Prompt by @flashfictionfridayofficial ☾
This week’s prompt was really inspiring, and I must admit it was very hard for me to not write more than 1000 words!
This time I decided to write about my d&d monk, he’s one of my favourite original characters ever.
What does the word “freedom” mean to him? Let’s find out together!
The wind was howling, blowing through the trees and through his hair.
Is this what Freedom sounds like?
Drest, sitting on one of the stone walls of the monastery's cloister, was wondering what the correct answer to that question was.
Of course, his brothers had always protected him, since they found him, still a baby, on their doorstep.
Everyday he speculated about his parents' identity, and the fact that they might not be human at all: he had two horns growing out of his head and scales on his skin, after all. So it was highly possible that at least one of them was some sort of dragon-like creature.
Maybe there was a place, out there, waiting for him, full of people of his own kind... whatever that meant.
He didn't like thinking of the monastery as a cage, it wouldn't have been fair. It was, indeed, his home, and he didn't want to leave it. But, deep down, he just wanted to find himself.
"Hello, brother Kilyan. How are you feeling today?"
The boy, lost in thought, jumped a little bit, as he was brought back to reality.
It took a second to realize the man was talking to him. Kilyan was the name Drest had chosen for himself once he became a monk, but no one really called him by that name, only the other monks did.
"Good morning, brother Herion" he greeted him, cheerful as always, "I'm feeling great. I was just... thinking."
"Thinking about what?" he asked, a genuine curiosity in the tone of his voice.
"You know..." he shrugged " life, and its true meaning: what does it mean to be alive? Is this all we're destined to do, or is there more but we just don't know it yet? You know, normal things we all think about every day. Monk stuff."
Herion couldn't help it: he started laughing quite loudly.
"Yeah, sure... monk stuff."
"What's so funny?" Drest tilted his head in visible confusion.
"Nothing. I like the way you see the world. Like it has in store for you a big, beautiful new surprise each morning. Don't ever lose that" he tapped on the boy's nose with his index finger, turning around and leaving not long after.
The monk's words filled his heart with joy and hope, and he didn't even know why.
Suddenly, a dull, metallic sound: the gate had just been opened, and he knew what that implied.
He stood up immediately, starting to run towards that direction.
"Hey! Good morning!" he yelled, waving his arms in the air.
Her hair was of such a vivid red that anyone would have recognized her even from a mile away.
"Good morning, Elizabeth dear" as he heard one of his elder brothers greeting her, he didn't stop running and waving his arms in order to draw her attention.
She replied to the man with a smile, and then she finally turned to Drest.
"Oh" she giggled "hello, there!"
Her smile could light up a whole room- no, the whole monastery.
"Hi! How are you feeling? How's the city today? What brings you here?" he kept talking and asking questions, hoping that his embarrassment wouldn't be noticed.
"You sure have a lot of questions, don't you?" she looked at him with soft, sweet eyes, not even a hint of malice nor annoyance in her words.
"I'm just... curious" he was definitely blushing "and I really want to know what it's like out there" he pointed at the horizon, where the city was, just down the road that runs along the hill.
"Trust me, you're not missing much" she shook her head "anyway, I was sent here just for a small delivery. One of your elders, I can't remember his name, brother... Heren? Hiron? Oh, gods, it's right here, on the tip of my tongue, and yet I can't seem to remember..." she kept staring at the ground, twisting a strand of hair around her fingers.
"Herion! His name is Herion" the boy muttered.
"Exactly! Thank you! Brother Herion asked us to bring him some more apples, so I just picked some from the tree next to our house and brought them here. Nothing special, really."
"Sounds delicious! So, now what? Are you going back home right away?"
"No, not yet. There's something I have to do, first. Would you mind joining me?" she winked.
"Of course I'll join you, whatever that is!"
She exited the monastery, and kept on walking into the woods. It was not a scary place, though, on the contrary: it was very welcoming and calm.
"This is where I come when I want to spend some time alone" she stopped at a particular tree, which Drest recognized to be an oak.
She proceeded to sit down in its shade, pulling out a couple of books from the basket she always carried around.
"Oh, so there's more than flowers in there!" Drest teased her.
"Yes, but don't tell anyone" she put her finger on her mouth "my father cannot know I'm stealing these books from his library."
"No worries. Your secret is safe with me."
As they were talking, he sat down next to her: his bare feet touched the grass, and he could see all the bugs and the tiny animals of the forest moving, getting closer to them. He observed them and embraced all the life forms that lived on the same planet as him. Just like someone that thought about "monk stuff" would do, without any doubt.
There, in the wild woods, alone with her, he felt whole.
To love and be loved, to immerse oneself in nature, holding hands with the most special person in the world, hoping that, someday, life would be made entirely of this, the purest kind of happiness.
That's the true, deepest meaning of the word Freedom.
