Five Truths

This is a short story about the cyclical nature of history and what it means to begin anew in a world that is constantly repeating itself. It is not inspired by any particular conflict, society, or person, but rather the concepts in themselves. --- There are five truths that are unequivocally known in times such as these.

The sun is rising. This is the first truth; each and every morning, the sky will be painted with every colour imaginable, reds and oranges tearing across soft blue. The march of time is inexorable, the movements of celestial masses entirely predictable and reassuring.

The first rays of the sun cast themselves across the earth, illuminating the red-brown mud beneath your feet, the emerald grasses covering the plain on all sides. The vermilion of the earth matches the sky, matches the streaks on your clothes and skin, matches the colour that any living creature bleeds.

A breeze sweeps over the field, carrying the scent of iron and wildflowers.

The second truth; their leader is dead. Evil is defeated and good prevails. The war is over. How could it be anything else, when the fighting has lasted long enough that so few have made it out on any side? How can a war exist without soldiers? Most definitely the civilians who revolted upon realizing the happenstance are not going to fight for a fallen cause, for someone who had oppressed them for so long.

You will not be the new leader but there will certainly be one, be it tomorrow or three years from now; whenever the remaining insurgents, your friends and allies, manage to organize the scraps of what’s left into a cohesive society. You have no wish to involve yourself any further.

Sitting through meeting after meeting to decide the future of this ‘new’ country, you slowly disengage, saying your goodbyes to those you fought alongside. Your role here is complete; you are no politician or businessman, but rather a weapon for justice and conflict. As you depart to return to the weathered ruins of your old home, you glance back to see one last thing; the new flag, waving a bright orange-yellow, a blazing bird emblazoned on it; symbolic of the rebirth of a nation, for a wealthy and prosperous future.

The third truth; there is no returning to how life was before. You and those around you have reforged yourselves from the ashes of pain and rebellion, transformed into weapons and warriors by necessity. You tried to live a peaceful life in the countryside before you were brought, or brought yourself, into this conflict, and, though few, the years that you have spent fighting and strategizing and winning and losing have taken their toll on the ways you think and act. The old society as it was was dysfunctional and adverse to the very concept of freedom and change, and now that this change has come in like a meteorite, to return to the old is impossible.

As you travel down roads that perhaps no one has travelled since you passed through on your way to join the rebellion, you ponder what to do next. It is time to yet again rebuild your home after years of neglect; time to replant your garden before the harvest period, time to re-shingle the roof, time to rest and find a new rhythm and truly breathe for the first time in years.

A monarch butterfly flutters past your face. You ignore it; you have long since lost the ability to sit and smell the roses and appreciate the beauty the world has to offer. Perhaps you will regain it in time.

The fourth truth; this is not the first time you have taken up arms. Your age is interminable and you have fought battles and wars in the past, in your youngest years. Fighting was your way of life, though after each conflict, you tried your best to separate, to settle down and live gracefully and peacefully, developing bonds with others, sometimes hiding away in remote, untouched wilderness.

Each of these times, the conflict would find you no matter what; you would be attacked and provoked into joining one side or another, or those you care for would be harmed, or you would simply see a cause that needed fighting for. To make a difference in the world is a destiny you will never be free of, no matter what you do to try to escape it; and eventually, it became your routine.

You sit by the fireplace one stormy night, watching flames lick at the cobbles. Many homes and people have died by fire over the course of this conflict and others, over the course of human history, yet the bright light flickering through the air is always entrancing by nature; a sign of life and survival in the cold. A book sits in your lap, untouched. It is a history book, telling the story of the new great leader’s rise to power, and how they are superior and more just than any leader who has come before them.

A fresh start, so to speak.

You have no need of reading this book; after all, you lived through the pivotal conflicts listed as statistics on a page, you once intimately knew the person who now leads, all their hopes and desires, as comrades on the battlefield do, you have seen this all before.

The leader of this civilization has changed many, many times in your lifetime, just as it is changing now. Back and forth and back and forth; leadership sometimes passed between the same few people as they try to wrest control from one another. Almost certainly, there have been times where you chose the wrong side to fight for, but all the same there have been many where you fought for the cause of freedom for others.

Inevitably, leadership will change hands again some day in the future. You can only hope that this is long after you have passed. 

Your eyes slip shut as you fall into a deep slumber by the fire.

Thus follows the fifth truth; someday, you or your children will undoubtedly follow your steps and do everything all over again. There is no permanence to peace.