Chapter 8: THE TRUE LEADER
I woke up with a headache. My eyes burned with the intensity of light that entered my eyes. Last night had been one of the tangiest nights that I ever felt. I had my doubts if I could work in a good pace today. This was nothing new to me but continuous nights like this have really messed up my body.
The bark is planned to hang in the room where I teach them about language. While they have gained the basics of spoken language its necessary for them to learn about written language.
A good 6 months have passed on, and if my calculations were correct, I would turn 21 very soon, or maybe I already did. Anyway, it filled my body with awkwardness whenever I was assigned with taking a decision for the whole village.
Sure, I have been doing it for them like a year or so, and it grew on a more comfortable space in my heart, but the terror that someone more muscular in the tribe would stand against my idea scared me, not because I was afraid of steeping down from the leader position but because the new appointed leader can have his dictatorial way with anyone, specially if he turns out to be a bad one.
Well, I don't think I have to worry about the revolution right now. Majority of the population were female and children, as most of the male were killed by the barbarians but the women and kids were taken as prisoners. Due to this I had to allow polygamy (although they decided that for themselves).
I walked out of my room, not to my surprise the sun was already high up, and what awaited me was apart from the summer sun was the group of young kids. I knew what they are here for and opened my doors to let them in.
"I am so sorry for waking up late. Anyway, get in." I announced.
Earlier I had decided to teach them after dinner language after dinner, but those sleepy eyes would rather dream their nightmares than see me teach. The adults were good enough to chat in English now, but what I targeted the most were the kids which could master the language better than anyone else.
So, after breakfast I would give them a new lesson on language. They were quite proficient now in speaking, so much that after I teach them writing skills, I could move on to math's. This however would be only possible if I had more than 24 hours in a day.
As they sat for the lesson, I had planned to show them what was the reason I woke up late today. I pulled out the thin but wide bark. There wasn't the excitement in their eyes as I expected it to be.
"What's that?" a girl pointed to the symbols carved in the bark.
"This is the thing that would change our knowledge forever." I announced. Everyone's eye now sparked and their head turned towards me. "If we know something that only we know, how are we supposed to share it with someone else if we are not present with them in the moment." The kids fell back to their thoughts and trying their best to get an answer for my question.
"Can't we share them by using drawings and symbols?" someone answered.
"Sure, we can, we share ideas with symbols, in fact these things in the bark are symbols in itself. But… how can you be sure that the person reading the symbols would get the same knowledge you want to share."
The silence marked the situation that no one knew the answer to that. I smirked, "We can be sure that our understanding can be passed to other people by using these symbols."
"But teacher, how are these symbols different than other symbols? Also, I cannot find the symbols resembling to anything." The same girl questioned. I was delighted to hear the question.
"You see these symbols by themselves doesn't mean anything they just carry sounds but once you combine the symbols thereby combining the sounds you can interpret the meaning by the sounds." The kids now had a serious look on their face and an unhinged focus attached to me. "This is the alphabet, the first step to writing skills, a way to transfer your ideas to the whole world while living here"
Throughout history, anything's that's not recorded has been destroyed and the ancient people knew it therefore they wrote and the written have been a foundation to where our society falls. I must teach the kids this, for if I ever succumb to a disease, at least I will be able to transfer them the knowledge I have.
"So, tell me, who is ready to learn the alphabets?!" I shouted.
"Me!" they stated in unison.
"Who is ready to learn the alphabets?!" I repeated.
Before the kids could answer, someone slammed the door and entered in a flash. It was Tahari, now if I were to observe I would say that he has gained a lot of weight, not in a bad way, his shoulders expand broadly, and his back appears massive. Perhaps he was always like this, he just needed the right nutrition.
"Sorry Sir, we need you right now." Tahari spoke in a tensed voice.
"What happened?"
"One of the family was asking for new lands to farm as they just had a new born. They wanted you to announce your decision on it."
