A Collection of Destinies

Back at their own hut, Towa sat at his bed, excited to see Taurana arrive. “Taurana, you’re all white-washed!” he exclaimed in a confused way. Tau simply laughed, and began to scrub the oil and paint off of him with a damp cloth which Lele gave to him. “Tau?” he called. “What’s your trouble?” Towa-iti seemed timid to ask what he wanted to ask. But he went on, saying “I will miss you!” And Tau remembered the day they shared, and how it may have nullified the entire life they shared which hitherto was a life of sibling negligence and disdain, one that Tau propagated regrettably. But Tau also remembered how Taita told that he would miss Towa. Now, he did not want to leave the village, he did not want to leave Towa behind, or any of them for that matter. So he tried to express these feelings, saying simply “I will miss you too! You just stay away from Omi, you hear?” “Of course!” Towa reassured, “who else can save me from drowning, or from a shark?” and this made Tau to laugh. And he was nearly done wiping all of the paint off of him when Tama and Lele entered. “There’s the handsome boy!” Lele announced, seeing his brown skin again. “You feel fine?” asked Tama. What was Tau feeling? Even Taurana didn’t know how to put into words the feelings he felt. He didn’t know the word that described such feelings, in Lydian or Makatan – nostalgic. But he managed to articulate, saying “I feel changed, but still the same!” “If you feel this way now, wait till you come back!” Tama said, ominously. And a voice came from without the hut calling to Tama-imi and telling him that the caravan had arrived. So, after he was allowed to vest himself fully in the Lydian apparel, they led Taurana out to where the Lydian generals were waiting for the boys. The clothes felt nice this time as the night was quite cold. And Tau, Leipoko and Poatu came to a chariot pulled by two animals which they have never seen before, the names of which they learned were horses. And at the helm of the chariot there was a man, of white skin, clad in iron from top to bottom. And another man, who dressed the same, but looked to be older and had a faint scar through his left eye, he instructed the boys to hop into the back of the attached wagon, so that they may go to the encampment which was on the other side of Makata. And after the boys hopped in, eagerly and hesitantly, they bid their final farewells to their families. “Yes, Taurana-Nhane, I will miss you so…” said Lele as she began crying. And she went into nostalgia of her own, recalling the first night she held Taurana in her arms, next to his mother, Hine-Favinhi. And how she would never forget him, as though he were never coming back to them. So he reassured them, saying “But I will be back. In three years’ time. It will feel like three days!” but he had no idea of what he was speaking. Then, Lele came upon him, saying “No, it cannot be so. You will go to Lydia, and you will be forever changed. And the you I know and love now will never return. But however you come back to us, we will love you all the same!” But Taurana was taught, and he well understood, that the change was necessary, that the change was inevitable, as the Makatans so exhort. That as he embarks on this journey he must be changed. The only way one can mature is to learn, and learning must always change you. Even we ourselves must strive to take our experiences for more than the surface benefits. We must dig deeper and see how our experiences can change us. For to see how much the world we live in impacts us, we can fully understand how to effectively and efficiently impact the world in which we live. And so, the caravan bumpily went the trail which would take them to the Lydian encampment. And the villagers who saw them off hooted and hollered well into the night. Even when they were out of sight of each other, they could still hear clearly the calls. So, Taurana led his friends in calling back, letting out cheers of their own. Till the general hushed them, politely, to the better fortune of the boys. Now, everything must change. We all must change. They all must change. It was his name after all, Taurana-Nhane, which was to say, the distinguished change.