Scrub World: Young Against Old

Chapter I: "Young Against Old"

Today was like hundreds of previous days. A blazing sun in the afternoon, a pleasant, cool breeze in the morning and evening, sometimes accompanied by rain.

It was noon when three approaching figures spotted some buildings and a plume of smoke on the horizon. They were Pan's gatherers, leading a woman they had found. She, incidentally, looked terrible. Her bluish clothing was covered in a thick layer of dirt, making her look more like a toad that had just emerged from the ground. Speaking of frogs, they had recently begun to plague the residents terribly. They began to proliferate everywhere, which the people living in the City considered a bad omen. Not a day went by without someone trampling a frog, as if our toads were trying to demonstrate their profound respect for humans, as if they were ultimately the ones who would trample humans. Although the idea seemed incredibly absurd, great anxiety gripped the City, as it seemed that in place of one trampled animal, three more were emerging. Terrified residents waited for Pan's reaction, for his resolutions to curb the ever-growing population of these amphibians. Finally, they did. It should be noted that it is extremely rare for the Lord to abandon his temple, so these words were conveyed to his people through his minions: "Actions to change the condition of the frogs have been taken." It's no wonder, then, that the addressees couldn't understand a word of it. They probably didn't even suspect that "frogs" simply meant things, and the Lord's spelling problem, as seen above, emerged. Although they didn't understand anything, the inhabitants were convinced it was about killing off those dreadful frogs. Indeed, that was precisely the intention, but the Lord seemed in no hurry to make his decisions. Many days have passed since this announcement, and yet, as it turned out, there have been no consequences. Interestingly, his subjects believed this so devoutly that, for them, the population of these creatures actually decreased. Moreover, they were so pleased with this invisible action that they decided to celebrate it somehow. With the best of intentions, they organized a lavish celebration, complete with music played by the gletters played by three men. But as it turned out, the Lord wasn't at all pleased with this state of affairs; on the contrary, he was furious. He was sound asleep when a terrible clamor resembling music abruptly awoke him, and we must remember that the Lord has exceptionally acute senses. He probably hears better than many a cat, so let's try to imagine how the poor man reacted. In a rage, he ran out of the building, forgetting to put on a pair of shoes, and shouted with all his might, "How dare you?! Back then, the partygoers might not have noticed him and were enjoying themselves, but now everything had stopped. The music stopped, people stood still, and terror filled the air. One of the priests stepped forward and began apologizing, bowing constantly. It was truly comical, though no one laughed.

"I was trying to sleep when you terribly awakened me!" he shouted furiously. "What kind of nonsense is this? I'll show you!"

He glanced at one of the workers and saw that his trousers had a stain just below the crotch. He pointed at him and ordered him killed. And so it was. One of the warriors immediately pierced the unfortunate man with a spear, for whom the Lord had just gained respect. All because of a single maxim he had received from his Great-Grandfather: "

Respect those who are brave, and when they know they will die, they won't even blink."

Truth be told, he didn't like this maxim at all, because it was too long and, worst of all, rotten. However, for the sake of his Great-Grandfather and his bankruptcy, he kept repeating it, no matter what happened, so as not to forget it. He couldn't entrust the memorization to anyone else, for it would be utterly bankrupt to reveal it to anyone. Of course, this also carried other negative consequences. For several hours after incanting this maxim, he felt rotten. The feeling was awful, but it was his duty, and duty is sacred.

Our Lord has problems not only with spelling, but also with the use of language itself. What he meant by bankruptcy for us means nothing less than sacrilege. As for rottenness, in our language it means a feeling of being unwell.

