#87 Bewilderment
2 days ago
This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 8; the eighth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.
Time is like the serene waters in a still lake. There is no beginning and there is no end. People who keep saying that in the beginning there was a big bang 13-14 billion years ago and then our universe came into existence are like the croaking frogs in the deep dark well, for whom their ignorance sets the limits to the boundaries of their universe. There was time beyond that point, but it is very difficult for many of us to jump the huge energy barrier that the big bang has caused. There has only been one person Canaan who is said to have done it, but we have not seen him come back again. Time is like the water in the lake, it just spreads in all directions, it is all enveloping, its grandeur is inexplicable and one can move from one point to another just like the fish in the lake. Only, you have to know how to do that, for then you will be one of us. We humans have been gifted with one of the most wonderful gifts in evolution that of the logical brain, but we have been very slow to unravel its mysteries and completely understand its capacity.
As a group we the Time Hoppers aren’t accustomed to many additions to our numbers, infact no one remembers when was the last time we had a person who could break the shackles of his mind and to start traversing time like we do. I am among the youngest in the group, this seems like a sort of an in-house joke, because you see age is not a parameter for us, once when you learn how to traverse in time, you stop ageing, we ourselves haven’t understood it perfectly well as yet, but when one can develop the ability to travel in time like a fish in a pond, it is not that difficult to produce more and more stem cells which provide us with our unfading vitality. We believe so because we are also very quick healing and also possess superhuman strengths and sensory abilities. Thats what we think of ourselves, the Superhumans, the ones that bridge the gap between the normal people and the Gods.
We are a very secretive group and we believe in one supreme power that provides the fuel to run the universe, one which many cultures have agreed to call as soul or as something similar. We believe that we are the guardians of this planet, and of this bank of souls and we follow a certain set of rules. Now, we do need rules because even when a fish glides along the waters in a pond without ever disturbing the water you should understand that it requires but a small overlapse on its part to disturb the water and cause ripples all along the surface. This gains further weight when you can understand that emotions are one part of the brain that we have still been unable to reign in even with the larger capacity of the brain that is being used by us. The biggest rule of them all is to guard the lake (earth) and make sure that there are no anomalies that might develop due to various reasons. It once did happen when one of our kind was killed in Jerusalem, the whole lake was in turbulence then. Things were put back in order and the guy was saved and everyone believed that he returned back from the dead, but once ruffled, things hardly fall back into place as they were, we are no gods, we could only make them only as event free as possible though some of the ripples that we couldn’t control overflowed as religious aggressive terrorism during the 21st century and the world wars during the 20th century. But things could have been much worse. We couldn’t right them more without further plunging the world into chaos.
Though we could remember every thought that has ever passed through our mind, though we hardly ever need rest to recuperate the brain or the body, I have decided to maintain in writing the thoughts that are freely flowing through my mind right now because like I said earlier, we have still not mastered our emotions and the flood of feelings that I am going through now is very unique for me, I have never felt as such before. I am filled with thoughts about what has been, what is, and what might be, because this is one trap I am unable to come out of. I fear for the world, for power without responsibility in a malicious person’s hand never bodes well for the world or in fact the universe.
Of late things have started going slightly astray, I was in 8th century Spain when I began feeling these signals. Very faint signals of something that should not have been happening are happening. Just like ripples being felt by a fish, I got them and decided to investigate these and started following the signals. We cannot just time hop blindly, because it is highly taxing on our bodies and we need sufficient rest between two hops and also in such a big world and large timespace it is very hard to exactly predict the source correctly. Following a signal involves me going back in time very slowly towards the direction where we are perceiving that signal to come from. It was all very confusing, because we have never felt such a signal emanate earlier and also I haven’t come across others of my kind while I was coming in to check the source of the trouble.
One of the major rules for our kind is not to venture into some spots of lake, some regions and time periods. We weren’t given any explanation but promised with the ultimate punishment, to push us onto the time of the big-bang. Not that we needed such a nudge, we were told that these spots are never to be meddled with in order to maintain the world in order or else all hell will break loose and we will not be able to contain it again. Some believed that these were the spots where Canaan had operated before he willingly departed into the otherside. No one knew why he tried such a jump or why we shouldn’t be entering into contact with Canaan. But our elders, the first time hoppers have put these rules for a reason and we are to uphold it.
Did I mention that I am the youngest of the time hoppers? I was also an anomaly because the elders had put constraints on newer entrants for entering into our fold and have managed to maintain as such by going into all the areas of turbulences and picking up the worthy hoppers while making sure that the ones who didn’t make the mark were unable to make the transition. I am told that I am the only one who was helped to make the transition though there was no apparent reason for it, Boraam was the one who stayed with me during my early transition and explained about the new world that I was to experience. He used to say that I am special, I am an anomaly and they hadn’t expected someone like me and I was a blessing for them.
The signal was getting stronger. It was coming from the middle east - mediterranean quadrant from about 500-600 BC. I am suddenly starting to feel week, unable to move faster though I have an idea where I need to go. I had never been to this quadrant as it was one of the forbidden areas. I stopped just outside the forbidden territory and started exploring the surroundings for any abnormalities. Everything seemed just fine, but something is wrong, suddenly I am becoming highly emotional, somehow feeling weaker and.....there was the involuntary jump. I was confused and unable to escape from the quadrant. Is this why people are warned from entering these quadrants?
