Lessons in Remorse

As the adrenaline coursing through our veins began to subside, we finally saw the reason behind the monster's unexplained ferocity. There, a short distance ahead of us, lay three vulnerable chicks, their tiny forms huddled together. Regret filled our hearts as we realized that the Viruda was simply protecting its young from what might threaten them.

'We were too thoughtless and violent because it was a monster. In our minds, the creature was not a father, not a living being but only a monster. We failed to realize that it was a creature too, with its own feelings and its own will to live. We did not doubt even for a single second that all monsters just caused disasters. In our hindsight, we acted too rashly and cut short another life. Yes, the Viruda might have taken lives but was killing it the right answer if its actions were guided by its instinct to protect its children? I mean human lives do come before the life of a monster. But....'

A heavy sigh escaped my lips.

'We ultimately failed to uphold the teachings of the guru. Taking a life must have meaning equally as grand. Cutting short another's life due to fear is what the weak do. It is simply not allowed. When it mattered the most, we buckled. What good is theory if not practiced huh?'

'No what am I even thinking? It was a do-or-die situation. We either killed it or it killed us. Yet...I cannot escape this heavy guilt that feels like boulders strapped to my shoulders weighing me down. I feel like this is one of those gray zones.'

I could not help but berate myself. I was sure the others did the same. No one spoke a word. The atmosphere was heavy, laden with guilt.

"Even if we had chosen to flee it would have surely run after us If there were no chicks to protect. Looking at it I am sure we could not outrun it. With the information we had, ours was the right choice." I said trying to raise our morale. 

Arya shook her head. "Yes, but that does not excuse our inability to be mindful of our surroundings during a fight."

"And so someone else pays the price. The fault lies with us and the Viruda who attacked us out of the blue, not the chicks. They will die at this rate." said Ren with a look of defeat on his face.

"All is not lost," said Arya, "We can still make amends. Do whatever we have to do to set this right."

"Right, we may have solved the city folk's issue by killing the monster but we have to look and listen to the other side as well. It's not too late now." I quickly responded not wanting to let go of this opportunity to balance out the karma.

"The other side huh? I agree, we should take care of these chicks at least. We took away their parent so it's only right that we play the role of their parents now. On the bright side, they got three now instead of one, more if you count the others from the Gurukul."

"At least it's a good thing that chicks don't remember their parent very well. After spending some time with them to make sure they get comfortable with us, we can properly raise them", said Arya in an upbeat voice.

'We can't change the past, only take care of the future.'

Determined to make amends, we gathered our chi and sent it as calming waves toward the frightened chicks to make them fall asleep. We placed the chicks in a small bag that had a disk placed at the bottom so it stayed flat at the bottom. Then we layered it with some hay that we found nearby and placed the chicks inside.

We decided to carry the monster's corpse back to the Gurukul. Monster or not, it was still meat, and we couldn't afford to waste this life. The Gurukul had its methods of purifying a monster's body, making it suitable for consumption through advanced chi control, a skill we hadn't yet learned.

Upon our return, we were greeted by the eager disciples. We smiled at first but it felt too hard to maintain the facade so we revealed what had happened without sparing any details. It was hard, we were scared of the backlash and the derisive looks we would get when we revealed all of this.

There was a time when we'd just grasped using the Circle of Life without the guru's assistance. This was a time when even stepping on an ant made us feel intensely guilty. In the guru's words, this was normal and was to be expected. According to him this was a phase and would soon come to pass. Things were much better now compared to last month when several of us barged into the guru's room claiming we would not eat food anymore and would just survive off the energy in the environment.

The guru did not like that one bit. He summoned the senior disciples while he bound us with ropes that appeared out of nowhere. Then we had food forced forcibly down our throats, and some of us resisted refusing to swallow the food. Their efforts were promptly made ineffective as the seniors just used some acupuncture methods to make us swallow. It was quite a sight to see. Grown-ass men and women crying like toddlers and having food shoved down their throats. It was quite a sight.

I, Ren, and Arya were like underperformers of the juniors and lagged behind compared to the others. So we did not reach that stage where the rest had reached by the time this event had happened. So we were lucky to just spectate the whole event and were let go with a few words of "I hope you won't follow after them." or "Please remember this sight or else.." or "I am sure you know what not to do now right?".

We responded by vigorously nodding our heads up and down following the senior's threat. Yeah, we definitely didn't want to be a part of that.

