Over the next few days, things get easier.
Sorry rephrase that, things may have descended past living hell. I can't even sleep anymore, My limbs don’t work properly, I can’t even feel the water when I shower. Even though my brothers somewhat kept up the same level of speed at the two chores, everyone else's productivity has plummeted like the roman empire after 455 AD. Considering that we may have only been like a third at most way through.
So here we sit at another evening dinner. My hands currently have zero skin on them, even just holding the slightly warm bowl is excruciatingly painful. We finished slightly earlier today so it's still light.
Sid and Samarchi look like Zombies, even when Sona is prodding them and asking them question they just sit there staring at the fire. Maybe it's because of Sona. I’m kind of in the same boat, Zahra is talking to me and I’m really just nodding dazed. However, My brother looks like he’s in a deep in meaningful conversation with Zee.
“Nah she looks so much better” I hear Zee say.
Nevermind, not in a deep and meaningful conversation.
“Hey, follow me.”Zahra says, pulling me up.
“Why?”
“It’s normally dark so I can’t normally show you this, well it’s not as interesting when it’s dark.” she says, fully dragging me up now.
She looks over at the others and decides just to take me. She pulls me up the mountain, literally because my body is basically crippled. She drags me though a makeshift path that weaves through the large trees, even knowing the sun is still up, the trees block the majority of the sunlight that would be on the path. We reach the top of the hill which has a small clearing, she sits down on the nice grass telling me to sit down. I didn’t know why she had been dragging me up all this way but now I know.
“At the top of a mountain you really can see a lot.” I say mouth hanging open, half because of the severe fatigue and the other half because of the view you got from up here. Currently we are seated on the largest of the mountains, with a view that is only limited by our eye. Surrounded by valleys and smaller smaller mountains, Some of the valleys inbetween you could make out flowing streams. Over one of the hills you could see Kakilande peeking through in between the two mountains. All with a large orange tinge of the sun setting. I wasn’t that big of a nature person but this was sure to change my perspective. I almost envy Zahra who can see this every day. The orange tinge of the sky reflecting.
“What is it like”
“What?”
“Being an Idol.” she says looking at the sky with big eyes.
Do I even classify as an Idol yet?
“Well I don’t really know, I’ve only just really started and I’m already taking a hiatus from because I was losing to this girl.”
“Do you enjoy it?”
Do I enjoy it? I don’t know. Trying to get that girl to fail was fun until it failed. I’ll just follow my ingenious motto. If you don’t know the answer, ask a different question.
“Have you ever met Hataya?”
“Well I've seen her on tv but not in real life.”
“Well that's to be expected,I’ve only seen her once. She was pretty short, and she was drenched in sweat when I saw her. But she was odd, she held an aura that made her scary.”
“Scary? How could she be scary?”
“Her eyes seemed to stare into my soul, she made me question if I was good enough to be human.” I say looking down at the ground.
Zahra looks at me with interest..
“I would normally say that you had read too much manga or watched too much TV but when you watch her on the TV she does seem kind of polarizing. But anyway how does this state how you enjoy being an Idol.” she says skeptically looking at me.
“Well it makes you think, this person was competing against Mayaki and Tayaki. Mayaki wasn’t even that good when she started. Don’t you think that by becoming the best Idol I could reach the top of the world?”
“I don't know” She says with her hand on her chin
“Don’t you wanna know, what’s it like to reach that point?”
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Okay I don’t know if I’m just spewing crap now or if I am saying something smart.
“A point?”
“A point where you can do anything not bound by what people think, to be able to intimidate people with just a glance. To be known as the greatest to ever do it. When you ask if I enjoy it, I don’t know if I really enjoy dancing or singing that much. But I enjoy the Idea of having my name carved into history.”
“Most people wouldn’t admit something like that” she says smiling.
“Do you think I could be an Idol” she says now looking solemn.
“Well I know this really ugly girl with pigtails who is in it and she is fairly decent. So of course you could do it.” Does this good looking person really have that little confidence, I think to myself.
“We should get back, it's getting dark” she was right the sun had now nearly completely set.
