TheInkWell Fiction Challenge

Week 8 of TheInkWell Fiction Challenge Summer 2020

Series Title: Our Thirteen Sonatas

Week 1: A Star Burns Bright as It Collides
Week 2: Ghost of the Past
Week 3: A Sorry Tale of Woe
Week 4: To Thine Own Self
Week 5: A Day at a Time
Week 6: A Day Is Saved
Week 7: The Threads That Bind

I found myself as a wandering man somewhere in western Africa, brooding for answers on my many lifetimes’ predicament. It was a good thing I have yet to come across her in this life for fear of how she’d react to the choices I’ve made so far this time around—the people I had to deal with just to find a cure for this curse we both found ourselves stuck in.

This was a good place to start. It wasn’t part of an ancient civilization for nothing, after all. I surveyed my surroundings as I slowly made way into their territory, some children abruptly stopping from where they ran and played as they cautiously watched this new face that came to their small village, but I paid them no heed as I made my way to the person I truly seek.

“You have come, Talib, seeker of knowledge.” I heard him before I saw him—the Shaman I’ve long since searched for in this lifetime—Knowledge wasn’t the reason I was here, because all I seek were answers as to how to stop this never-ending cycle of tragedy and heartache.

“We have our beliefs here—Ori, it is taken to mean a portion of the soul that determines personal destiny—in this case, it seems your soul is threaded in a loop as if it was Fate’s doing..” The Shaman observed me through almost cloudy eyes as we now sat across each other in his humble abode.

“How do I stop it? How do I stop this??” I had asked with a building sense of urgency, intent to live just one more lifetime in peace, with her..

“My child, some would have taken great advantage of such a gift—”

“I do not appreciate such a gift if it only lasts for moments at a time, and sometimes none at all..” I almost sneered at the word ‘gift’ as I clenched my hands into fists, “Please.. there has to be some way to make this all stop..”

I watched as the Shaman’s cloudy eyes almost looked wistful for a moment as he softly said, “A life to be taken has been saved, thus the cycle of love was laced with tragedy.” He closed his eyes then as he breathed in deeply, “New life must be then formed before such misfortune strikes.”

I walked away from that place deep in thought, going over the Shaman’s words that rang clear in my head as if it were on a loop—New life must be formed huh? No matter how I wrapped my head around it, we were never truly given the chance, nor leisure, to have gone that far.. so then how—

Plee-wit plee-wit

I found myself suddenly halting at the barrage of a shrill sound that I heard nearby, I hadn’t noticed I had now passed through the local market, everything was abuzz with activity enough to make my head throb but the only sound that I kept hearing was—

“You’re in luck my good man! I found myself with some great finds for sale today!”

I didn’t pay much attention to the man who seemed to manage the stall as I kept my eyes solely on the magnificent white bird confined in a dreary cage, but what really had me frozen to the spot was how it’s eyes stared brilliantly back at me.

I almost snickered at this new twist that Fate seemed to have fun playing at.