Credits
Written by: Gahein
Photography by:
Rin and Averna
Edited by: Averna

There is almost complete silence; the kind of quiet you get when you lay your head on a pillow late at night. The faint sound of the heart's rythym is like our feet in the snow, and the wind, carrying the snow in large swirling spirals, is the breath. And there is a soft drone coming from the ore-dock adjacent to the arena where we now reside. Inhaling and exhaling, our feet crunching back and forth, we lunge ourselves further towards our goal.

After I have cleared the path of light near the entrance, I stop for a moment, knee deep in snow, and I look up. Clouds of snow erupt from the free-way as plows crawl along, clearing a path. They are the only traffic on the white high-ways, and we are thankful for the small audience. For a brief moment, I wonder if they can see us through their windows. But I decide that we are invisible, as indescernable as our fading footsteps behind us, ghosts in the night.

We scramble along the side of of a pyrimid of taconite pellets as a short-cut, and to stay out of any direct light-sources. Movement is exhausting in these conditions, but it fills the veins with energy. We arrive on solid ground with a thud, Rin and Averna with tripods and cameras in hand and we survey the scene before us. A dozen yards ahead is a small earth-mover, further ahead is a large conveyor-belt next to an even larger pile of taconite than the one we have just crossed. And standing proud above it all is Rex, our hero, our beacon; the very reason we have entered this veritable land of the giants as if we were three citizens of Lilliput, infiltrating Gulliver's home-land.

Gale force winds rush through this space, leaving the ground partially barren as we approach the first beast with caution. The machine appears to be off, except for a spot-light attached to the front. We can only speculate the light's purpose, however it brings to focus the immensity of our predicament. We hesitate for a minute; the wind pushing and tugging at our bodies as if it cannot decide which way to go either.

The year is 2009, and January has only just begun, we have been a group, a clan, for no more than a month, and here we stand, staring at a mammoth monster, asleep in the cold, dry wind. Our eyes are wide, and our hearts ache at the thought that these precious moments as phantoms in this blizzard are limited. We are determined, the decision to move forward is made with one unified mind. Rin takes the high-road, climbing up to the track where Rex is stationed, while Averna and I take the low road, spreading out and staying in the shadows. We circle around toward Rex from both sides and meet Rin at the stairs that lead up inside the beast. From here on out, there is no more hesitation.

We climb and we climb, the wind shifting from tornado to hurricane speeds as we rise higher, while the snow cuts at our cheeks like tiny knives. We arrive with haste on the deck where there is a small alcove for shelter before a locked door. We huddle together before Rin and Averna work their magic. Rex shakes and rattles in the wind and I swear I can almost hear snoring. There is no higher we can go. We have arrived. The mythical, the unexplored; this is our home. And a piece of MH remains there, in the Glorious Crane-fields, the land of the giants.