He forcefully took Jaden into the café, and the poor nephew couldn't do anything but follow this uncle who only did as he pleased.
'Always so self-centered.' Jaden thought to himself, while maintaining a warm smile as he entered the café.
Once he stepped inside, a delightful symphony of freshly ground coffee aromas and freshly baked pastries welcomed him, enveloping him in a comforting embrace. The walls were adorned with local artworks, adding an authentic and charming touch to the atmosphere.
Behind the worn marble counter, the barista worked with agility, preparing drinks with palpable expertise and a delighted expression. Ground coffee beans filled the air with a rich and enticing essence, creating an olfactory backdrop for the conversations taking place at each table.
'Everyone seems to be regulars here.' Jaden noticed.
Aligned wooden shelves housed a variety of mugs with unique colors and patterns, each telling its own story. The wooden tables revealed signs of wear and tear, testament to countless meetings and shared moments over steaming cups.
Jaden and Louf headed first to the counter, where they were greeted with a sweet and warm welcome, before finding an empty table because the menu was displayed at a blackboard by the wall. Jaden let his gaze wander over the choices, allowing his senses to be guided by the enticing descriptions.
'I wonder if I should try something unfamiliar or not?'
In the end, Jaden opted for a cake with a very appealing description, which resembled a mocha, accompanied by a rather sweet coffee. Louf, on the other hand, ordered just coffee.
"Do you want me to tell you more of my fantastic adventures, like before?" Louf said enthusiastically after taking a sip of his coffee.
"The times you encountered gods and fought against them? I'll pass." apparently the enthusiasm was not shared.
"I really miss the time when you didn't doubt your favorite uncle, Me!" Louf began with a somewhat sinister tone but ended with a lot of pride and confidence.
He was excessively proud of being the uncle that he was, the best one.
"Yeah, sure." Jaden said before adding.
"But I did like the story where you flew into the sky to prevent the sun from shining so that the vampire princess could walk during the day."
The two burst into warm laughter, disturbing the nearby tables a bit, but no one complained. It was probably a frequent occurrence in this café.
"All that just to keep a promise. Don't forget that!" Louf added, still laughing.
"Yes, the moral of the story." Jaden said after calming down. And as he was about to continue, his uncle's voice also resonated at the same time.
"Always keep your promises." They both looked at each other quietly for a while before Louf spoke again, with a slightly more serious expression.
"So what's got you so pensive?"
"Nothing special, just pondering some questions." Jaden replied with a concerned look, once everything came back to him.
"Such as?" Louf took another sip of his coffee and gestured for Jaden to have his coffee as he hadn't touched either the cake or the coffee.
Jaden didn't want to spill everything to his uncle all at once, or at least, his uncle's way of handling things had somewhat influenced him.
Louf was always enigmatic when it came to important matters, so when they were together, Jaden played the same card.
"Questions about destiny or the human's nature, for example." he answered after a bite of cake and coffee.
"Is it good then?" Instead of continuing the conversation he had started, Louf asked an unrelated, mundane question. But Jaden had to admit it was delicious.
Just before Jaden could respond to his uncle's question and redirect the conversation to the "real" topic, he heard Louf say:
"Destiny? Do you believe in it, J?" He occasionally called him J, especially when telling a story where Jaden was a kind of 'Robin' or when he was serious.
"I hadn't really thought about it before today, but I think the humans are too imperfect to have one."
A person could become whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. A single small action could change their perspective and therefore their actions. How could such a flawed creature have a destiny? A creature so imperfect that it didn't even know what the future held for them. So, from Jaden's point of view, humans can't have a destiny.
"Oh, you think very well, J." Louf replied as if he had completely understood his nephew's thoughts. However, he didn't intend to continue the subject; he just sipped his coffee slowly.
"What do you think, Uncle Louf?" Jaden asked, wanting to know what his enigmatic uncle thought.
"Since you've given your viewpoint on destiny, I'll share mine regarding nature."
What did this phrase imply? That he shared Jaden's view on destiny? Or not? But Jaden decided to let it pass and listen to what he had to say about nature; after all, this uncle of his did as he pleased.
"At birth, man is neither good nor bad. He will be for a while what we make of him, but eventually, he becomes what he chooses to be."
Jaden might not fully understand, but he got it. He was dazzled by this man, by the way he spoke, his certainty; it was all so grand.
Louf continued. "Nature, I didn't believe in it before, but over time, I understand that human is not what he learns, on the contrary, he learns what he is and then performs it."
"One can illustrate it with a good citizen who becomes a murderer or a murderer who stops killing. In both cases, what these individuals were before was merely the result of their upbringing, what they have become is what I call their nature."
Jaden had never heard such words. He had read things here and there, but he didn't think they came out like this; these were the kinds of phrases that made philosophers famous.
"So, in conclusion, you believe that man does indeed have a nature, but does it always manifest?" Jaden asked, a question befitting the subject. What would happen if there were never any transformations?
"If you kill a caterpillar before its transformation, it will never become a butterfly. If a bird is not pushed out of its nest so it can awaken that instinct, it will never fly."
Jaden then asked one more time:
"If it's natural, why would this instinct need some kind of trigger?" wanting to clear all his doubts.
"Natural because it didn't attend flying lessons; it just needed to awaken what was already within it, and what is within oneself, that's what I call nature. It's what you know without learning, what you trigger through one action or another."
Jaden had a better understanding of the topic, at least from his uncle's point of view. A viewpoint that seemed logical after all. Since some things are natural, why wouldn't man have a nature?
However, he had one last question.
"Uncle Louf, can our nature displease us?" he's voice was more serious than before as if this question was the most important one.
"The model citizen who develops a taste for killing someone thought at some point in his life that killing was not good. If he hadn't killed, he wouldn't have known he was a killer. He would have always believed that killing was not good." Louf replied without adding anything else.
"So, in essence, as long as we haven't tried, we can't say whether it's our nature or not." Jaden added.
"Eat your cake J, and the coffee tastes better when it's hot, you know." Louf said, concluding the conversation.