WEBVTT

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The air tasted of sulfur and ancient earth,

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heavy enough to cling to the tongue.

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After three days of cutting through the remote

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wilderness, scaling jagged ridges,

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where the vegetation finally surrendered to raw geology,

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Kale reached the summit ridge.

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Below him lay the secret heart of the

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mountain.

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It was a vast volcanic crater, a monstrous

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bowl carved out of the earth's fury.

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The walls plunging down to the basin were

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composed of jagged black rock,

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glittering with the sharp edges of cooled obsidian

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and basalt,

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bearing the detailed textures of violent eruptions long

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past.

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Yet, cradled within this dark, jagged amphitheater rested

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a lake of impossible,

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piercing turquoise water, glowing like a dropped jewel

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in a ruined crown.

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Along the shoreline, thin fingers of white steam

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hissed upward from hidden vents,

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dancing lazily over the surface of the turquoise

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pool before dissolving into the wind.

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Above, dramatic clouds rolled in heavy, charcoal layers,

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casting shifting shadows across the water

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and turning the landscape into a canvas of

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primal contrast.

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Kale unslung his pack, dropping it onto the

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volcanic stone.

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He sat on the precipice, wrapped in the

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profound silence of the peaks,

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watching the steam rise and the clouds shift.

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In this forgotten caldera, far from the noise

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of the world,

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the earth felt alive, breathing slowly beneath his

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feet.