This has been turning hectic for me. Bureaucracy has never been interesting to me and to top on that I was a leader of the tribe which means that I had to act as a justice system which took most of his time and energy. I gave it a lot of thought for the past few weeks and now made a decision on what to do about this, and today seemed a good day to do it.
"Tell them I am coming." I replied to Tahari, after which I turned to the kids. "After, I come back we will learn more about the alphabets."
I knew that if I were to be the leader for the rest of my life, I would never amount to something big. I remember my goal, and it wasn't easy to re-invent almost everything from the modern world to this stone age, but my resolution was strong and I must do it, and today I had a plan to do it.
After the announcement Tahari and I walked out of the announcement tent. The task took more time than I had planned. While Tahari walked, he had the confident face and posture and his body only amplified this persona.
I turned to him, and asked, "Say, Tahari, can you do a task for me?"
"I will try my best to complete it sir."
"Then tell everyone that I am announcing something very important so everyone should be gathered in near the announcement tent."
"I can do that."
"Also, if I have any work postpone it for tomorrow."
"Okay sir."
"And wear something grand tonight." Tahari looked confused but didn't mind to question it as he just replied with-
"Yes sir."
"Last thing, don't call me sir, Joy is fine you know?"
"Yes si-… yes." A funny look came over his face and I couldn't help but smile.
For the next few hours, I taught the kids the alphabets and thought their excitement drowned as they were asked to memorize the alphabets with their sounds. Then I was off to my study room while the kids were off to help their parents.
Thought I taught the adults the basics of language to adults it was mostly with the interaction with their kids which made them improve. I have already made the system sustainable enough for them live their life without any major problems. If I wanted, I could rest now, marry and live a normal life.
Haha, as if, the day I stepped out of the broken time machine I was knowledgeable of my pathetic state, now that I am here, is this where I would stop, even if I know what I must do. No, I will grow with this society and bring the modern times now, I will be the god of this new world, providing with knowledge from every fields.
I went into a deep state thinking about my goals and formulating my plans when after several hours there was a knock on my doors. When I opened there stood before me the wide shouldered Tahari and with the clean dress, he looked elegant, though it was just pant made from the leather and a bright cloak over his upper body he looked really intimidating.
I walked out of the house and stood at the middle of announcement tent, everyone was there, there were slight mumbles and the cries of the newborns but I cleared my throat and soon the mumbles stopped.
"I thank you for gathering her, all of you. For more than year or so it has been nothing but pleasure to be your leader and help you. It would be not wrong to say that you all have helped me more than I did. I remember how we fought the cold winter off and how we planted our first crops of springs."
A prideful smile rose over their faces, people have started to mumble back but this time these mumbles were more enthusiastic.
"I believe we still have a long way to go together, so I won't be leaving you anytime soon." People cheered over this statement and few even whistled a tune. "But I believe that I am incompetent to be your leader." This killed the excitement everyone fell silent.
"A leader is required to be strong and of a good heart to care for this people. I may want good of you, but I am no strong man. There are many qualities that I don't stand nicely at, rather there are other people that succeed better than me in this. So, I have decided to step down from the leader seat."
There was a collective gasp among people and this time the mumbles were at their highest.
"But! This doesn't mean I will step down from the tribe as a whole. I will elect the new leader and I will be hand of the leader's seat; I will decide who will sit and who will not. I would act for the betterment just not as a leader but something I am better at."
The concerned look was evaporating from their faces and there came a gradual look of acceptance.
"Now I will name the next leader." With this the whole crowd had their eyes locked on me and I took my sweet time to reveal the name. I turned to my left side and face him who was standing nearest to me. "The next leader should be Tahari."
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a/n: I am so sorry for writing the next chapter so late. Recently due to personal reasons I had lost all motivations and when I finally gained the motivation back by reading some of the comments, I started to write again but alas the exam were on the head. So on these mean times I studies for my exams but I also worked on the plot and did things to improve my writings. Hope you all like it.
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