Chapter 13: Journey of a wolf cub (1)

Long, long ago, there was a small wolf village born from the bodies of two ancient wolves in the midst of nothingness. The wolves there worshipped an entity called the Only Existence, a god they believed had split himself into two ancient wolves to create the land they lived on. However, one day, when a wolf cub was born on the day commemorating that god, a calamity struck the land. Famine spread everywhere, causing the wolf pack to die off, including the cub's parents.

But instead of blaming the cub, the wolves in the village believed it was the reincarnation of the Only Existence, reborn into the world to test their loyalty. They worshipped it and begged the cub for mercy. Unable to bear it any longer, the cub decided to leave.

During that journey, the wolf cub remembered the warmth of his mother and the protection of his father, two beings who had disappeared when he was too young. Therefore, he decided to find his parents and bring them back. He sought out the heart of the world to beg the three cycles that govern it to return what they had taken.

The first cycle is the cycle of life and death. Seeds swept away by its rotation sprout into plants, grow flowers, from flowers to fruit, and when the fruit withers, leaving only new seeds, the cycle repeats. It refused the wolf cub because his parents' bodies had become nourishment for new life; returning them to him would mean depriving those new beings of their right to live.

The second cycle is the sequential cycle of the past and the future. In its flow are different stones, one pushing against the other, then the stone in front, initially pushed, becomes the one pushing the stone in front, and so a circle is completed. This cycle rejects the idea because the departure of the wolf cub's parents is the driving force behind its arrival; without that event, the wolf cub would not be here today.

The third cycle is the struggle between illusion and reality. Two different points, one old and one new, one real and one fake, constantly chase each other, trying to take each other's place. This time, it does not reject the idea but mourns with the wolf cub because its parents are an old concept, completely replaced by newer concepts. It can only help the cub weave a new path, but whether that path will lead it back to its parents is something it cannot promise.

The little wolf cub must walk on the new path woven from all three cycles. Along this path, he encountered four spirits who were recreating life on this newly formed, empty, and deadly road. The spirit of light conceived the idea for the new creatures, the spirit of air gathered the materials, and sketched according to the spirit of light. After the drawing was complete, the spirit of water gathered water to contain the drawings, and when the gestation was successful, the spirit of earth broke the water sac, and a new creature was born and walked on the earth.

The wolf cub, curious, approached and asked if these four spirits could bring his parents back in this way. The spirits shook their heads, explaining that they were only messengers serving the three great cycles; if the cycles could not do it, neither could they. They comforted the wolf cub, adding that if he could find all five components of his parents' souls, there might still be hope. Even without them, they could be given new thoughts, new feelings, a new spirit, and new perceptions, but the only thing they lacked was memory. The agile wolf cub said he had memories of them, but the spirits shook their heads, saying that those memories belonged to him and could only reflect a very small part of his parents' lives. They belonged to him and him alone, and could not replace his parents.

Having lost all hope, the wolf cub thanked and bid farewell to the four spirits before dejectedly continuing on his path. Before leaving, the spirits warned him that the end of his journey lay in death; he would face six forks in the road, all leading to his demise. However, he thought that the destination was still a long way off. But he did not expect that the six forks in the road would not appear simultaneously, but scattered along his path. The first fork, which he had always glimpsed ahead, though never seen directly, led to deadly calamities. The second fork led to figures who had lost their hearts, their eyes eerily lifeless. Continuing his journey, he saw a third fork leading to faint figures clinging to shattered mirrors. Not far from there was a fork in the road leading to shadowy figures wielding weapons and chasing each other. Only two paths leading to the end of time and the end of memory always loomed distant, indistinctly visible.

These paths, though passed, would reappear on the road after a short while. They were all so alluring, always beckoning the young wolf to enter. There were times he considered stepping into them, but luckily, seven beings claiming to be the seven embodiments of desire always pulled him away before he could enter. The first embodiment, pulling him away from those paths, called himself "Desire for Life." The second, third, and fourth embodiments were, respectively, "Desire for Glory," "Desire for Wealth," and "Desire for the Flesh." Only two embodiments, "Desireless" and "Desire for Death," remained silently observing him. They frightened him, yet their silence still held a magnetic pull, drawing him closer, accepting him. The embodiment claiming to be the eldest goes only with "Desire," always following behind him, constantly urging him to turn back.

Terrified by the embodiments of desire, who, though always present, seemed distant, unattainable, and uncontrollable, the wolf cub tried to escape them. But desire was everywhere, clinging more tenaciously than the six deadly crossroads. The wolf cub retreated into his inner world, surrounded by eight mountains symbolizing the eight extreme limits that desires could overcome. As night fell and the moon rose high, the wolf cub did something no one in his wolf pack had done in a long time�"a forgotten tradition, lost in the cycle of illusion and reality, now poured out through him. He confided all his sorrows and disappointments under the gentle moonlight, hoping it would listen and guide him down this dark path. The sun, though bright, was too dazzling to look at; only the benevolent moon, though shining in the sky, never refused anyone's gaze. And as he wished, the moon goddess descended to guide the poor little wolf cub. She said the wolf cub had to choose a name for the path it was treading, so that She could guide it in the right direction.

“The goddess of the moon…”, Êyavia murmured.

“Yes, it seems you have some recollection of this character, do you?”

“Maybe, but I can’t remember why that phrase resonated with me so strongly,” she closed her eyes as if trying to recall something, but no information was released by the “cycle of reality and illusion.”

The Storyteller remained silent, and the story ended without a conclusion. The previous complexity vanished from Êyavia’s face; she fell silent and closed her eyes. Nothing happened; she simply lay there, immersed in the whispering of the wind chimes.