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Don't Take Life Too Seriously; You Might Die
Chapter 7: Nobody Cared Who I was Until I Put on the Mask

Chapter 7: Nobody Cared Who I was Until I Put on the Mask

There once was a child named Sparrow. Playful and curious, he roamed the village and surrounding areas, exploring far and wide. He was interested in many things and would investigate the plants, animals, insects, and even the rocks. With such an inquisitive and studious mind, the village had high hopes for his future prospects.

But as he grew older, he took no role. While he would curiously investigate the various trades, the craftsmen would try to bring him on as an apprentice. But Sparrow had no interest in dedicating himself to a trade. He enjoyed watching the Hunters track and bring down their prey, diligently observing their technique. They would formally ask Sparrow to join them, but he had no interest in becoming a hunter.

Those charged with maintaining the village, repairs, landscaping, and the like, made the case that since he lived in the village and wasn't otherwise occupied, he should lend a hand with the upkeep of the settlement. Sparrow respectfully declined—nothing was interesting in maintenance.

As he grew older, the pressure to take on responsibility only grew. However, besides being an acutely curious child, he was also unaffected by the pressure of his fellow tribesmen.

Time went on, and eventually, the village began to see Sparrow as nothing more than a perpetual child. And so they treated him as a child. There was no hostility in this, but neither was there any respect. This did not bother him, however, and he continued his carefree life.

Things might have continued like this, if not for the day the village was attacked by **** (a strange-looking, war-like species, basically an orc reskin). The village managed to repel this initial assault with some losses, but this was only a small exploratory party and they would soon be back in far greater numbers.

For the first time, after seeing his fellow villagers harmed, Sparrow felt a need to assist the tribe. He could not just let his kinsmen die while he did nothing. But the tribe refused to let him fight, war was no place for a child.

Dejected, Sparrow ran off to a nearby stream that was commonly used by the village, as the rest of the tribe prepared for war. Gazing upon his reflection in the water, he finally realized that he had been letting others shoulder his responsibilities while contributing nothing himself. He wept, only realizing his folly, now that it was too late. Too late to serve his tribe when it mattered most.

As his tears fell into the stream he noticed the reflection of an old man that was unlike our species, standing next to him. Startled, Sparrow turned to see the tall man, with an easy smile standing just off to his side.

"Why do you cry?" The old man asked. "Do you regret the choices you have made?"

"Y-Yes, I do," Sparrow replied, trying to stifle his sobs.

"Do you want to fight alongside your brethren?"

"Yes..."

"Then take up arms and fight!"

"But they will not have me. I am a child..."

As tears began to well up in his eyes again, the old man reached out and presented Sparrow with a mask. "Your people will not turn away a stranger of your kind offering aid." He reached out and took the mask and looked upon its placid feature. He was awash in a sense of tranquility. When he looked up, the old man was gone. It was a bright clear day.

"Miss Lilac Governess??" A hand went up and was waving vigorously, a gesture that many found bizarre.

"W-Wha... sigh... Yes, what is it, Indigo?" She found herself once again massaging her mask just above the bridge of the nose.

"That old man was the God of Clear Skies, right?"

"Obviously Indigo," she said with the routine annoyance of one who has repeatedly had her stories interrupted.

"Sorry... I just wanted to make sure, since you didn't say."

"It was very strongly implied." Lilac Governess shot him a look.

"I suppose it was..." Indigo looked down, shrinking into himself.

"Let us continue. Where were we? Oh yes."

Wearing the mask, Sparrow returned to the village, a stranger. Amid the battle preparations, the stranger, having heard the "orcs" are aggressing, offered to lend aid to the defense of the village. The battle was sure to be a difficult one and they were glad to accept his assistance.

When the "orcs" launched their assault, the tribe found itself in dire straits. The invaders had brought their entire host to bear. At first, the situation seemed dire. But miraculously, the stranger fought with a fervor that had only been heard of in legend. The stranger himself was stunned by just how well he fought, feeling as if a higher power was guiding his movements.

