The canyon was very wide, stretching forth into the horizon, so that he for a moment guessed that it might not end. Still he walked, hopeful and determined to go around the pit that hindered his progress.

Finally he came to a very interesting part of the path around the chasm. A boy sat on the edge of the cliff looking down, his neck bound to a noose that was then fastened to a pole, and behind him many demons lashed his back, only humble clothing to protect him. As the latter did not notice him, he elected to rest and sit next to the boy who looked so forlorn.

"Why do you only sit here and allow yourself to be bound and lashed," the man asked of the boy.

The boy answered, "look into the chasm and see what is there."

The man looked down. "I can see that the pit is actually many pits, joined together to form one, that interrupts the path of life."

"The pits are each in my ability to fill in, but I know not which one to start with." He pointed out each pit in turn. "The pit of my friends that need help, the pit of the arts and sciences of writing, the pit of the skills I need to fill the pits, the pit of the arts and sciences of music, and the pit of the arts and sciences of games and play."

"Surely your friends, if they are in need of help, should be tended to first."

"But to fill that pit I must first fill another pit, or perhaps all of them, and I can not fill the pits without first filling the pit of the skills I need to fill the pits, which I fill so slowly."

"Ah, but the pit of the arts and sciences of writing needs no skills you do not have already to be filled, and surely the steps into the chasm lead into that pit?" For surely, at the boy's feet, there were easy stairs that did lead downward.

"I am not sure the steps are right, and because of that I must sit here."

"But why do you continue to sit if you are being lashed?"

"The lashings of the distractions and evils of the world continue as I sit here, and if I descend their work will be continued with arrows instead. I can not flee because I am bound here," he said, indicating the noose around his neck that was bound to the pole.

The man pondered, "but surely your family will support you on your way down."

"My family would have it that I continue to be bound, and I fear them, so then I am bound."

"But surely God would protect you from the lashings of the world."

"God, praise his name, has given me armor many times to protect from the lashings of the world. But as I am bound it has worn away time and again, and because my faith is weakened each time can only be replaced with fabric and cloth," he indicated his torn clothing.

"So," concluded the man, "the only way away from the lashings is to unbind yourself and proceed into the pit so your armor may be replaced and padded with more armor yet."

"Yet I know not which of the pits to descend into first, so I am still bound."

The man reached out and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I am with you should you decide to go."

The boy looked at the man and saw not a man. He was both fox and dragon, but neither at once. He recognized the man as a creation not of his own, but of his friends in the pit who he loved. He saw also that though the man was naked, and exposed to the lashings of the demons, he was free from them, and no scar rested on his body.

"I will carry you," the man said, cutting the rope of the noose around the boy's neck. "I will take you down into the pit and carry you until your armor is too heavy for me to bear. You have much work to do, and surely your strength is not all gone."

"But I know not where to begin," the boy protested.

"I will carry you," the man said. "And I will utter you prayers and words of courage until you need not be carried."

And as his words said, he picked up the boy and walked down the steps into the pit. And there our story ends, the story of life and its hindrances.