Chapter thirty six: The elder
As soon as Caelum stepped inside the house, the dim orange firelight revealed the room in full.
It was simple unsurprisingly so. Slightly uneven mud walls bore streaks of red and brown, likely the being smudged together with hands.
The air inside was dry, tinged with the smell of earth and smoke, and the floor under his feet had been packed down flat over years of uses.
To the left, a rough structure stood. Wooden branches bound together to form a frame, with a thick layer of broad leaves laid across the top. It was amon to a a bed, if one was willing to overlook the crude shape. On the right was a small fireplace made of mud.
But this weren't the things that held Caelum's attention. In the center of the room, something else did.
"Huh...?" That was all he managed to say.
Right in the middle stood a sculpture. It rose from the floor like a lopsided totem, molded out of the same mud as the walls. There was no symmetry to it, it was just a vaguely humanoid mass with a hollowed top and smoothed curves, it was shaped by someone uncertain of what they were trying to remember.
And before it knelt an old man.
He had white-hair, his back was bent into a curve, and he was bowed low, his head touching the earth. The man didn't move at all.
'That's the elder?' Caelum made an obvious guess. It wasn't hard to tell. Even from behind, the man's body told a story.
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Caelum stood at the entrance, without being being noticed by the old man. The supposed 'elder' was too busy kneeling in front of the sculpture
'This guy…' Caelum's eyes traced over the thin frame, the man's shoulders sank forward and his body trembled.
'That statue… is that supposed to be me?' he couldn't control his face looking at the mud sculpture.
It was nothing more than a crude thing with rough edges and misshapen lines. But the posture was unmistakably reverent.
'Did he made it out of devotion?' caelum felt irritated the more he looked at the sculpture.
After hearing the others around the campfire speak of the "creator" and the "blessing," it wasn't that hard for him to guess why or how that mud sculpture was made.
'Tsk." He clicked his tongue but it wasn't enough to draw the supposed elder's attention.
Not wanting to look at the crude statue anymore, caelum's gaze fell back on the man kneeling before it.
But to his surprise, the old man's hoarse voice snapped caelum out of his thoughts.
"O-creator… my life's nearly over, I feel it. It's close."
"Please... just once, please let me see you ones before my eyes close."
The unaware old man seem to pour his last strength into a plea meant for a figure made of clay. Not knowing that the one he begged for was already standing behind him.
'Im right behind you!' caelum wanted to shout directly in the old man's ears, but somehow stopped himself from doing so.
'Whatever.' Caelum took a step forward, not wanting to stand at the entrance any longer.
Making up his mind, he said . "You've grown old."
His words floated out gently like a breeze, but they reached the ears of the man kneeling on the floor.
"Hu?" The elder, suddenly being interrupted by an unknown voice froze mid-prayer. His body stopped trembling as he struggled to turn back while kneeling, the stiffness in his back made it hard to move easily at this age.
But quickly he pushed himself upright. His knees shook, but he stood without any support. when he finally turned to behind and his eyes landed on the source of the voice , the color from his face was instantly drained.
"Ah…" Just one word left his mouth, his lips parted to speak again, but nothing came out.
His eyes welled up. A single tear ran down his wrinkled cheek. He hesitantly staggered forward a step, trembling again out of disbelief.
His voice cracked as he forced the words out. "Creator… is that really you?"
At the moment, the elder felt like his prayers and hope came true, the doubts in his heart all pressed into that one line he spoke.
Caelum wasn't sure how to respond at first.
'He remembers me? He only saw my face once, and that too eight decades ago in Dharti's time.' He let out a silent sigh in his mind, thinking about how terrifying old man's memory is.
Still, Caelum softened his gaze and gave a small, genuine smile. "It's me. I've come to see you."
The elder's lips quivered. A faint laugh was heard across the room "Ha… hha…"
He seemed like he wanted to speak more, but emotion knotted up in his throat. His knees looking to buckle again. Then, suddenly, he wiped his tears with the back of his shaky hand and looked at Caelum.
"I knew it," the elder screamed "You would come. You would never abandoned me. I… I've spent my whole life fulfilling your wish."
'My wish? What is he talking about?' a cover of confusion was visible on caelum's face.
