The Legend Of Artill

When the group of joyful villagers arrived at Artill's home, the celebration began right there and then. News of the celebration traveled quickly throughout the village and people gathered from all over the town, bringing homebrewed beverages and freshly made plates of food, so much was passed around in such a sudden pace.

Artill was the center of attention, receiving many libations and servings of delicacies. Artill, sitting on a chair, had a table full of refreshments just waiting to be gobbled up. He stared at all the food and his stomach surprised him with a rumbling noise. Everyone around him laughed at the typical sign of a hungry boy.

At first some were skeptical of the young boy, but many had come to see that he was like them; hungry, in need of care, and thankful for his support. The ones who were still too scared or fearful of him soon loosened up around him through some alcoholic persuasion. During these affairs how could one not enjoy themselves and who would miss a large gathering at such a small town?

Artill had his hands full as he suddenly felt a sensation of starvation, eating and drinking as if his body had been famished enough to clear a table. His parents had made sure to pass him more than enough to last and after that they participated in the lively rejoicing, leaving Artill to gorge himself.

After finishing the seemingly endless table of food, Artill began to re-familiarize himself with the other villagers. Through the interactions between himself, the inebriated villagers and energetic children he successfully instilled them with pleasant impressions, instead of fearful ones.

After a few hours of amus.e.m.e.nt, everyone at the party was praising Artill's return, while drinking and stumbling around in glee. Almost all of the a.d.u.l.t villagers were drunk, while the children were hyper and energetic from their sugary drinks. The time of the party had already rapidly approached midnight.

The guests of the party were parading around still shouting out many words, but most of them were intelligible or gibberish. Due to the excessiveness of the festivities Artill was a little overwhelmed, so he decided to slip away, which allowed him some alone time to reminisce in his home.

Artill navigated himself to his old room. When he opened the creaky door to his room memories gushed out from his mind, it was as if he had never left. His bed was in the corner of the room, a chair and desk adjacent to the bed, a row of bookcases against the other wall, with a countless number of books populating the shelves, and in the remaining corner next to the bookcase was his wardrobe of clothes.

He lied down on the bed and looked to his bedroom ceiling, which resembled the night sky. When he looked at the ceiling of the bedroom, he felt mesmerized, staring at the dark sky with bright dots of white illuminating the mural.

He reached his hand out towards the picture, wanting to touch the stars, yet all he felt was air. The previous Artill would do this almost every night, wanting to explore further than what his body had permitted him to. As the current Artill stared at the painting, he began to think about his current situation.

The previous Artill was well-read. It was obvious from his room's layout with the enormous collection of books. He knew there were very few books on fantasy or fiction, as the majority of the books were educational. Much of the literature was well preserved and looked like they were brand new.

The previous Artill had nearly read all the books in his possession twice over. Since the previous Artill had a debilitating disease, that weakened his body, all his time was spent obtaining knowledge. The motto his mother had instilled in him was "Knowledge is the key to success".

At the very least that knowledge now benefitted the current Artill, who had inherited all of the previous Artill's memory. This greatly benefitted the current Artill as he had access to a trove of information and literary skills; proficiency in the common language of Gadrann, a detailed recollection of Gadrann history, basic insight of the common knowledge of the world and many other things.

The current Artill contained all this knowledge in his brain, but it was like a library, having to laboriously search for the information in order to use it, like needing to find a book and then trying to turn to the right page in the book. Basically, if Artill tries to draw upon his wealth of knowledge, in his long-term memory storage, it would take time, but he would remember its contents.

Artill then began to think of himself in a different way, he was Artill, and yet he was also not Artill. The current Artill then had an epiphany, he realized that because he himself had no memories, his current actions were dictated by the memories he had accepted, the previous Artill's.

Since the current Artill had merged with him, not only were his memories taken, but his personality, feelings and judgement as well. Since the current Artill had no other internal influences guiding him, the main source of intuition and understanding was from the previous Artill's own experiences.

The current Artill then thought that if he were to develop his own mindset and way of life, then he might be able to separate between himself and Artill.

When these thoughts of self-realization had occurred in his mind, he began to try and compartmentalize Artill from his actual self. Although, he was unable to do this because the problem was that he still could not recollect any memories of anything before his meeting with the previous Artill.

He became greatly frustrated that he had so little control over himself and began to think if the previous Artill had made the deal with the intention to manipulate him. It was as if they he had a tiny voice in his head commanding him to behave in a certain way, but had very little resistance to disobey it. He grabbed his head in pain and rolled around in his bed. He then declared a statement with passionate determination.

"I am myself. Artill may be a large part of me, but I am still me. I will become me. I will reclaim myself."

Artill then understood what he had to do. He would develop himself and experience new things. Maybe he could remember something about himself or maybe he could develop a personality other than Artill and maybe he could even get rid of the shadow of the previous Artill. He would do what the other Artill could not, to explore the world and find himself.

While he was pondering his thoughts of self-liberation, his parents stumbled their way into his room. Both had obviously indulged a little too much and drunkenly walked to Artill. They collapsed onto his bed and fell unconscious. In the first few seconds of their sleepy, drunken stupor, they both said,

"Artill… you're back."

Artill had been smothered by them, but did not try to move away. It was a comfort that felt normal. Artill then recalled the promise he made with the previous Artill. The promise was to take care of Artill's parents, but in what exact way? When the previous Artill was in spirit form, he had watched his parent's daily lives for years. Although they grieved and became depressed, after the first few years of the heartache they gradually became numb to the sadness from Artill's death.

His parents distracted themselves with other projects, like work and helping the community, but had never forgot about Artill. They visited his grave at least once a year on his birthday and talked about their daily lives, while cleaning his grave. His parents had never really moved on, but were living their lives as best as they could. Although they were often riddled with misery from Artill's death, they were still alive and healthy.

The current Artill created a plan. He would consolidate his knowledge, the previous Artill's memories, become a person Artill's parents would be proud of, and explore the world.

Objective thinking was the previous Artill's way of thinking and the current Artill adopted this kind of method, but the previous Artill was too young and naive. He had almost never left his room, because of his condition, and never tested himself in the outside world. This meant that the current Artill was the same.

Plans are made with the hope of succeeding, yet reality always creates entropy, conjuring complications and unknown variables to ruin these hopes.

Other forces, out of Artill's control, were moving and occurring around him. His life would be full of adventure, conflict, and danger, but he was unaware that he would soon face these situations.