They quietly looked at the night sky, not saying one word to each other, side by side at the treetops. At first when L’er ya Lasta asked the young toak why he was here he got no response. When the toak finally reached L’er ya Lasta, he was breathing heavily, probably from the physical work of climbing up to him, so L’er ya Lasta waited patiently for the toak to rest before inquiring again about his presence.
While waiting for the toak rest to complete his eyes picked up something from the left side of the toaks waist, a bag made of leaves that the young toak was carrying, it was not that big, and something was sticking out from the bag.
He also noticed that this young toak is not as strong as his brethren, unusually weak for a toak, but the eyes of the young toak had a spark that the others rarely had, a fire of sorts.
The toak finally turned his head to L’er ya Lasta.
-”Your excellency, i humbly ask of you to accept my presence before you” said the young toak with a tone of respect and elegance rarely seen by the toakran, even by the elders.
L’er ya Lasta was a bit surprised by this, not only by the fancy introduction but also the words he used. Usually the toakran use the simpler words and syllables to communicate, but not this one. He used, what would be considered advanced form of the toakran language, to present himself. The most interesting thing is that it was L’er ya Lasta that had invented and formed the language in the first place, and that it was not that long ago it was introduced, meaning that either this young toak learned it very fast, or he wanted to impress him with the very few advanced words he knew.
Either case, for L’er ya Lasta, it was a bit funny and embarrassing, to hear your own creation be used so efficiently.
-”Haha”,Croak, he laughed a bit before continuing “No need to be so formal with me, i am just a toakran like you”
The toak looked a bit surprised by his answer.
-”You are indeed humble to be considering yourself to be like us” Croak “your excellency” said the young toak, smiling at L’er ya Lasta.
“He is quite a smoothtalker, i give him that” L’er ya Lasta thought.
-”Well you have picked my curiosity young one,” Croak “ before i ask why you are here, do you have a name? He asked him.
The young toak answered back.
-”Yes, your excellency, my friends call me The Curious One”
L’er ya Lasta had now a grasp of what kind of personality the young toak had. Usually names are defined by the personality of said toakran. It often takes time to define someone by a name, and often a toakran goes through life with different names until one sticks.
-“Well then, i propose a trade then, i will call you Curio and you will stop being so formal with me, and call me Lasta. Does that sound good? responded L’er ya Lasta with a mischievous grin.
The toak just tilted his head a bit and responded.
-“I feel that such a deal would be to your detriment, your excellency, and therefore i must decline”
At this point, L’er ya Lasta shook his head and looked back at the sky
-”I give up, so……” his eyes turned back to Curio, “what has brought you here then?”
Curio looked back at the sky, was quiet for a while before responding, seemingly thinking about how to proceed with whatever he had in his heart.
-”In our travel to the mysterious tower, i noticed that the spear, while highly effective to use in great numbers, is quite lacking in this dense jungle environment, especially when you are alone. So…” Curio stopped and his eyes turned to L’er ya lasta before continuing “i was thinking that you could help me with something i have been working on your excellency”
Curios right hand navigated to his bag that was on his left side, and picked something that looked like a makeshift weapon of some kind. L’er ya Lasta had seen this type of weapon before, probably from the visions of the Godhead.
It was called an Axe, but if you were to compare the axe from his vision to this one, then the former would be far superior.
Curio handed the weapon to L’er ya Lasta and said
“Care to look at this simple tool i made?”
L’er ya Lasta took it and started to inspect it.
“I am impressed, the quality of the tree is quite good, but the stone could use some more sharpening, and the knots could be done better, but overall it is quite a good axe” he thought to himself, then his eyes turned to the handle of the axe.
“Did he invent this by his own?” he thought while turning the axe.
L’er ya Lasta had the blessing of the Godhead to see the inventions and the machinations of the Godhead, but if you were to strip that advantage, he would be at the same level as most Toakran, and therefore he never considered himself to be a prodigy or even special. What amazed L’er ya Lasta in this moment, was that somehow this young toak had found a elegant solution to a problem, and for a toakran, just to come up with a solution would be considered a amazing feat. What is more amazing is that somehow this young toak had invented a tool similar to those that of his visions, clearly having a capable mind to be so aligned to the Godhead.
“Was it the Godheads doing? or was it the toaks own volition?” L’er ya Lasta thought
He looked back at the young toak with a curious look on his face.
-”You did this?” he asked Curio
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Curio said with a proud smile on his face
“Yes i have, your excellency” he stopped a bit before continuing “If you could indulge me with your opinion on said weapon i would be very happy”
“He must be a prodigy…” L’er ya Lasta thought.
-”Well, first of all i am impressed that you created such a tool b..” L’er ya Lasta stopped before continuing.
“Could i do it? Criticize someone's hard work?”
Even if Curio had given him permission to do so, he still did not know how Curio would respond.
He looked at the stars above and decided to proceed, but with a bit more wisdom than before. He would be honest with Curio, only that his words would be chosen carefully.
-”The craftsmanship of this tool is outstanding, and i can see that the creator of this tool had efficiency in mind, now there are areas that could use some improvement, like the stone could use some grinding to sharpen it more, and the knots could be done better, like here and here...” he pointed at the knots he was referring too.
He continued to speak about the axes necessity of a good handle that can withstand the impact of the wielders strike and other different areas that could be improved, it continued for about a minute before he handed the axe back to Curio.
