Welcome to Gaia! ::

N'Barit huffed with disgust at her weakness. "I'll get it." I don't need help. He whirled on his crutch and went stamping off down the hallway to get his things.

When n'Barit returned with his bag over his shoulder and Kirkcaldy trying to slumber in his arm with a bit more success, he was actually mildly surprised to find Lixxie still standing there. It was rare to find anyone who would voluntarily stick around with him for more than thrity minutes without some form of compensation. It was even rarer to find someone he didn't mind having around for that length of time. Clearly, Lixxie needed his help very badly. If she couldn't ditch someone as plainly mean and disagreeable as him, she was more incapacitated by weakness than he thought.

"Come on," he grumbled at Lixxie out of pity, shuffling towards the front door.

'I'm not religious!" he retorted, upsetting Kirkcaldy in her sleep. He took a moment to comfort her and then continued in a more reasonable tone, "Religions are false distortions of the divine path created by humans. Gods, parables, hocus pocus mumbo jumbo. All superstition!" He focused on the road as he spoke, staring straight ahead.

"--No!" said n'Barit, resisting the urge to slip an English expletive in there. Even if Kirkcaldy was asleep, he would not use such language in her presence. "Having no path is better than following a false one. At least if you have no path you're not doing any harm to the divine. False paths are dangerous. Corrupting. The more people that follow false paths, the more the corruption spreads. You can't justify that with hope, especially when it's a lie." He cut himself off. He could have probably railed about false hope for hours, but he was interested in her response.

Disappointed, n'Barit sighed. He was hoping for feedback that showed she was accepting his ideas. "That's a projection of human ego. Humans believe their existence is so great and superior, their intelligence so much a governing force that they think something like themselves must control the universe. Something thinking and intelligent. That's ridiculous. Furthermore, when they learn the failings and mortality of their parents, they have to create some bigger parent who guides and protects them. That's all it is. A creation of a flawed psyche that can't accept the mortal nature of its existence." N'Barit turned off down a small road, heading away from the main streets. "And:

"If humans could learn to accept their own mortality, they could learn to follow their mortal leaders and not reject the leaders for having the same flaws they themselves possess. They should recognize gifted leaders are there for the benefit of all and not subjugate such individuals because they fear them. And:

"A good leader doesn't sit up on a pedestal in the sky, looking down on people. A good leader lives with the people and works actively to help them. Even if such a leader is flawed, it merits following more than a giant imaginary friend." Finally, he was done, and Lixxie could get a word in edgewise.

"That's why as leader it's your duty to figure it out," said n'Barit.

They were in the town outskirts now now, the road meandering down to a single lane. Up ahead lay grassy hills, sparsely forested, and then thicker forest. Beyond that it was anyone's guess. The world there had yet to be revealed. Gaia was like a vast theme park, with new rides still waiting to open. The existence of the road suggested there would eventually be something. For now there were distant mountains, too far to visit pointlessly.

N'Barit swung his crutch in uneven steps. "No one knows how to lead without learning how to. The question is, since you have a gift, don't you have a duty to try and lead? There's a human saying along the same lines. With great power comes great responsibility."

"You don't learn overnight," said n'Barit, annoyed. His temper was quickly souring again. "It takes years of training. I trained for twelve rotations and I still wasn't done." Worse, he was still sore about it.

As if picking up on n'Barit's rising ire, Kirkcaldy twitched and mumbled in her sleep, prompting n'Barit to nestle his head on hers until she quieted.

"That'll be the first bit of initiative you've taken since I met you," sniped n'Barit cattily. He finally turned off the path and beelined for a large tree sitting along the slope of a hill overlooking the town. It was easy to get oriented from up here. Most of the major town landmarks were visible over the rooftops.