Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 204: Strange Words

After lunch, Laz wandered off by himself, finding a place to relax. The land around him really was scenic and beautiful. Laz hadn't wandered into to many cities in his life because he preferred these wide open areas without people. Perhaps it had to do a lot with his previous nature of wanting to be alone and not connect with others. He wanted to remain invisible before even though he no longer understood why that was. Maybe it was because for him, getting close to others was way to painful.

He thought he had found a way to avoid that and yet, he had still gotten way to close to quite a few people. Well, quite a few girls anyway.

As his thought drifted here, Laz felt a familiar furry lump take a seat on his shoulder before it started to rub his face. Although the words the Tyr could speak were still few, he was still really good at communicating. And really perceptive.

"I'm fine. No worries." Although Laz said it, he wasn't sure he meant it. Having been gone for a year without a word to anyone... how would the ones he cared about view that? Would they be angry at him, be worried? Or maybe they had forgotten about him? He didn't know and because of that, he was worried. But even if he wanted to get in touch with them, he knew it wouldn't be easy. Especially if everything that Onacona had been saying is real. From the sounds of it, infected were now being hunted and the ones that had stood up for them before were being ignored. It wasn't as though Laz didn't know it was going to happen, he just thought that it would take longer.

But it seems like time waits for no one.

"Well, maybe I'm not fine, but there isn't anything I can do about it right now."

Tyr jumped off of Laz's shoulder and landed on the ground before turning around to face Laz. Tyr then tool a fun position and wrapped his back and middle legs around himself while using his front legs to rest in front of himself. Laz looked at the way he was sitting and wondering what it meant.

*Budda* came Tyr's quick and short explanation.

"Budda?" Laz asked back. As he did though, something hidden in his brain seemed to click.

-Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.-

"The hell?" It was like the thought appeared in his head without his permission. And it wasn't like he had memorized it at some point and forgot it, more like it was there and he just needed the key, which was apparently his mental state along with the keyword.

Laz looked down at Tyr who was still sitting funny but with his little, furry eyes closed.

'I really don't think spiders have eyelids... whatever." Laz pushed those thoughts aside and focused instead on the wording that had popped into his head.

'Do not dwell in the past." As Laz recited those words, he felt his mind drift inside of himself. Before long, he was floating in front of his fog covered foundation, on which a black flame could barely be seen, burning in the center. Although the blaze looked impressive, it also looked like it was being smothered by the grey fog that seemed to cover his inner world. This was Laz's basic problem. Wherever he was, this fog had seeped into his body and had completely covered his foundation, preventing any energy from escaping. As far as the thin amount of energy Laz was able to draw in from the outside world, it looked as though it disappeared as soon as it touched the fog. The only thing that brought him comfort form this scene was that it looked as though the black flame was slowly burning away the fog. Laz couldn't even begin to imagine how long that was going to take though.

Just as he thought about these words again, some of the runes that circled the bottom of his foundation seemed to light up, looking like he had plugged in the lights from a Christmas tree. Although it was only a few runes, Laz could make out that they were definitely brighter than every other dull rune around the base. On top of that, Laz was almost sure that when the runes lit up, it looked as though his black flame had become a bit more steady.

'What the hell is this?" Laz truly had no idea what was going on, or what had happened. Before, when he had looked at the runes, they appeared blurry and unreadable. But now, even though it was just a small few of the runes, they started become clear and just a little bit brighter.

'And what is this suppose to mean?' Laz asked himself while lost in thought. As he pondered over the words more and more, he discovered that as he applied their meaning to himself, it seemed like the runes were growing even brighter and becoming clear enough to read.

'Is this... what I think it is? The words from that Buddhist proverb were some of the many runes that were strung along his base? Then, what about the rest of them?'

'Do not dream of the future.' Sure enough, when these words appeared in Laz mind, the next small string of runes lit up as well.

Thinking that Laz had found a bit of insight, he tried thinking of the final line.

'Concentrate the mind on the present moment.' As these words popped into Laz's mind, he quickly looked at his foundation base, but was disappointed. The following runes remained dull and lifeless..

'But why?' Laz paused as he considered what he knew so far and did a double take over the previous strings of runes.

'The first set is the brightest, but I feel like they aren't nearly as bright as they could be. The second string of runes looks like it's barely lit as all.... WAIT A MINUTE.' Laz said out loud in his own head.

Laz had a strange feeling that the runes and the lit parts are like a long wire... if there isn't enough juice going in, the current won't travel the entire length of the wire, leaving lights unlit. It might be a crude way to put it, but that was all he could think of.

Going back to the first set, Laz started from there, thinking of all of the ways those words applied to him.

'The past. The portions of my life that are gone and the parts that won't come again. More importantly, they are things that aren't here with me now and there is nothing I can do about it.'

As Laz went through these things in his mind and how it applied to his life, the runes on his base began growing brighter and brighter. When he had reached a point where thinking about it made his head hurt, he started thinking about the second line.

'Do not dream of the future.' Ever since Laz had heard that he had basically been missing for a year, he couldn't help but think about the girls who he left behind. He wanted to see them, if only to let them know he was still alive. He still had to find his parents as well and find a way to rescue his grandfather. There were so many things he had to do that when he would think about it, it would almost suffocate him. In turn, this led to him being unable to focus on what was happening at the moment. He had too many responsibilities to shoulder and it really did prevent him from focusing.

