Sounds of hungry wolves echoed through the semi-mountainous terrain as the beautiful sun rises, revealing the lush green vegetation of Ockstein and its beautiful scenery on that faithful Monday morning. It was, supposedly, every normal dull morning with the animals slowly moving across the great plain adjacent to my village, along with those magnificent colourful macaws flying out to catch their next meal and, of course, the beginning of the busy provincial routine in which everyone in town was accustomed to. The farmers had already gone out to tend their fields and cattle and it was extremely rare to find one still half-a-sleep in bed, but then again Benbolios have always lived like that. He was a close friend of mine whose profession was actually star-gazing, he would never let a single night passed by without updating his night's sky journal. Despite all of that, he managed to get up fairly on time to work on his landlords property who secretly enjoys his villein's queer interest. Right next to the rather large farm were the crafts men with their trade and workshop ready for smelting and moulding precious minerals that the monks and the miners provided. Now you may think miners were the only one capable of finding those objects, however, monks such as myself are exceptionally good at it which made some of the miners quite envious of our unique ability, so much that they can't even stand the thought of us stealing their jobs and probably the worst of them were Paxliax and Rosencratz who would constantly go looking for brawls with us to get even. In reality, we seldom supply the crafts men so as to not put then out of business, only when it is too treacherous for the miners to obtain should we intervene.
I was taking my daily walk in the Temple Garden - meditating, when a visitor came through the crimson arched gate. She was not from here, nor anywhere near Ockstein for her skin was too light and fair for this climate, her attire was a badge desert suit with golden buttons and a pair of grey sandals topped off with a brown fedora. As I calmly stroll towards her to greet, I noticed some strands of pure red hair hanging over her head which gave the finishing touch to an incredible sight.
"Welcome the Temple of Nowhere visitor" said I,
"Thank you master, I did not expect any one waiting for my arrival" she answered politely with a little amiable smile. I was surprised a bit, I was only an apprentice under the guidance of a master.
"I believe you must have mistaken me for master Qom, I am his apprentice, are you expected?" I inquired the red-headed lady,
"No not really, sir, but I am Zarina and I have traveled a great deal to learn from your master" she spoke with a slightly rough tone. I motioned her to join me in my walk through the Garden.
"Then you have come to the right place, my master's temple is opened for anyone who wishes to learn and understand the essence of life and it's creatures , but..." I paused, looking over Zarina, she was admiring the delicate beauty of the simple light-coloured flowers in their seasons. Having noticed the absence of my voice, she turned her head to mine and said shyly:
"I'm sorry sir, I didn't mean to be rude but those flowers, they reminded me of something long ago"
"Don't fret sister, you were not rude at all, as I was saying there's a price"
"A price?"
"Yes, shall we go inside? My master will explain the details in a moment."