The elder's chest was heaving with conviction. "You blessed them, you gave those two golden eyes and youth… you told them, to make sure the human race ruled this world. But after their deaths, it was me. I took it upon myself. I struggled and I did Everything, everything I did was for your will."
Caelum's face tightened slightly, as he realised what the elder was talking about.
'Them…? Wait, does he mean that old couple? When i told them to guide the humans? Ah.'
The memory bubbled up from the back of his mind, at that time he did not even think they'd take it so literally.
He looked at the elder again. The man looked like he was proud of himself, wanting to praised.
'He's on his last legs anyway, let's just play along.' Caelum adjusted his posture, drawing his shoulders back, standing a little taller.
"I'm aware."
The elder's eyes lit up with a feverish gleam. "You are? I knew it! You've been watching me, haven't you? You saw how I upheld your will!"
'I wasn't watching you at all…' Caelum kept the thought locked in his head.
"Yes," he said. "I've seen all that you've done."
He took a slow step forward, meaning to say something reassuring. Wanting to praise the man for the decades of loyalty. But before he could even get closer, the old man's tone changed.
"So, for carrying your will for so long… because I've pleased you. And now you've come to grant me my wish, right?"
Feeling the sudden madness in the elder's tone, Caelum paused. "…Your wish?"
The elder nodded hard,"Yes. You gave those two your blessing. You gave them the golden eyes, you even gave them their youth, but they died before they could finish your work. I didn't stop though, i kept going without you blessings, without anything."
His hands were trembling now, it was from anticipation or his desperation. Maybe even his delusion.
"So now, reward me creator. Grant me youth, Grant me immortality!"
Caelum mouth tightened, and a look of disbelief wash over his face.
'What the hell? Immortality?' Caelum stared at the old man, as a bitter thought rised like bile.
'I can't even fix my own problems, and you want to live forever?' Caelum felt a boiling anger, but he caught himself just before he could curse the old man to death.
"I can't do that," he flatly rejected.
"…Ha?" The old man tilted his head, as if he didn't understand the meaning of those words. Or maybe he just refused to hear them.
"I said I can't grant you immortality," Caelum repeated.
The old man's face became pale instantly.
"No. No, no, no, no. Creator, I don't want anything else! I don't want those golden eyes nor do i want to rule over the humans, just let me live. Please let me live forever.".His voice became high and thin.
This time, it was the old man who took a few staggering steps forward. His knees trembled.
"I understand what you're asking," Caelum's eyes stayed fixed on the man's face, watching the desperation bloom uglier. "but it doesn't change the fact that I can't give you that."
The elder's mouth opened again, but no words came.
Thap!
The sound of the old man hitting the ground echoed sharply against the mud walls. It looked like his body was out of energy.
"This can't be…" His hands trembled as he reached forward, his fingers brushing the dirt floor.
"I prayed to you. Every day since they told me, they said you are our father, they said you are our creator. So i followed every word you left behind."His cloudy eyes found Caelum's face. "So why?"
Caelum shook his head and stepped closer.
He crouched down in front of the elder, resting his elbows on his knees. His tone soften.
"Look," he said, locking eyes with the old man. "What you did… that was never for me. It was for your own people, i asked those two to lead humans forward and you took on their job after their death, but it was not for my sake, but for your race. I never said to or needed your worship."
The elder's lip trembled, his hands clutched at the floor.
"But nevertheless," Caelum added with a smile, "You did good job."
Saying so he vanished from the world.
The old man reached out toward the empty air, his face drenched in grief. "No… no, no, no!"
His voice rose into a hoarse, breaking cry.
"Creator! You can't abandon me!"
The mud sculpture sat behind him without any reply, and the firelight flickered on the floor.
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Caelum's figure reappred back into the white room,
"Ahh! What the hell?" he burst out as soon as his body materialized.
"Immortality? Seriously? i might end up dead sooner or later due to my illness, and now that old man wants to live forever?" caelum vented his anger out
"What part of me looks like it can grant immortality?"
Caelum felt like the white floor beneath him pulsed faintly with his emotion, but the white room remained remained lofty above Dharti.
"What a joke," after venting enough, his figure faded, dissolving into the white.
And just like that, the room was empty again.