Chapter 3: The Coming of Age Ceremony
The sun had risen only slightly since Mith and Ludus were sitting on the beach. Everyone in Rerum knew the sun very well, and when it got to that particular point, about fifteen degrees above the horizon, they knew it was time to get to the center of town. They started arriving at the Elder’s home only minutes later for the ceremony. The only people who weren’t there at that time were Mith and Ludus themselves, but it was tradition for those in which the ceremonies were for to arrive just a little after everyone else.
The townsfolk were all dressed in specific colors that corresponded to their family name. Over thirty different families formed the town of Rerum four hundred years before on an unknown day. As the years past many of the families moved away or died out, leaving only ten families that lasted. Each of these families had a certain color flag that hung in the Elder’s home. The Tinn family’s flag was blue, while the Hardel family flag was orange. The Elder’s all wore black, which was considered to be the color of wisdom and age.
Mith and Ludus paced back and forth along an empty street near the ceremony sight. The familiar dirt roads they currently treaded never felt so unfamiliar. Their minds wasted no time in thinking thoughts that might normally be seen as restricted by the adults of the town. Fear of the anticipated event capped off a ring of emotions that also included nervousness and one simple emotion that Mith and Ludus had no recollection of, anxiety.
Their pacing quickened as the new emotion took over their minds, keeping them from realizing the great joy that should have been felt by two fourteen year olds about to take their first step to becoming adults. As they paced, noises from the ceremony reached their ears. They had heard it before, they had been a part of the noise many times, but now it was different, each noise seemed out of the ordinary to them. The laughing was now bizarre, the talking seemed curiously dark. It was the same talking and laughing that the kids had heard time and time again during these events, although now, it was different to their ears. Several minutes passed before the silence between the children was broken:
“I believe it’s time.” Mith said suddenly to Ludus. Her voice was serene, though she looked quite tense.
Ludus stopped his pacing and glanced at Mith, to him she appeared frantic. He had never seen her anything but composed. “We should probably be getting there then.”
Mith nodded, and together they made their way to the center of town, where the ritual was being held. The short walk to the elder’s home was one Mith and Ludus had taken many times in the last fourteen years, though this time it was different.
Ludus found it hard to walk, his mind racing. He thought of all the things that could go wrong. If he tripped in the crowd, or if he somehow forgot his own name when Maows was to ask for it. He wasn’t sure if he would ever come back if that were to happen, he may just as well find a nice cave to live in somewhere along the way, at least it was better than living with embarrassment all his life.
Mith worried about other things then Ludus. She found it hard to walk also, except her reason was that she was very shy, and being in front of a very large crowd was the only real thing that she was afraid of while growing up in Rerum. Her legs shook violently while she walked. Her hands were clenched as fists, but they too were shaking. To try and fight off the feeling, she did exactly what her dad taught her to do in situations like this one. She took several deep breaths, exhaling slowly. Mr. Hardel told her many times that doing that would calm her down. It worked at first, although once she started thinking about the crowd again, her fear came right back.
In moments Mith and Ludus were standing only feet from the back of the crowd. Being shorter than most of the adults they could not see anything, save for the high stage that had been erected directly in the center of the square. Standing on the stage was Maows, in the middle, and behind him stood the other four elders, every one of them old and regal, but none as old and regal as Maows, himself. They all wore magnificent robes, colored in the elder colors, black, gold, and silver. The four elders behind Maows wore gold or silver robes, depending on their choosing, each having scenes from their jobs as elders embellished in thin lines of black thread that resided on their backs, wrapping around their entire robes. Maows wore black robes with a huge songbird, made of gold thread wrapping its way around his robes.
Mith and Ludus stood, pondering what to do, in the back of the crowd when, suddenly, Maows’s voice boomed over the crowd of spectators. He may have been old, but his voice carried very far.
“They are here.” He bellowed, spreading his arms wide and turning his head in all directions so as to see everyone.
All the faces in the crowd swiftly began looking all around to see where Mith and Ludus were. Finally they spotted them on the south side of town square, directly outside of the massed huddle of people. Clapping started gradually, and then exploded into applause all around. All eyes were now focused on them. Mith found herself feeling nauseous, while Ludus’s attitude completely changed. One moment he was scared of embarrassing himself, and then, as soon as the eyes were glued to him, he became fearless, the center of attention and loving it.
“Clarin, would you please escort the young ones up to the stage.” Maows said to one of the elders behind him.
Clarin was currently the only female elder. Her main job as elder was to instruct the children of Rerum. She took her job seriously, never missing an opportunity to teach outside of the classroom. Considered the smartest in the entire Bay Region, she strove to keep the children studying, learning, and not causing trouble.
