Jason was their through it all that day, he saw it all happen, everything unfold before his own light. That day he had been so overwhelmed by the general image of what he saw, that he it was only after reading it in Irina's journal that he looked back on that day. In his mind he watched on as the story she told replayed out before him as if it were reality.
He saw it all far better than her, he could see every aspect of what happened during those days. Yet with only two eyes, Irina deduced far more possible explanations for why the two camps had turned on the people than he could. He was amazed at how much more his mother could describe that day in general, it was somehow more than he ever could have.
Looking back on that day he watched in his mind from many different angles as Irina ran through the crowd to escape through a narrow passage in the mountains to escape.
In her days detailing the escape of Polami and during her escape from Grena. Irina wrote many ideas of why they chose to turn on the people when they were at their weakest rather than helping everyone.
Most had to do with the land on which their city stood, it was a natural sort of protection even with the immense damage that had been done to the mountains. In one she figured the two groups must of turned on each other right after they finished dealing with the last of the Polami Tsunami's survivors looking to stake their claim 'in the name of god'.
Jason read on intensively as she described all the possibilities that she thought of. He learned of many things he hadn't known of before, many of which he had heard of or saw but never understood what it was.
This thing 'god' was a cause for a lot of curiosity, she referenced it many times but never much of an explanation, like it was as common a word as his name; However, he'd never heard either of his parents say it even once before themselves. Another was war, he couldn't understand what or why it was that humans butchered each other on such massive scales, this particular moment was a cause of a lot of his questions on that.
However, with Irina's attempted rationalizations and learning to come to terms with her parents deaths page by page, he was finally able to come to terms with his own comprehension of why these brutalities occurred.
'With their own complex needs, ideas, and problems, they always wish for something better than what they have now. That's what makes them human I guess.'
The thought struck a chord with him, and with this he finally felt like he understood what it is that makes them so different. It didn't matter what it was, humans possessed the nerve to dare control, change, or destroy whatever challenged their authority, even their own.
No other animal on this earth expressed such strong greed, but every human was different at that too. Their greed was different from person to person, they all had their vices.
Putting the journal down Jason had gained a completely new perspective of the humans around him. He'd answered many of his questions but he also gained a new one he completely forgot to think about before. What is God?
'I always thought God was just a person with how people spoke of him, but I'm not so sure anymore. I'll ask Erog about it tomorrow, I'm sure he'll know!' Feeling immensely tired after using his head and light so much he hurried to bed before Irina and Damir got back in.
The next day, after a usual morning for the family, Damir brought Jason over and dropped him off at Erog's house. They picked it up again with reading, Erog had prepared far more complex things for him to read through but he moved through it as quickly as the day prior.
Erog frustrated, somehow still not having prepared enough for the little knowledge vacuum switch to teaching him to write. It started off simple enough with repeating his name and other basic words, but Jason very quickly began to get the trick of it.
'I've never heard of a kid so interested in learning anything. Most just want to run around and play, but I guess Damir did say he didn't do much of that oddly enough he just likes to watch things intensively for hours on end apparently. I didn't give it too much thought before but I guess because of his complexion he hasn't really ever gotten to play with other kids either. Poor lass doesn't even know what that's like.'
Erog though as he shook his head watching the little white haired boy keep writing the same words over and over with an intense focus. After getting an idea, Erog spoke up and asked Jason a question.
"Little man, is there anything you'd like to know about from me, something you might have seen that may have puzzled you that your parents couldn't answer you about?"
Jason snapped looking up at him with enthusiasm shining in his eyes that he'd never seen before.
'Now's my chance to ask!' Jason thought to himself.
"Yeah, I umm, I heard about this person named God a couple times, but I don't know who he is. Do you know, everyone else seems to know him but me?"
"I... Umm, I do." Erog was very much taken aback by the boys question.
"God isn't necessarily a person... Everyone thinks of them a little differently, they're more of an idea people share than a person to me personally. People always like to find a meaning behind everything, but the hardest one to find a meaning in is people themselves. So like we build houses, tools and create things, some people think that someone or something must have created us too."
"I don't have one here, being a man of science and study I tend to think one day we'll come to learn why we exist through studying the world around us with time and patience, but there's this book they call the bible, people claim it tells the story of our beginnings, and how a entity called god created the first humans in his design."
"The bible holds many stories, it tells many valuable life lessons at that too. My parents actually raised me with the story's from it too, so it's not really a bad thing at all so don't take my words about it to be bad. However, there are many who believe it all to be a factual and a true story, and any who challenge it to be the bad people so you should not go around repeating everything I say exactly."
"However, there are many of those who use the bible and the idea of god for their own purpose, or to justify their distorted views of reality. I'm sure you've noticed how others look at you right, even a kid should be able to tell the others in the village don't much like you or your mother?"