As he thought more about those words, he knew that the theory was correct. It was just hard to put it into practice. How do you let go of the worry when the worry is always there? Laz couldn't help but be stuck on this line, with no clear way of applying it. At least, not yet. But maybe that was the point? As he focus more on setting the things aside that he couldn't do anything about right now, he vaguely felt that those words got a bit brighter. And more importantly, the final string even showed some signs of coming to life.

Although there was more left to think on, Laz let everything go for a bit and opened his eyes. He knew that there was far more for him to get through, but he needed time to rest his mind.

When Laz looked around, he noticed that the sun had started sinking and had almost set. He had come out after lunch, but now it was almost looking like dinner time. Even Tyr had fallen asleep while resting on him, as though Laz had bored him to sleep.

"Well that was freaky," Laz said out loud to himself, thinking that in no way did it feel like so many hours had passed.

"No shit. What did you hit that made you zone out like that for the entire afternoon?"

"AAHHHHH"

"AAAHHHHHHHHHHHH"

"Damn it..." Laz had no idea when Sarah had wandered up behind him. Although he was normally pretty calm and wasn't easily startled, his mind was still super foggy from before and he had no idea she was there. So, he screamed and she screamed. It's also worth it to note that Tyr was startled awake and hide behind Laz before she saw him.

"Why did you scream? Aren't you a man?" Laz wasn't sure he was annoyed due to her disturbing him or if he was just annoyed that he didn't make as much progress as he had expected to. Either way, he found that this girl got on his nerves rather easily. He was tempted to explode back at her, but he took a deep breath, calming his mind almost immediately.

"You should already know the answer to that, right?"

"WHY YOU..."

"Did you need something?" Laz asked before she could go off.

"ARRRGRGGGGRGRGGG... Dinner is going to be ready soon. So get back to the house." Sarah decided that since she did what she was asked to do, she would ignore Laz now. As she started on her way back to the house, she grabbed out her phone and immediately buried her head in it. Seeing this, Laz couldn't help but sigh a bit louder than he intended.

"WHAT?" Sarah screamed back. It seemed like she had pretty good hearing. Laz had to admit, she was rather pretty even if her temper was terrible and her clothing seemed a bit ridiculous to Laz.

"Nothing. Feel free," Laz said, indicating that she could leave.

"Look you grey skinned weirdo. I don't know who you think you are, but you're here as a guest. Maybe you could be a little nicer to the people who live here," Sarah said back, clearly annoyed at Laz. Although Laz was somewhat thicker skinned now than he used to be, even he felt a bit embarrassed by being told this.

And the hard part was, she was right. He was a guest and her grandpa had taken him in to help him out. Whatever the reason was, Laz really shouldn't have been getting annoyed by her.

"Yeah. You're right. I am sorry and thankful. Please accept my apologies," Laz said with sincerity. He really hadn't done anything except being helped. And he really was in no place to judge her.

"Oh? So I guess you're not just a bum after all?" Although her words were a bit mean, they were her honest thoughts.

"Anyway. I had just sighed because I was wondering why you would keep yourself locked to your phone and miss out on everything around you?" Laz voiced his feelings.

"Everything around me? In this backwater farmville out in the middle of nowhere? What's there to enjoy? It's not like I asked to be dragged here. And there is so much going on at my school that I am now missing out on. To top it all off, some of my closest friends are now ignoring me as though I don't exist, ok? That enough reason for me to be pissed off?" The longer she talked, the more angry she became. Despite Laz looking a bit weird, he seemed close enough in age to her, unlike the guys who came by earlier on patrol who were obviously over 18. Maybe because she had kept so much bottled up, she just let it all out on Laz who she thought might understand.

"Well, I can't argue with that. I'm worried about my friends too so I understand where you are coming from." Laz left out that they were girlfriends. And his little sister, so to speak.

Hearing Laz agree with her turned her mood a bit better as she dropped down and sat on the ground, as though she was tired. Oddly, she was a distance away from Laz, but he didn't bother moving closer as he felt that maybe this was a safety space for her.

"So what's your story exactly?" Had Laz not started being a little nice, she wouldn't have bothered to even ask. But considering she wasn't getting anywhere talking to her friends from school, she figured he might be more interesting. At least for a bit.

"There's a lot of story to tell, more than just the few minutes we have before dinner," Laz said, not rejecting telling her. He just felt like now wasn't the time.

"Oh, soooo mysteriousssSSSSS OH MY GOD!!!!" Sarah started screaming while pointing at Laz's head. Tyr had gotten bored waiting for her to leave and since Laz didn't seem to have a problem with her, Tyr didn't feel like he had to hide. Sarah was not prepared for Tyr to pop out of nowhere.

"Hmm? Oh?" Laz reached up and picked Tyr up off his head and set him down on his ap. Tyr was currently still the size of a small cat which was still much larger than a normal sized spider and more than enough to freak Sarah out.

Before Laz could introduce him, Sarah jumped up and ran for the house, screaming all the way. Laz looked down at Tyr who was looking up at him.

Both of them shrugged, not understand why she had ran. After getting up and dusting themselves off, Laz and Tyr started walking towards the farmhouse.