How We Live

There is this new way of life that all of us are embarking upon, one that we have never experienced before.

The desert is arduous. Living here is like permanently being inside a furnace. Despite this, my community lives here. In my community, we live with the Blessing of the Sands. Each one of us has the power to always know the past and future. We do not need to tell stories of our ancestors to our children because we are born with the knowledge of them, and because we are all seers of the future, we can avoid death. For example, I am going to get bitten by a venomous snake tomorrow at the Twisting Dune? I simply won’t go there. As long as we have lived in this desert, even as far back as the Age of the Ancients millennia ago, we have lived with this power.

One week ago, one of us angered the sandworm god, Saa’b Rathala, and he took away our blessing. Now we are forced to live in the present. Not all of us can manage it. Some go mad. Some refuse to live their lives, thinking they might die tomorrow, and they will never know until it happens. We all live in fear.

We have lost other blessings too. Since forever, we used the Primeval Cubes that could store our tents and caravans by folding them into our palms. Some of them can store entire oases, blacksmith shops, gardens, and pastures with livestock. With them, living a nomadic lifestyle was effortless--but the sandworm god took those away from us too. Now our homes are permanently stuck in the sand. It is giving people anxiety that they cannot bring their houses at will to their extended family in other communities whenever they want to visit.

The community cannot function like this any longer. Something needs to be done. Left and right, people are giving up on life. They refuse to drink their jug of water because a Shaa’ba Dunespider might be in it, or they wail in agony because they cannot recall the faces of their deceased grandparents. On the fifth day after our blessing was taken, Kerabatha from the neighbouring Sathalos clan visited our village on camelback, heralding good news. I managed to find time to speak with her.

“There is this trial,” she said, “which I think is exactly what we need. I have heard rumours that if you find this secret place and complete this trial, it will grant you and your village the Blessing of the Sands once more. This may be how our original ancestors acquired the blessing. We do not have the blessing to see into the past and confirm this theory. The trial is called the Trial of the Present.”

“Trial?” I asked. “Tell me the location and I will do it.”

“Hold on. There are a few things you must know. First, it’s very dangerous. Because he is angry at us, it is constantly guarded by Saa’b Rathala. You will need the help of the Wildus Legendarus to get past him. Second, you will need to find the key to unlock this blessing.”

“Are you sure it will grant us back the blessing?”

“We are not certain. But we think so. At the very least, it will give us some sort of power or revelation that can aid us in our new way of living.”

“I will go. If I manage to find this blessing, all will be right in our villages.”

“Yes. Hopefully, it will inspire everyone to live life again.”

That was two days ago. Now I am here, at the location Kerabatha told me about, in the middle of the open desert. I have travelled a long distance to get here. The wind feels nice and cool, but the sun feels like a dragon is breathing on me. There is nice music coming from somewhere I don’t know, like an invisible jukebox, filling the otherwise silent desert. Everything about this place is strange. A scorpion nudges my foot and says, “Hey! Welcome to the Trial of the Present!” It gives me a bamboo hat and a tattered cape so I can look like a bandit. I thank it. But before I can ask it some questions, it scurries away into the sand.

The ground rumbles beneath me. Something in front of me is coming. It’s a colossal sandworm, burrowing into the ground, headed straight for me like a speeding dolphin, weaving in and out of the waves of the ocean. Saa’b Rathala. He has a million teeth in a circle around his mouth and is probably as big as a cargo ship, if not bigger. I prepare for a showdown, but as soon as he comes close, a giant, golden Argentavis swoops in and picks me up, saving me. 

One of the Wildus Legendarus. It screeches mightily, flapping its gigantic wings that block out the sun. I watch as Saa’b Rathala roars, a tornado of sand spiralling as he jumps upward to get me with blinding speed. The Argentavis flies high, just in time for me to get out of the sandworm’s gaping mouth. I think my boot touched one of his teeth. Then the sandworm falls back below with an immense splash of sand and a titanic boom, burrowing deep and going away.

The golden Argentavis swoops down low and drops me near an oasis. I roll to the ground and land upright, just in time to watch it fly off, its feathers glinting in the sun. The oasis is huge and deep. In the centre, far below, there is a burning flame in the water. It is speaking in a voice that tries to lure me in, giving me visions of all my desires. I try to fight them because I know that at the bottom there is a big Venus flytrap that is going to snap me in its jaws as soon as I try to swim to the fire. This is just obvious, basic knowledge you should have when you find such a thing in the Primordial Desert. The oasis is so wide, I don’t know how I’ll cross it.

