Rites of Ascension to Adulthood – Day 2
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Day 2 – Look at All the Colors
2nd of Nymm, 989 YK
Don’t think I mentioned it, but at the beginning of all of this, we are cut off from food. We fast throughout with the culmination being a big feast at the end. Day two is pretty bad though. You never realize how great food is until you don’t have it for a while. Anyway, just wanted to put that out there since we all had to deal with rumbly tummies on top of everything else.
The day starts with each of us gettin’ tattooed (the first of five). I know, I know, you don’t see any tattoos but that’s because they’re covered by our fur. Sounds silly but they signify our family, clan, strengths, etc. as we go on. This one goes on the right leg and signifies bravery (and yes, if some horrible accident happened and I got shaved you would see several tattoos all over me). Anyway, getting a bunch of inky wooden needles jammed into you repeatedly sure makes for a fun morning (picture me rolling my eyes).
Next, we move to getting a bitter poison dumped into our eyes. Yep. That’s what I said.
Poison.
In our eyes. It hurts like the fires of Fernia, but it’s supposed to “improve” our vision. Help us “see what cannot be seen.” Well, I did see some darkness followed by a lot of crazy colors and blurry clan members. Not sure that’s what they were hoping for. After this we’re led out to a maze in the jungle and each dropped into separate sections and told to find our way out. There are some very trippy parts of the maze (mostly due to the hallucinogenic effects of that eye poison they gave us). I did “see what cannot be seen.” Jungle spirits, flying squirrels that glowed, a talking snake, and a talking tree. The problem is, you don’t really get time to take it all in because if you stand in one place too long a masked giant pops out of nowhere and smacks you with a big stick. I later learned these were just clan warriors, but they are terrifying as the Thunder Sea when you have special, poisoned eyeball visions. All that being said, I made it out. Brook got out first, but I was second and, big shock, Marbles was last. Plus, he didn’t exit through the actual exit but came pushing his way through one of the outer thorn walls. He may not be smart, but he is strong.
Oh yeah! You think, “how did Marbles do this with a broken leg?” Forgot to mention that the healers fix you up if you’re too badly injured. They don’t make you 100% but give you enough to get you back out there for the next round of torture.
Okay. Rough day you think. But then it’s time to sit down with the elders and tell them about what we saw and how we got out. This isn’t too bad, but it’s confusing to remember everything, and they want every little detail. They seemed interested in the talking tree info. I told them what I think it told me, but I’m still not sure what it really meant. I’ll put it down here, maybe you’ll get it:
“Turn off your mind, relax and float in the clouds,
The Talking Tree
It is not dying, it is not dying
Lay down all thought, surrender to the void,
Is it shining? It is shining
Live life to the fullest, daggers and bullets
Be not the one who searches and destroys
Be the one who searches and creates
Animals were hiding behind the rocks
Except the little fish
And they told me, they were trying to talk to me
With your feet in the air and your head on the ground
Where is your mind”
Yeahhh, that still makes no sense to me. I mean, I’ll try to be the “one who searches and creates” but not sure about the rest of it. Although, I can do a pretty mean headstand. With my “feet in the air.”