I woke up a little bit confused and still angry about the conversation of the night before. Ashley and I went fishing and collecting water like the previous days. Uram managed to cheer us up. It was incredible. Whatever happened, he could always find something wise to say , laughing and making pranks like a child. He had a beautiful smile, the face of a boy and the wisdom of an old man who had been through rough times. He was a living paradox.

"Can I see your necklace?" asked Ashley.

"Of course my dear" Uram replied.

"Do you have a story for this necklace too?" I asked curiously.

"Well this is about my story" he replied. "I wasn't always like this and once, believe it or not, life was pulling me down and destroyed everything precious in my life. I can explain what happened through a metaphor.

Imagine my life as a field. I was harvesting it and I occupied all my time in preparing the  field so I could live without worrying. That lasted for a good time but then everything changed, when it started hailing. All the harvest of my life was destroyed in a couple of days and I couldn't take it back. This thing drove me crazy and I couldn't understand how, even if I planned everything. You see, the worse curse, is receiving a blessing and don't recognize it. In that moment I received the possibility to change and in the end I understood that the hail that destroyed my entire lie, I mean life,  was the same that once melted into water nourishing new seeds"

This phrase left us a little perplexed and we leaned forward to understand better the rest of the story.

"This is the way I ended up here and once I had nothing, but I gained the most, all thanks to a girl that showed me this way five years ago"

"Uram" said a young beautiful woman approaching.

"From yesterday our nets have been empty and we can't get no fish!"

That woman and other folks practiced a technique used even 2000 years earlier. They put a canoe in the middle of the river and cast the nets. At the same moment other people on the other side started to make noise to scare the fish right towards the little boat. That time this ancient tradition didn't work.

I saw a giant smile on Uram's face. I knew he was up to say something enlightening.

"Well" he said.

"You are not thinking with the mind of a child. You are not looking for the paradox, for something you can't see with your two eyes. Cast the net to the other side of the canoe, to the right side"

The woman nodded and he kissed her forehead putting his hand on her shoulder.

"If you believe only what you see, you blind yourself to the possibility of a new reality"

Later on, the people fishing with nets, had to stop throwing them because of the huge amount of food they caught.

"Where were we?" said Uram with a huge smile.

"You were talking about your harvest" I replied with a smile.

"Oh yes I remember. Now I want to share something very important. I want to teach you something very useful, so, sit comfortably and close your eyes"

We followed his suggestion and taking his example, we crossed our legs and stood with a straight back.

"Start to become aware to the feeling in your body, feel the space around and feel the gravity on your bones.

Focus now on your breath, breathing with the nose or the mouth is either fine. Count an inspiration of four seconds and an expiration of four seconds. Let the air go down into your belly.

Every time a though comes to your mind, just observe it with no judgement and bring back your awareness to your breathing or the sounds around us"

We kept this position for a long time and when we opened our eyes, we felt better and full of energy, still not aware of the the news we would have received.

Suddenly some noise came from the center of the village, even if we were far, we could hear screams of joy that suddenly stopped. We looked at each other faces and Uram said:

"The hunters made it back, let's go celebrating them!"

Once we reached the spot where everyone was gathered, we saw long faces and we understood something bad had happened. I tried to see where Luke was, but there was no sign of him.

"Can you see him?" asked John, looking toward Ashley.

She shook her head. Mara was approaching wearing a white linen dress that seamed following her like a cloud.

A young woman came closer and, with one knee on the ground before her, bowing her head  then whispered something to her ear. Mara, who had a smile on her face, suddenly changed expression and with a movement of her hand obtained the silence of everyone in few seconds. Then she began to speak.

"Today two of our men left this world. The new arrived Luke and our beloved brother and great hunter Koach, who tried to save him but could not make it. The hunt was successful and tonight we will honor our fallen brothers"

"Can't believe this happened again" whispered Ashley with tears falling off her face while Mara was still talking.

I had rage inside of me, so much rage I had to repress all my life. I never felt so disappointed. I had never seen injustice in this way..instead of letting go, that anger took my spirit and I felt so much power that pleased me and cuddled me. I wasn't myself anymore, I breathed deeply and then I walked into the middle of the scene.

"What this is all about? To get us all killed? One by one? I'm tired of your games, tired of your riddles and tired of this forest and these stupid ways! Why did you let our friend die?"

The girl that was next to Mara lift her dark eyes on me and replied with a frozen gaze.

"What do you know about our ways? You have been living with us just a couple of weeks and you dare criticize our values and our rules! You know nothing stranger! And yes, I am responsible of this hunt, I am the one who gave orders!"

"So why did you let my friend die?" I screamed back "How come that a woman is put in charge of this delicate task? Why didn't you do something to avoid that?"

"Scott, here everything is ruled by women, didn't you notice it?" said Mara.

I stood still for a moment, thinking about that and seeing it was true. Tov was always retired while the main rulers were Tiferet and Mara. That woman was the head of the village and the chief of the tribe, she was the one who leaded everybody.

"I taught him everything" said dark eyes.

"I traced a simple path for him to follow but he was too stubborn. He followed the laws of men instead the law of nature. He was obsessed with finding some kind of cure and when we get to a pool of water, he crossed it carelessly. We were waiting for a timber passing on the water to avoid danger. A crocodile was standing by and it grabbed him by the leg. Koach tried to save him but another of those reptiles came by and we lost him too! It wasn't my mistake, it was his thirst of gold that drove him to his own death"

"This is an excuse! This is not the truth! What about the balance and protecting the life all around? Is this balance?" I said as I stepped toward her.

"Don't you dare stranger!" She screamed aiming her bow at me. "You just can't see things clearly because the cycle of life does not encircle only humans,  but animals and plants too! What makes you so important to be better than the life of the wild goat we recently killed or anything else around you. Look better stranger, you may realize the lie printed on your forehead! You are just a pawn in this game like the rest of us"

"That's enough, none of you crossed the board to become one with the light" said Mara firmly. "This is madness, fighting each other when recently some of us went to their sleep, show some respect, the both of you! Since you have still something to learn, I will personally decide the challenge you will submit to because of your behavior. You will have my decision at sunset."

After saying that, she turned around and disappeared between the trees.