Clarin nodded to Maows and started down the stairs into the crowd. A great tree shone brightly in black on the back of her robes. She was of slightly below average height for a woman of her age, and most could only see her short, curly, salt and pepper hair as she moved fluidly through the crowd toward Mith and Ludus. The crowd parted for her, she reached the edge in seconds. Once with Mith and Ludus she bent slightly to be in eye line with them. The crowd abruptly became silent.
“Are you ready?” she inquired gently, her voice soothing.
Mith and Ludus glanced at each other, nodded, then looked at Clarin, and nodded.
“Great, after you then.” She stood up straight, and extended an arm, motioning for them to go on ahead of her through the still parted crowd of onlookers.
The kids moved into the throng of citizens. Ludus walked slowly, gazing upward into the faces of those watching them. He felt stronger than ever, though he kept it inside. Mith found it hard to look into their faces; instead she stared straight ahead, to the stage they were heading toward. Clarin moved leisurely behind the children. A constant warm smile shone brightly on her kind face.
Mith and Ludus crept up the stairs onto the stage and slowly turned around to face the entire town. Clarin took her place once again with the other elders. Mith’s senses became dull when she saw the size of the crowd. She was entranced, her eyes grew large, and she couldn’t remove them from all those who stared intently at her. Ludus soaked in all the glory of being in front of the biggest crowd he had ever seen, he was certain it was a bigger turnout then with any other ceremony.
“Now that we have the journeyers we can begin the two hundred forty fifth Coming of Age Ceremony in the town of Rerum, in the region of the Parli Bay, on the great island of Parli.” Cheers erupted once again from the crowd, but even with the noise, Mith was not awakened from her trance. “I now call on the two we are here to see. Please present yourselves to the town.” He nodded to Ludus who knew exactly what to say.
“I, Ludus Tinn, am ready to begin my journey to adulthood.” He announced to the crowd, who once again was quiet. “I will protect my family’s name and the name of the town of Rerum in my quest to find strength and wisdom for the future.” As he finished the mass of people began clapping.
“Wonderful, just wonderful Ludus.” Maows shouted so everyone in the applauding audience could hear. Ludus smiled broadly and took a step back
, leaving Mith and Maows alone to face the mass.
“Your turn.” He whispered to Mith. She snapped out of her trance and looked up to Maows, who nodded at her to begin. She looked back at the horde of people staring at her. She tried to talk, but she could barely open her mouth.
“I. . . I . . .” She stammered.
“Louder.” Maows whispered.
“I, Mith Hardel,” she said, still rather quietly, “am ready to begin my journey to adulthood. I will protect my family’s name and the name of the town of Rerum, in my quest to find strength and wisdom for the future.” The clapping began again, but Mith believed that it was not anywhere near as loud as it was for Ludus. She scanned the audience, and finally found her father near the front, only yards away from her. He was beaming at her, clapping vigorously. Mith could not remember if she had ever seen him that happy, even when her mother was alive. She became embarrassed and took a much larger step back then Ludus had.
“As you all know,” Maows started, “I will know take the fourteen year olds into the elder hut where I will tell them what to expect on their journey.” The crowd exploded once again with applause. Maows then turned and led the children past the other elders, who spoke words of encouragement as they past, and led them down the stairs, and straight into the Elder’s Home, which was directly behind the stage. This was the first time that Mith and Ludus had entered the home. A smell of leather and age entered their noses as they crossed the threshold. The last elder in closed the door behind them. The world was suddenly quiet; the crowd noise was completely shut off.
The hut was bigger than it looked from the outside. It consisted of two rooms, the main chamber, which they were in now, that had five small chairs, one for each elder. This room was used for town meetings between the elders. The other room in the hut, which Mith and Ludus could not see due to a carpet concealing the entrance to it, was the sleeping chamber where Maows slept every night, the other elders still slept in their own personal huts around town. Once inside, Maows put one arm around Mith’s left shoulder and another on Ludus’s right shoulder, and then told them what they had been waiting to hear their entire lives.
“This is the elder’s home, a place which most are unable to see but once in their life, unless they get chosen to be elder’s. That one time, is now. As you already know, you will be traveling outside of our great region. Now, what you did not know, at least until last night, is that you will be traveling through the Rough into the Merchant Region.” He paused to catch his breath; he was tired from all the yelling. The children looked to each other nervously, then back to Maows. “Once there, you will immediately return, going again, through the Rough.” Maows took his arms off of their shoulders, then walked over to one of the five chairs, and sat down. Once he sat down, the other elders took their seats around him.
Ludus’s hands tingled when he looked around the small hut. This was the most sacred place in all of Rerum, and as far as Ludus knew, all of Parli. His mind wandered to all of the people who had been in there before, all the fourteen year olds like himself and Mith and all of the previous elders who had resided there. Mith on the other hand was not so impressed, she liked being there, but she did not see it as a magical place like Ludus did. Her father had told her of many other places on the island that were of greater importance. She glanced around timidly, admiringly, but that was about all.
