Hinds’ Feet on High Places

The mist finally clears completely with the Shepherd’s departure, and to the shock of the three companions, the path leads off the edge of a cliff straight down into another valley, then ascends just as steeply on the other side. Much-Afraid feels this is the most difficult test that she has faced so far: “For one black, awful moment Much-Afraid really considered the possibility of following the Shepherd no longer, of turning back” (98). Staring out in “an abyss of horror, into an existence in which there was no Shepherd to follow or to trust or to love” (98), Much-Afraid begs the Shepherd not to allow her to turn back or to abandon her quest. The Shepherd appears and assures her that he will allow no such thing to happen, and she builds another altar, picking up yet another stone, and proceeds down the mountain into the valley.

Arriving at the foot of the mountains on the other side of the valley, Much-Afraid and her companions find the Shepherd waiting for them by what appears to be an automatic lift up the mountain. Taking seats upon the lift, they start up the mountain in pairs until reaching the top and arriving at the borderland of the Kingdom of Love.