Dire Wolf

Chapter 4

"Oh, so you are Mr. Keenan Loussier."

I nodded and smiled at a middle-aged woman who just arrived in our classroom carrying a rather large and expensive-looking bag on her shoulders.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Well, I am Lina Peregrine. I teach History in case you forgot what class you are in right now if you are a slow kind of student," she said rather snidely, but I didn't bother getting riled up when I just realized who this woman is in front of Surt and me.

"Lady Lina Peregrine of the Democratic Empire of Scania's History Commission..."

She nodded at me quickly and raised an eyebrow, "I never thought someone from the kingdom will recognize who I am. But then again, with that pale white skin of yours, clearly you are not a Kalalitan. A Scanian like me?"

"In a manner of speaking, Ms. Peregrine," I answered dodgily that made her raise her eyebrows even more, but thankfully she decided not to pursue the matter anymore.

Surt, however, seemed oblivious of our suspicious exchange and looked positively excited to start the class, "Ms. Peregrine, I thought I will be the only one who will study under your tutelage. Thankfully, I managed to beg Keenan here to pick your course when he transferred here last week."

"Well, that's nice to hear, Mr. Shimizu. You are a wonderful student who always diligently listens and absorb what I have to say," she said kindly before grinning in my direction meaningfully, "However, your lone classmate in this subject here seemed less interested in History himself. Tell me why you are giving me a dismissive look, Mr. Loussier?"

As expected from a world-renowned scholar and educator who had taught countless students from the lower, middle, and upper crust of society, she recognized quite quickly my aversion to her subject right off the bat.

"While I personally have no problems in History itself, I just can't help but wonder as I studied the books for your subject, why are there mythologies and legends. When discussing our recorded past, we will be dealing with hard facts, evidence, and legitimate proofs about the time though long forgotten. The way I look at this book, it is more than eighty percent figment of imaginations rather than findings based on reality," I answered disdainfully as I looked at the book on top of my desk titled "The Storied Past of the Tierra, the Beginning," in disgust.

The teacher leaned in front of the teacher's table in front of us, her only two students in this class, and sighed a little before saying something that will evoke the wildest of my imagination.

"History became legends, legends to myths, myths to memories long forgotten," she said quietly and smiled at Surt, "A student of mine told me that a long, long, time ago. That one was really the master of History. I can go far as to say that he is "the" embodiment of History itself."

My friend inclined his head curiously, "Was?"

"He is no longer with us, Mr. Shimizu. He became a legend, then his legend became a myth. Now, he is already long forgotten."

"You still remember him, Ms. Peregrine," I pointed out casually that made her laugh a little and nodded, "But you speak as if he is from hundreds of years ago. Surely you can't be that old?"

I said that in jest, but clearly, she is offended by the "old" word as her eyebrows raised high once more.

"I am young, Mr. Loussier. Forever, eternally youthful and vibrant," she said that as if that's something so honest and authentic, "Existing, never dying, continuous and everlasting. Not that different from the History of this world. Not so different from the memories that some of us are forced to remember for eternity."

She then pointed at the book that I am holding right now, "I can tell just by looking that you are rather well-versed with the ancient lore of our world as we know it. Tell me, what do the people of science tell us regarding the ancient history of our world?"

I stood up and recited what I have read last weekend from the book.

"Scholars and scientists from the empire, kingdom, dukedom, and republic have a different interpretation of how our current era came to be. While they do agree with the myth that cataclysmic events happened in the past, as geological findings reveal, it happened not just thousands of years ago but more likely several millennia at a minimum. They said that there might be a social and political upheaval that happened after the catastrophe that results in the breakdown of the political and social structure of Gearth. The land which is composed of Maharlika today is the geographical center of Tierra, and most of the surviving population stayed there for unknown reasons. That decision may be what enables life to survive. The forefathers and mothers decided to forget the painful memories and decided to pick up the pieces of their ruined civilization and start from the very beginning again. Much of the technology that we are using today are excavated from the ruined sites scattered in Gearth, and the empire is the nation that builds upon the pieces of machinery found more than the other countries..."

Our teacher nodded and ordered me to take a seat before looking at my friend, who is positively excited about our topic for today, "Thank you, Mr. Loussier, now, let's hear from Mr. Shimizu here what the myths told us on the contrary?"

"According to ancient excavated scriptures and records, a continent in Gearth named Tierra once existed. As stated by the surviving records, folktales, and oral stories, it was a world full of magic and the time when deities walked with mortals whose names are now all but forgotten. It was said to be when the world was at its second golden age where mortals knew no strife or sorrow. At the height of this magnificent civilization, the gods and goddesses decided to uplift the mortals to an eternal plane to enjoy their golden age, always side by side with the immortals. That was when the world experienced great upheaval due to the absence of the powers that once supported it. The great continent split into four and what remains of the great civilization are nothing but rubble, strewn scrolls, and buildings not far from what he has today. When the land and seas calmed down, three continents appeared, and at the center of it formed a group of islands where the founding fathers and mothers of the present humans appeared from the eternal plane and repopulated the Gearth. They only remembered that they were chosen to start life anew in the desolate world and the new era of mankind without gods and goddesses. An age of new beginnings and dreams. They lost much of the technologies used by their predecessors, and they were merely picking up the pieces of tools and knowledge from the ruins that survived the cataclysm. That is the reason why our people are advanced compared to their supposed years of existence. Why we have written and oral skills from out of nothing. Until now, the Gearthans still come across odd finds from archeological dig sites and surprisingly from the backyards of homes in the countryside. Types of machinery and gizmos that are far advanced our technological capabilities that cannot be reproduced even that of the empire which became the forefront of cutting edge discoveries because of their focus on intellectual advancements."

