The blow that Maple received sent her flying, but she quickly got up and said, “The truth hurts, doesn’t it, Sequoia.”
Sequoia yet again bees visibly enraged by her words and is about to go for another punch, but a group of warriors, including Orb and Buloke, hold him down.
As he is being held, Buloke says, “I know what Maple said was out of line, but doing this won’t get your point across at all, so please calm down, chief.”
As the chief rexes, he turns around and walks away, but as he tries to do this, Maple starts walking up to him and says, “Is that all you’ve got, you piece of trash.”
The chief ign all her words walks away, but Maple tio spew insults at him without stopping. “Garbage, filth, pig, idiot, MURDER!” But she eventually falls to the ground holding her bruised cheek, as some people try to go up and help her, she screams “, LEAVE ME ALONE!” And then she runs off with tears in her eyes, with Willow following her close being.
“Cole, you e with me for a little bit.”
“Ok.”
As I followed Orb, I initially thought we would be going after Willow and Maple, but he instead he leads me to Sequoia. Whe up to Sequoia, Orb says, “Chief, I o talk to yht now.”
“I am sorry Orb, but now isn’t the time.”
“I am sorry, too, but if you don’t talk with me right now, I will be uo keep the promise I made to you about Maple.”
Sequoia then turns cocks his head around to look at Orb, and says, “Orb is that a threat,” Sequoia’s eyes are full of anger as these words leave his mouth.
“Yes, it is, so we please talk now.”
As they both stare at each other, I am unsure if Sequoia will snap at us. With all the medie they had been giving me, I wouldn’t be able to stop him, but it didn’t e to that since Sequoia said, “e with me.”
As Orb let’s out a breath of relief, I say to him, “Orb, you do realise how awful that statement was.”
“I know, but regardless of that, I still o talk to Sequoia about something right now, because I don’t want him and Maples retionship to deteriorate any further”, Orb says as he starts w towards Sequoia house.
While following Orb, I don’t know why but I feel today will be a stressful day.
-Break-
So as we all sit on the floor, in front of each other, there is a moment of sileil Orb says, “Now, would you be able to tell me why you and Maple are fighting.”
“Orb parents and children fight. This isn’t our first one, and it definitely won’t be our st, so you shouldn’t get involved.”
“The issue you are fighting about is only happening, thanks to me. So sorry, I am already involved, and I simply want to know why you and your daughter seem to have much hostility between you, especially regarding the outside world.”
“Orb, I know you like colleg information, but to what end would this be other than satisfying your mind.”
“Ever since I got here, you have been helping me nonstop, and thanks to that help, I have bee closer with everyone in the vilge. So, I want to repay the favour by helping you with your daughter, especially since I am sure my presence here has escated the issues between you two.”
Sequoia, who looks shocked by Orb’s words, tells him, “I guess you’re right, but the issues between us runs deep.”
“Don’t worry, I have time, and it’s not like Cole gets to do anything else anyways, so y it on me in as much detail as you want.”
So, after taking a deep breath, Sequoia says, “The differen speeds between the progress of sd human morals is the most terrifying thing in the world. Do these words at all sound familiar to you two.”
They ring a bell in my head, though I ’t remember exactly why, but then Orb says, “Those were spoken by one of the most famous stists in history, Magnolia. Those were the st words he spoke before he mysteriously disappeared. His name was on some books I read.”
“What do you think of that statement,” Sequoia says.
“I don’t have enough knowledge to tell,” Orb replies.
“I agree with that statement. Sd innovations are humankind’s greatest blessings though, if handled poorly also be its greatest curse
“Yes, Cole, by that very statement, Magnolia fouhis vilge.”
“Wait, so where Magnolia vanished was here. Where is he buried? I heard he left with a lot of his exclusive research papers. Do you guys still have them? I heard Magnolia was a woman. Is that true!” Orb says while drooling.
Seeing this, I smack him in the back of the head.
“Ouch!”
“Get a hold of yourself.”
But Sequoia lets out a big ugh “To answer your questions; his body has degeed. He burned all his research, and I don’t know if he was a woman.”
Hearing Sequoia’s answer, Orb’s excitement goes down to the point where he looks depressed.
“You know you didn’t have to answer him.”
“I wanted him to focus, so I had to get the distras out of the way.”
So, Sequoia tinues, “At a certain point throughout his life, Magnolia acquired a certain point of view, that humans ot properly handle all its advances and that we haven’t evolved at all on a basic level.
He decided that if humans are nothing more thas who only apulse, that use all of the fruits of sce to fulfil their selfish desires, ign all forms of morality, that if we haven’t ged a bit sihe days of beginning, we should return to the pce where it all began nature.
That way when our impulses take over the destru we it will be smaller and with three thousand people who believe in him he came to Fimbulwinter, and fouhis vilge on those beliefs, though I don’t agree with all his beliefs.”
“Should the vilge chief be saying that,” Orb responds.
“I may be the vilge chief, but that doesn’t mean I have to agree to everything some man said almost two thousand years ago. I don’t know what Magnolia went through to have such a horrible impression of humanity. I don’t believe people are unevolved animals who aly on impulse. Not ohing I have seen in my life has showhat.”
“Sequoia, so why are you against the idea of Maple leaving then.”
“Everyone in the vilge has a vague idea of the outside world sihey all know the story of its foundation, though the vilge chief’s Family is given a bit more information about the outside world that has been passed down. This is done so that if any trouble with the outside world occurs, we won’t be pletely caught off guard Maple, my brother and I received this information.”
