A Story of Forever

Part 13

Thrash now was a young teenager, and in his heart was only pride and wrath and desire for more and more power. He did not take after his older brothers at all. He did not question the way that things were at all. He relished in the power that he held over others. The little boy that was once there was gone.

Thrash was travelling through his father’s kingdom with Mamon trailing behind him. The two came to the humble room of one Yemar couple, who had two young children named Aldo and Sakava. Thrash demanded that they host them, and that they prepare a great feast for them.

And so the Yemar family did, taking from the ingredients that Thrash had provided for them. But Aldo made a mistake when preparing the food, as children are wont to do. He was a child, after all.

But Thrash grew very enraged at this. And he threatened to kill the family. But he said that they could appease him by giving him their children.

And so they did. And so they had to.

Mamon took the two children close to them and whispered in their ears that Mamon would always protect them for as long as they could. Mamon knew the pain the children were feeling intimately. They themself had felt it. Their children had felt it. And now these children would as well.

Mamon promised to teach them how to trick the Uzras, and what great power a trick was.

Mamon, Thrash, Aldo and Sakava then came upon a cave. In there Thrash decided to make camp for the night. And so the three Yemars set up the tent and they went to sleep.

But Sakava and Aldo could not get to sleep without their parents. They were very afraid. So Mamon held them close and decided to show them a trick.

They took their mind out of their body and fashioned it into another form, a Yemar that glowed just the slightest bit light blue. They then made that form sleep on the rocks and snore loudly. The snoring was so loud that it awoke Thrash.

Thrash was so enraged that he struck the sleeping Yemar with his great sword. But the sword missed, and it hit a mountain instead. Thrash swung his sword again. And again it missed, and it hit a river. Thrash tried again a third and fourth and fifth and sixth and seventh time. But he kept missing.

Mamon and the children hid their laughter, Mamon’s hand glowing blue behind their back, manipulating Thrash’s sword so that it always missed.

After this encounter in the cave, Thrash and the Yemars set off again, Thrash in a bad mood.

It was not until much later that they encountered a large castle. And Thrash knew not who owned the castle. But he knew it probably wasn’t one of the Uzras, or else he would have known about the construction of such a grand building. He took the trio of Yemars into the building. And there they saw once again the mysterious Yemar from the cave.

She welcomed the four to her abode, acting as if she was a grand and powerful figure. This disquieted Thrash a lot, and he stated that he was the great and mighty Thrash, son of the All-King Karkion.

The lady said that he might be powerful in his own domain, but this was her domain, and she would wager that he couldn’t hold his own against any of her people. She looked up at him with mischief in her dark eyes and she smiled smugly.

Thrash felt a great anger in his heart, and knew he had to prove himself to this supercilious Yemar. And so he told her to bring him any challenge, and he would overcome them all.

The lady agreed, and she brought out a large drinking horn. She explained that all her people were able to drink the wine in this horn in three sips. If Thrash could do the same, he was equal to them. Thrash of course took the horn and started to drink with all his strength.

Now, Mamon explained to the children in secret that the drinking horn was connected to the sea, and that Thrash would only succeed at lowering the amount of water by a few centimetres at most. Mamon explained how they had been looking for a way for a long time of lowering the sea level so that Hari would have less pressure on them. And now a way to do so had just landed in their lap and Mamon would be dead before they let an opportunity like that go to waste.

The children held back their laughter as they watched Thrash try and fail to lower the “wine” in his drinking horn. Thrash drank until his belly swellled and his face went red. But he could not, he could not move the water level.

Finally, he conceded defeat, and the lady smiled knowingly. She acted as if she was gracious about his loss, but there was just something subtly gloating about her that Thrash did not fail to pick up on. It made him angry beyond measure. He had never before failed at doing anything he had set out to do.

The children drew much mirth from the way Thrash fumed and glowered.

The lady, who obviously was a projection of Mamon’s mind only disguised as a lady, brought out the second challenge. It was a massive cat that was fat and lazy and covered in furs. She declared that if Thrash could lift this cat, then he will have proven himself to be as strong as one of the young children of her domain.