-”But i have to say Curio, this axe is really good.” Croak “ You should introduce it to the elders when you have the chance” smiling back to Curio, who had an expressionless face, or rather it was so to L’er ya Lasta but if you looked closer it would be a more colder expression.
Curio took the axe and put it back in his bag.
-”Thank you for your insight, your excellency” Curio said with a calm but yet unsteady voice.
L’er ya lasta looked ahead, but this time not to the stars but to the massive shadowy silhouette that was in front of him in the distance. Even in the dark it could be seen by it's faint colors that were emitted from the carvings of the tower.
“Amazing” he said quietly.
-”Your excellency, may i ask you a question?”
-”Yes of course” he answered back, still looking at the silhouette in the distance.
-”Why are we going to the Tower? Curio asked a bit hesitant.
How would he respond? Would he tell him the truth? That the Godhead is angry, and wants L’er ya Lasta to travel to the tower for some inexplicable reason.
“No, i can't tell him that…, i will tell him what i told the elders” he thought to himself.
- “The Godhead commanded me too travel there”
- Did he now? Curio said with a bit of doubt to his voice, it was faint, but it could be heard from the tone of his voice.
“he doubts me? Well… i can’t blame him, the truth of the Godhead was recently introduced to the colony”
-Do you doubt me? L’er ya Lasta asked.
Curio’s well mannered and good poise was no more as it was replaced with a more startled expression.
-”What..No of course not” waving one of his hands while he spoke.
-”You have every right to doubt me Curio, if i were in your shoes i would also have doubted this rana”
L’er ya Lasta turned his head to Curio with a bit of a sad smile and continued to speak
-”Doubt is good Curio, when it is applied right that is…,” he then pointed at a tree in the distance “if i told you that tree over there exists, and you begin to doubt that even though you have seen it, is it bad doubt or good doubt?”
The toak just looked at the tree that L’er ya Lasta was pointing at, looking a bit confused at his question.
L’er ya Lasta continued
-”Then what if i told you that tree existed but you never had the opportunity or chance to see it, what then?
A thoughtful face was displayed on Curio, whatever he was thinking, it was clear he was pondering whatever L'er ya Lasta was saying.
-”I am the only one to see the Godhead and no one truly believes in them except me, even the elders don't truly believe like i do, they are more worried that they will lose me and with it, my inventions.”
He looked to the tower again
-”but that is ok, because... truth is personal. Don't misunderstand my words, let me explain. There is a fundamental truth to everything, that is the truth, like the fact that the tree’s existence here at this moment won't change no matter where you are in the world, or that we exist at this moment but… it won’t be a reality to you personally unless it's being presented to you. But how can it be presented if you don't walk on the path of truth? That's why the young don't understand the elders, and vice versa. When the elders pass down their wisdom to their young ones, the young ones still need to walk the path of life, and by doing so the truth gets revealed to them. So in essence the young ones must experience it first hand, it is then that their belief becomes pure.” he paused a bit
-”It is like you can finally truly see, like before was just a distant dream of pure darkness and suddenly… you wake up, and see the true light that it truly is. In that instant it fills your heart, good or bad. We experience it everyday you know.., when we make our first spear, the nests, our first love and so on.”
-”So the meaning to life is not really knowing everything or be the most perfect being ever…. It is to embrace the truth when it is presented to you on this path that we call life.”
-”but as i said, there is a fundamental truth to everything… and the path of truth leads you to the culmination of it, and i believe with all my heart that the Godhead is that truth.”
-”and ….” he stopped before continuing, realising that he had spoken a bit too much.
-” i am sorry Curio, i started to ramble on and on…
“I must be tired... time for us to go back…” L’er ya lasta thought
-”anyway it is time for us to go back and sleep, we have a long journey ahead of us.”
As L’er ya Lasta prepared himself to climb down he never realised that Curio was not moving and was in deep thought, whatever L’er ya Lasta had said, it had impacted the young toak. Only when L’er ya Lasta looked back did the young toak speak and move.
-”it's ok, no need to apologize, and also you are right your excellency, we need to sleep”
Both started to climb down and once they reached ground level they did a short farewell to each other and went their separate ways.
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Confused and a bit sad, the young toak walked slowly back to his makeshift bed. He was in no mood to sleep, but the necessities of the flesh is stronger than the mind, so he reluctantly went to sleep. Before his consciousness went away to a faraway dreamland he thought of L’er ya Lasta.
He had hoped that L’er ya Lasta would soothe his loneliness, but all he got was more confusion and more questions.
“He saw through my charade…i should have never tried to test him with the axe…”
He had created the axe with some flaws to see the capabilities of the L’er ya Lasta, but only to get more than he bargained for. L’er ya Lasta had, not only pinpointed all the flaws that curio set up, even exceeded his expectations by presenting him with other options and improvements that never even occurred to him.
It tasted bitter when he thought about it.
“He is either a very intelligent individual with a lying personality or….he is a mad toakran…”
“Or maybe it's both?”
Unbeknownst to L’er ya Lasta, his display of faith and conviction had impacted the young toak Curio, and seeds of doubt began to flourish in Curios heart.
Was L’er ya Lasta really lying? Or was he mad?
Or was he telling the truth?
Curio could not decide.
He needed to know more to take a decision.
“Those stone tablets could give me more insight... “