This story begins the way every other story does. Boy meets girl. And no, not our boy; we haven’t quite gotten there yet.
This part’s blurry mostly because our boy has very few recollections about these days and altogether, he wasn’t very lucid.
But eventually the day came for the battle and all the men under this boy (who was not the main boy of the story) were ready for war.
These men had never known the war and weren’t likely to come back from this one. It was an odd situation. In the barracks, there was never a veteran to speak of what war was like. They fed the men quite well. Actually placed them in a liquid food medium that meant they were constantly satisfied. And it wasn’t a very selective army either. Every man with half a brain (quite literally) was allowed to join the effort. Now that you think about it, it probably seemed pretty kamikaze-esque. Oh and maybe I should mention that our boy (the main one) was a soldier in this army. He doesn’t talk about it much because besides the lack of strong memory, those weren’t the greatest times for him.
They don’t tell you how difficult it ever is or the gruelling amount of work it takes simply to reach the battlefield. First you’re thrown into a massive ocean and not everyone is together. Some men get thrown further and some start at a disadvantage. Many men die in the acid rains of the jungle if they aren’t wearing enough protection. The jungle itself takes hours to traverse without stopping. You see, they can’t stop because within the ranks there’s a bet on who can reach the enemy the fastest. There’s never a real prize that’s advertised, only a hyped up feeling and even then, it’s only to boost morale.
After hours and hours of trekking, the first of the men reached the jungle’s clearing. A shudder of relief was soon replaced by absolute horror. No intel had been gathered of the enemy; nobody that ever tried to find information came back alive. What they found was far more disturbing than they would have imagined. The enemy was tightly packed in a dome of thick absorbent material which had neither a clear entrance or weakness to exploit. To make matters worse, the only weapons in the armoury were miniature grenades and halberds.
Infuriated and invigorated by the knowledge that only a quarter of their comrades had made it thus far, the men began to attack the outer shell of the dome. Those who arrived first were soon taken by fatigue; the long trek had worn away at their armour and the acid rain was beginning to burn their light skins. Soon, others began to lose morale. They wondered if they would ever complete the mission and break through this barrier. They had been surprised by the sheer size of the enemy’s stronghold. What if this was a representation of the power of the enemy inside? And for others, the fact that they had only half a brain started to kick in; several wandered off to darker regions of the jungle and never returned. Our boy arrived with a middle pack and began to join in with the other soldiers as they surrounded the shell and persevered on. When he ran out of grenades, he had to strike with his halberd. The thick material absorbed most of the penetrating force.
After what seemed like hours, our boy was still going at it. The environment had become slightly less hostile but the sky remained the kind of pink that foreshadows a sunrise. He was beginning to run out of energy. The two men that flanked him had fallen; one driven mad by the repetitive nature of the task and the other had taken an accidental stabbing from a delirious soldier. Drawing on what little strength he had left, he made a forceful stab. But there was something different this time. Instead of being absorbed by the substance, his halberd broke through. The momentum caused him to stumble right through the gel and into the inner chambers. Instantaneously, a sensor went off and from the inside he saw that the outside turned into a sort of impenetrable polymer. He knew nobody else would be coming in after him. He would have to face her. Alone.
As he watched cautiously through the outer chambers he came upon a young lady simply sitting in the middle of a throne room. There was nothing malicious in her. Come to think of it, the commanders had never informed him what the purpose of the mission was. There she sat, looking curiously at him as if she had never seen another soldier. How curious that so many had gone to war and yet she had seen none of them. His mind flitted back to his comrades on the outside who could no longer get in and who would most likely die outside when they got tired enough. But this thought was only momentary. His attention was drawn again to the girl. As he approached he could see that she was about his age and his fears began to shrink.
The next few months flew by quickly. He developed something akin to Stockholm syndrome but then again, he was never a prisoner. He began to feel emotions for this young girl that he’d never felt before. Sure she was a little big. Actually, she was about 10 time his size but that didn’t seem to matter.
Eventually they grew together, creating something different entirely. And then having finished the product, they imparted their very souls into the creation. And thus, they became something much bigger than he could ever have imagined. However, in this process of soul impartation, his memory was wiped.
He would begin anew in this new world.
The Unforced Rhythms of Grace 