Vuori: Secrets on the Long Road

"" *Turtles scurry as quickly as they can further on, endeavoring hasty escapes from scampering foxes roaming the Juniper groves and the slopes of Aspalathus, and sometimes wonder, under a crushing Sun, what meaning the Old stone signs bear, half-lost in the branches and the lush coppices. Is there essence in army signs of yore?*  ""

Vuori: Secrets on The Long Road is the seventh story in the Vuori Chronicles book series. A philosophical tale with plenty of hints of religious imagery, it was a long due ode to one of the most predominant paths on Mount Poikilo and a road much walked, The Long Road.

*Word Count*: 920

*Preceded By*: Vuori: Amidst the Groves in Liopyri

*Succeeded By*: Vuori: The Warehouses

## Release

The story was released by writer James Kingston early June 2018, and is marked VII in The Vuori Chronicles. It is one of the shortest of the series.

## Plot

Little to none plot development takes place in the story, seeing as it was mainly written as an ode to The Long Road, much like the first installment in the series, Song of Vuori. The author begins the tale with a description of the intricate flora found atop the Long Road and proceeds to outlining the various locations that mark it.

The Easter 2018 Vuori trip served for much of the inspiration during the writing of this tale, and plenty of locations re-visited on that trip - albeit conquered much , much earlier along with Zacharitsa and the Final Antennae- made an appearance in Secrets on the Long Road. Some of these include the Pine Path, a by-road that marks the end of Ano Melies and the beginning of Zacharitsa, which was trekked Eastertime 2018 and is filled with striated Pinus Helepiensis trees, the Pine Gates, which is the beginning of the Long Road formed by two opposing pines that shape an entrance beyond the Unknown Woods after Where Partridges Gather and many more.

The Nazarean Glade, an opening in the trees overlooking the Evening Paths/ Other Side/ Skaramagkas Grove/ The Road Whose End is not Known panorama was also described in the story, and it is speculated to be named so owing to the serenity of nature that presides over there, much like the Path of Serenity towards Krymnaia Ypsi at Petroupoli. 'The hypnotizing winds wax spiritual' in this glade, as is explicitly described in the tale. There are rumors the name was granted because of a soundtrack from the infamous 1977 Franco Zefirreli Production 'Jesus of Nazareth' blasting on the cell phones of the Vuoriors around that glade, but they are unconfirmed.

The Last Gates, another clump of pine trees that guard the final path to Zacharitsa and form the inner border of Ano Melies and the Final Antennae top, were also described.

There appears to be a shift of the theme about mid-way throughout the story, and James Kingston provides an insight into what was colloquially referred to as the 'Soul of the Afternoon' in this and further tales, as opposed to the 'Soul of the Evening' by the Evening Paths. The descriptions take on the role of a poetic eulogy for the collapse of the Sun during noon hours and the golden auras it leaves on the Long Road, and that is a prominent image for the location throughout.

Finally, a hint of religion and spirituality washes over the entire tale, and later re-readings of this tale have revealed the secret referred to in the title as not the 'absence of answers' to life's grand questions as told in the tale, but actually the mysterious signs put up by the army in days of yore, bas-relieved on the stone cones spangled along the woods and side patches of the Road. There were two prominent symbols, ΥΘ and YΠ followed by an array of elusive numbers. The narrative maintained they referred to how God's work was the cause of the natural galore of beauty across these tops, expressed in Greek as 'Υπό Θεού' or 'Υπό Σωτήρος' ( Savior). However, these descriptions appear to be rather deliberate by the author, and as of now it remains unknown what these elusive stones stand for, along with the reasons as to why the tale was titled so.

If one thing can be said with certainty, it is that the 7th story in the Chronicles was predesigned to represent the location of The Long Road , or *Makrys Dromos* in the panel of locations outlined in the book series and served as an ode to the Road which offered the Vuoriors more than one glimpse to the ethers of Zacharitsa and beyond.

## Style

The story belongs to the second type of storytelling, with a distanced, 3rd person POV. It is a lyrical description of The Long Road and its relevant locations, that spirals into an ode for the 'Golden hours' of noontime and the oncoming sunset , as well as the religious nature of the Mountain's beauty.