26 Writing is hard

Elder Irvin looked at me surprised. He does know that there are four gods, right?

"Have you heard any stories about Aer, choosing someone for her blessing?"

So... there really wasn´t anyone? At all?

"No, but I thought..."

I left the sentence unspoken, but I am sure he could pick the meaning behind it.

"Listen, Arn."

Yeah, that is why I am here... even though I behaved stupidly in the beginning?

"Aer is not interested in us or the world. The creation story tells us exactly that! Aer was only joking around when the other gods created us and she only helped in the last step, do you know what that means?"

"It means, that we are alive thanks to her?"

"It means there isn´t a single living being that could represent Aer as she did not form one of her own. She is the lonely god without any creations of her choosing and she also never choose any from the other ones! There simply isn´t anyone, that could carry her blessing."

I don´t think that is the case...

He snorted.

"I can see what you think, but praying to Aer is a waste of time. If you want a blessing I think you are suited for Doite."

I am suited for the fire blessing? I don´t really think so myself...

"Why do you think I would be suited for Doite?"

Elder Irvin exhaled loudly and looked kinda exasperated.

"Your temperament... and your habit of building things in the wood. I believe Doite would find you interesting."

So he knows about my bow-making experiment?

"How...?"

"Gulda told me. She brought me that thing you made and asked if I knew about its functions."

He imitated pulling a bowstring.

"The small people sometimes use a similar weapon like this to poke fun at us from a distance. It´s not very effective..."

Mother... that is unexpected...

"Elder, what would I need to do to get Uisce´s blessing?"

To be honest, water is simply more desirable than fire, especially the healing factor is desirable. My ultimate dream in my former life was to be a healer if I should get reincarnated... even though I thought I knew that would never happen since reincarnation is not real? But the novels sure were fun to read... and I am allowed to dream a bit...

Elder Irvin made a thinking pose that looked kinda funny to me.

"I don´t know, actually. I really enjoyed the rain and would often stand in it and feel the water on my skin and listen to the drops in the night. It is... relaxing."

I grimaced a bit. Sure the rain sounds nice, especially on a hot summer day. But getting drenched purposefully is a bit... well, if there is no other option sure getting drenched is not a big deal, but if you can listen to the rain from inside your house or from under a tree...

"Thank you very much, Elder. Your words and experience were definitely helpful."

He lifted a brow and smiled.

"It was a pleasure...?"

A pleasure, huh? I think I was pretty annoying myself, but if he isn´t honest... let´s just take it.

"On another note... Do you know about writings?"

He cocked his head in wonder.

"Writings?"

Sure... my bad habit of talking in English, when I don´t know the right word came out once more...

"I mean... signs, or symbols that carry the meaning you want to another person or into another generation."

That´s good enough, right? I mean I could have used the term from a movie to paint words... perhaps that would have been better?

"How do you..."

He fell into silence and gave a sideglance to the cave entrance inside his little hut. After a while of thinking, he cleared his throat.

"You know what? If you manage to get a blessing in five years' time I might show you something interesting enough for you."

He gave me another long and thoughtful look and sighed.

"Yeah, you could do... why not?... she might be weak, but... at least somewhat smart..."

Mumbling to himself even though I can hear you loud and clear is kinda...

"From now on you are allowed to visit once a week for a few hours and I will teach you how to write, but..."

He lifted a finger to convey his seriousness.

"Don´t tell anyone, but your mother what we will do here. The symbols and paintings aren´t meant for everyone, but the Seansceal. I will teach you and in exchange, you will write down the tales of the gods inside our community and exchange the tales with other villages from time to time."

A Keeper or guardian of tales? And why does it feel like I am getting scammed into joining a sect?

And! If they have a writing system, why not share the writings with everyone?

"I know you will have many questions, but just know this a Seansceal is an honorable position that does not need much strength to keep, although you will not be my only candidate."

He seemed really proud of that position, but honestly... I do not understand the reason for keeping a writing system secret!

"For now go and come again next week. And..."

He lowered his voice a bit looking me in the eye dead serious.

"... don´t forget to tell your mother not to hit me anymore..."

I opened my mouth to give him one of the comebacks floating in my mind, but...

"... I got it..."

And I left his house.

What was that? Are they idiots? Why would they keep the writing a secret? Isn´t writing one of the most important factors to improve civilization? I really have no idea what is necessary to advance a group of people into a culture, and I know cultures can be grown through verbal tradition... Just look at the bible for example. Different nomadic tribes had the same story concept and told similar stories, but every tribe did accentuate another point of the story and in the passing of hundred years the stories only vaguely resemble each other. New ones are added in and old ones are told anew with each narrator adding in a few nice sentences or leaving some out. In the end, we have many, many stories that were retold so often, that you can´t really see how they came from the same story. Unless you studied that field of science and even then it remains unclear. When later the Jews collected all stories and wrote the first version of the Tenach, the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, or how you want to call it...

Well, I don´t really know if that is what happened exactly... there still are quite a few theories on how the Tenach was first written, but... not my point.

My point was, that many stories sound the same and often might be the same story just with another historical background. Different writers have a different motive to tell a story and that will be their focal point. If you want to know what I mean just take a picture and let everyone in the family describe the picture. It will be an interesting experience and is quite fun. As for the many theories on how the bible was written... just read one of the thousands of books about it... I can´t anymore...

...but if you have a writing system, why not use it?

... It can´t be for religious reasons, right? That would be...