As the battle approached its conclusion, both sides looked evenly matched. It was then that one of the people Sparrow had grown up with, someone who used to be a friend until he became an adult, was about to be overwhelmed and dealt a killing blow. Feeling the full weight of the responsibility he had neglected and left to others, Sparrow sprang to his fellow's defense and thwarted his demise, cutting down the combatants, but at the cost of being struck a mortal blow.

Seeing their champion, a total stranger, that had selflessly stepped in to help them get struck down, sent a rallying cry to resound the battlefield. With renewed strength and determination, the tribe defeated the foul "orcs," and restored peace to their village.

The cost of the victory was high, however, with many of their kinsmen slain, but the death of the stranger weighed especially heavy. They brought the body back to the village. "Who is our savior?" They asked. "We should know the face of one who gave everything in our defense." That was agreed, but nobody felt they had the right to remove the mask.

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Eventually, the man the stranger had saved stepped forward and offered to remove it. Upon doing so, a gasp reverberated around the village. Sparrow's face lay beneath, looking strangely at peace. With tears in their eyes, the village gained a new reverence for their fallen kinsman. Sparrow had finally come to accept responsibility, and in fighting and sacrificing himself had earned redemption.

On that day, Sparrow was recognized as an adult and granted the role name of Hero. Ever since, inspired by the deeds of Sparrow Hero, parents give their children masks when they have learned to take responsibility for themselves and their tribe.

And that is why we wear masks.

It was story time with Lilac Governess. "Sparrow Hero is considered the first of the God of Clear Skies' Chosen," she added after the close of her story. Some of the kites looked over at me; it was no secret that Lilac Governess considered me the God of Clear Skies' Chosen. Great, apparently I am associated with a line of derelicts. Despite this personal implication, I rather enjoyed Lilacs Governess's stories. She always really got into them, and I sometimes wondered if she got into the Governess line of work for the storytelling.

Today was a normal day. That's right, completely normal. No reason to assume anything out of the ordinary was going to happen. I certainly didn't. I had probably turned 5 recently—hard to tell since we didn't use a calendar. Wasn't an issue, as we didn't celebrate special occasions anyway. So I was confused when Lilac Governess called me up. She didn't usually do this, unless you were misbehaving, or…

It was just before our mid-day meal—Lilac Governess had declined my request to prepare lunch, saying that it was time for other children to learn how to cook. As I approached her, I noticed that, at some point, my parents had slipped in. They were dressed in what passed for formal here, cloaks, and not the fancy kind like Hailstone Priest's—where I come from that would actually be formal. Lilac Governess too was holding herself formally. "Indigo... It's time." There was a kind of finality in her tone. Was I being sent to the guillotine??

I swallow down my sudden sense of apprehension. As my parents approached, I couldn't help but remember when Gal had been dragged off and subject to some unknown fate. But then father pulled from his cloak, a mask.

As previously mentioned, there are three stages of life here in the Two Trees: Child, "Not Child," and Adult. On top of that, several milestones also marked your passage through these stages.

Born: You have successfully been fertilized and attached yourself to your mother's uterine lining, and after gestating for 9 months—assuming it is the same as humans—transversed the birth canal and emerged unscathed... or at least alive. Congratulations.

Eyes Open: This is when you are considered a person. Not that they can turn you back in for a full refund or anything, it's just that there is apparently a high infant mortality rate before this point. So I guess they try not to get too attached until then. This is also when you officially get your name, though in my case, they had picked out a name from the very beginning it seemed. I supposed it isn't unusual to have a name lined up in advance.

Admittance into the Kite's Klub (TM Pending): Once you have attained a degree of autonomy you are sent here, and marks the beginning of your journey to adulthood. As mentioned, this is basically primary school.

Graduate/Receive Mask: This is a big one. Receiving your mask marks the first transition in the three stages of life. As a "not child" you are considered competent and not completely dead weight. You will now be left to your own devices, and there is an expectation that you will start to make yourself useful as you try to find the role you want to formally adopt.