Jason nodded very curiously.
"Well, your mother and father wouldn't much like me to tell you this, but it's partially to do with that. When your mother's people were roaming looking for a new place to call home, the Royal Family of Rowbal announced to the world suddenly they would take in the people of Grena and help them find 'the lord's light again'. Being shunned everywhere else they didn't have much choice but to come here. At first they were treated the same as everyone else, then as you can that's changed more and more with the years now that Rowbal is struggling."
"The king at that time was a man who was very good, I'd actually met him a couple times. But once he passed away fifteen years ago his two sons and daughter began to fight to become the next ruler. Eventually the oldest child was crowned king. He's made many blunders to say the least since he was crowned, but to avoid the blame and not let his siblings take advantage of any dissatisfaction of the people he blamed it on your mother's people saying they're irredeemable. So people in the village like to use you as an excuse of why our people should never have mixed."
"You can rest assured though, your complexion has literally no connection to that. It's really not a bad thing either, it's just how you look, there's probably plenty of other people out there who look like you too. They just aren't as common as everyone else, so if anything I'd say it can be a good thing because elsewhere you'll just stand out more than the rest in a good way too if you're able to make the best of it."
A little blown away by everything Erog just told him, Jason just sat there not even knowing what to say to all that. However, he had gained the answer he was looking for and a lot more too.
'Well, I watched them change from basically fish into the destructively creative creatures they are today. So I can definitely say that "god" didn't create them, they didn't just pop-up out of the ground or anything like that. It took a rather long time for them to become what they are now if I'm thinking about it too. Though I can't tell Erog, or really anyone that, I don't even know how to if I wanted.'
He did have to say something after all that, so he spoke up to ask another question. "So it's not a person, just something people made up? Is that kind of why my parents tell me not to trust what anyone but you and them say?"
"Ughh, kind of, your parents tell you that for a different reason, but it's not entirely unrelated. Anyway, we can talk more about it later. Finish up those lines and let's move onto the next words alright?"
"Okay!"
The two continued along with the writing until Damir came and got Jason. He came by the same time as the day before, him and Erog shared a word again outside before taking Jason home.
Erog was getting closer to pushing Jason to his limits today, Jason had to use his light the whole time. It helped him study the imperfections of his movements, and if he traced out the words where he was about to write he was able to follow it like a guide.
The light he was holding in his muscles, blood, and mind were all nearly depleted with that much use without a chance to regain more. Laying in bed he began to circulate the light in his mind and do the breathing he'd learned the other night.
He kept this up until eventually he noticed the extra amount he would get was much greater than usual. 'Does depleting my light first make it easier to increase the amount I can hold?' He would have to test this later, though it definitely seems like that might be the case.
Having nothing else to do after he was done accumulating light again, he chose to fall asleep. For some reason, even after doing all that, it only relived a little of his fatigue from the day. 'Learning must be something very tiring for the mind.' He thought as he effortlessly fell asleep dreaming about the next day.
His lessons with Erog continued each day and it soon became his new normal. Although he did notice his parents seemed to be buzzing about more actively than usual. Irina was filling their cellar with more than usual too, not even just the normal stuff either, blankets, clothes, and other odds and ends.
His dad was also now building a large carriage that could attach to their horse Odin, and another younger horse his dad had been raising for some time in the fields named Oli. He would cover it over with a large patchwork hide tarp whenever he wasn't working on it, or if someone came by other than Erog; however, someone coming by other than Erog was very rare these days.
Jason noticed these things but paid little mind to them, all that was on his mind were his lessons with Erog. He was learning so much that he didn't even notice, he never realized there was so much to learn. He'd been watching humans since their beginning, but he realized more and more each day of just how much he hadn't seen before despite being able to see everything far better than they could with only their two eyes.
The concepts of math he found very interesting, his parents had taught him to count and add but they never mentioned division, multiplication, distances, exponents, graphing, or trigonometry. He was in love with it all and Erog could see that, he kept making the lessons harder and harder yet Jason would always topple each challenge far faster than he thought.
At least Erog was eventually able to keep him stuck on certain topics and problems for a couple of days now when it came to more abstract topics; however, these topics would normally take most other kids weeks at a time and they wouldn't be learning them as young as he was.
Time was now passing effortlessly for the young boy, his latest theory with his light was proven true as well. Jason was now increasing the amount of light his body could hold by twice as much each day, and he was ecstatic to say the least with everything going on for him.
Days felt like seconds, months like minutes, years like hours. This was more than he could have ever asked for when he tried to save that unborn infant years ago, it wasn't his first failure but it was his best. Though outside his bubble things were far from being as great as they were for him.