Taken Horizon Origin, volume 2, Descension

Episode 23 : heartless friendship

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Walking up the long and high rising stone steps leading up a mountain i was beginning to lack some breath as we neared the end rising roughly 400 meters in total so far with another fifty meters until we reached the end.

"Haa... haa..." Tatsuo however was panting heavily as he used all fours to try and climb up the final length of rocky stairs. "Haa... are you human? How are you not tired?"

"I told you to pace yourself." I shot back flatly.

Taking a seat on the stair's Tatsuo stopped to catch his breath. "I originally intended to. But you were walking so damn fast! I was hoping to have to carry you at some point and impress you with my stamina." Huffing the thin air into his lungs Tatsuo got comfortable as he looked down the mountain from where he sat to see the almost never ending expanse of forests and the single city at the center of it all. "I'll never get tired of this view though, haha!"

I couldn't understand Tatsuo's laughter. He's in pain and struggling yet he's found the strength to laugh it all off. "...if you want you can still carry me?" Stepping down several steps i decided to sit next to Tatsuo to try and see what it was that made him laugh in my curiosity.

"Thank you, my friend. For allowing me to save some face in front of my monk brothers." A smile inched across Tatsuo's happy face now as he admired the world.

What was it that made him smile like this? I wanted to ask to try and understand what 'happiness' is to him but i wondered if it would be safe to do so. Joining him i gazed upon the majesty of this world to try and understand it myself in silence.

You would not realize it but underneath the canopy of forests there is a phenomenon called hottohoru. A strange effect of the world where random pit's of fire open up and devour any unfortunate soul's that fall into them. Theres a folk tale saying the hottohoru are actually the mouths of [fiery buddha] himself in the west of this world and any that fall into them deserved so because of bad karma. Whether in their current life or a previous one.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Tatsuo waved his hand infront of the entire scene as if trying to display the blue sky for me.

"Can't say i share the sentiment." Responding dryly Tatsuo saw the lack of anything on my face to show i was not 'feeling' any emotion.

"How can you say that? What your gazing upon right now is a miracle of the universe itself." The tired man spoke calmly as he tried to make me understand the beauty of the natural world. "For us to even exist in itself is such an amazing thing, for a whole celestial body to exist is a miracle even the kami themselves cannot produce."

[deserts golden hawk, reluctantly admits this as the truth]

For a moment there was silence between us as we watched the clouds drifting by above the tropical forest below. My mouth then hanged open with my words incapable of coming out briefly but pushing them up i asked Tatsuo, "what about something fake? Would that still be beautiful in your eyes?"

Instead of judging me for my question Tatsuo smiled to himself as he watched birds fly down the mountain. "Something's only fake when it's trying to copy the original. If someone wholeheartedly believes that what they have made is original then it was never copied in the first place. If even the object itself thinks it's nothing other than a replica then all it needs to be is so far off from the original that it becomes it's own item."

A faint grin seeped up my face from the words of wisdom that faded as soon as Tatsuo looked at me

"The stars themselves look all the same at night but they could not be anymore different than they already are." Standing up from the stairs Tatsuo wiped the pebbles and dirt off his trousers before going onto his knees. "Hop on. You said i could carry you to look good in front of the other monks."