Ms. Peregrine smiled kindly at him and nodded, "Spoken like a native Ogawaran, Mr. Shimizu."

"That was what I learned from Chief Ren Ogawa himself when I was a kid. He told me that he heard it from his predecessor on his dying breath," Surt answered nostalgically that made his eyes glaze over dreamily as he remembers the past, "It is said that it is a secret knowledge kept by the Ogawa Clan for so long and the time has finally come for it to be shared to the world now that an everlasting peace between the four nations has been established under the Pax."

I cleared my throat meaningfully to get their attention as I shook my head slowly in disbelief, "Forgive me for being rather blunt, but it sounds like it is nothing more than a perversion of what has been scientifically established centuries ago by scientists."

"The scientists themselves have conceded that the Ogawaran secret that has been passed down from one chief to his successor was older than the scientific findings themselves. If there is someone perverting something here, it's the theories based on archeological findings of the learned few, over the knowledge of the oldest family in this world of ours whose lineage has been genetically traced back at least a few thousands of years ago in a seemingly neverending procession of successors after successors of Ogawas," she then gave me a scientific magazine from Riksent about the recent conclusion of a decade's worth of extensive research about the lineage of the Ogawa Clan.

Surt nodded quickly and grabbed the magazine from my hands after I finished reading the front page, "They said that we, natives of the Ogawarans, are really from Maharlika and that we are all descendants of an ancient President before the cataclysm."

"To think that that idiotic student of mine is a progenitor of an entire province himself is absolutely ridiculous. Well, it is also the son of the queen that I am talking about here. You know what they say about birds and all that," our teacher said to herself quietly before noticing our curious look and shaking her head quickly, "Don't mind me, I am just remembering a passage from a novel that I am reading. Anyways, that's how our present world came to be, according to science and myth. Which one do you believe?"

"The myth, of course!"

I just looked at my friend incredulously when he said that as if not even thinking at all, "What? You will rely on mere bedtime stories for facts? At least science is a knowledge of past events that are studied, tested and proven beyond doubt."

"Indeed, science is based on hard evidence and findings," Ms. Peregrine said in agreement but followed it up with a damning question that I will not be able to answer, "But what if there is no evidence to be found? No findings to be made and science has reached its known limits? How can we explain the things we want to know the origins but failed to gather enough information about it. Tell me, with the declassification recently of Riksentian Military Papers, where the heck did the grand duke of old found the blueprints for the artillery he used as a basis for the mainstay weapons of the dukedom? The catapult system of the empire's carriers or the launch systems of the kingdom's rockets? All the military scientists admitted that they are merely reverse-engineering the machinery they dug out of some relics site and up until now, cannot find any mechanics as to how they work, where they came from, and who made them in the first place. With science failing to provide evidence and findings, where will we look to find a reasonable explanation about the things and happenings that we don't know?"

My friend nodded repeatedly and quickly in agreement, "When science ends, the mystery begins. That's what Chief Ogawa always said when I was young. Logic and a fact-based approach to history are needed when you want to chronologically establish a framework of what happened in the past. However, when writing, literacy, evidence, and facts are not present to provide knowledge; stories, tales, and traditions embedded in oral traditions passed down from the old to the young will constitute everything that we know about the unknown past and what leads up to where we are today."

Ms. Peregrine nodded and looked at me rather kindly as if we are not in a heated educational debate earlier, "As you can see, this is the reason why it is only Mr. Shimizu is the only student left in my class, Mr. Loussier."

"The only student left?" I asked in confusion that made the two nod sadly, "You mean to say there are more students before here?"

"Yes. On my first day of teaching this major subject here, this room is filled to the brim with children. However, when they realized that we will not be dealing with the hard facts and logic, they all opted out of the course when I told them that they can just go to the Applied Sciences majors instead if," she said dismissively as if she doesn't care a bit at all, "The same thing I will be telling you. We will not be studying here the things that you can learn from other major and minor subjects. If you want to base and limit your knowledge based on what is already known and accepted by the "learned" society, then, by all means, you are free to leave my class right now and select one of the other many mundane subjects instead. You will not be the first one to do so."

I just looked at her seriously and inclined my head, "And if I stay, what will I learn from you?"

"The truth, Mr. Loussier," she answered simply that made Surt grin excitedly.

"The truth..."

She nodded slowly as she returned to her seat and looked at me knowingly, "Yes, the truth. The truth about the parts of our history that cannot be explained by mere mortals. The truth about where we all came from and where we will be going. The truth about the mythic past of Gearth and its undeniable connection to the present. The truth about the recent curious events that are happening all across the Plurinational Alliance Nations right now as we speak. The truth about the military spending of the four nations even though there are no enemies left to be defeated. The truth about the things you yourself cannot explain."

I gulped when I heard what she last said.

The truth about the things I myself cannot explain.

Suddenly, I remembered the cryptic words my father, my elder cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents used to tell me when I was a kid.

That our family will finally be fulfilling a covenant agreed upon before the dawn of recent history. 

That we are more than a mere cadet branch of the House Faulken.

The luxury, the excesses, the abundant life our house has experienced since the start of the recorded history will all come to an end, and that I will be the beginning of everything for us all.

They all told me that back when I was just starting in primary school and everything that they said came to pass.

Everything, even their lives ended as they foretold but what did they mean when they told me that I am the beginning of everything for them.

"My child, my beloved son, you are something more than we will ever be. Your mother promised us that you will and we know that in the end, you will be our representative at the beginning of a new world that we will never see..."

"So, Mr. Loussier, are you in?"

I blinked and looked at my friend who is nodding encouragingly at me and then to our teacher who is staring at me expectantly.

"I'm in..."