Journey to the end of the world

A village of Yetis, hidden in the young and highest mountain ranges of the world, the Himalayas, the abode of snow. They lived in isolation on the top above the clouds and far away from homo sapiens . After the ice age was over , these yetis found it difficult to survive near the tropical regions and migrated to the top and were thought to have been extinct with the dying ice age.

Yoda, a young Yeti had heard numerous stories of life beyond the mountains. How his ancestors lived all over the world during the ice age, but with the onset of global warming and melting ice, they were forced to migrate up the mountains and some moved further north towards the pole.

He also heard stories of the “gross” flowers blooming, and the torturous sunshining over the head for the entire day every single day of the year. Not a flake of snow . OMG, it was like burning hell – that is what was told to all new members of the tribe every single evening during cold meal time.

The elders were grateful to their brave ancestors who sacrificed their lives in the search of this haven which not only kept their species alive but also is their only home. Although they have heard of stories of their distant relatives who moved to another part of the world beyond the Himalayas, near the poles but they never dared to explore beyond their current home.

But it was different for Yoda, he hated life up here, he wanted to taste the rare magical tropical fruits. He had a bite of it when a human mountaineer died in the snow and Yoda and his friends found some posters, pictures, and a box full of rare fruits they had never seen but on the cave paintings.

In the pictures found in the man’s belonging was something called water, which he learnt was liquid form of snow, and the man was walking on it with help of a shaft. It sparked his interest and love for water sports. He hated ice and loved water. He imagined how something other than blood looked in its liquid form.

He also hated the cold, he fell sick every other week, and wanted to explore what heat was like. He was sure heat was meant for him, and he was a misfit in the Yeti village where everyone feared fire. One of the greatest invention by some distant ancestors who chose to live around the center of the planet and didn’t migrate up the mountains and poles , and the Yetis believed are now extinct , until the day they found the dead body of a homo-sapien.

But it was a bad omen, that is what his parents told him, and ensured he doesn’t tell it to the elders of the village. But as kids are expected to be, they shared the stories with one another and finally it reached the ears of the elders who called for an emergency meeting and forbidden anyone to go near those kids who spotted the dead body and ordered them to be put in quarantine. No one was allowed near them.

In quarantine, Yoda made a plan- to Leave the village for good and go out to the tropics.

Although the elders confiscated everything the kids found at the dead body, but Yoda was able to save the pictures he hid in his thick fur.

The furless bodies on the beach fascinated Yoda, he wanted to be one of them, he felt he already was, and he made his escape plan.

During the blizzard in the night, he escaped, running down hill and shaving off all his fur.

He got on his mission, and started devising a make shift trimmer for himself , which they usually used to shave off Yak fur and skin before eating it raw.

The night had come, he made his way through the thick storm, and ran and walked all night until he started to notice the snow was getting thinner and thinner, it was the right place and time, he shaved his fur, and now he was so happy to be looking  just like the dead corpse they had found. He put on clothes which he had stolen from the corpse.

He had never been happier

But he was already missing his friend and family, as he had never left them in his entire life of 17 years.

At the same time, he was excited about the new beginnings and his mission of seeing the warm sea and eating forbidden rare fruits.

He started to walk again,  making way towards the foothill of the mountain and then new things were there to surprise him, where he discovered land.

Another thing that sparked his fascination was fire, at a distant he saw light, like a dim sun, moving and waving, as he went closer he found a barn, and many sheeps in it; he found food . He sneaked in, killed a sheep , had some of it, and buried the rest just how the elders in the village did, and dozed off.

In the morning the owner of the barn found a sheep missing and a new boy sleeping. He woke him up and , enquired about what happened to him and how he ended up here and where his sheep vanished into thin air?

Yoda understood nothing , he spoke Sanskrit, which was Greek to the shepherd’s ears. And the shepherd spoke a language he had never heard before.

And looking at the shabby condition of the boy, he assumed him to be a poor lad who lost his home in the last week’s avalanche and agreed to shelter him.

And there he was, accomplished the very first step towards his major goal. He was surprised that no one recognized or differentiated him, and although he didn’t understand the language, but he could figure out that the old shepherd was helpful and not dangerous. And now he had to find his way beyond the foothills, to the valleys, following the course of the glacial river , and into the sea. That is what he had dreamt all his life. He imagined taking back shells and capture the memory and go back and draw it on his caves and tell everyone the stories of the wild forbidden fruits and flowers, the warn breeze and the liquid snow.

Days passed and then weeks, but Yoda couldn’t yet device a way out of the hills. But he learnt so much more about human living, cooking, rearing sheep, bathing. The day he saw liquid snow, he was absolutely fascinated. He couldn’t help but stare at the bucket of water in the kitchen.

But he hadn’t learnt drinking it yet, he still made snowballs and chew on it for his source of water.

And then one day the old shepherd died, there was a ceremony arranged , and few nearby villages came to pay their tribute to the old man, and there was a priest as well, and when the priest started to recite his rituals, Yoda was taken aback, the priest spoke his language. He was shocked, but super happy.

He waited for all to depart and then slowly followed the priest, and saw him get into the tiny temple at the end of the village road downhill from the shepherd’s place

He mustered his courage and called out to him; the priest looked up to see a tiny young boy speaking in Sanskrit, and was surprised as he didn’t know anyone else except his family who could speak Sanskrit in the nearby villages.