It seems all well and good, but death is never very aesthetically pleasing. The unfortunate man began to wheeze, and bloody fluid flowed from his mouth. A moment later, as if struck, he fell to the ground. Worse still, his mouth fell open, and his now sightless eyes seemed to be directed, as it were, directly at the Lord. Sensing the corpse's gaze upon him, the Lord was so concerned that he simply gestured to the corpse to remove the carrion, as he called the dead man, and turned his back on it. He then announced to everyone else in his booming voice that they were to return to work immediately, and he went back to his home so that he could finally sleep in peace. The return journey was difficult, as the Lord had to be careful with every step not to further damage his beautiful feet. So he returned to his gray, small, single-family home, which held many stories from better times. Inside, there were also preserved relics of bygone days, such as a painting hanging on the wall above the throne, which I'll write about shortly, and a family photograph in a black plastic frame. And let's not forget the furniture, cabinets, and cupboards, most of which had already seen the ravages of time.

He himself called this building "Home," and the people called it "Temple."

He ordered Athens to wash his feet, then leaned back in his oh-so-comfortable chair. It just makes you want to sleep...

"Enough with the washing," he grumbled.

He treasured this piece of furniture, left to him by his ancestors, but he didn't know it was one of those ancient royal thrones. The same as in the days when royal dynasties ruled the world and a system called monarchy was common. A system that, however, was more lenient towards its followers than the one that had prevailed here since the Great Cataclysm. He didn't know all this, because how could he?

There was also no record of the throne being stolen by his Great-Great-Great-Forefathers shortly after the Great Cataclysm from the museum, whose ghostly building now marred the forest landscape a day's journey away. He didn't know all this, and based on another saying he knew, he certainly didn't regret it.

The saying was: ignorance is golden. Although it had been passed on to him by a stranger who had stopped by the City, he liked it much better than the one he'd heard from his ancestor. He wasn't even discouraged by the fact that he didn't know what gold was, for the dissonance, the resonance, and the smallness filled him with a truly mad adoration for just three words arranged in the right order. I doubt I'd be wrong if I thought he adored them more than his own people, which is inappropriate for his role. Although poor and oh-so-patient Aluch slowly and precisely explained to him what gold was, he learned absolutely nothing. Aluch couldn't believe it when the Master told him that from today on, this saying would be added as another item to the dicalogue. He argued that it made no sense, that it didn't fit, but the Master persisted, and as a result, such a provision did indeed appear in the City's dicalogue.

And the dicalogue, dear reader, is nothing other than the Ten Commandments—a collection of rights and obligations for every resident of the City, excluding, of course, the Master.

At that very moment, his train of thought led him to memories of Aluch, who was not a legitimate resident of the City, but an outcast from some distant society. The Master also didn't know that Aluch was truly a fugitive. He only knew a fairy tale Aluch had told him, that he had woken up outside the City walls and arrived here, where his destiny had led him.

Aluch proved to be a very, very useful subject, a man of all trades. It was this patient figure who, despite failure, repeatedly revealed new elements of the world to his Master. However, the Master was a very poor student, who, even with such a brilliant teacher, made almost no progress in his studies. After a tragic incident for Aluch related to the idea of ​​changing the City's name, the Master also saw him as a trusted advisor. Soon, Aluch gained enormous influence over the Master's decision, but that wasn't enough...

He now recalled quite clearly the day when Aluch had come running in, breathless, with his brilliant new idea. The idea to change the name of the City. He remembered Aluch being incredibly excited at the time. He couldn't even stand still, pacing back and forth, simultaneously conveying his bold theory. This so irritated Master that he ordered him to repeat everything from the beginning, to stand in one place. However, even after such instructions, small involuntary movements of his legs were visible.

Whatever the case, Master, as I've already mentioned, has a keen sense of perception, so even the smallest details didn't escape his attention. It all seemed to Master like the swaying of a madman, a deranged person. He couldn't concentrate on Aluch's words because of this, but he understood enough to feel contempt and immense indignation towards him.

He wasn't sure he understood everything, but the very fact that he wanted to name the City was a complete failure. He was violating many previous traditional records, which should have been severely punished. For someone like that, there's no such thing as mercy, he thought, and passed judgment, softening it, just slightly, so as not to lead to death, because, as one of the traditional records said: "No one can be sentenced to death, even if they've done the worst thing in the world." Well, I think such a record forces us to think deeply, but in my opinion, it's right. Following this and other traditional records, he issued the following sentence:

He began, of course, with his now-famous "How dare you?!," to then lecture the condemned man, "This city is called a city, and it would be bankrupt to judge otherwise! Moreover, you've violated numerous traditional records!" He then proceeded to issue the sentence: "You will serve four whole days, and on the fifth day you will be released..." Therefore, I sentence you to four days in the Hole in the Ground! Know my mercy! And now... guards!

