The joyless walk.

He was walking. Forward, always forward, although he did glance back from time to time. The path was made of dirt, and had tall trees on either side, masking his view of anything else. From time to time, his path would come into contact with another path, either where both paths turned towards each other, and the trees thinned, or occasionally another path would even cross his. He had been walking for a long long time, almost 21 years to be exact, and still he walked.  He often thought back to the first 14 years of his journey, where his path had often traveled right next to many others. There was less paths back then, as people tended to share paths, and so not as many were needed. All was fun back then, even if his path didn't have as many people as other paths did, and he sorely missed it. Then his closest family members and himself had decided to switch paths. It wasn't uncommon to switch paths, in fact, it happened quite a lot. Some people stayed on the same path all their lives, but many switched. Some even went back the way they had come, although this was very few. So after about 14 years traveling on the same path, his family switched. The next 5 years went by quickly, and he actually enjoyed them more then his first 14 years. There were less paths in this area of the woods, but they all were wound more closely together. He played with his siblings, and worked with his parents. He laughed, ran, and read. But he quickly grew tired of it, and so on his 18th year as a walker, he switched paths yet again. This time, he would walk alone. The area of the woods he moved to, had many more paths, but very few found themselves near his path for long. The few that did turned away quickly. And yet, he continued to walk. He continued this way for a full two years, the weight of his solitaire confinement bearing on his shoulders, weighing him down. But still, he pushed on. At times, the weights were unbearable, and he was forced to rest. Occasionally, he would have help lifting his weights. But for the most part, he was alone. Utterly alone.