Ayida-Weddo and the Tales of Heroes

"Let's go," was Monji's only words interrupting her. Tim needed no explanation as well. Tim practically ran to go get his guns.

"No.....All specifically requested no guns."

Tim hesitated as he looked underneath the bed and finally nodded. There was no time to do anything else. It probably would not have mattered if he brought the guns. A revolver and a rifle against a small group of men with assault rifles were not good odds anyway.

Monji ran as fast as her body would let her. It took her less than a third of a minute before she reached the door of the monk's place. Tim and Zoe went and helped her up the step as Zoe opened up the door leading into All's small home.

They were greeted by a relatively relaxed monk in red robes. The monk bowed his head to Tim and Monji. "Welcome to my home, have a seat and relax," as he gestured to his two beds.

Zoe was at the entrance of the door as she closed it behind her. They made it just in time. Monji went and sat down on one of the beds as Tim sat close to his grandmother. He held her hand tightly. Zoe was looking at the monk, scared. She was still amazed at how these two when came to perceiving this house.

"How soon?" she asked.

The monk said nothing. They could hear a truck outside the home.

Outside the home, a small unarmed, flatbed truck pulled by the house. It consisted of four men. One was the driver, one a passenger, and two in the back of the bed of the truck. Two of the men were armed with assault rifles. The other two were armed with machetes. They pulled the vehicle to a stop and turned the engine off. All of them got out of the truck and readied themselves.

"So the bitch is still alive and hiding in that small little house?" Zoe could overhear one of the men.

"Yes," another voice responded. "According to our scout that was watching the village. he saw her go into this place."

"Those fuckers said they shot her dead. They fucking lied!" another voice responded.

"Don't worry, the General has something planned for those men. He is happy to know she is alive, though. He told us to make sure we bring her back so he can......properly take care of her."

Zoe sat by the door as she put her fist to her mouth. She was scared. A tear came down from her face as she cowered in fear. She obviously did not want to go back north. Who knows what horrors they planned on doing to her. She sat absolutely silent.

A man, most likely the driver, armed with a machete, used the blade to tap at the door.               "Zoe! Come out of there! We know you are in there!"

He took his blade and slid it down the door, making the sound of metal sliding against the wood. One good kick, and they could come storming in.

Zoe, with absolute fear, watched as All came up to the door. He was in no fear or displaying any signs of distress.

Before they put their foot to the door, the monk opened up the door as he stepped to the foot of the door. He took a good look at the men. There was no sign of any emotion on his face as he starred down at the four men.

"What?...... Who are.......fuck this. Where is Zoe!?" yelled one of the men.

"I am sorry, my child, I do not know who you are talking about," the monk replied.

"A young woman came from up north, and she was seen living at this house. Your house! Tell us where she went, or we start cutting you piece by piece!"

Zoe was still away from the open door, so she could not be seen by the angry men. She knew they would very easily carry out their threat. The monk was in extreme danger of being cut down. Then they would grab her and possibly kill Monji and take Tim for whatever foul deeds they wanted to do to him. These men were more than capable of doing it, and she had seen what they had done first hand with no care and no remorse.

"My child, there is no need for violence. Please put away your weapons and leave."

The driver threw up his hand. "So be it. Take him!" he screamed to the other men.

Zoe was shaking in her spot. She knew what they were going to do. She turned her head to look at the monk that stood at the entrance, ensuring no one got past him.

One of them shouldered his rifle as he approached the monk and grabbed his arm. He wrapped his hand around the monk's arm and then tugged hard.......however......he didn't move.

The man gave a questioning look at the monk that simply smiled at him. The man exerted a heavy force when he pulled him to yank him out of the way. Zoe could only see so much from her angle, but the monk could not be moved. The man still had his hand firmly grasped on his arm. He tugged hard to yank him out of the way so they could get inside.....yet he did not budge.

The man released the monk and backed away as he looked at the smiling monk. The other men gave questioning looks as to the scene that was unfolding.

"I can't move him. It's like he weighs like a truck!" the man said to the others. Zoe was shaking as he looked at All that stood like a wall.

