Veritas | Meditative Adventure | Mars Ep 2: Trials

Welcome to Veritas…a meditative adventure like no other!

First and foremost what does it even mean? Veritas is Latin for “truth”.
The question is of course, which truth? Well, hopefully, your truth.

This 4 episode series honours the symbology of Mars, often synonymous with Ares, the God of War. It is important to note that Ares is not a champion of war for the sake of war, but rather war in the pursuit of peace.

This series represents an intense amount of masculine energy. It is meant to be an adrenaline ride designed to ignite your fight or flight and make you react without overthinking.

In episode 2, you are put to the test. Do you have what it takes to survive? Are you strong enough?

Transcript

So how we're going to begin is you're going to sit comfortably,

However that means to you.

Could be legs crossed,

Could be sitting in a chair.

Whatever it is,

Sit somewhere comfortably that you feel relaxed and comfortable and you're going to close your eyes and you're going to take three deep breaths.

Deep breath in,

Count to four.

Deep breath out,

Count to four.

And each time you exhale you're going to try and relax your body a little bit further.

So you're going to inhale,

Inhale,

Pause,

Exhale,

Pause.

So as you're doing this and you're relaxing,

It's in those pauses between breaths where we're going to go.

That is where your creativity meets your imagination,

Meets your subconscious.

So let's see what awaits you in the spaces between breaths.

Run.

The word echoes and reverberates through your body.

Your legs are already moving,

Your body responding to this primal command.

Your body careens off the side of the walls of the structure as you burst forward into the sunlight like a shot,

Arms and legs flailing as you sail through the air before crashing deep in the dirt.

As you scramble to your feet,

Movement catches your eye and you stop.

To your left,

Approximately 200 yards away,

Too far to make out,

Someone is there.

Someone is here with you.

You are elated.

Relief pours out of you and you open your mouth to cry out but something stops you.

There is a second structure as well.

Was that there before?

You furrow your brow in confusion.

How could you have missed that?

It is then that the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and slowly you turn 180 degrees to look behind you.

Sure enough,

There is a second figure equally as far to your right.

They are standing looking at you.

They also seem to have merged from a column structure.

Quickly you turn your head back to the first figure.

They stand still waiting for you to do something.

You can't tell if they have spotted you but it feels like they are looking at you.

Your head swivels back and forth in that moment you choose to name them.

Phobos on the left and Deimos on the right after Mars's two moons.

How do you even know the name of Mars's two moons?

Now you know you were playing a game you don't fully understand.

You make up your mind to shout out to Deimos.

They seem nicer when an ear-splitting roar shatters the silence.

Behind you the door from which you emerged glows bright with the light from the rune still but then a hulking shadow fills the space.

Something is alive in there.

Run.

This time you leap with frantic purpose and fly across the red desert.

Primal terror once again reminding you of your one true task in this moment.

To get as far away from here as possible.

Something shines brightly in the distance high atop the cliff face.

A beacon of light shoots into the sky for a moment and then is gone.

It draws you and your legs push off towards it.

Out of the corner of your eye you spot Phobos doing the same.

Are they following me?

You risk a glance to your right and sure enough Deimos is doing the same as well.

Unfortunately for you this break in concentration costs you as your foot strikes a rock at the wrong angle twisting your ankle causing you to fall crashing to the ground again.

Frustration mixed with pain surges through you.

Phobos and Deimos getting ground ahead of you.

Somehow you know that you can't let that happen.

So you get to your feet and test your ankle with your weight.

Luckily you're a lighter here.

It hurts but it holds.

Bending your knees you spring off and skim across the ground just as a gust of wind throws you sideways.

Through some sheer miracle of athleticism you manage to keep your feet and keep going.

This time you jump forward and the wind pushes you back meaning you travel half the distance.

The wind howls now like it knows you were here.

All you can do is grit your teeth and keep going.

If you look forward for too long your eyes water as the wind beats down upon you.

Still you keep going with nothing but red rock filling your vision.

Keep your footing.

Fight the wind.

Please don't let anything be behind you.

You don't risk looking behind you and truthfully you're too scared to anyways.

Ahead of you the clouds you saw earlier gather and grow darker.