…
The next few days went and came where we sat at the fire on the sixth day. It was clear that we weren't going to succeed in the test, I would say that we were about 50% there on either task. The mood seemed fairly dim even though the other monks weren't there at the campfire. It was surprising that even Sid and Samarchi looked sad. We all crane our necks in pain as the old man walks in sitting down one of the benches next to the campfire. His expression looked grave, almost angry.
“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave tomorrow morning.” the old man said firmly.
“What why?” I ask in confusion. Why would we have to leave?
“You guys have failed the test, you are not going to succeed in this task.” the man says getting up.
“So this is a farewell.” he turned around and left. Most of us looked fairly dumbfounded, for such a short abrupt farewell. Yes it was highly likely that we would fail but that is no reason for us to be kicked out. I turn to my brother shorely he has a solution, can’t he convince him. But my brother shakes his head in reply.
“We will leave tomorrow morning at 5 no matter what. You heard what he said.” There was no discussion after that.
…
Sabiti 3rd person Pov
“Why are you still up, wouldn't you want to get to bed early” said Johan walking out into the moonlight inside the room. The only person that was up was Sabiti on the balcony looking over the fields.
“I’m waiting”
“For what?”
“An answer”
you could tell that Johan was puzzled by the raise of one eyebrow, wanting to ask what answer. But from Sabiti’s little not very revealing answer he knew that Sabiti was probably not in the mood for it. He knew that he would also be feeling the same considering the circumstances.
“That answer”
Johan turned around to see Sabiti pointing out onto the fields where a small speck stood. He now stepped back not originally noticing the smile that now plastered Sabiti’s face.
…
“They’ve left” calls a man opening the door. The room held a large circular table the height for people kneeling, with the old man leaning on the table with a large book on it.
“I know, I sent them on their way, it is a shame but they were not going to succeed.” he says looking slightly disappointed and sad.
“Then who- , I think you need to see this.” he says pulling the elder up, to the old man's surprise.
“Hey no need to be hasty, you aren’t a little boy anymore.” the old man calls as he stands up. They both walk out onto the path with the clearing. The Old man smiles.
‘“It’s all done, even the cave. But they were barely halfway there, how could they do it in one night? Did they get help?” the young man says in admiration and disbelief.
“Deja vu”
“What?”
“When I told them they needed to go, it was the girl that looked at me curiously. But it wasn’t the look of defeat”
“Then what was it”
“War! Just like that time before wasn’t it”
“It was, wasn’t it.” he says to himself quietly
“Those three girls came here on the order of Amano, I thought it was odd at first. But they new how to work hard. Hataya was sweet and nice, but you could tell that the mission meant everything to her. Tayaki seemed more angry about having to do weird training like this, while Mayaki seemed to not really care that much, putting an in between amount of work to the other two. Hataya and Mayaki seemed to goof around in their spare time, while Tayaki always practiced everyday while she was here. But the news like these people came. They were far too off to have a chance. It was Tayaki who seemed to be happy to stop originally. But it was the look of Hataya that changed her from slightly happy to miserable. Hataya wasn't really as physically strong as the other two; her body banged up far worse, but even that she had done far more than either two. Hataya looked like her family had died, maybe it was for her. But as Mayaki sat there she gave me a look that made me double guess myself. She wasn't famous for the look at that point but I had heard about it, and thought, what look could a 16 year old female look give, that could apparently intimidate grown men. Well I learnt that day what it was like.” the old man says, smiling.
“Scared of a 16 year old girl's look” the other man says laughing.
“Well her action seems even scarier. When we woke up in the morning like this the very next day all tasks were complete, they had finished it all and left before I had even woken up. Apparently Chrose saw the whole thing. Apparently Mayaki had walked out just shortly after the dinner where she began pulling the rice. It was only a short while until the other two joined her. Chrose apparently didn't sleep because he couldn't believe his eyes. He had seen them nearly collapse a couple of hours ago in exhaustion and now to continue.”
“Doesn’t that scare you?” the old man says.
“The ability to break once is limited to that extent. Yes, it's the mental strength that could bring you to the apex of the world. And a lot of pain over the following week” they both smile, thinking about the similarities in them.