A Blessing, or a Curse?
This is the story of a falcon who's mind is starting to breakdown after living for so long.
A blessing while in the moment helpful and desired, might not remain that way throughout time. The old tales of king Midas for example, gifted the ability to turn all he touched to gold, until he touched his daughter and realized what a curse this was. Say you have the ability to heal any wound, on any person, but all the wounds are simply transferred to you instead. Or maybe you are blessed with something like immortality, or something like mind reading, or the ability to never forget. All may be blessings at first, but given time, you will start to see why these are curses instead.
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The falcon typed away at an illuminated keyboard, on the screen a word document was open, and was being filled with pages upon pages of stories and memories the bird had experienced. Around him there were more computer towers, and servers around those lay hard drives, and piles of books and pages. The room was massive, and almost wall to wall, floor to ceiling there were thousands of book shelves, all organized and filled with stories and memories of the past. This falcon, had written them all. All those books were filled with his memories and past experiences.
He sighed and pushed the keyboard away, after he saved the document. He had been typing all night trying to empty his head of what has happened in the past twenty years. The lights were dim down in that library, the air a cool sixty eight degrees.
This bird, this egyptian falcon, was known as Sebastian. At least, that's the name he has gone by for the past forty years. Sebastian was an Immortal, having been born onto this earth in 5764 BCE. This is the reason he has such a massive library, all these books and tablets, and computers hold all his memories and past experiences. He has been known by countless names and can speak more dead languages than living ones. He has traveled the world five times over, and has influenced history in more ways than one, but living for over seven thousand years has taken its toll on him. The falcon has fought in hundreds of wars, sometimes not on the winning side, he has been a pioneer and and trailblazer of many civilizations.
Sebastian lives in a secluded victorian style mansion in the dense forests of Oregon. So that no one will visit, no one will seek friendship, and so that he will never fall in love again. He has tried having a partner but it causes him too much pain now, having to leave them before they find out his secret.
He slams his hands on the desk in rage, and jumps out of his desk chair, knocking it to the floor. "Wh-why can't I remember!?" he screams out. "What happened that day, d-did I kill that man...or was I watching him die, did he need to die, was that what they said to do?" Panting, he quietly picks his chair up and sets it right, and exits the library. Almost silently he chants to himself "do not intervene, do not intervene, do not intervene" over and over again as he climbs the huge staircase leading to the surface. He begins to question himself more, "I-intervene? B-but I thought they said I must not, thats why I live here" at this point he is clinging to the railing, trying to keep himself upright. "But what If I intervene to help them?" he whispers quietly. "No! You must not, you must stay hidden!" He screeches, those words echoing in the stairwell. The falcon gathers his strength and stands upright, continuing his stair climb.
Several minutes pass in near silence, the only sounds coming from his talons on the concrete. His mind filled with hundreds of voices some screaming, some whispering, all telling him what he needs to do "Stay Hidden, Reveal the truth, Reveal yourself, twist the truth, corrupt the state, kill them...until you find him." He paused when a voice said this, and began rattling his memories for anything concerning some significant male that would show themselves for mass bloodshed. The voices started again but they only said one thing this time "Find him...find him."
Eventually after a few more mental collapses Sebastian made it to his bedroom and passed out shortly after taking his place in the middle of the the bed, the voices still screaming him commands, the sun still high in the sky. Hours passed and he continued to sleep, he was still wearing his clothes, which wasn't much his feathers were more than enough to stay modest, but he wore a pair of grey leather pants, mostly just to hold things in his pockets like pens and paper to record thing when he experiences them. The bedroom was on the second floor with a large window looking out over his property, the room was filled with antiques and maps and priceless paintings.
When he finally woke up there was no longer any sunlight, it had been replaced by moonlight and starlight. He kept no outdoor electrical lighting, so he could see the galactic core from his door. His mind was quiet when he woke, no voices shouting and screeching, only blissful silence. He turned on a bedside lamp and fished his notepad from his pants pocket and flipped through what he had written. Most of it was him writing what the voices told him, as he flipped through the pages he noticed that he had written the words "Find Him", on the next page he wrote it multiple times, and by the time he reached the end of his booklet that was the only thing written on every page. He got up and sat in his tall chair in front of the window, bathing himself in the moonlight, and he thought, and pondered the meaning of those words, "Kill until you find him." At times he thought it was just his demons wanting meaningless bloodshed, other times he thought of a great evil that would destroy the world.
After hours of deep thought, while he was free from the voices he made his way down to the kitchen. He heated a piece of baladi bread, and poured himself a glass of sparkling water. These things calmed him, the bread reminded him of his true home in egypt, and the little bubbles in the water felt nice against his mouth. After some time he made his way to his study in the main house, and sat down at his computer there, which was connected to the server which everything he had recorded was logged and began researching his memories for anything which would help him find out who the voices were talking about.
The falcon's eyes hurt from staring at the screen for so long. He put his head in his hands and tugged on a few of his head feathers, until a single phrase crossed his mind "Another one". He pondered those words and repeated them several times, before realizing he had heard that before, from someone he met thousands of years ago. "Now who told me that, i-it was a philosopher correct?" he said to himself. "Which philosopher though, I have met so many, was it Socrates...o-or could it have been Laozi...or maybe Gautama?" he thought hard and long trying to figure out who and what they were referring to. He knew Socrates, and tried to prevent his death, but Socrates prevented him and told him to find another. At the time he thought the man meant teacher, but that never quite clicked. Laozi he only met in passing a few meetings, never enough time to build a relationship, but Gautama...he had spent a long time with him, for a time Sebastian thought he was another immortal, but he never had a chance to prove it, Gautama disappeared without a trace. The Buddha too said to find another, but he actually said was "Another will be found, help him." That was centuries ago and now whatever the man had known or whatever clues he had would be lost to time.
Suddenly Sebastian cried out in agony and brought his hands to his head and squeezed. The voices had returned and were shouting at him again, he fumbled for his note pad and attempted to write down what he was doing while he still could, but his hands were trembling and his train of thought was broken. He was forgetting again. He scribbled the phrase "Gautam Budh foun hel hm" before his hands were shaking too much to hold his pen. The pain felt like a tiny dentist's drill was being driven through his temples. He had not noticed but it had begun to rain outside, and with a brilliant flash of light and what sounded like a sonic boom in the heavens, lightning had struck within a hundred yards of his home. This boom brought back flashes of old memories of the wars he had fought in. One moment he was back on the battlefield again, and howitzers were being shot off behind him, and the enemy's artillery was booming down within thirty yards of him. Panther tanks were shooting over his head and Stukas dropped bombs from above. Back in the real world he had fallen from his chair, and was now shaking on the ground, within a few moments he passed out.