The world was falling apart, literally and the men and women of god, the clergy could do nothing but pray. It didn't help, in there precise moment of need... the gods were too busy. Tarek's mother reached for the divine and felt emptiness.
But the practicioners of wizardry, put their mind to the problem... a problem so vast it tore at their intellect and ripped at their sanity. Tarek's father was a strong man, supremely intelligent... a true scholar.
He could not predict the mayhem that would ensue when his greatest spell, unleashed at man's darkest hour... would be affected by reality itself tearing... the fabric of space and time, asunder.
The beast came through... and wrapped it's dark tentacles about his only son, Tarek. The toddler screamed. Mother and father could only throw themselves at the creature in some vain heroic effort to save their child.
The black feline beast was elusive, never where one thought it was... tentacles lashing out, grabbing, tripping and finally dragging both towards itself even as it released the child.
Displacer beast, but no ordinary specimen. Larger, more powerful and impervious to all their efforts. It dragged them back, back into the maelstrom, into the vortex that was naught but chaos and swirling miasma.
Tarek cried, literally for days. Two to be precise, until his grandfather came calling. He was safe, now... traumatized, but safe.
Shortly thereafter Tarek fell ill, and no matter of medicine or divination would help... finally grandfather took him to a witch. She knew, almost immediately. He had come in contact with something from the other side. He was fading, literally withering and fading from existence.
But, the witch would not give up and stood vigil, bathing the child, feeding the child. Warming him, playing with him. He's doing it to himself, she told grandfather. He wants his parents and they're not here... so his mind doesn't want him to be here, either. He is disappearing, his body withering and emaciated.
He must go to the monestary or Irori, she instructed. They can teach him to command himself. They can teach his soul to want to live, to take control of his mind and the mind to rule his body. He is young, but it is his only chance. He will choose his own path, once he is ready.
Grandfather would visit at the monestary, once a week. He would bring pastries from his coffee house. Eventually, Tarek was allowed to exit the monestary... eventually, after ten years. But, grandfather never missed a visit. And, Tarek never missed a pastry crumb.
Tarek now works as a barrista at his grandfather's coffee house.
Archetypes - And, why.
Sensei seeks to understand all things and to harness knowledge, intuition, spirit and achieve true Self.
Four Winds seeks to bond and be one with the elements, nature, the physical world.