Your lungs burn yet still you push forward.

Think.

You need shelter now even more than you need water.

But where?

You risk a look to your left.

The dust is too thick and the sky has grown too dark to see Phobos.

Similar for Deimos.

Ahead of you you can just make out the features of the rock wall.

Above it the storm has grown.

The sky is black and now the first flash of lightning lights up the sky around you.

Chased by a deafening thunderclap.

The storm is all around you now.

Panic grips you.

You slow yet your breathing escalates as you begin to panic.

What to do?

There's nowhere to hide.

You frantically look around.

Left.

Right.

Behind you.

In front of you.

Nothing but red desert.

Thinking quickly you bend your knees and jump as high as you can straight into the air trying to look for any land feature in all directions at once.

There.

The lightning flash and you swear there was a dark line in the ground just before the rock wall.

A fissure perhaps?

With renewed vigor you fight for your life against the storm.

One foot in front of the other.

There is no skimming or leaping now.

The wind is so strong you're just pushing your body forward.

Leaning so far you're almost horizontal.

Step after step rain pelts your face and the wind whips you.

Blinded you trust your sense of direction.

Was there a fissure in the ground?

Did you imagine it?

Is there a hiding place?

At some point you slip and you fall flat on your face and the wind actually pushes you back.

Your fingernails draw five chords in the dirt as the wind rags you across the rock like a rag doll.

The storm is so loud you're not even sure if you are screaming.

Pain shoots up your wrist as you dig into the ground and stop yourself.

Now on your hands or knees you crawl forward one step at a time.

The wind is deafening.

The sand blinding.

Left hand.

Left leg.

Right hand.

Right leg.

Again and again the cadence consumes your entire being.

Eventually all else fades except your breath.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

Everything in your world you've been worrying about fades except those two things.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

Always forward.

Time is funny when your world becomes so small.

It fades away.

You're not sure if it was five minutes or five hours but eventually your hand reaches out and finds nothing.

Sure enough there is a canyon of some sort like a crack splitting the ground in two.

You don't have the time or energy to think about it.

You simply throw yourself down the side and you simply fall.

Again and again you bounce and roll off this deep ground.

It's not completely vertical but it sure seems close.

The only thing saving you from certain death is likely the gravity here.

Finally something hard strikes your back causing you to flip over.

It occurs to you that you have spent a lot of time falling since you've woken up here.

It is dark down here.

The only light is from the flashes of lightning.

From what you can make out the canyon seems to be about 40 feet across.

The wind still screams violently down here.

One way or another you need to find something to hide under.

As you sit up and begin to move you groan.

Sharing pain shoots radially across your body.

You've definitely bruised or cracked a rib.

What did you hit on the way down?

Everything probably.

Grimacing you stand up holding one arm close to you protecting your ribs and the other held in front of you stumbling blindly and reorienting by the lightning flashes.

Your one hand finds the edge of the canyon and you use it as a guide.

The storm rages above.

It is angry.

It wants you.

You can tell it is still building in strength.

It won't be much longer before it just takes you.

Then your foot feels an empty space right along the edge of the wall.

Could it be?

You quickly drop to your knees and clear some dust and rocks out of the way.

It looks like maybe you can crawl inside some kind of small opening.

Normally this kind of thing would be the last thing you would ever attempt but now in this moment you've never been happier for a small confined space.

On your hands and knees now you wiggle through on your belly head first into the blackness as far as you can go.

You're mostly in.

It feels like your feet are probably sticking out.

You don't care.

It's calmer here.

You feel safe.

But are you?

Only time will tell.

Outside the roar of the storm continues to rage outside.

The lightning flashes provide little light in here.

Time passes.

Did you sleep?

You can't tell.

All you know is you are exhausted.

Your ribs hurt if you move and you just want to curl in a ball and lock the world out.

Your mind drifts.

Where are you?

Is this a dream?

Is this Mars?

Minutes pass or is it hours?

You're not sure.

How long has it been since you've eaten?

But then a new sound.

A scuttling sound.

Scraping.

This gets your attention.

The storm rages but this sounds closer.

You listen as hard as your ears possibly can.

It's hard to make anything above the roar of the storm but then there it is again.