Apprenticeship: Eventually you will find something you feel passionate about and want to commit yourself to the discipline. Or, barring that—unless you are Sparrow Hero—you will feel the crushing weight of social obligation and find something tolerable to contribute. You will then find someone to apprentice under who can show you the ropes. How does this work? Is there a formal process? Some sort of proficiency test? Oddly, nobody ever elaborated, though I did get that offer from Horizon Healer, so maybe it's like getting a job offer.

Role: Having Finished your apprenticeship, once again, the criteria for this unknown, and reaching the top of the mountain, you will be formally recognized as a practitioner of this role and given the matching role name. This is perhaps the greatest of these milestones, as it signifies that you are now an adult, a contributor.

Both of my parents appeared stiff, as my father handed the mask to my mother. Were they trying to be formal? She turned it over in her hands, it looked to me like she was experiencing some kind of strong emotion, but uncharacteristically, didn't share it. Kneeling down, almost getting down to my level—I was short—she presented me with the mask with outstretched arms.

I will not lie, I was caught flat-footed and was still recovering from this sudden turn of events. I had never seen anyone receive a mask younger than 7, and they were on the latter end of that age. I had assumed it was a rule that you graduated at around that time. However, it seemed that that wasn't the case. Or was I a special exception...?

I slowly reached out and gingerly accepted the mask from my mother. Because one has to choose to be a "not child" the recipient must don the mask themself. I turned the mask over in my hands, much like mother had done, only I believed the reasoning was different. It wasn't the strangest mask I had seen—it followed the standard conventions—but it was a bit avant-garde.

It covered the entire face but left the rest of the head unencumbered, this was standard. There were larger than normal openings for the eyes, usually, they were just slits, which left me wondering why. All the masks I had seen had made a particular point to hide the eyes. That's not to say this one didn't, it used prominent brows around the upper part of each eye, shading them. It was almost like half of a pair of goggles and gave the look of a black void where the eyes should be. The mask in its entirety consisted of sharp angles and wide parabolic curves. For instance, the nose came about from several sharp angles converging to form a sharp, yet broad, point. The exception to this was the sides of the mask, which were conventionally curved, perhaps to prevent injury. The chin area especially featured this, as it was round and the space between it and the nose was slightly concave from the outside.

I found the coloring intriguing as well. It had black stripes under the eyes, though if this was a homage to my father, or simply to reduce glare, I couldn't say. What I found neat though, was the color transition, going from a light orange in the center and slowly becoming more indigo as it reached the periphery, seeming to almost blend in with my natural hue, and almost creating the illusion that it was part of my head. Although I'm certain that this mask took my parents a considerable amount of time to make, I couldn't help but feel that it came off as intimidating.

"I'm proud of you, Indigo," Mother said as she gently stroked my head. "You have come so far."

"I knew you were a genius, but..." Father scratched the back of his head in an uncharacteristic display of awkwardness.

"Honestly, he was probably more than ready 2 years ago, but I couldn't just send out someone so young," Lilac Governess interjected. I'm glad that she didn't. Sure, I was at least as competent as any of the other graduates of the Kite's Klub (TM Pending), but I would still have only been three and didn't really have much in the way of strength. I'd have been a sitting target for anything wishing to cause me harm.

"He is by far the youngest we have moved along. Honestly, I still feel he is too young, but there really is no reason to keep him any longer—there is nothing more he could learn here. I wouldn't want to hold him back. Unless..." Lilac Governess cast a timid glance. "Indigo, do you have an interest in childcare?" It felt like there might have been the slimmest ray of hope, but I had to respond with a not indecisive shake of the head. She looked proportionally disappointed.

With the obligatory commentary now complete, the only thing left was to put on the mask. Upon doing so, I got the congratulations of my fellow kites, or former fellows, as I was no longer one of them. This became clear when I placed the mask on my head. I could feel the change in my position in society, as the mask weighed heavy, and with it came expectations and responsibilities.