The Province of Armena in the Island Nation of Setting Sun is in a state of unending civil wars, where every influence strives to shed more blood as their own flow, reddening the earth with their blood flowing from their conflicts. And as time passes on, the wars begin to shrink in its territorial scope as little by little, the more incompetent forces were routed by the stronger ones. By then only two forces were battling against each other which are the southern Natra Tribe and the Northern Soljest Fiefdom.
Between the two camps of each side, is a nameless village where its residents survive by scavenging whatever left of nature provides that is not wrecked by the flames of war, and by their effort to pluck whatever benefits they can from the surrounding forces in their respective camps.
One day, a man in his tattered clothing and his badly wounded body with closed eyes and clouded mind came from the river in this village, as he tightly gripped the log carrying his body with his dear life. A young woman in her late teens caught sight of him and carried him to the shore, where he finally got the chance to rest. Feeling the place inappropriate for a person to rest, the woman brought the man to her house.
After waking up, finding himself below a roof of an unknown house and his wounds bandaged the man begin to prop himself up when the woman spotted him having awoken from his sleep. With relief from both sides of being saved from death and seeing the patient regaining consciousness, both exchanged gratitude and courtesy of their culture dictated.
He began to introduce himself as a wandering warrior, fleeing from his home that was destroyed by the war as the woman introduced herself as a prostitute, selling her body towards the soldiers of the warring camps for livelihood and the few orphans left in the village in the harsh environment sandwiched by the two forces of opposing sides. As the two shared their share of stories, the man was filled was gratitude and admired her resolve of self-sacrifice to maintain the livelihood while the woman was amazed at his will to live on through the pain and suffering of losing his home.
The man told her that he dreamt of peace in this era of conflict and bloodshed, symbolized with the little combat knife in his waist he received from his teacher, to remind him of the legacy and struggles his teacher left him with. In response, the woman told him her dreams of prosperity, symbolized by the necklace made by a string and a small pocket from sack, grains of rice inside it to remind her of her dream to free everyone from starvation and poverty from the wars.
The man woke up the next day, finding that the few orphans and the woman, despite their many deficiencies and flaws in comfort and capacities lived a happy life, filled with warmth and joy of sharing their life with one another. Soon after, the man felt like this is the kind of place he would feel safe to call home, a place filled with compassion and solidarity through the difficulties and challenges in life. He also felt gratitude and admiration, again, towards the woman who struggled with all she had left, to sustain this place and decided to help her.
However, calamity strikes when no one expected.
A few weeks later, upon suspecting the woman was a spy of their enemies, soldiers of one warring camp followed her trail and reported to the authorities of her potential of leaking crucial intelligence to the enemies so in a short moment of contemplation the higher ups gave the okay to strike the village.
Moments later, one by one the orphans were beheaded and the woman was then killed. It was almost half a day passed when the man returned with animals he hunted when he saw the flowing blood, and the dead orphans and the woman, as she clenched her necklace in her last moments.
He grieved their deaths as he cried his heart out before their remains, before making up his mind to use whatever left on the village to give him a proper burial. Not as warriors, not as orphans, and not as a prostitute but as his cherished family. He felt that this village is not safe and he didn’t want her dream to end with her death, so he took her necklace, along with her dream and set out to another village.
In his journey by his lonesome self, he was torn by the wrath and hatred in his heart of this country that refused to end their conflict and keep robbing people of their lives and futures and wished for destruction. But at the same time, he also knew that this very hatred is the one biggest obstacle of his dream, and hers as well. With both choice of his dream and vengeance, he made his choice to pursue their dreams and build a future that will last beyond the end of this civil war. He decided to let go of his vicious thoughts and dark emotions, and embrace love and compassion for this country as he pursued his dream and her dream he decided to inherit.
He racked his mind in his path of struggle, in desolate soils and unknown villages to develop the designs of social infrastructures this country lacked in its refinement and precision in, the human factor that needed amendments and improvements, and the resources needed to build structures needed to support, uphold and shelter all these components altogether thus creating a more developed society in his era’s standard by theory.
Trials and error hand in hand, slowly yet certainly he factored the many realistic applications and implementation results he found in his path in his theorized concept, and he was sure that this would benefit society. One day, he reached a southern city with a lively atmosphere in society where the hustle and bustle of its citizens strive for the sake of peace, compassion, and development.
He began to implement his ideas carefully and reached small success as he finally constructed a foothold in the form of a small firm in that city. The results were nothing grandeur that the entire city would talk about him for days, but the innovative designs and the brilliant mind behind it brought the attention of the mayor to his door.
After acquainting with the man and his life’s story, the mayor decided to appoint him as a counsellor in the aspect of economic and social development in his office. Years passed, he firmly implemented his ideas he conceptualized in his journey as the city was strongly vibrant in terms of economic and social development. In the end, the man passed away in that city, with the dreams in his heart unfulfilled.
However, a few years after his death the war ended, and the country was left in shambles because of the cost and consequences. Still, the city he died in continued to live on, and as if inheriting his dream began to expand whatever he left it behind to reconstruct the country and heal her of its wounds from the civil war. Step by step, the many cities began to adopt the ideas he left behind and developed their home to its prosperity.
Ambition, is a ravenous desire of a human that will burn himself and the people around him, the same way fire would devour dry wood. The stronger the ambition, the larger the burn, it will spread like a poison that will choke the life out of myriad beings. But dream, is a desire from a human’s will that they share with one another in their ideals, and they passed on their dream from one another, linking the past, present, and the future. And his life, proved that much to the country.
With that, the civil war was over and the country quickly recovered to her peaceful and prosperous self, even as he was dead and left behind in the shadows of her history.
The End.
Written by Adzkar Ilahi Rifa’i