Something.

Something moving.

Are you alone in here?

Your ribs are long forgotten.

Your imagination conjures far more terrifying scenes when faced with the unknown than a simple alien planet.

And then two red dots appear in front of you like two laser points of light.

For a moment you're confused.

What is that?

It's like the light on your TV.

And then two more dots and two more.

When the horrifying realization that you were looking at eyes hits you,

You scream.

You scream and scream some more willing them to go away.

More dots.

More eyes.

There are lots of things in here with you and it looks like they're curious.

For a moment the storm is forgotten and you consider backing out.

Then you realize you've got nowhere to go.

Frantically you begin waving your hands as best you can.

You're wedged in pretty tight so at best you can move them back and forth in a single plane.

So there you find yourself alone on an alien planet in the dark screaming and shouting.

But the eyes don't care.

Slowly they seem to get closer and braver.

Something touches your hand.

You yelp pulling it back and with an instinctual response you smash your fist out in the darkness.

There is a satisfying crunch and the feeling of something wet on your fist.

Something touches your other hand.

Same response.

You punch your fists out frantically and blindly into the darkness connecting with whatever you can.

This is pure instinctual fight or flight response.

You are destruction.

You don't want to scare them.

You want to destroy them.

All the fears of being in this place and the frustration and the unknown come pouring out of you as you frantically swing your arms in this awkward position into the dark unknown.

Sometimes hitting something.

Sometimes hitting nothing.

Eventually though one arm gets caught on something.

Immediately it is covered in more somethings.

Make that a lot of somethings.

More eyes.

Your left arm is caught.

Desperate now you frantically try to reach your right arm over but you can't.

You have no room to maneuver.

Something is biting you.

It hurts.

You scream but it is lost in the roar of the storm behind you in the horror in front of you.

In that moment the universe demands surrender but something inside of you stirs and you refuse to give in.

Suddenly the storm comes for you and a large chunk of rock is sucked away by the wind right from where your legs are sticking out.

And then another.

The cave entrance is widening.

The storm is coming in.

With a shriek the critters covering your arms scuttle back into the cavern where they came from and just like that they're gone.

It's just you and the storm now.

More rocks are lifted vertically into the air.

You feel like you're at the center of a tornado.

The storm pulling at you.

Roaring.

Frantically in the dark you search around with your hands for anything.

Slowly the storm pulls at you.

You're being dragged out of your space.

Your fingernails dig into the rock searching for anything to hold on to.

Bit by bit your small cave is pulled apart as more and more of your haven is exposed.

A particularly aggressive gust pulls your body but at last your hands encounter a piece of jagged rock sticking out of the ground and you grip it tightly and hold on.

Your movement is stopped for now and it seems like a secure anchor.

As if in response to the resistance the storm howls.

The wind shrieks and more rocks are lifted vertically smashing on the outside.

Your feet begin to lift off the ground as the wind increases and once again your whole world is reduced to holding on to this one spot.

You can feel the rock cutting into your palms.

It hurts.

Your ribs scream in pain.

Part of you wants to let go.

Just let it be over.

Voices in your head tell you you can't do it.

That you're not strong enough.

And then that stirring you felt before like an iron gate sliding shut in a moment.

Every voice.

Every doubt.

Anybody that ever told you you couldn't do something suddenly silenced.

There's nothing but focus and surety and you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you will hang on for one minute or one hour.

It does not matter.

The storm will not get you.

It pulls and pulls.

Your body is actually being whipped up and down off the ground.

Your feet flung into the air as the wind pulls at you.

Everything focused into your fingers and your palms.

Your hands are starting to cramp.

It does not matter.

Your body wants to give up but your mind refuses.

Focus.

Just count.

Just count to ten.

You can feel your determination in your own mind.

One.

The storm rages.

Two.

It lifts your feet almost straight vertical and then slams them back onto the ground.

Three.

More lightning.

Four.

Your hands are cramping.

Five.

Jagged rock cuts your hands.

Six.

More wind.

Seven.

More screaming from the storm outside.

Something smashes.

Eight.

Hang on.

Nine.

Hang on.

Ten.

Hang on.

Again.

Count.

One.

Two.

Three.

Hang on.