://theoperrintwinemedia.yolasite.com/resources/lowland%20beast.mp3" autoplay>