Dear Reader, I would like to share this story with you;

It will take you on a seemingly endless journey.
A trip that takes you places I might have visited many moons ago.
It´s a tale that came back to me when I meditated on one of my past lives.

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Chapter 7

Dear Reader, do you occasionally feel a sense of loneliness these days?

Or are you too busy with all the obligations and the wish not to have to stand still?

I will need to step into that loneliness as my endless journey is slowly starting.

At least if I manage to break out of this cell, which I have built up around me for years.

And you Dear Reader did you barricade your heart, and now feel trapped inside?

I looked at the faces surrounding the fire. I taught some of these lads when I just started teaching. If some of that respect was still there it could give me some leverage. Well that along with a few glasses of rice wine to make them talk to me about things the older tribesmen would rather not hear about.

"SHHH calm down," I told the young man that probably had two too many.
The tribal elders were not supposed to learn anything from these conversations.

"How about strangers Arcano, and I mean stranger than the villagers you have met on your travelers? Did you ever meet people that traveled?"
I needed to cut him short as I was not so much concerned with who lived where and what trade could be conducted with them. A topic he kept going on about.

Ever since I started my little quest it seemed I was getting nowhere. All those who had traveled to other settlements were only interested in the women and herds they encountered.

"Strangers Martino?" He looked at me suspiciously. "You rather hear about strangers than about Sei and her sister?"

He shook his head; "Sei´s sister Anika told me a story about strangers. Strange travelers that had once passed through the village. They wore gold and black clothes and both their appearance and their weapons were nothing like the weapons her grandfather had ever seen before. They had spent the night in the settlement and exchanged two of the finest swords for water, food, and beasts of burden. The next day they traveled on toward the mountains. I have seen those Katanas with my own eyes, they are like...." He nodded his head and had an eager look in his eyes.

I left the young man alone with his wine and went home. This was the first time I heard about any travelers.
I didn't learn much more from the previous conversations. Although their stories did give me a good picture of the region and its composition.

In my hut, I started sketching on rice paper. I tried to map what they told me about surrounding villages and natural landmarks. I used the same detail as what was used when they were described.

I even added those things that had not been witnessed and were only hearsay. For example, the map even contained mythical figures, magical trees, and enchanted waterfalls. Which, according to lore, all had been seen by travelers exploring the edges of the known world.

I distilled a map of the area as far as we knew it, still, it didn´t give me any lead on where Numico's mysterious "boss of the world" might be. I was so engrossed in my search that I neglected my spiritual world. Actually, the neglect had already been set in motion by my master's death, but the current distraction provided a good excuse.

Meditating, collecting herbs, listening to guides and spirits of the forest, everything reminded me of Oniko. I had loved him more than I wanted to admit and now I stagnated.

Master Oniko's death had cut me off from the world within, even more than I already was. My soul now wandered in my personal abyss, chained to heavy steel chains, bound to balls of lead. So that I wouldn't have to see him, wouldn't hear him.

Since my sister's death, I had withdrawn from socializing with other members of my tribe. My mother and Oniko were actually the only ones I spoke to freely.

I knew everyone in the village, but mainly from my role as a teacher. This role I had adapted as a second skin. A skin that I could never completely shed. It protected me, protection from getting caught up in small-town issues, gossip, and relationships.

The latter in particular was something that I unconsciously kept wearing the skin for. Losing a loved one was a heavy burden that I didn't want to go through again. My mother's death didn't make it any easier.

Master Oniko's departure was different. His body announced his departure long before his mind did. But even in my relationship with the master, a distance remained.

Partly out of respect, but also out of self-preservation. Yet his death threw me even more back on myself, fortunately, I was able to devote myself to my research.

The spiritual stagnation of course reflect in the visible world as a stagnation of my research, it made me despondent. I thought about giving up and moving on with my normal life. After all, there was the gap left by the master. I toyed with the idea for a few moments until my eye fell on the low stone table.

The candle, which had been burning there all night, began to flicker signaling the first phase of its inevitable end.

The spectacle did not let go of my eye. The flame retreated into the candlestick, only to struggle out with renewed strength. This fight lasted for quite some time and it was only when the sunlight began to creep in through the seams of the cloth covering the door that the candle decided not to give up.

She chose the only other way. She formed into a small blue ball and could thus have lived her last hours in the safe shelter of the candlestick. Were it not that a single sigh from me put an end to it.

Tired but inspired I gathered some frankincense, a cloth, and a water jug. Then I made my way down to the valley. On my walk, I passed some of the men of the village. I knew their faces but did not remember their names and realized how withdrawn I had become.

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Picture By Me And My Artificial Intelligence