First Book of Beta - Chapter Three.
When Tristan, fourth of his name, ninth of his family, awoke in a world much changed.
And Tristan had heard a message, that all of his clan were to gather at a point somewhere to the south east.
Tristan walked in the direction and came upon a river and went to sleep only to wake up the same place, as he was the day before.
There was much confusion in his mind, because this did not make sense. Every day for three days he walked to the river, went to sleep, only to find himself at home when he awoke.
Tristan was sad and believed he had lost his mind and started praying:
- "Dear god almighty. Why am I unable to move? Why am I stuck here in this hollow two-dimensional world?"
But God did not respond.
Tristan had lost all hope when one night a Firefox came to him in a dream and said:
- "Turn off the monkey! Look to the uttermost right of your mind in the top most corner of you dreams and you shall find a monkey. Kill it and you shall be free to move".
At first Tristan did not understand. Kill the monkey, what does that mean? He pondered for hours, where is the monkey in my mind?
He found it after a hard night of praying only it would not die. How do I kill the monkey, he asked the god almighty.
This time there was an answer.
- "With the white arrow"
- "Where is the white arrow?"
- "Where you found the monkey! Look through the windows of your mind"
Tristan sat down and meditated trying to locate the monkey. And there, through the windows of his mind he saw the white arrow and with it, he killed the monkey.
Tristan looked around. He was at the river and always had been. Was it just a hallucination he was back home? Had it just been a pretty fake cover that had thought him back home.
Did he even wan't to leave? The world was much changed that was clear. Had he lost his mind? Maybe his clan could help him regain his mind!
And then Tristan started searching for wisdom and a purpose in this world.
But first he had to cross the river. With the white arrow through the windows of his mind he tried to force himself over the river, but he could not. Strange.
He prayed to the God Almighty:
- "Why can I not cross the river, when I have always crossed this river"
But there was no response from God.
Tristan then met a man too trying to cross the river. But the River was dangerous and he was unable to pass.
The man started praying.
- "Oh god almighty why can I not pass this River?"
But there was not response from God.
Then an elderly man came and saw the two men trying to cross the river. One of them by sheer will and praying, the other through brute force... and praying.
The elderly man laughed:
- " God almighy do not care, that you cannot pass. You must find your own way around the river. The world has changed. But it is easy I only spent my life learning this!"
This raised an important question in Tristan mind. Had God left the world changed? Should he no longer be able to cross the river that he so often had crossed? How many young men would cry increasingly large rivers of pain only to find an elderly man laughing at their futile attempt?
This much wiser, Tristan decided not to cross the River, but to go around it. Ha, he thought, If god does not want to help me, I'll help myself.
He found himself in a forest. He walked for days and seemed to be going nowhere. Even with the white arrow through the windows of his mind was he unable to push his way through the forest. He was like stuck in his old dream of always warping back to his home.
He prayed to god:
- " Oh God almigthy, why can I not move through this forest?"
But God did not respond. Was it, like the elderly man had said, because he had left this, changed, world?
The young strong man from the river entered the forest as well. With rage and brute force he tried to cut his way through the forest, but he moved but slowly.
He did not pray to God, he only cursed at him:
- "Why is this world so evil, why is it so stupid and why can I not be king?"
And then the young man killed himself.
An elderly man came, and he laughed.
- "Why do you laugh old man?" Asked Tristan
- "Why not? Every fool knows that a forest is slow and that you should have taken the route around the river through the plains below, the towards, the hills. It is obvious. I only spent my life learning this"
- "But I asked God, and he did not tell me this" Responded Tristan
- "God do not care" mused the elderly man. And he left for the plains and gained much speed.
Aha, another important lesson. God does not respond indeed, he does not like monkeys, he does not want me to cross the river and the forest is slow. The plains it is then!
Tired but happy Tristan went to the plains below the hills only to meet with a yellow man on a large smiling camel. He recognized him as Bjarky, a clanmember of much wisdom.
- "Hail Bjarky, how fare thee" Asked Tristan
- "Great... I am trading!!!"
- "ttttrraaade? What is this you speak of?"
- "See, I carry these non-descript items from one place toa nother. On sundays I gain the square root of the month in days past the first year of gold coins times two if we're doing it on a Thueday. You just need to enter a village and you make money."
- "Thank you wise Bjarky, you made little sense, but I will do this trade".
And Tristan the trader wanted to enter a village to buy non-descript items in order to make money in the amounts of the square root of the month in days past the first year of gold coins times two... if he did it on a Thuesday.
Outside the Village Tristan saw a large group of people... All of them angry.
One of them was Toffi, a clan member of much wisdom.
Tristan asked:
- "Greetings Toffi. Why are you so angry"
- "God does not want me to enter the village, there is a force field, no one can enter. I will not move until God fixes the world"
There was much praying and cursing and nothing happened.
This time Tristan laughed.
- "Why do laugh Tristan and not pray or curse our god?" asked Toffi
- "God does not care, you have to find your own way in this changed world".
And there came Bjarky sad, cause he was unable to trade on Thuesdays, and entered the city.
There was much rejoicing and the people asked:
- "How did you break Gods will?"
And Tristan said:
- "Your white arrow in the windows of your mind must be stronger than mine!"
And then Bjarky sat down and told the angry mob how they could enter the City:
- "God does not care for you, he does not care for trade except for Thuesdays, but he does want you to go into the city".
He continued:
- "Find the white arrows in the windows of your world and set a direction directly towards the city. The use your arrow to find the place in your left most mind to enter the town.
It is easy. I only spend the better part of my life learning it."
And there was much rejoicing and Tristan started trading. Only, he did not understand why, and when he did his life had past only so he could laugh at those trying to pray to God the Almighty.