Two half-naked warriors ran in, wielding spears with sharp tips that reflected the sunlight.

"Take him to the Hole in the Ground!" Because he committed a ban... – from shouting, as one of the traditional records dictated, he became hoarse – bankrupt.

Aluch obediently allowed himself to be led by the guards to the Hole in the Ground, which in the eyes of the Lord gave him great respect. His earlier contempt for this man vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and the reason for this was another maxim

I had already presented, namely: Respect those who are brave, and when they know they will die, they won't even blink. Just thinking about this maxim made him feel rotten, but he noticed that it was not only worth cherishing for its past, but also for its many uses.

This entire complex, or perhaps not, train of thought was brutally interrupted by the clatter of six shoes, which in turn meant... – he began counting on his fingers – - three people.

Thanks to his hearing, he had already heard them when the strangers entered his house. He would have heard them even sooner, if it weren't for the fact that the sand, which was mostly found in the City, effectively muffled the sound of footsteps. He counted again on his fingers to make sure he had counted correctly. As he finished, the curtain suddenly parted, and three strangers entered, accompanied by two of his guards. This pleased him greatly, as his calculations were confirmed. "At moments like these, you feel like living," he thought, "I'm even good at counting." He surveyed the new arrivals with a wary eye.

A dirty, though not unassuming, woman stood at the front. Her absent gaze showed that his collectors had fulfilled their duty, having given her a mind-numbing drug. He never understood why, but Aluch called it a drug. According to him, it affected the nervous system and messed with it so profoundly that a person became a helpless puppet. This effect usually lasted up to the day, though the Master recalled an instance where a man who had taken it died en route. The local collectors attributed this to the drug's lethal effects, which Aluch confirmed, saying that the drug doesn't always affect everyone the same way.

Besides, no one could lie to the Master, least of all the lowly collectors, who don't even deserve to have their rank capitalized.

Next to her, of course, stood the collectors, and next to the "collectors," the guards. "

We have, Sir... ahem..." the smaller of the two said

, "How dare you?!" He paused, then added, "Interrupt me!" It sounded foolish, so he repeated, "How dare you interrupt me?"

The interlocutor paled visibly and took a step back, bowing all the while. He looked like one of those toy robots that keeps repeating the same action until, of course, its batteries run out. The Master, on the other hand, couldn't think of such a comparison, couldn't think of any comparison at all, but merely felt immense contempt for him.

"Speak more clearly, or you'll die... you..." he began searching his mind for a good nickname, "... you dwarf!" he blurted out, clearly pleased with himself.

The dwarf, as Master called him, took another step back, but they weren't steps. They were small steps, so he still had a long way to go before he could leave. Master began to revel in his fear. He noticed that the dwarf had begun to shiver, as if the room were cold, which it wasn't. Absorbed in the dwarf, he had forgotten about the other hunter and the girl they had dragged.

"Forgive me, Master, for my companion," the second one said with much more confidence.

For Master's taste, his voice sounded too confident, and on top of all that, the tall, broad-shouldered man deigned to smile at him.

"What a disaster!" a voice in his head shouted. "What an insult!"

"How dare you?!" he began, not bothering with any further enrichment this time.

His booming voice momentarily filled the rectangular room, whose floor was paved with special stones, as Aluch had explained to him, knowledge of which had long since been lost to the mists of history.

The tall man seemed to realize his mistake, as he stopped smiling and, moreover, lowered his voice. The Master's humor returned and he felt a desire to live...

"We have brought you, O Great Lord," the Master smiled, but, for him, he exaggerated a bit, "a woman to satisfy your every need." He continued, "To become your Athena, O Great Lord."