The driver gave an angry look at the monk. "Get out of the fucking way, or you die!"

"Please, my children, leave this place and do not return. This can end peacefully. It must end peacefully," the monk pleaded with a relaxed voice to the men.

Zoe couldn't let this happen. She can't let them kill him. She had to surrender herself to them.

She struggled to get on her legs as she pushed herself to her feet. Tim and Monji were held close together, trying to keep one another calm.

"No one......no one has to die because of me," she struggled to say out loud as she stepped behind the monk. All was not moving from his spot as his head turned slightly to look at her. She was now in the visible range of the men as they could see her from inside the home. "I give myself up....... please don't hurt them."

"My child," the monk addressed to her. "You are in no danger. I know you are trying to sacrifice yourself for me. It is not necessary. Please have a seat and relax."

Zoe was in shock as the monk was deliberately doing everything he could to put himself on the line to protect the people inside the home. Even if she tried to leave, he stood in the way like a wall. They would have to cut him down to get past him.

"We see her! Last warning, get out of the way!" one of the men yelled at the monk.

"Why are we bothering with this? Kill him!" yelled the driver as he looked at All.

The other man armed with a machete lifted it high in the air as he walked up to the monk. He was just about to swing the blade at him.

"Nooo!" Zoe cringed as she yelped, putting hands to her face. She knew the monk was good as dead. But........

The blade smashed into the monk's shoulder hard. Like the sound of metal slamming into metal, the machete's blade bounced off, doing absolutely nothing to the monk. Instead of metal going through flesh, it was like he swung at a metal pole.

The blade recoiled along with the man as it took him by complete surprise. The man with the machete jumped back as the other men stood staring at the scene take place.

"It's not possible," said the other men. "He has nothing to protect him. He should be dead."

The monk smiled calmly. "Please, leave this place, my children. There is no need for violence."

Zoe stood in disbelief as she watched everything. Even she could not believe what she saw, even if the last couple of days brought new ideas to her.

The driver was both shocked and angry as he walked up and grabbed one of the assault rifles from the men and pointed it at the monk. At point-blank range, he positioned the barrel at the monk's chest. The monk stood unfazed as he stood there, ready to be gunned down.

The driver pulled the trigger, a shot rang out as a rifle round flew and went straight to the monk's stomach and then bounced off, doing nothing to him. The men could not hurt him.

"It's time to go," said one of the men. "We can't hurt him, we can't get past him, we can't do shit to him."

"I will ram that truck through him if I have to," the driver said to the monk.

"I don't think that is going to work. If he can survive being shot at, I think it will only wreck our vehicle. It's time to go. We will tell everything what happened to the General."

The driver stomped his foot into the ground. He had no choice but to give up. If a powerful man could not be moved or swayed to get out of the way, what else could that monk do?

The monk bowed his head as the men went back into the truck. The other men still stared at the monk in disbelief. The driver started up the vehicle as they backed up and drove back to the road. There, they headed up north.

It was quiet and peaceful once again. The monk closed the door as he looked at Zoe. She was almost at a loss of words at what just happened, but she was grateful for the miracle that just occurred.

Tim ran up and hugged the monk's legs in happiness and relief. Zoe came up to him and then hugged him. All simply took his arm and tapped her shoulder.

"We always have the power to change things for the better," the monk told her. "No one had to be hurt, no one had to be injured or maimed by another, because peace has won this day."

"Thank you for saving my life," Zoe told All. "Thank you....."

She released her hug on him as she backed away to let Tim follow suit. The boy went and walked up to her grandmother as they started to relax.

Zoe had a lot of questions to ask this monk, and hopefully, he was going to start talking.

Monji broke the silence. "I think it is time for me and Tim go back to our house. We....have food that needs to be cooked."

The people of the village were used to such horrors and aggression to the events that just transpired. Zoe already knew this. People lived and died just as quickly in a system of violence. It was not to say they were scared for their lives of such events, obviously, but they simply just got up and continued like nothing happened. They were used to it. She prayed for the day this came to an end and that they can live their lives without the fear of getting killed. Nonetheless, she was happy to be alive.