I met him, I can feel that he is the hopper who was creating all those ripples. I needed to confront him. He was standing in the middle of the crowd, he was much larger than the other hoppers that I have ever come across. It looks like he was commandeering an army and calling onto the other army which was on my side. I was torn apart as to whether should I confront him and undo the damage he is doing or shall I just try to escape from this quadrant? I finally decided to bring this case to an end as I am anyway going to be punished for entering this quadrant, at the least let me stabilize it again for my brethren.
“Can anybody dare to face me?”
“Yes I can!”
Everybody turned to face me. They were astonished. The guy nearest to me admonished:
“You are so puny, how can you even think to stay alive in a fight with him! Are you out of your mind!”
I stayed calm and said, “My name is Nestor, son of Neleus and I plan to rid this region of his menace!” pointing my hand at the other hopper.
He watched me closely and then roared aloud with a haughty smirk, “Do you know who I am oh tiny one?”
“No, but tell me your name if it makes you any more secure”
“Hmmmph such big words for such a small being, prepare for your final moments. Blessed you are for your death is written in the hands of a thousand-bear slayer”
I lay there in a foot soldiers’ tent wearing my armor. I know that I don’t stand much of a chance with Ereuthalion, apart from his visible strength, I understood that he is a time hopper like me too, that means the fight is still tilted in his favor, but something bothered me very much, he didn’t talk or acted like a time hopper, also I don’t think he recognized me as a fellow hopper. Something is really really wrong. I started carrying my sword, a shield, a dagger and entered the ring of men, which was made into a sort of an arena for our fight.
Just as I entered the arena, the champion of my side of the army came near me and said, “I don’t know who you are but if you can win this fight, I know that our kingdom can be saved. Somehow I am feeling that you might win. May the gods bless you and be on your side.”
The fight began and my suspicions quickly were proven right, he was a hopper with much much more strength than me, and he fights with gay abandon without bothering to hide his abilities from normal people. He is someone who stopped following the rules of our people and apparently out to cause trouble. I lost my sword and shield and we were prancing around and fighting with our full strength which was terrorizing the soldiers of both the sides. The ring widened to nearly four times its size as people were afraid to stay near our fight. It was then that he struck me with such force that my armor broke and I fell down.
“Is this the best you puny Pylians can offer!”
He started barging onto me with his iron mace. It was then that I quickly took out the leather belt holding my armor and quickly inserted some huge boulder and threw it on his his head. This is the weakest part of the hopper which doesn’t heal very fast and strong blows can be as fatal as to any normal human.
It worked. He fell down bleeding profusely and I could feel my wobbliness feeling lifting away and my mind becoming much clearer again. I went to his side and asked,
“Why are you doing all this?”
“Whats your real name?”
“I can still help you if you want.”
He didn’t speak but kept on staring with wild eyes onto me and died in my arms. The Arcadians beat a hasty retreat and I proceeded back to my tent, when I saw Boraam in my tent and a deep dread started taking root in my insides and I can clearly hear my heart beating so quickly and loudly as if it will fall out of my mouth. But he gave me a warm smile and said, “I am happy to see you alive and that you have taken care of this turbulence. This story is going to become the fight between David and Goliath.”
I was confused, “But isn’t this quadrant a forbidden part?”
“Don’t worry that rule never applied to you. Don’t you remember that I always used to say that you are very special”
“I am totally confused, please tell me what are you hiding from me.”
“Do you remember Canaan?”
“Yes, is this him!”
“Yes. Did you know that Canaan was also an elder? Infact he was the first timehopper.”
“He was also the strongest of all of us. Unfortunately he didn’t like the concept of governing rules for our brethren and he decided to finish of his brothers one by one so that he will again be the only one who can freely manipulate the world as he sees fit.”
“Then why did he form the brethren in the first case?”
“Forming a brethren and setting up a governing council and rules was never his idea, he was alway opposed to it as he believed that we are the Gods and that there should be no rules for the gods. The method to find other brothers and the tests for their inclusion into our brethren was actually devised by Artemis, he was the second hopper whom Canaan had helped to transcend into hopping from being a normal human. He was a steadfast man of principles. Upon repeated disgression which the council never took lightly even though he was an elder, Canaan grew tired of our brethren and took it upon himself to clean away all our brethren. It was then that with Artemis we all came together to oppose Canaan and then many battles followed which devastated this planet. We fought in Kurukshetra, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, Egypt and Jerusalem and many other places, we could defeat him every time and finally pushed him over the big-bang. But not without considerable loss to our own brethren. We lost Artemis and more than 3/4ths of our elders. I was tasked to rid the world of all his traces which he had left aplenty. But he proved very strong here too and in the end it was only me of the elders who was left who can still fight Canaan. It was then that I stumbled upon you which no one of us foresaw and which has re established order amid the chaos that Canaan had left behind.”
“Me? Why did you always used to say that I am special? I understand that I wouldn’t have become an hopper without your help?”
“You see we could not fight Canaan head on head anymore for we had become weakened. So when we found you, with our remaining prowess we managed to put controls on the minds of the Canaan’s traces left behind and isolated this quadrant and charged some hoppers to maintain a high energy barrier which restricted other hoppers from entering these zones.”
“But that still doesn’t explain why am I special?”
“Canaan had successfully hid one thing from all of us which wouldn’t have come to our notice hadn’t he been overthrown. He had progeny. He bore a child with a woman in the 20th century, the child brain activity even before he converted was enormous.”
“And so you quickly helped him in transcending into the hoppers brethren. And then made sure that I killed my father today..........!!!”
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Good one. Little lengthy but very interesting :)