He still wasn't satisfied with everything, as he sensed a distinct rottenness in the entire sentence. Moreover, he didn't understand much of it.

"What?!" he roared. "Speak more clearly!"

Ahem, yes." The Master was pleased again, as he had clearly ruined his carefully prepared speech strategy. "Well... so this woman," he sighed.

The Master's superhuman ears immediately picked up the sigh and with equal speed relayed the message to his brain.

"What are you sighing about..." The Master began searching for a nickname again when he was rudely interrupted.

"So, we brought you..."

The man didn't get to finish, as the clearly indignant Master abruptly interrupted him. Now he was truly furious. Not only were they coming at him unannounced, sighing, smiling, but they were also interrupting him. This was too much!

"Take them to the Hole in the Ground for Bankruptcy," he shouted. "They have to stay there for exactly five days—no, that's not enough," he thought. "There needs to be something more." And after they get out, they are to be chased out of the City, as far away as possible! Understood?!

"Yes, Master," they said simultaneously, and began to pull at the two men and the woman.

All three resisted, and the tall one—the worst one—even shouted something at him. The Master simply covered his sensitive ears to protect himself from the screams and waited for the entire mob to leave his House. If he had known they would behave like this, he would have punished them even more. He had not the slightest respect for them, so according to his reasoning, they deserved no mercy. When they finally left the room, and he closed his eyes, he fell into a deep sleep. He dreamed of...

* * *

... entering some strange underground building with the sun blazing, practically scorching his skin. Something told him this was the shelter.

A strange door stretched out before him, next to which was a rather small sign with a sequence of symbols. Something told him these were numbers.

Aluch overtook him and approached the tablet. He started working on it, and suddenly he began to fall. He fell and fell and fell until he finally landed with a thud on something hard. He felt his skull split open, and his thoughts flew out faster and faster. He knew less and less, but he didn't fall or anything. On the contrary, he stood up, but he felt very strange. His bones ached, and he couldn't concentrate on anything, which was understandable given his rather complicated situation. Every thought he created, it fled, leaving him only a trace of its presence. Something this strange only happens in dreams...

He called out to Aluch a hundred times, though he didn't even know what he was calling out, because all thoughts simply didn't stick in his head, as is more scientifically explained above. No one spoke, although they might have, but he didn't know it...

It was strange, standing there, but he wasn't thinking. Suddenly shocked, he felt a tremendous pain, then merged with the air and...

* * *

... he awoke as suddenly as he had fallen asleep. He was drenched in sweat, and his chaotic thoughts began to fill his head. He believed in the power of dreams, and he considered this one the final warning against the vaults. About those underground buildings scattered throughout the world.

Aluch had often told him about them. He said that great treasures were hidden there—he often called them immeasurable wealth. He also recalled being visibly excited at the mere thought of firearms there. Firearms, as Aluch explained to him, were something that killed with the sound alone.

I owed an explanation. People can be divided into three groups, varying in size.

The largest group consists of people who have never seen a weapon or seen it used. The second, smaller group, which also includes Aluch, consists of people who have witnessed the effects of such weapons. They heard the bang, and then saw the victim fall, sometimes covered in blood. For them, it was killing with sound. The third group, whose members, a mere fraction of all humanity, knew what firearms were and how to use them.

The master was unaware of all this and considered it utter nonsense. According to him, only weapons existed, and no firearms, because such a weapon, according to his knowledge of the world, had no right to exist, let alone function. For the next few hours, he couldn't concentrate on anything. He was terrified, for, just like in a dream, his thoughts were racing from his mind. "The dream becomes true," he thought, terrified, "the dream becomes true..."

Thinking about it, he kept recalling images from that terrible dream. The worst was the last one, though it wasn't an image at all, but a feeling of immense pain.

We could easily compare this pain to the suffering of an unfortunate person tortured on a Ferris wheel in the Middle Ages.

Pan was even more terrified because he had never remembered a dream so perfectly. He was able to recreate even the smallest detail, and he was devastated by this fact. He even concluded, once he had calmed down a bit, that he was starting to lose his mind, which was impossible. How could Pan lose the senses his ancestors had bestowed upon him? How could he, with his supernatural hearing, lose his hearing?