Thrash tried with all his strength to lift the cat, but he found that he could only lift a single paw. He kept at it for hours and hours, until he was all red and sweating and all of his veins were bulging out from his arms and his head. He had never before exerted himself so.

Mamon whispered to the children that the cat was secretly their beloved child Harimon, and Thrash was truly lifting them up from the sea. Mamon had long sought a chance to bring Harimon up to the light of day. And now they had that chance. Thanks to the ingenuity of their mind. And the children, too, could win small victories if they used their ingenuity and their minds to trick the Uzras.

When finally Thrash conceded defeat, the seeming-lady smiled cordially, her red lips blooming wide. Thrash saw this smile and he was so filled with humiliation that he struggled to keep his composure. The children saw him struggle and fight to keep himself dignified. And they struggled and fought to hold in their laughter. Though they did a much better job. They had to.

The lady then brought out an old woman, wrinkled and shrivelled and stooping with time. The lady wagered to Thrash that he could not fight the old woman, the most weak of the lady’s people. And that she would understand it if he lost against her. He was weak by the standards of her domain.

Thrash had never been so insulted in his life. He resolved to prove the Yemar lady wrong.

Mamon explained to Aldo and Sakava that this old woman was time itself. And Thrash could not win against time for in the grain of time his people would lose and their people would win. There was nothing he could do to prevent his destiny. There was nothing he could do to prevent the flow of time as it went on and on. And there was nothing he could do to stop the aging and decay of his empire. One day he would die. One day everything he exalted would die.

And Thrash couldn’t. He could not hold his own in the battle against Old Woman Time. She stood firmly against him and withstood all of his attacks and his pushes and his shoves and his grasps. She never swayed nor faltered. And eventually, over the course of the fight, she brought him to his knees.

The children stared in awe.

Thrash sulked in defeat and hid his head behind his hands. The lady told him it was okay. She didn’t expect him to put up much of a fight. This humiliated Thrash even more and he got out his sword. He charged at the lady and once again found that he missed.

The lady simply stepped aside from the direction of his blows. She stated, in a calm voice, that there was something that the party could do in order to save face. If one of Thrash’s travelling companions beat one of her own people than she would consider him to be the superior one.

Now Thash was very outraged at having to rely upon his Yemars to win for him. He thought himself able to outclass the Yemars in all aspects that mattered and he did not want to be beholden to them. But he saw this as his only way to walk away with some sort of dignity from this situation. And so he agreed.

Mamon was the first up. They said that they would engage in a contest of eating. They said this so that they could eat a good meal, their hunger being hard to contain.

They were brought to a large table with a platter full of fine, choice meats. Their opponent was Mamin. Who was yet again another projection of their mind. Another double they created to puppet this illusion where everything could for a moment go their way.

The two of them ate wildly, with Mamon secretly hiding most of their food in a hidden pocket to share with the children later. Mamon ate all of half the platter’s meat, but Mamin ate the meat, the bones, and the platter itself. For Mamin was the fire. The lady declared her as the winner.

The next competition was between Aldo and a lad named Trinki. It was a running race. Aldo ran as hard as he could, and by the stars he was fast. But he did not win. Not by a long shot.

He was awed at the speed of his opponent. But he was even more awed when Mamon explained to him and his sister that his opponent was truly thought itself, and nothing moved faster than the speed of thought. Nothing was more more powerful than thought.

Thrash bellowed in defeat, and decided to leave this palace once and for all. He dragged the Yemars with him and stormed out the door. He was about to send a message to Karkion - who was busy surveying wild lands for himself to conquer - about the strange castle and the defiant, undefeatable Yemars within.

But when he turned around, the castle was gone. Vanished into thin air as if it was never there at all.

And this is when Thrash bellowed in rage, and the children looked at Mamon, smiling.

———

If you like this piece check out my Mastodon my account is FSairuv@mas.to and I post about human rights, social justice, and the environment.