The Deserter

A Long Time Ago in the Land of Pangaea

   Linkera sat under a swaying tree on a hill thinking about how he ran away from his “responsibilities” and how he was a happier man for doing it. His golden brown skin matched the deep sunset that was placed before him, his long black hair blowing in tandem with the tree’s branches. He looked down at the simple village that was positioned at the base of the massive hill, the villagers were starting to light up the man-sized torches that would eventually light up the dirt roads of the town of Parta. He accepted that the residents of this peaceful town were the only people he should answer to.

He didn’t give a damn who created him; he owed his “masters” nothing.

He licked his chapped lips as the cool breeze dried his lips as quickly as they got wet. He longed to kiss his fiancée, a beautiful woman named Seraph. She was daughter to a Panayan minister named Calm and sister to a budding preacher named Carious. Linkera can remember when he escaped his “creators” to this grand land called Pangaea.

Pangaea was the only land mass on Earth. It was a massive continent  surrounded by nothing but water. The people here knew nothing of battles or war. They had no interest in winning or losing. All they wanted to do was live in harmony. He loved that concept of perfected civilization so much that he found it hard to believe that these human beings would ever be corrupted by anything, much less by his supposed nemesis, according to the angels and demons that made him.

Linkera got up and dusted the dirt off his simple beige clothing and playfully marched off back down the hill to Parta. The soft grass tickled the bottom of his feet as he whistled a Panayan love hymn. He always believed that the angels and demons with their useless ongoing battle between good and evil was irrelevant to a human world who had no concept of either idea. The Panayans only knew of love and prosperity. It was Linkera that was cursed with these foreign, painful concepts.

But he didn’t let his new family know about his frustrating thoughts, although it seemed that his soon to be father in law, Calm, knew more than he let on about Linkera’s “masters”. Linkera was somewhat confused on what it was that Calm did as a minister. Calm would always promote compassion and consideration to everyone he saw, but it wasn’t like they weren’t already doing it. But then again the Panayan ministry wasn’t created until his supposed enemy, Chaos, started to show up.

The rumor going around Pangaea was that this Chaos guy was going around the smaller villages and was starting to get everyone he came across to join some vague cause. The people of Pangaea had no concept of corruption in their vocabulary, but Linkera was told by his creators that Chaos’ primary goal was to drive the human race insane. Supposedly, he felt that all this structure and order flew in the face of the human race’s true nature.

Linkera looked at all the children scrambling to their homes to get to their dinners. Everyone in Parta had dinner at sunset. They were very big on structure and family time. He could only grin as he thought about how the war between the angels and demons was causing more destruction to humanity than this Chaos ever could. They told him that they came to earth from heaven to do battle against each other to save the souls of man. They would use the individual spirits of each person as a battleground. Linkera could always tell when a particular person was hosting the latest battle. They would have a flash of confusion in their eyes that would last for only a moment before they moved on with whatever they were doing. Linkera knew that a second in Earth time could range anywhere from hours to days in spiritual battle time.

It was amusing to him, especially for the angels that were trying to avoid the destruction of Utopia, that they did not realize that if they kept doing what they were doing, humans were going to fall in Chaos’ hands because of the contradictory ideologies swirling inside them.

Linkera was a few steps away from his home, when he looked around for any signs of danger. He was slightly paranoid that Chaos would show up in his town one of these days and inject craziness into his happy little town. Linkera spat at the ground because of that thought. The stone homes around him were decorated with personal touches such as each family’s symbol painted on the front doors. Each family had their own unique house painted in a color that defined their bloodline but still matched well with all the other spectrums of the town. He could remember that the two towns of the terrestrial angels and demons, who were known collectively as Terrawarriors, were colored in stark black and whites.

The Terra Angel city of Anyin and Terra Demon city of Yangde were located in the center of the Earth. They were neighboring cities that were divided by a massive wall. The only way to visit the warring cities was to have an amazing connection to spirituality. Linkera understood this to mean that a stronger focus on the intangibles of existence granted someone access. The Terra Warriors were already purely made of spiritual energy and they created him with the energy of both sides. He was a  Terra bred human with the kindness of the angel and the brute strength of a demon.

He gazed at the infinity symbol that defined Calm’s bloodline on his wooden front door. Linkera was always impressed with Calm’s perspective on eternity. He would always say that the positive impressions we make on one another is the epitome of eternal life. Good works will survive in communities while selfish desires have limited life spans. Calm’s beliefs would probably have no effect on the Terra Warriors, Linkera wondered as he opened the door to his human home.

He looked around at the perfectly clean living room and sparked a fire at the fireplace to give a degree of warmth on this cool summer night. The rest of Calm’s clan were visiting relatives in the neighboring village of  Triste and they wouldn’t be back until tomorrow afternoon. Linkera looked at the synthetic green carpeting that covered the ground from the living room to beyond. The walls of the house matched the jade flooring giving anyone who visited the feeling of a verdant forest. He decided against eating anything and crashed overdramatically on the green carpet and rolled over onto his back and sprawled.

He closed his eyes to remember his last day living in the Terra Cities. The Terra Warriors were terrified of Chaos. They had no chance of beating him but they knew a human being could take him on. They called a truce and created Linkera in the hope that he would kill him. He could remember the endless training and hypocritical morality lessons imposed on him by the Terra Angels. Both sides weren’t fighting for their respective masters. They both were obsessed with winning and power. They didn’t want Linkera to fight for some greater purpose; they just didn’t want anyone getting in the way of their selfish desires.

Linkera could remember his frustration of being someone’s pawn, so he ran away from his creators and found his way to the overground where he infiltrated Pangaea and met the love of his life: Seraph.

He could care less about wars and battles. He didn’t believe humanity could be corrupted by Chaos, the angels, or the demons. He didn’t believe it was his fate to fight. He wasn’t supposed to exist, after all.

All he knew, as he fell asleep on the floor was that he was going to take the life that he was given and do with it as he desired.

He didn’t believe in fate.

He believed in freedom.

And the only freedom that mattered was to be in love with her; that was his definition of eternity and no chaos could ever come of that…