A bald, tan-skinned elder sits, with his legs crossed, upon a mossy rock. He glances outward from the cliff, toward the vast and breathtaking horizon. The entire forest is bathed in a beautiful, gentle shage of vermillion, reflecting the sunset's final rays before night descends. As he glanced, the old man places his hands on his feet, and begins to meditate.
But he has been interrupted. Someone has snuck up behind him. The gentle, soft steps would represent someone who was cautious, and the careless stepping on the bare rock instead of the moss indicated his immaturity, and lack of awareness.
"... Rhaad?"
The old man called out to the person behind him.
"Ahh~ I've been caught." The boy Rhaad stepped forward and sat beside the old man.
"Yes, well, you will one day learn to walk in perfect silence and harmony."
"... Thank you, Sage Ermon."
The young boy glanced out at the scenery, mesmerized by the view.
"It's lovely, is it not, Rhaad?"
"... Yeah..."
The old man continued to gaze out, and continued his meditation.
For a while, the young Rhaad had looked out towards the horizon, at the sun slowly going down. Eventually, its last rays of sunlight faded off, and the area had begun to darken significantly. It was hard to see anything 15 meters beyond.
"... Sage Ermon?..." "Hmm?"
"Why do you always meditate here, even when the sun's rays are gone?"
The old man, Sage Ermon, looked at the young Rhaad, and replied with the wisest words available.
"Rhaad, my young boy, one must learn what true peace is."
"True... Peace?"
"Yes. True peace is not something that is obtained from sight, sound, taste, smell or feel; It is a state of mind where you are willing to accept. Most adults will say that peace is living your every day lives, but please don't listen to them - That is the effect of having peace, and it is not supposed to be known as peace itself."
"... Uh huh?"
"True peace is the acceptance of something foreign, something that you are not familiar with - Like having a scorpion between your clothes. It is only with peace, does one learn to accept. And only when you can accept, will you be able to forgive. Peace is something that is created from acceptance, and balance is something that is created from forgiveness."
"... Uh huh?"
"Do you understand, young Rhaad?"
"Huh, er, what? Oh, yeah! Yeah, I... I do...
... I think."
"Good. Let us head back now, Rhaad. You must be hungry-"
A growling sound came from his stomach. Not Rhaad's stomach, but rather Sage Ermon's. It seems as though somebody was being hypocritical.
"!! Sage Ermon, have you not had your meal yet?"
"Ohoho, hohohohoho. I guess I am hungry after all."
"You shouldn't starve yourself like that, Sage Ermon! It's important to eat to keep your energy up! Let's go, I'm going to make sure you're not hungry."
"Ahh, okay, okay. Let us go then, Rhaad."
And so the two walked down the cliff, and back to the village.
*** ***
The mess hall was, as usual, bustling with activity. Once somebody entered from the front entrance, it was clear that the mess hall was surprisingly organized. The elders of the village all sat at one table peacefully, eating and discussing the village matters, like food, water, resource, and the plans for migration should the village be inhabitable. The adults sat at the middle table, between the elders and the children in the tribe, and they were mostly taking care of the children, and entertaining them, while eating their meal. The last table to the left had all the children in the tribe within, screaming and hollering, crying and chattering excitedly. Nobody flung food around though, because the last time a child did, the elders punished her severely.
It was quite clear how simple the village life was - The elders would plan out the village's progression for the long-term, the men would do the labor like mining, woodcutting and farming, while the women did less strenuous work, and the children would assist the women in simple chores like drying the clothes, starting the fire for cooking, and sorting the village's inventory. The children had the most freedom amongst them all, so they would sometimes be out in the fields frolicking, playing in the forest, toying with bugs, and the like.
Rhaad didn't have the privileges of other children.
His father had been one of the men tasked to visit other villages and communicate the future plans with them, to see if their destinations would clash. His father would barely be at the village at all, which meant that the village was one man short. Rhaad, as the only 'son' of his family, would have to uphold the tasks originally assigned to his father.
