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"Greetings fellow traveller, may I ask what you are doing sitting in the middle of the road?"
The seated one continued giving the paths a focused stare.
The curious one looked at the paths as well, grasping their rolled up map tighter. Dropping onto their bum they crossed their legs.
"Scary isn't it?"
The comment received a quick glance but nothing else.
In the following silence only the swoosh of the wind and rustle of the trees were heard. The sun fought for space between the thick clouds. The foot of the mountain only giving a view of where the greenery stopped and rocks began, the rest being hidden among the clouds. The map crinkled open.
"I have outlined the best way to climb to the top. If you are so uncertain of your path, you can follow this one."
A glance showed rigged green lines, having only a slight change of direction between each area of the mountainous territory. Although the colour differed, it was not much different from the other maps they had seen.
A quiet smile graced their face, "I thank you for the offer, but I will have to decline." The smile was then directed to the imposing mountain, "I was simply contemplating all the paths, but I realised that won't help me. A path will find me before I find it."
With those cryptic words they stood up, patted their clothes to remove any remaining dirt and started following the rightest path.
The rightest path for them.
Which needed them to go underneath bushes, jump over rocks and bypass craters, follow the scent of dung and crawl along cliffs, walk the path of the goats and sip from the mountain’s streams like the birds, find shelter in caves from lightning storms and walk the last part over slippery slopes.
When they finally reached the top, the other traveller was already enjoying tea in a thick green sweater. One that barely spotted any dirt or sweat stains.
"Ah, hello again, it seems like you have gone through several storms to get here." They raised an eyebrow before taking another sip. "My path had a pretty view though, maybe you would have preferred that."
The several layers of dirt and bruises could not cover up the smile that shone as brightly as the loot they revealed hidden beneath their jacket.
"I bet your path did not have the treasures I have gained over my adventure, so I wouldn't have changed it for the world."