Flow of Existence

Kes was sitting behind his bench at the academy when his mother Nora started the class.

Kes was excited for today because today they would finally get more into the geography of the world. He already knew of some big cities and the Zoecia desert where his mother was from, but he was excited to learn more.

He had asked his mother about it before but she told him to just wait patiently for the academy classes.

Nora cleared her throat to get the class's attention. "As many of you know today we will be teaching the geography of the world. I say the world, but I actually just mean this continent. I do know a bit about the other continents, but my expertise lies with this continent so that's what I'll be teaching. If you are interested in learning about other continents you are best off moving to the big cities to study them over there."

She quickly walked over to a nearby drawer and pulled out a large piece of parchment, it was a map.

Nora rolled out the map to make it visible for the whole class. "This is a very old map so it's not necessarily up to date anymore, but it's still pretty much accurate."

She pointed at a small spot on the map, situated between a big forest and an incredibly large mountain range. The spot was marked with red on the map. "This is Actis volcano."

Kes was shocked, the huge volcano he had known for his whole life was such an insignificant part of the continent, let alone the whole world.

His shock seemed to be shared within the class, rural village kids grew up sheltered and had no clue how big the world really was. None of their parents had been educated on this either so their shock must have been even larger than Kes'. 

Nora continued and pointed at the green spot on the map. "You are all already familiar with this forest. It is known as Fraxis forest to the rest of the world. It is very big and lies between three big regions. This being Paena, the Conia mountain range and Venar. Both Paena and Venar claim part of the forest as territory of their own but haven't started building cities or settlements inside yet."

She pointed at the mountain range which laid to the west of the forest. The mountain range was much larger than the forest spreading out far north and south. In the south even until it reached the water. 

"This is the Conia mountain range, its territory is mostly populated by rural villages who each have a rule of their own. Ashen village and Actis volcano are also technically part of this mountain range even though they closely border the Fraxis forest."

She then pointed above the Fraxis forest. A huge area was designated here. "Here lies the most populated kingdom of our continent Paena, you might recognize the name from the language you all have been learning for a while now. As you can see the Conia mountain range still curls up north to cover most of Paena's border to the west. The biggest cities on the continent are in Paena, its capital Stamen is arguably the biggest city on the entire continent."

She pointed up even further north. "This right here is Zoecia desert and the place I was born in. Though it is technically Paenese territory, villages and nomadic tribes who reside here each have their own rule. This is also the most north it gets here, up further you would only find the sea."

Next she pointed south east of the Fraxis forest. "Here lies the kingdom of Venar, it has forests scattered all throughout, some being even bigger than the Fraxis forest and is a very green country. To the north it borders with Paena while to the east and south it only borders the sea. It too has some very big cities."

And finally she pointed west, this was a massive country even bigger than Paena, including the massive Zoecian desert. It bordered most of the mountain range and a little of Paena in the north. 

"This is Vincia, it is the biggest country on this continent area wise, and a theocracy, meaning the church of providence has the highest authority. The reason it does not prosper as much as Paena on this continent is because the church of providence originates, and is based in another continent."

She pointed at the mountain range again. "Much like Zoecia and Fraxis, the Conia mountain range is also technically claimed by other countries. Even though they don't have much authority here, the mountain range is split between Paena and Vincia. Since we live a little lower than the middle part we are technically part of Vincian territory."

"What is the point of them claiming this as their territory when they don't have authority here?" Kes asked.

Nora shot him a glare. "Please raise your hand before you speak. Also, this isn't a politics class but a geography class, if you want to learn more go study in the big cities."

Kes looked dejected after not receiving an answer. Even though he already had a general idea of why this was the case he would make sure to look it up when visiting the big cities.

Nora continued after the interruption. "That should give you a general idea of the continent we live on. You will likely never need to learn more than that, and this is already more knowledge than the average villager living here knows. Like I mentioned before, if you are really interested you are always able to study more about not just this continent, but the entire world in the big cities."

Kes looked over the map once more to consider his future plans of traveling to the big cities.

From Ashen village there were three paths he could take.

He could cross the mountain range into Vincia, this wasn't optimal but it wasn't awful either. If he could hitch a ride with a merchant caravan he would most likely be able to cross in a month or two, and afterwards try to reach one of the big cities.

His other option was to follow the mountain range up north for a while and then enter Paena. This was probably the safest route, even without a caravan to travel with. But he still doubted he could do it alone. Luckily for him most traveling caravans went in that direction, most likely to sell in the prosperous big cities of Paena, so hitching a ride would be a lot easier.

His last option was to travel through the Fraxis forest. This was the worst option in his eyes. The forest was hard to navigate and there were a ton of beasts inside. None of the merchant caravans would want to travel through Fraxis either, so his only option would be to do it alone or with someone else who wanted to travel through the forest from the village.

Kes decided to think about it later and disregard it for now. 

He once again considered how massive the world really was. The Actis volcano which seemed so big was only a speck in the world. And even the seemingly huge and menacing Fraxis forest was nothing in comparison to the three giant territories of this continent.

And that was this continent alone, the world was truly big. Kes felt excited to explore a lot of it in the future.

After class was over Kes quickly found his friend Nash and walked to the training grounds together with him.

Kes gave Nash an excited look. "What did you think about the lesson just now? Do you have any plans to move out in the future? I certainly do, knowing how big the world was motivated me even more if anything."

Nash shook his head. "Even though it will be sad to rarely see you again, I don't have plans to leave Ashen village. I don't know why honestly, it just feels like my calling is here. Also if everyone keeps leaving for the big cities there will be nothing of Ashen village left in the future."

Kes sighed. "Like your calling is here, huh. I don't know why, but you just struck me more as the type of guy who couldn't be tied down to one specific place."

Nash looked at his friend. "Don't get me wrong, I would love to explore the world, especially if it was together with you. But I love this village, I love its people. This village is my home and thus I have no intention of leaving it to die out. My goal is to become leader of the hunting team like my father, maybe even the village chief if I'm being ambitious. I would just love advancing the village and living together surrounded by my people."

Kes sighed again. "Village chief, huh. I wonder if that old man will ever die out; he feels like some kind of immortal monster. But I do get where you are coming from, I like this village a whole lot too. But it just feels so boring to just sit here and hunt and farm every day, it feels like I'm wasting my life away."

Nash laughed. "The village chief certainly is some kind of immortal monster, I wonder if he will outlive us."

Kes suddenly grinned. "And I understand you for another reason, Ade is in the village after all."

Kes had expected some punch or aggressive remark to come his way but instead Nash became surprisingly serious.

"I do wonder what I would do if Ade left the village. Would I follow her? Do I love her that much? Or is she just a fleeting crush I have right now."

Kes didn't really know how to respond to Nash suddenly becoming serious. He knew Nash had seen Ade a whole lot less recently, she wasn't at the academy anymore. He was also the only kid in the class who knew that he had been alone with Ade in the forest.

He wondered what had happened between the two in the forest but felt like it would be insensitive to ask.

Instead Kes kept it simple. "I guess that's just something you will have to think about if the time ever comes."

Nash gave his friend a melancholic smile. "I guess so."