After being pulled into the almost never ending darkness, he suddenly stops falling. The old man looks over and his dog has become that of a woman wearing a dog hide with its skull covering her facial features. She walks with him and the darkness begins to turn into that of light. He notices it’s a celebration. Memories flood back and he asks with a bitterness, “Why bring me here? A lesson in humility? Show me something new.”
The dog woman chuckles, “If everyone keeps teaching the same lesson, then it must be that you haven’t truly learned or haven’t listened.”
He grunts, “Or you all just can’t teach me anything else so you recycle the same talking points as to seem more enlightened than you are.”
The woman looks the man in the eyes, “You won’t get your way if you refuse the fact you…” the voice glitched and he hears laughing. The laughter is coming from voices all familiar. They’re an amalgamation of the same villagers he killed and new faces. He says, “What kind of messages are you trying to send? That I haven’t stopped lashing out? THE REASON I SEEKED OUT THIS PATH WAS TO MAKE UP FOR-“
The woman then multiples and they all say, “NOT ANYMORE!” They all merge back together and the she takes a deep breath, “Now, watch.” It was glorious, party which expanded over the world. Rivers were treated as wine and mountains as seats, everything felt so easily controlled that day. It’s foggy why they had such a festive celebration, maybe due to it being their anniversary of godhood or celebration for having humanity be in its most peaceful state. The joy was so overwhelming, Babalú-Ayé danced with his heart’s content which caught the attention of Olorun. When his attention shifted, the other Orisha followed. Soon everyone was watching the erratic nature of his movements yet, majestic until he flops onto the floor. His leg randomly aching.
The Orisha watching simply looked, disappointed. Silent shame and pity, those faces looked worse than the laughs. They might as well have laughed at his godly hood, because if you’re going to look down on me then just call me a joke. He’s a Orisha. He looks at this moment in his life being replayed and, he knows what happens. He jumps at the one giving him the most pity, Ogun. His face of pity baffled him the most, they fought in their youth. They’ve done foolish things together, he knows how much being treated with pity pissed him off. Then why? Why? Why the hell does he look at me with such pity?! The Orisha looked away, but he’s told to simply, “Look.”
He lunges at Ogun, with the Orisha barely having any time to react, Olorun has to step in and takes back the gift he gave to Babalú-Ayé. He starts swinging wilding, until after his mind was clear, he realizes it was one of Ogun’s metal constructs. While he’s reliving the past, he says, “I’m sorry. Whatever I’ve done, I’m sorry. I’ve BEEN apologizing for that day ever since. Trying my hardest to be better, SO HOW THE H-“ The figure interrupts him, “Constancy and meaning it.”
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Meanwhile, Eshu and younger Babalú-Ayé are shifted to a farmer’s market. Eshu asks, “What memory is this?”
Babalú-Ayé responds, “I don’t know, I remember this one vaguely.” Then they see a trail of blood, it’s fresh.
Eshu looks at his companion, “Death seems to follow you, hm?” The lanky boy simply grimaces, then following the trail. Eshu follows behind, “I was joking! Don’t be so sensitive!” They see a young Babalú-Ayé dragging a sleek, muscular animal that once rippled with life and energy, the legs splayed awkwardly to the sides. Its wide jaws hang slightly open, revealing the infamous saber-like canines—still sharp and deadly, but now useless. Its eyes glassy and vacant. By modern terms, he was carrying around a dead Inostrancevia.
Eshu watched almost amazed at how a small boy could’ve killed such a creature. He’s only seen people go after animal eggs or eat berries. He looks over and before he can ask, he gets cut off, “My dog helped me kill it.”
Eshu side eyes him, “Your dog?”
Babalú-Ayé says bluntly, “Yup.”
Eshu looks at him skeptical, so Babalú-Ayé explains, “I killed it while it was sleeping, it was hard to follow and I starved myself for a week so I could keep completely focused on it.” That seemed reasonable enough, but it was dangerously and he wanted to ask him why would he take such a risk. Unfortunately, that wasn’t important. He couldn’t let his curiosity get in the way of completing this trial, they both decided to follow young Babalú-Ayé and the village changes into a banquet with the animals carcass being the center of the meal.
The banquet almost feels like it’s drawing them in. They’re both seated without even knowing it. They see figures who eat quietly with hints of murmurs, the room was inviting and distant. The people eat the beast with such boredom and some even disgust. It was grating, so pointless, and no other words can be used. Thoughts are racing through Babalú-Ayé, slowly bubbling up until he says, “WHAT THE HELL IS THIS ALL FOR?” The people simply ignore him. They begin talking about random experiences, but as Babalú-Ayé slowly listened in, they weren’t talking about anything unimportant.
Everything they were saying were hints of something, “You hear about the great dying?” “Yeah, everything began to fall apart. Complete erase.” “Wait until they understand what nukes are? God, it’ll be such a shock for these people.” Along with many other bits of information and confusing things, he asks, “Wait, the great dying? Explain.” They all look at him dismissively and say, “Oh it’s nothing, I don’t think you’ll really care all that much. Babalú-Ayé says in a blunt, aggressive tone, “Well I do, just explain.” “Well, we’re just talking about some stuff. It’s a bit complex for someone like you.”
He slams his hand onto the table, “What does that exactly mean?” They politely say, “You’ve been alone all your life, you can’t possibly understand the things you do. You’re more at home with the beasts than any normal man.”