“Any questions?” Maows asked.
Mith was the first to speak; she had regained her normal fearless attitude now that she was not in front of a large crowd. “Is that it, sir? Is that all we need to do to become adults? Not that I’m complaining, but, I always thought we would have to battle something. Prove our worth, just in case any enemies came here.”
Maows looked at the kids, bewildered. “Battle? There are no battles; peace is the answer to all problems. That is what we taught you, is it not?”
“It is sir.” interjected Ludus.
“Then why would we make you battle anything? We believe in peace here, you both know that.”
“But sir,” Mith was getting eager now, “Ludus and I both thought that adults had to be strong.”
Maows sighed deeply, nodding his head in understanding. “I get it now. You both thought that since adults are older, and appear stronger, they must have had to battle something in their past.” The children both nodded, “Well, let me tell you something. They are strong mentally, and that is all you need in this town of peace. There are no enemies; there are only problems that the mind needs to solve. Do you understand?”
Mith and Ludus looked to each other; both having a look of confusion on their faces. They had heard all their lives that peace always triumphed over violence; that anyone who believed differently would be sent to the great black stone in the bay.
“This journey is not to have you grow physically, time will do that. It is to have you grow mentally.”
“If there are no enemies, then why do we still hear stories of the great black rock? The same black rock that you taught us had powers to destroy violent tendencies in those who wish to harm others?”
Maows looked to Allard, one of the other elders, to answer the question. Allard was the second oldest of the elders, he was the tallest of the citizens in Rerum, and despite his age, the strongest. He had unusually hard features that made it look as if he had seen many things in his life before becoming an elder. His eyes showed a constant, almost angered look to them. His robes had a big, tall rock on the back, which looked eerily like the great black rock that the conversation currently was held around.
“The rock is exactly how you describe it.” He said in an unnaturally raspy voice. Mith and Ludus both jumped, they had never heard Allard speak before, he was usually the silent one, always in the back. “But I assure you that its use is much exaggerated in the present day. It has not been used because it does not need to be used, because there are no more enemies in this great land.” Allard had only one emotion in his voice, impatience.
Mith looked straight into Allard’s cold eyes disbelievingly, her father had taught her better than to believe that there was no one in all of Parli that wanted to hurt them. “But my dad says that—”
“Your father is not from this town, therefore his methods are wrong.” Allard interrupted.
Mith jumped forward, she was known to have a hot head, though no one expected her to lose her cool in the presence of the elders.
“Excuse me.” She almost shouted at Allard, “You cannot talk about my father like that. He’s twice the . . . anything you could ever be.”
“Mith Hardel!” Maows roared. He raised himself halfway up, hands clenched tightly on the arms of his wooden chair.
The room was suddenly silent; nobody had ever seen Maows so angry. Face red, eyes bulging, he would of looked comical in any other venue. The remaining three elders who were not involved looked as if they were trying to push their chairs as far away from the scene as they could. That added an even more ominous tone to the room.
“Allard, would you please sit down.” Maows asked trying to remain calm, he had now sat back down himself, and his hands were still clenching the arms of his chair very tightly. Allard did not take his cold dead eyes off of Mith as he edged himself back and sat down in his chair. Mith also continued to stare at her new adversary, though she was now deeply embarrassed and scared.
“Now then, we are here for happy purposes, and I will not tolerate this kind of rude and selfish behavior in my town, least of all in this sacred house.” Maows looked to Allard with an expression that seemed to say: “See, this is why I do not let you talk.” Maows then looked to Mith with a much different expression. This one was much nicer and reassuring. After what seemed like hours to Mith, Maows took his hands off of his chair and set them in his lap, evidently trying to forget the whole mess. Maows now turned his attention to Ludus, who had been watching eagerly at the unprecedented event which just took place before him.
“Young Ludus, do you understan
d what I was trying to say about growing mentally.” Maows asked Ludus, his voice returning to its original tone.
Ludus stared at Maows, for a moment he had completely forgotten what Maows had been saying. Then, after remembering, answered, “Oh yes sir, I do.”
Maows clapped his hands together, “Very good, Ludus.” Then to the rest, “I expect that that concludes our little meeting here, Clarin, would you and the other elders take Mith and Ludus here to the edge of town so that they may begin their journey to adulthood.”
“Absolutely, sir.” Clarin answered. The other elders then stood up, replaced their chairs back to their original positions, and led Mith and Ludus out of the hut. Mith made sure to look at Allard one last time before exiting the hut.
As Allard began to walk to the door of the hut, behind the other elders who were escorting Mith and Ludus, Maows caught his arm.
“Not quite yet, Allard, I need a word with you.” Maows said, smiling. He continued to smile until the last elder shut the door behind them. Then, as fast as light itself, the smile turned to a menacing glare, which no one but Allard was left to see.