Suddenly, a glorious, giant, snowy stag appears. It’s another Wildus Legendarus. Its coat is glistening white. Its majestic antlers are gigantic, and they glow a bright blue. No, green. Red? Now it’s yellow. Strange. It’s not switching between them, but it’s like I’m seeing all the colours at once. It hurts my brain. The stag lowers its head, permitting me to ride it. As soon as I get on, it dashes across the oasis surface with the speed of a bullet and the weight of a feather. I am hanging on tightly, the wind billowing my hair, as loud as a roaring waterfall. The stag runs on the water as if it were concrete, its powerful legs pushing, and there is a huge, constant splash behind us from our speed. 

The stag lets me off when we get to a gargantuan, dark, hollow box. In fact, it’s so massive that it blocks out the sun like a great wall. It casts a shadow over me just as big. Its walls are so midnight black that I feel like my eyes cease to function from the intake of light when I look at them. It’s the mythical Black Cube, built by Tarawaswa, the “Lady of Prospects,” using the Godhammer during the Age of the Ancients. Only belief kept it alive throughout multiple generations, and now I am standing before it, confirming its existence with my eyes.

There’s a convenient door open, so I step through it.

There is a giant sequoia tree inside the Black Cube. I know this place as the Black Lotus Sanctum from legend. There is a whole community of bats gliding around the sequoia, catching insects in the air in the dim light of the Black Cube. Their eyes glow red. Are they supposed to? At the base of the tree is a mailbox. I open it to find a key inside. It’s for unlocking a dream, or a vision, or so I’ve been told by Kerabatha, but I don’t know yet what for. I put it in my pocket, tip my bamboo hat low, and continue.

At the end of my path, there is the far inside wall of the Black Cube. It’s not black like the others though, it’s a slate grey. It resembles a screen. The same scorpion at the start of my journey reappears, nudges my foot, and says, “Hey! You have reached the end of the trial! But there is still one more test. Use your key with this.”

It gives me a remote. I take it, put my key into its lock, and activate it. I press the single button on it. The screen sparks to life. The magnitude of its flash reminds me of the Big Bang.

I watch as the screen shows me a vibrant future for humanity. There are white, futuristic skyscrapers. Flying cars, lots of trees, a green society. Humans are launching rockets and landing on other planets, spreading out into the cosmos. Then, just as fast, comes another vision. It is a dark one. Disease runs rampant. Robots with AI walk down the streets, hunting for humans. There is nuclear waste everywhere, polluting the already trash-filled rivers and lakes of the world. It is daytime, but the sky is black from all the ash and smoke coming from destroyed skyscrapers. Then, when the visions end and the screen shuts off, a door opens in the very fabric of space in front of me. It’s not connected to any wall, and it’s open. But through it, a bright, white light comes through. Choose, it says.

I am confused.

Angrily, I grab the scorpion and pin it to the ground. “What is the meaning of this? I thought I was supposed to gain some power that would help us live our lives like we used to!”

“Whoa, whoa! Calm down there! This is that power.”

I relax, releasing the scorpion. “What do you mean?”

“The humans you see in those visions,” says the scorpion, “cannot see the past or future at will. They live their lives not knowing what is coming next. Most of your kind lives like this.”

“How?” I ask. “How are we supposed to live, day by day, not knowing what is ahead of us? I cannot imagine a life like that.”

“And yet they do it every day.”

I am speechless.

“How? How do they do it?”

“They choose. Just like you have to now. They know two outcomes, and they choose which one they want. With their actions, they can make it happen. No nonsense about remembering the distant past or seeing the future. This is how they live.

“And they don’t have your Primeval Cubes either. Their homes are stationary where they build them.”

“How can they bear being stuck in one place? How do they visit family far from them?”

“That is why it is hard for them. They must fly on planes around the world to visit them without bringing their homes in their pockets.

“You and your village are entering a new, modern era. No more will you need your blessing to see the flow of time. Every day, people live without knowing for certain if they will see another day. They only live in the present.

“These people can only imagine their futures. It is called the Blessing of the Present. If you prove yourself with this choice now, this place will grant you the Blessing of the Present, and you will complete the trial.”

Choose, the Black Cube says again.

The two futures for humanity. One light, one dark. This is how we have to live from now on. We will never know the future. Such a life sounds hard, but I suppose we have no choice. So I think about it for quite a while. When I’m ready, I step through the door.

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