Rhaad's mother, or rather stepmother, hated him with a passion. She hated him for a reason he did not know, but the kids around taunting him would say that she was infuriated at how Rhaad's father loved him, like he was a memento of his mother. He had also heard of the adults saying that 'he had been alienated from the children', which makes Rhaad think that he isn't human.
The other kids in the village stayed away from him, perhaps it was in fear that they had to work as well since Rhaad put so much effort, yet he was unable to par the proficiency of the other adults. Or, perhaps it was because Rhaad sweated a lot from doing the labor like having to cleave firewood, or carrying the ores and rocks to the village. Or maybe, because Rhaad 'wasn't human', the other children were afraid of him.
It was obviously not possible for a young boy to manage the work of a grown man.
... And all of that changes tonight, with an important announcement.
*** ***
The villagers were happily eating at the mess hall, when someone from the outside ran toward the entrance frantically and stumbled at the steps outside. Hearing a loud clattering of noises of wood, metal and stone crashing onto the floor, the entire village stopped to look at the general direction of the noise. There were sounds of footsteps running upwards, stepping onto what sounds like a metal disc, then the rest were on the stone steps everyone was so familiar with.
The person outside came into view - A young man from another village, whose name was Richard.
"Haa... Haa... Haa... Tunfel... Is dead..."
The village grew silent upon hearing the news.
Tunfel is dead.
The man from his village, Tunfel, had been assigned to climb a great tower a few months ago. With his death, that meant...
"... Sit down, Richard. Sit."
The elder Sage Vormat instructed their guest to rest at a stool.
"Your attention please, everyone... It pains me to announce this..."
Sage Vormat turned his attention to everyone when he ascertained that Richard was resting properly.
"... It is now time to decide, the next climber of Metronomica."
*** ***
Metronomica.
A tower built by Man, to test Man.
It was a huge, metallic tower with spiral screw planes wrapping all around. It was a humongous, eerie-looking tower that had its very top reach really high up - So high up, that it was not possible to see what lays atop the tower. Having a history of 780 years, the bottom of the tower was covered with many plants and moss, crawling up the tower, as if in a race to see whether the humans or the plants would win.
The tower's base was strange in itself.
Unlike the houses in the village, which had solid rock paste, wooden pillars and ground rocks to reinforce it, the tower's base looked like a bowl. It was shaped like a bowl, and the tower itself was resting on this hole that looked like a bowl. Rhaad had seen it in action before - When the person climbing the tower reaches a certain point, the entire tower would start to shake, turn and move, and the rumbling noise created when standing directly below it is really, really loud, but not loud enough to hear from the village.
Legends of it say that there is a wonderful object at the very top of the tower - One that is not actually known, but it is great enough for people to be sent onto the tower regularly for 780 years. Needless to say, those who were sent to climb the the tower are dead. None have came back alive - Was it because the tower has decided that they were not worthy? Or was death needed for them to move on?... Nobody knows.
The only way to know of their fate, is to climb the tower itself.
But, one rule of the tower still stands even today - Only one person may climb the tower. No two, nor more people may climb at the same time - It was a journey to be accomplished alone.
There is a strange flap at the bottom of the tower that shows if a person is actively on the tower or not. Once a person steps onto the tower, the flap flips to red, but once the person is dead, the flap flips to green. Nobody actually knows how it works, but it might have to do with the person not progressing the tower for longer than a certain number of time.
... One person. Alone. Up a tower of death.
That was the image all the children in the village had - Not because the children were asked to go, but because Sage Vormat picks the children instead of the adults.
*** ***
Sage Vormat points his finger at a boy in the village, Famon.
"Famon! As the village chief's son, you are to uphold this honorable duty of climbing Metronomica."
"What!? M- m- me? Bu- bu- but I- !"
Rhaad had stepped in front of Famon, and faced the finger pointing.
"Sage Vormat, please allow me to climb the tower."
Sage Vormat looked at Rhaad for a while, before proclaiming a bold statement. "No. I will not allow you to climb, Rhaad. Should you head for Metronomica, this village will be one man short."
