One-Eyed Monster

Kadi and Igor couldn’t comprehend the Great Mentor’s unintelligible speech. It was one thing not to understand a sentence or two, which they could ponder upon later, but it was quite another situation when they struggled to understand an entire passage, losing their interest in continuing to listen.

Igor and Kadi cast questioning glances at the Great Mentor, hoping he might explain what he meant.

Guzan, however, had no intention of explaining. He continued to sigh and narrate, as if every detail stirred deep emotions within his soul, filling him with a profound sense of lament.

Igor couldn’t help but think, Perhaps this is just how the elderly behave. He hoped Grand Master Guzan would hint at something in his narratives that could confirm his conjectures. Despite not understanding, Igor continued to listen attentively, parsing each sentence.

Kadi, on the other hand, seemed more impatient. This old man is even more long-winded than Kevin, he thought. Completely clueless about what had just transpired, Kadi was confounded by Igor’s reaction and couldn’t make heads or tails of the elderly man’s words.

But all they could do was fret.

Guzan continued to prattle on.

”Time flies; more than a decade has passed already, and every event that occurred seems predestined.”

”I don’t know whether our original choices were right, nor do I know if our future choices will be rational.”

The Great Mentor’s reflective tone was rather hypnotic. Although Igor wanted to listen attentively to each sentence, the hypnotic effect was so strong that he found himself struggling against increasing drowsiness.

”I just want to know what you all are and what I am, and why you say we are not the same kind. And, by ’we’, you mean Kevin and the others as well, right?” Kadi couldn’t hold his curiosity any longer. He desperately sought answers to his burning questions, and the old man before him seemed to have insights that he lacked.

”To be precise, I cannot answer your question, Kadi,” the Great Mentor finally stopped his rambling to directly answer Kadi’s question.

”Why? Is this question too complex? I merely want to know what I truly am, and what you all are.”

”This question has no answer, Kadi. I cannot ascertain what we truly are, and likewise, wouldn’t dare to presume to define you. We only acknowledge that you are different from us.”

”What about Kevin and the others then? Aren’t they also different from you?” Kadi was vexed, failing to understand the old man’s words.

”Everything is a result of destiny. Kevin and the others were not born this way. Furthermore, sameness is not determined by appearance,” the Great Mentor spoke slowly, his voice as lulling as an early summer breeze, inducing sleep.

Meanwhile, Igor was nodding off, barely listening...

”Not born that way? So, before their transformations, they looked just like you?” Kadi said, exasperated. He found the old man rather annoying for dodging his questions. Deep down, Kadi thought he already had the answers. If Kevin and his monstrous companions were not of his kind, didn’t that mean he himself was a monster among monsters? However, he was still not ready to accept this reality.

Such a transformation isn’t easy to deal with. It implies eternal loneliness...

”You’re right, Kadi. Kevin and the others were once like me – they were all humans.”

”What?” Kadi was taken aback. This was no longer a question of being a monster among monsters but of him being an absolute monster.

So, I’m the only real monster on Guru Mountain...

Of course, there was someone even more shocked than Kadi—Igor, who had been dozing off. The moment he heard the phrase ’they were all humans’, all his sleepiness evaporated.

”Humans?...” Igor gasped. The large creature he had just seen outside the Stone House was a human? The two-faced man he saw in the Time Gap was a human? That’s ludicrous! Impossible!

”I understand you both find it hard to believe, but everything I’ve said is the truth. I am not the monster-in-chief of Guru Mountain. In my eyes, there are no monsters on Guru Mountain.”

”No monsters...” Upon hearing these words, Kadi felt a warm comfort in his heart.

”Yes, Kadi, you are not a monster either. You are just different from the rest.”

”But, that doesn’t make sense!” Igor was the first one to protest. ”If none of you are monsters, why would you hide? Why wouldn’t you reveal yourselves and even prevent others from coming here? This contradiction doesn’t make sense.”

”There’s no contradiction,” Kadi said with unexpected calmness. He felt that the elderly man’s words made sense.

Kadi attributed this understanding to Kevin. From an early age, Kevin had warned him to stay away from the humans beneath Dawn Peak. Kadi had wondered why, as a monster, he had to avoid people who feared monsters. Now older, Kadi began to understand. Monsters can’t approach humans because humans are the majority, while monsters are the minority.

Even if you’re very powerful, it doesn’t matter because the majority will always swallow the minority.

”How can that be?” Igor was in disbelief.

”I’m not sure, as I told you when we first met. I really can’t be certain if I am a monster. I... just don’t have any kin like myself for the time being.”

”That...you seem to be making sense.” Reflecting on the moment he encountered Kadi, Igor felt his mind clear up a little. I haven’t treated Kadi as a monster this entire journey, so why obsess over it now? he pondered.

”Monsters are born out of fear,” Grand Master Guzan continued.

”Fear is born from being different. This is an age-old truth. Those who are strong are always unique; thus, true strong individuals always harbor a sense of awe, even as they live in fear every day.”

Igor was dumbfounded at this. He had always thought that those in power had nothing to worry about.

But the Great Mentor said that those in power were living in perpetual fear, and this left him utterly confused.

”This world has always been xenophobic. Like attracts like, species stick to their kind, and communities always drive out those who look different from them. It’s been this way forever.”

”The reason they’re xenophobic is that the outsiders are unlike them. They fear that their familiar world will change and become unrecognizable.”

The Great Mentor’s claims were growing more cryptic, but Igor and Kadi were captivated and listened intently.

”The fear of loss leads many astray. This is also why so many people pursue the Dark Arts.”

”Wait, you’re saying all of this has to do with the Dark Arts?” The mention of darkness made Igor’s Scale of Faith waver as he remembered the old woman’s extensive ramblings.

”All I’ve said intertwines with many things, not just the Dark Arts, child.” The Great Mentor gave Igor a meaningful look.

”Then explain why the two-faced man and the others have turned into monst...I mean, why they look the way they do now.”

”Well, that’s another story.”