“Where did you come from little boy?” he asked. Yoda had learnt to lie and make up stories by now.

He said, his parents came to the village, and they died, and he was left behind while the shepherd looked after him, but now he wanted to return back to the beaches where he actually came from but didn’t know how to and didn’t understand the language of the people, and hence asked for help.

The priest agreed and told, “stay with me for couple of weeks, I can teach you the local language, which will help you in your long journey, and you can work with me, so to earn some money and I will guide you the way towards the sea.”

Yoda was pleased and he agreed.

Again, weeks passed, he was learning the rituals from the priest, conducting puja ceremonies in the local temple and saving from the offerings for his upcoming trip.

Months passed, and Yoda felt more human than the human’s around him. He had learnt meditation, the local language, sewing sheep skin to make clothing and footwear for himself. 1 new sun had passed, and now Yoda had saved enough and learnt enough to take the next leg of his journey.

He took blessings of the priest, and finally left , with a sheep skin sewed bag for his hard-earned money, 1 pair of goat skin footwear and 1 pair of fleece jacket made of baby sheep skin.

He already knew to hunt and kill, so finding food in the jungles was not a concern.

He had learnt to cook basic meals on woodfire as well, and on the top of the mountains they have gone days without food, so he knew with little supplies he would manage his journey really well.

He started to walk for a few days downhill , halting for the nights, until he reached the next village in the valleys. He didn’t want to have much of human interaction as this place seemed to be more crowded the hills. So, he kept to himself and set up for the night against the lake side.

He stayed there for a few days and learnt that every noon, a small boat took people to the other side and brought them back in the evening. So, the next day he tried the same, he offered some fresh kill to the boatmen who happily took him to the other side of the huge lake. The human settlement got denser and denser as he moved towards the plains.

It was past a week, and except his night halts, Yoda made no stops. He killed at night, ate in the day, and offered the fresh kill to other people in offer of some favor.

He was now on the banks of the holy Ganges in a holy city, and his seemingly friendly gesture of offering a fresh kill to the local went against him, and fortunately he was saved by some people nearby who realized he was just a young lad who didn’t know the rules of the town. Yoda realise he had so much more to learn of the human ways before venturing further, so he decided to make a halt and camped at the bank of the huge river. He had seen enough of water now, but the glacial liquid snow still fascinated him. Specially to think of that this huge water body was coming from the glaciers, from near his home. It fascinated him more than ever.

He learnt a lot of new things at the holy town and he got engrossed in meditation by the river and earned his living by sitting on the river bed and preforming rituals for anyone who needed it, something he learnt from the sage on the hills.

In a few weeks’ time he learnt that killing of animal and eating it was forbidden in the town, and there was abundance of the fruits which were forbidden in his hometown. He was no longer surprised with the contradictory lifestyle of humans and his people.

It actually started to make sense to him.

He realised that things in abundance on the plains were scarce and almost unavailable at his home at the peak , and hence to keep his people at bay from the craving they couldn’t have, there were the things which were forbidden.

Infact he realised he was no different than humans, but only evolved and lived in a different way due to the climatic conditions and availability of resources. His people lived the cold, since that is all they had, while epeople here loved the heat, coz that is what they had.

He realised with the current mindset his people had, they couldn’t easily adapt to the way of human living . his only aim now was to get over with his mission , see the sea, take back memoirs and tell stories about the world beyond the ice.

Few more weeks passed by, and it was the longest yet the final leg of his journey now.

He counted the savings, and headed towards the nearest sea, the Arabian sea, via the intense dry deserts.

He was surprised to see that such a place on the planet exists, with only sand and the scorching heat, only to his fortunate luck, it was the winter, but yet the day sun was enough to make him sick . It turned out to be longer than he anticipated. And he started to dread the heat, it was not something his body was used to even after spending months in the plains. He was sure, others his kind, wouldn’t survive a day, may be that is why they forbid us to come down the peak. He started to regret his decision, but soon he devised a plan. He halted in the day and seeked for shelter and in the night, he made his journey. And soon he was beyond the deserts and he could smell something in the air, which he was sure was the sea.

It was still 2 nights to go before he would sea the astonishing view. He was lying under a tree in a nearby village the last night, and what he saw in the sky was spectacular. He had never seen something like this.

A series of shooting star. The sky was as clear as crystal, and he started to dream of going to the stars, and slept like a baby that night, when he woke up in the morning it was a stormy day, with dark clouds in the sky, made the day look like dusk.

But he had a journey to conquer, and had mile to go, before he could rest for the night at the sea beach.

He started on his journey, but was frequently abrupted by the heavy rains, but it didn’t deter him, he knew he had to be at the cost before sunset, and he went on. And he did , as he approached the coast, he could smell it in the air, he knew it was closer. And at the sight of the vast ocean in front of him, he knew his purpose in life was met. He was overjoyed and walked straight into it.

He leant a lot in his entire journey but if it was 1 thing he hadn’t learnt, it was how to swim. And the stormy weather, the high tides, his tired exhausted body, and his excited mind, all played together and he went down under the sea lost forever.

Back in his icy village on the peaks of Himalayan caves, the elders of the families and the tribe spoke about a young boy called Yoda, who was disobedient, didn’t listen to the heed of the leaders of the tribe, went against their wishes of leaving the icy caves, and never returned, sure to have been hunted down by the cruel humans.

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