Back to the present. We hesitantly informed the other disciples and the guru about what had transpired with our heads held down, waiting for their judgment but what we feared never came to be. While our companions offered their condolences, the guru remained silent. His silence weighed heavily on our hearts.

"We messed up," I admitted. "We'll raise the chicks, no matter whether they are monsters or not. Teach 'em what we've learned here."

Ren nodded with a serious face which was a rare sight. "Yeah, we owe 'em that much."

Arya chimed in, "We will train them, make sure they are integrated into the Gurukul's way of life. It's the least we can do to make things right."

To make amends we vowed to raise them and share our teachings with them. It was something we had collectively decided on the way here. At the end of our vow, our eyes nervously sought the guru's approval, and when he gave a solemn nod, our hearts fell at ease and we took it as a sign that we were on the path to redemption.

The next day, we returned to the city, carrying proof of our encounter with the Viruda to claim the bounty. We entered the guild and I could not help but be awed. It was simply incredible, the beautiful architecture, the holographic lights, the floating screens. Everything felt so expensive and chic too.

However, something felt amiss as we entered the guild. Something just clicked when I thought about the topic of money. Something fishy. Specifically the part regarding the bounty.

'Why was the bounty on the monster so high? It was, after all, only of moderate danger in these parts.'

Sharing my thoughts with others, they too seemed to be perplexed and agreed with me that something fishy was definitely going on. The abnormally high bounty made no sense to any of us. We decided to linger at the guild, digging for more information, and what we found out only deepened our remorse. We were played like a fiddle.

The bounty had not been placed for the monster itself. Of course, its body parts would pay for a decent enough price. But the real focus was the chicks, a detail the quest conveniently never explicitly stated. All official quest takers were shadowed by the requester's hired men and while the mercenaries would handle the father Viruda they would go behind and snatch the chicks. As long as the father Viruda guarded them, it was impossible to reach the chicks without confronting him after all. We just happened to be the first ones to encounter it after the request was put up. This information came from a drunken man who wanted to help us seeing our pathetic attempts at not-so-subtly hunting for information. Apparently, he had a debt to repay to the Gurukul so he willingly shared this information. From the badge on his chest, he looked like someone who worked at the guild. So we believed his information would have some semblance of truth. Also, we could feel that the man was not actually drunk but only pretending to be so. His chi flow indicated as such.

"If we complete the quest as it is, they would obviously ask about the chicks' whereabouts or at least hint about it," said Ren in a grave tone after we had left the guild.

To that Arya replied, "Yeah, and even if we feign ignorance, it would only raise suspicions against us and to an extent it would also arouse suspicions against the Gurukul as well, potentially tarnishing its reputation. Who knows what made-up allegations they would pin on us."

"We can't have that, the requester seems to be a person with considerable influence and trust in these parts. Pitting against him would only be bad news. This means unless we want to be ostracized, we can't cash in on the bounty. " I said sighing.

'Such a pain. I always try my best to keep out of politics but it always finds some way to worm into my life.'

We couldn't allow our mistakes to jeopardize the Gurukul's standing, so we made a difficult decision: to let go of the entire matter and decline the bounty. Sure there could be other methods as well, but this felt like the safest option. We left a discreet message to the guild, suggesting that the monster they were looking for may have migrated to the Illusory Forest as a monster similar to that was sighted there.

With a reliable source, such as the disciples from the Gurukul who were the only ones living in the vast forest outside the city, our words carried weight. The Illusory Forest was an incredibly treacherous place for humans, making it highly unlikely for anyone to pursue the Viruda there. Of course, it could be done but the ones capable of such a feat would not move for such a modest reward.

The reward which was set at that amount to ensure the lower leveled mercenaries would jump at the chance for bounty also ensured that higher leveled ones could not take advantage of the situation and claim the chicks for themselves. This trick played in our favor this time.

Walking away from the guild, we couldn't shake the feeling of moral bankruptcy. But we were determined to make things right, not only for ourselves but for the innocent chicks as well. It was said that a baby monster can be trained and raised to be an incredible boon in the future. So there was a silver lining to be found as well.

The days that followed were filled with a newfound sense of purpose. We took on the responsibility of caring for the chicks, providing them with food and shelter within the confines of the Gurukul. It took time, we used to spend an hour every day near the chicks to make them more comfortable with us. The chicks, which were at first afraid and shy, eventually started to trust us. Bit by bit they got closer to us and now we began our task of training them.

Good and bad come hand in hand. We learned a valuable lesson that day but also gained new comrades. One evening by the fire, we silently thanked for this opportunity to raise these wonderful chicks.