Monji and Tim proceeded to leave home as they walked back to the house, but Zoe asked one last question.

"Monji, why did you stay here with your grandson when everyone left?" Zoe asked her.

The grandmother looked at her "Hope.....Zoe. We learned to live here no matter what. We will not be chased out by thugs or warriors that want to kill and devour everything, even if it kills us."

Zoe nodded. "I understand. Take care of yourself. You too, Tim."

The boy nodded with a smile as they left home and went back to their house. This left Zoe with All. The monk was standing with a contemplative look to himself.

"Who are you?....." she asked him. "You saved my life, but I must know who you are. They grabbed you, they slashed you, they shot you, and nothing happened to you. How is this possible?"

"What do you see right now?" All asked her with a calm look.

"I see a bald man in red robes that prays to a statue of another man."

"What else do you see?"

"An aura that glows around you," she answered. "I have not seen that glow since I saw the warlord once."

All, the monk, looked away a short bit, taking note of what she just said as he looked back at her. "Are you afraid of me, my child?"

"No.....I was a little bit at first. You have been a kind man that tries to look after me and given me a roof to sleep under. I just need to know who you are."

The monk turned his head to look at the statue. "I am Buddhist, my child. I embraced this life and learned to accept a life of nonviolence. What you see in those auras are magic projections of our forms. Only so few humans have this ability. I admit that I did not want to tell who I am, but I see something special in you, Zoe."

"Forms?....." she asked.

"We use magic to hide ourselves of what we truly are. I am not human, my child. I did not want you to be scared of seeing who I truly am. I live a life of solitude. Sometimes I get involved in peace movements as time flows like a river, as the word of nonviolence and peace spreads throughout the world. Other times I live a life of solitude to meditate and think of the universe."

"You would have to be something other than human to survive what those men did to you," she remarked. "Are you an angel? What are you?"

She could start to hear the distant chimes again. She knew now that he was the one that was in control of those musical notes.

He turned around and looked at the statue. "He was a remarkable human, Siddhartha Gautama. He made me see my ways and what I was doing. I learned I could use my powers and not commit to acts of hatred, inflicting suffering on others, and at the same time see harmony in myself. I could not die, though. Such as being an immortal such as myself. I instead went and spent my time always as a human amongst the humans. I was there with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi when he protested the British Rule of India amongst the millions of people. Such power, one man had to move a people to freedom with little to no bloodshed. I was there through it all, one of the millions of people. I was there when we made the Salt March as we walked to the beaches and made salt in protesting Britain's rule that no Indian could make or sell salt. I was there when the British tried to gun us all down at Punjab in Jallianwala Bagh. I shielded two girls as the bullets bounced off my body, getting them to safety. I was there the day when Britain left India and Pakistan and gave them their independence."

The room shifted in its appearance in front of Zoe's eyes. The monk stood beside her as they were no longer in some monastery or temple. She was now in a land she did not recognize at all. It was the land of high mountains and a river that flowed down between them. She had never seen this place before.

"I was there in Martin Luther King Junior's movement," he continued. "I was there during the singing rally in Estonia of 1988. I was there in Woodstock. All the big peace movements I was there to watch and add my support."

"What is this place?" she asked him. "It is so pretty."

"This is where I lived. This was my home and birth place. We are seeing an illusion of this place and its past. We are not actually there. This is the Swat River in Pakistan. It is east of your home thousands of miles away."

She looked around. The high sides of the mountains depicted forests and trees that grew along its sides. A river flowed naturally. There were rocks all along its sides. The green grass that flowed from the banks of the Swat River there was nothing but gray, green, blue, and fertile soil. The Mountains were taller than she ever saw, going to an elevation of over 6,000 feet to the Falakser Mountain.

She turned around and saw a small village of at least twenty huts. She could watch people that had a lighter complexion similar to All's skin color as they were tossing fishing nets into the river. A small farm where crops were being grown supplied its population.

"So peaceful these people........," he said as he lowered his head.