“You have a brother Sequoia? I haven’t heard anything about him at all.”
“Well, it isn’t a topic I like to discuss, especially around Maple.” As he says this, he gets up to grab something and quickly es and sits down.
“During eduy brother was given something that all the vilge chiefs are meant to have. I believe its name is a photo,” Sequoia then shows Orb and me a photo grab of a woman with long blue hair, a man with pink hair, and a child with brown hair. It is a family photo.
“How the hell does that child have brown hair? That isn’t how geics works,”, Orb says.
“I guess you are correct, Orb, but that’s not why I am showing you this. Magnolia passed this down whearted the vilge, and told every single vilge chief to protect this more than their lives, since you and all your dets owe this person your lives. But holy, if I could, I would destroy this picture, mainly because of what it has doo my daughter and brother.
Φ My brother was the opposite of me and a lot like Maple; he was always hyperactive, loud, and fident he became a warrior at the age of six, so he would be allowed to learn how to leave the vilge, allowing him to adve in the mountains.
He was incredibly tough to handle, and he used to be hung up on top of this building almost every other day. He was untrolble, but I looked up to him. He was my hero, and always made time to spend with me, but when my brother was first given the photo, the look in his eyes ged. He would spend hours just looking at it, so I asked him why he was doing that, and he would respond by telling me.”
“Sequoia, look at their clothes.”
“Drasil, there are just clothes the same as ours. What is the big deal.”
“Sequoia, you idiot, they’re nothing like ours. They are pletely different.”
“But clothes all have the same purpose, as long as it aplishes the same thing what’s the big deal.”
“They are the same but also different, the materials, the designs, even the use of colour, nothing like our clothes and it’s not only that even the way these guys do their hair is different from us, I could have never imagined something like this being in here,” he says with his eyes full of wonder.
Whenever I saw his face like this, it scared me because it made him feel far away. So, I joined in, “The’s try and e up with some cool designs as well.”
“Sounds fun,” so my brother and I spent many days talking and theorising about what the outside world, what was it like, what would be the first things we do.
I grew increasingly excited and ied iside world every day by stantly talking about it until my brother asked me one day, “Do you want to go with me.”
“But won’t we get in trouble?”
“We will only be gone for a little bit, and then we will return. It will just be an adveweeh of us. you imagine all the fun we will have.”
After not really thinking about it I said, “Ok, if it’s only for a little while”, so we decide on a date for our adventure.
We had to find some way of inf our parents. I wao leave a note, but my brother said he had a better idea, s dihat night, Drasil got up and said to everyone, “Sequoia and I pn to go on and to the outside world tonight. We will be gone for around a year, that’s all.”
Dumbstruck by his words, all I could say was, “Idiot!” He then got in a very loud fight with both my parents as they very obviously rejected the idea. This eventually led to most of the vilge's warriuarding our rooms and making sure we couldn’t leave. Thinking we couldn’t go, I tried to sleep that night, but my brother eventually sneaked into my room.
“How did you get in here? Wasn’t dad and uarding you.”
“I have been strohan dad for a while now, so I knocked him unscious a. Now let’s go,” as he says this screams echhout the house. It seems they have realised what my brother did.
With haste, my brother picks me up, stealthily taki of the house. He has been sneaking in and out of this house for years, so he easily avoids the guards, and after he gets me out at full speed, we run towards the marker, and he uses it to take me out.
“Sequoia, how was that? It’s your first time leaving through the distorted space of our vilge,” he says as he sets me down.
“It was strange,” as I uttered those words, I heard a scream and saw a strange creature run towards me. I freeze up out of fear. I have never seen anything like this before, but my brother, almost instantaneously after seeing it kills it.
“Damn, tors, you shouldn’t even be awake yet. Are you ok, Sequoia.”
“Yeah, I am fine.”
“Ok, the’s go”, he says as he walks forward.
As I try to follow him, my legs freeze up, and my mind goes into overdrive. I think about the fact that I ’t defend myself, that animals are cool but scary, that I just left mom and dad behind, and the words of the vilge’s founder. What if they haven’t ged over the st two thousand years and have only gotten worse? The fact that I knew nothing about the current world left me with only fear.
“Willow, what’s wrong.”
“Drasil, it is just that my legs won’t move.”
My brother then looks at me, walks up to me, and says, “You should turn back.”
“What are you talking about? We agree to do this together. Just give me a moment.”
“Sequoia, you’re shaking.”
“Don’t mind that.”
“Sequoia, it is all right. I was surprised you even wao do this with me, given how much of a wimp you are.”
“No, I do this. Just wait a moment; I am just a little scared I will get better soon,” I say with tears in my eyes.
“You have always been scared of things. You don’t know why I have always beeed by them. It is just your nature.”
“I know that, but I want to be strong and cool like you.”
“YOU IDIOT, I am the only me in the word, and you are the only you, don’t you ever think of itting the crime of erasing the gem of a human that is Sequoia you got that, and if you’re scared of the unknown, I will simply e back with so many stories that the outside world will feel familiar to you.”
“But how will I know if you are safe or not.”
“Ummm, well, you see that star up there, the one shining the brightest just use that as your symbol of me. The brighter it shihe better I am doing all right.”
“All right.”
My brother then walks off and says, “See you ter, Sequoia.”
“See you soon, Drasil”, and with that, he ran into the snow so fast he was out of sight in mere seds.