"... Sage Vormat, you do not understand. If you choose Famon to climb the tower, it will merely be killing him without purpose. Look at him! He's scared stiff!"
"Who- Who're you calling scared stiff? You should be the one who is scared stiff!" Famon actually rebuked at Rhaad's argument. Well, it is to be expected - As the son of the village chief, he has a reputation to uphold, and being disgraced by Rhaad was the last thing he ever wanted.
"What I am saying, Sage Vormat, is that Famon does not have a reason, nor the resolve to climb the tower. He has all his friends and his family, he has all of you to actually care for. He has no actual reason to climb this tower; Letting him go would be a waste, and the tower will just kill him off less than a quarter up."
"Oh yeah? You talk as if you have a reason to climb."
"I do have a reason."
"Then say it, Rhaad." "Yeah, say it!" "Why would you do something this obviously stupid; You must be stupid!" "Hahahahahaha, Rhaad is a stupid idiot!"
"... I am CLIMBING THIS TOWER,..."
The children stopped taunting him when Rhaad raised his voice.
"... To see if I truly am human."
"What?!" Sage Vormat was outraged at the statement. In fact, everyone in the room was shocked at that statement.
"... I've always been treated strangely, Sage Vormat. The twins there avoids me, Melke always talks to me in a weird way, as if she hates me, Yonda and Yondo always plays weird pranks on me, Famon enjoys making fun of me-"
"I do not!" Puffing his cheeks, Famon looked away in embarrassment.
"... I'm the only child in the village that has to work for my father's share. All the other kids didn't need to - Why? Why am I the only one who has to work my father's share, when he's still alive?... I feel... I feel like I'm not connected to this village at all, like I'm some kind of... Kind of alien."
The entire village stayed silent.
Nobody in the village had ever heard of Rhaad's problems - One that was unique, even in the village. Nobody seemed to truly understand him, and so nobody could be the judge of what he was feeling right now. None of the sages interrupted what he said. None of the adults could stop him, because they can't say that they know how to deal with it. Rhaad's case had been too... Special.
"... That's why I want to climb the tower, Sage Vormat. If it truly is a tower made by Man, to test Man... I want to test myself. I want to see for myself, if I truly am human."
"And how are you going to do that? By dying on the tower?" Famon's mouth is as vicious as ever.
"Can't you at least be quiet, Famon? You should have already known that me wanting to climb this tower means that I'm prepared to die while climbing it."
"... ! Actually, on second thought, let Rhaad climb the tower." Famon's tone and attitude suddenly changed, almost as if implying that he has an ulterior motive to let Rhaad die, which everyone in the village could already tell.
"This is what I am talking about, Sage Vormat - Famon is not suitable to climb the tower. You just saw how he could so easily change from not wanting to climb the tower, to wanting to climb, and then to let me climb. He has no resolve to climb the tower - Letting an idiot like him go is just a waste. He should be the one staying in the village."
"WHY YOU-"
"Enough, Famon." Sage Vormat's words caused Famon to back a bit.
"... What do you think, Ermon?"
" *sips* Ahh... Why not let Rhaad try it out? If you're going to make him do work he cannot do, it's not going to help the village much, so you might as well let him be off on his own journey."
Nodding in agreement, Vormat turned to face Rhaad.
"... Rhaad, you make sense with your words. But, let me ask you one last time - Are you truly, absolutely certain, that you want to climb Metronomica?"
"Yes."
"... Very well..."
Sage Vormat reached for a small pouch of coloured stones, and handed it over to Rhaad.
"Hear me, everyone - Rhaad, shall be our next climber."
The children cheered at Rhaad being their 'scapegoat'; The adults were secretly annoyed at their increased workload; And the elders all nodded silently, in agreement, for Rhaad had played a strong move - One that reflected the decisiveness of the previous village chiefs.
Rhaad shall climb Metronomica.
The next chapter would come out not too soon, maybe around the start of April. That's when Rhaad prepares for his equipment to climb Metronomica, so don't stay tuned until around April - It's not a daily update.
