The Search for Freedom

Lil

I wasn't too lazy to let other people do the things I should do, so I followed Cain to where he went. I wanted to help him search the second person I needed to kill. Cain would be displeasure if I did not help him from doing the things for me. The cool air seemed to tell me it was dangerous to the place where I appeared. I had teleported to a jungle of tall and thorny bamboo trees swinging in the cool breeze. It was my first time to be there, I seemed needed to fight pandas instead of human, and I would be happy if that happened because lives of animals were cheaper than of humans. The bamboos were making a sharp, crying sounds as they swung by the cool air.

Though I didn't like to be in this place, especially since I had a hunch that many weird things were happening behind those tall bamboo trees, I could do nothing about it. I should be brave though I saw a placard hanging in a lumber which had been turned gray of a long run. Perhaps it had witnessed many bad weather, just like hurricane, flood and storm.

The placard said it was a dangerous zone: it was thorny ahead. However, it didn't need to remind me, because I already saw the thorny bamboos ahead. There was nothing I could do about them, so I should start searching for the second person. Cain told me that every person who I needed to kill was already destined to fight with me, but I didn't believe him.

I didn't want to waste my time in standing there, so I took the narrow path between that thorny bamboos. It was absolutely dangerous, because my one wrong move could directly end my life, because those pointed thorns were ready to prick me anywhere.

To avoid from thinking I could not get out of here without any bruise, I focused on the very narrow path. An inch and those thorns would probably prick me. But there was no other way to enter, so I forced myself taking the path to death. What could not kill me would make me stronger, so I would just consider it as an ordeal which I needed to pass for the sake of my freedom.

Eventually, the wave was over, and there was no more thorns in the place around me, but it seemed to be another ordeal because there was many huge trees there. It was more better than those bamboos because I didn't need to risk my life this time. I continued walking.

When I reached the end of the forest, I never expected to see something like that. Something exposed in my sighed when I removed the foliage of tree. The lights blinded me for a while, then I saw a group of people or a tribe. Perhaps they chose to live there because it seemed to be safe. As what I passed by, there were too many thorny bamboos and also a forest with some wild animals like those snakes crawling around the trunk of a tree.

As what it says, in searching for a paradise, someone needed to look what was inside the thing, because the paradise could not be seen in a glimpse to an outside appearance. Learn to look inside, because there lies, the hidden paradise that only few people could see.

It made me think if what kind of lineage were those people. The men were wearing G-strings, and nothing other, while the women were all wearing clothes with the same color-brown. They looked not influenced by the modern world. I knew I could not judge them early without knowing their beliefs and traditions. I could understand their ways of living if I also know their cultures. They surely had their reason about the things they believed in. It was idiotic if they believe in something without any proof.

Traditions and belief were like those monkeys who were put inside the cage to be observe. Someone put one monkey on the cage and observe what it would do, after he observed the first monkey, he put another monkey. If the first monkey was acting weird in the eyes of the second monkey, it meant that the second monkey didn't understand the first monkey, so it would not follow what the first monkey was doing, and it would do the things that the first monkey didn't usually do, then it could realized why the first monkey didn't do such thing.

The observer put a group of monkey inside the cage together, to observe if what they were going to do. The other monkeys would not do the things that the monkey did if it made itself to be in danger. The reason why the other monkey did not follow their colleagues because they saw what happened to it.

Tradition and belief were like those monkeys, that if there was one who believes in the thing and the other saw it, they wouldn't be confused about it because they were put inside the cage together. Believing to others were not using their own brain to have their own thing to believe, their belief lied on the others'.

I was surprised when there was someone who suddenly appeared at my back and held my shoulder. Not to brag, but I was good in martial arts. In just a second, we turned into an opposite positions. I was then the one who was holding his arm from the back.

"Aw!" He growled. "Good job Lil, but can you removed your hand from my shoulder? Don't you recognize me?"

When I realized it was just Cain, I immediately let him go. The thing which surprised and made me confused was that I could touch him though he was already a spirit. I was surprised that I could now touch Cain, though he was already spirit. I was so confused about how I did it. It had been many times that I had tried to punch him, but this was the first time it happened.