Episode #7: In Search of Strength

Episode #7: 

In Search of Strength:

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"Wait, he died just like that?" The young boy asked.

The girl nodded and said, "he did, and his father as well, just a few hours later."

There was very long silence between them, they could only hear the wind as it was going between the trees. The young boy's brown eyes were flooded with emotions. He was looking at the girl as if she was a goddess, maybe Venus.  But the girl was not there. She was on a voyage deep in her memories of Wrath and his father, and her once loved family. They were gone now, she was on her own. Many years had passed since that night. She was not a little girl anymore. She started to learn the art of living, she became a strong women. 

The young boy was still confused. "Why did your master die? Did he say he was not afraid to lose the boy?" the boy asked. 

"And this was his final mistake, or maybe a lesson he wanted to teach me," Hope said with a smile. She continued, "he lost his strength and he couldn't live with out it. Me on the other hand, I lost my fear. I do not fear death but I'm not going to kill myself. The same feeling kept Wrath alive." Deep down she knew she was lying but the boy trusted her. 

"So what gives you strength?" Asked the boy, a pen in hand.

Hope stood up and prepared to lecture the boy about the world, and tell him of the stories she heard along the road. She naively thought she could become a master herself. She held her breath for a moment, to steady her speech, and said: "Fear and strength are connected. But we react differently to them. If you categorize something as your fear, you will try to avoid it. You try to protect. It makes you stronger, and at the same moment that you feel strong, you are in your weakest condition. If what you fear most happens in that moment, you will break." Hope closed her eyes to concentrate, to draw her attention away from the memories of that night. She continued, "Now consider this scenario; something gives you strength, it is everything you have. You don't even think about losing it because there is no life after losing it. There is no breaking. There is just nothing after it. That's what happened to my old master. It's dangerous to put your strength in something so vulnerable. Put your strength in something that you cannot easily lose."

The boy asked, "but you didn't answer my question. What gives you strength?"

"In my life I've met many people, I asked this question over and over. To my surprise many people are similar to the old man, they drew power from their family. They live for their loved ones. Some naive humanist would suggest the morality and goodness of human nature or something as meaningless as god. However, we all know these ideas are as rotten as this world itself. Before all of these experiences I would have said knowledge gave me strength. I thought it was a very good one since you can't lose it, but of course I was very young and naive. My memories are flooded with mistakes. The only other answer I consider reasonable, but I cannot accept, is beauty. I can't believe in it. It's beyond me. What gives me strength? It wouldn't be fun if I just told you, would it?" And the girl walked away from the boy with a pen. 

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Episode#8: In Search of Something Meaningful. Anything

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P.S Credits to a friend who helped me in my search for strength.