These and other questions haunted him and led to profound reflections. Because if the ancestors want to take away my gift, he thought, then I must have done something to them... no, I didn't have to go bankrupt... but what, what did I do?

Nothing, he answered himself, I never ignored anyone... I honored everyone... I did nothing... until he finally had a wild thought: had I become bored with them?

"Am I bored with you?!" he shouted upward. "Answer me! Am I bored with you?"

Finally, his feelings prevailed, and he began to cry. An extraordinary sight, which, fortunately for him, no one saw or heard. The crying was voiceless. It was so empty, yet so poignant. Extraordinary.

He tried to control himself, and at least he succeeded somewhat. He stopped crying, but inside he felt a tremendous anxiety mixed with a terrible emptiness. Worse still, time passed, and he couldn't repeat his Great-Grandfather's saying, lest he forget it.

Through it all, he flew into a rage and began calling out for Aluch over and over again. It looked as if a small child wanted his toy, constantly shouting: "I want a teddy bear!! I want..."

After an unbearably long moment, slowly pacing the floor, Aluch stood before him.

The Master saw that he hadn't heard any footsteps, and therefore, worst of all, his great gift had been taken from him. He had become nothing...

"What worries you, Lord?" he began, for there was no strength left to prevent him from seeing the pitiful state of his Master

. "How dare you?" he began, not loudly as before, but quietly, as never before. And he hadn't meant to say that at all. It was just that because of all this, he'd already mixed up his sentences. "Yes, yes... I feel strange." He corrected himself.

"I don't understand, Sir...

" "What don't you understand?" He didn't have the strength to shout. "After a dream... I keep seeing those images and I can't fall asleep," he croaked.

"Hmmm... let's think," he said thoughtfully.

"Just quickly, because I want to sleep, I..." he croaked again.

"Maybe... a green drink... Yes! Yes! It makes you think about nothing," he announced excitedly.

"Aha... good... and then... I'll... be able to fall asleep?" He was having more and more trouble speaking.

"Oh, yes, certainly,

Sir, he wasn't sure of anything anymore, but for a moment he saw a smile on Aluch's face. He felt hopeless like never before, so, he thought, it must have been nothing more than a premonition. So he ignored that fact.

"When... I get... that... well..."

"A drink, Sir. A drink.

" "Ahh... yes... so... when?

" "In a moment, Sir... in a moment."

And that smile again. This time he listened to his own intuition and decided to check it out just in case. He knew the phrase that suited this situation, but he couldn't remember it. It was the first time he'd forgotten something so important, and he felt so rotten. So rotten like he'd never felt before...

"Was he... smiling... Aluchu?

" "No, no. That's highly doubtful, Sir. Impossible, in fact."

He couldn't detect a single note of falsetto in his voice, which meant he couldn't lie.

"Okay... then go... quickly...

" "Of course, Sir."

Then he heard footsteps slowly receding and the rustle of a curtain being drawn aside.

And the images kept coming back, still haunting him... The Master couldn't wait for his drink. After an unbearably long five minutes, he heard the rustle of the curtain being pulled back again and saw his savior with the green drink in his hand.

Lost in his thirst for the drink, he didn't even notice that he'd heard footsteps so late.

Suddenly, however, a disastrous thought crept into his mind. The thought that Aluch might drop the drink, stumble, and the Lord would lose his chance. He would suffer like this for the rest of his life... Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened, and when Aluch approached him with the cup of the drink, he took a deep breath and took it carefully, careful not to drop it or spill it. He tipped the cup and began to greedily devour its contents. The drink had a terribly putrid taste, but the Lord continued to drink. At that very moment, he would have done anything to go to sleep. Indeed, he did, but he fell into an eternal sleep. After a moment, only his lifeless body remained, which the guards then carried outside.

Thus ended the era of the Lord's rule, and with his death began an era of change for the City. Changes that the deceased would have called bankruptcy.