Zoe was enjoying the scenery, getting a chance to see a land that she never saw before.

Suddenly, there was screaming from the village as Zoe's attention was focused on it. A man that was tossing a fishing net was suddenly grabbed from the river. It was massive, a creature she had never seen. To her, it looked like what she heard of as a Ninki Nanka. They could be described as West Africa's version of a dragon. It was massive, more significant than the size of a bus. It had jaws that could more than easily crush the man it captured in its mouth. It had no wings but a snout that protruded from its face. Its body was covered in blue scales like the water itself. Its body was long, almost like an eel with a tail that ended in a fin. It had two arms that it used to tear the victim up as the villagers ran into their homes while its back legs helped support it. A woman seeing the moment, was screaming for her husband as the dragon tore into him.

"My god," Zoe replied as she looked at All. She recoiled a little bit from the sheer horror of the site. The monk's eyes watched in sadness at the events that were transpiring.

The dragon yanked its head back and forth as the man screamed some more. Blood poured into the river. Eventually, the dragon slammed its victim into the river as it took its kill deep into the riverbank, where it disappeared. The river turned red for a moment before it started to turn into the blue color again.

"So much pain.....so much suffering," the monk said with a hint of sadness on his face.

"Why are you showing me this?" she asked.

The scenery began to shift. They were no longer in the Swat River but somewhere else.

"This is the Gandaki River in Nepal," the monk explained. "It is on the other side of India where the Swat River is in Pakistan. This place is further east."

They could see as the scene showed a similar river. The mountains lined the view as the river flowed deeply. Trees lined the sides as before. There was more green here than the Swat River. The elevation was higher here than the other. The heavy rushing river surrounded the area with an almost sheer volume. They stood at a dirt encampment as she took a look at the surroundings. They stood in a forest with trees all around them. The river went to one side as the mountainous sides consisted of the other side.

Zoe's attention turned to see a man mediating much like All was by a tree. The man was dressed in orange robes. He was skinny and had short hair that was tied to a bun on top. His eyes were closed as he sat cross-legged.

"He seems so peaceful, much like this place is," she remarked.

"He sometimes came here to meditate," All replied.

Zoe's attention then went to the river as the dragon she saw in the last scene emerged from the river bank. Her anxiety went up. She could see the dragon sliding its massive tail behind it as it left the river and headed to the man's location that was supposed to be mediating.

"That man is going to be killed," Zoe responded. "We must warn him."

All shook his head slightly. "This is the past. Nothing can be done about it now."

The dragon almost chuckled as he saw a fresh meal waiting for him to kill. It slammed its claws into the dirt as it inched its way to the meditating man. It slipped past the trees and foliage as it got closer and closer to the man. Zoe could see more features of the dragon. It had two long whiskers that came from the side of the jaw. Four sets of spikes protruded from its head. It had yellow reptilian-like eyes. The blue scales were more rigid on its back. It made it perfect for disappearing in the river and easy to spot in a forest, but the fact the man was just sitting there ready to be eaten was more than an opportunity for the dragon not to ignore.

The man was unfazed as he was so deep in his trance that he did not notice the dragon get right up next to him. The dragon licked its chops. Rows of heavily serrated teeth could be seen from the dragon's jaws as it breathed hard. Zoe could see as the dragon smiled, ready to tear into its next victim.

The dragon almost laughed, seeing the prey was a perfect target. It actually waited there within five feet from the man like it was waiting for something. Second went by, and the dragon did not strike at the meditating man.

"The dragon is waiting for the man to come out of his meditation......." Zoe noted out loud.

"Very astute, my child," the monk replied.

"Wake up, my little human meal," the dragon said.

Zoe was shocked when the dragon's mouth opened and spoke in a deep baritone voice to the man. "The dragon speaks English."

"This is a vision of the past. I have simplified everything and made it so you can understand their words," All remarked.

The man, deep in meditating, slowly opened up his eyes to be staring at the dragon's face. The man, however, did not freak out or do anything. He was very calm as he looked at a creature that could easily tear him to pieces.