Chapter Four: A Sudden Change in Topic
"Let's go," he finally spoke again. He hefted the large pack easily, despite the size. She did likewise, though hers was equally as large as his.
They set off on the path, which quickly devolved into an animal trace. He pointed to a tree, where a faint scar was visible, if you knew where to look. She nodded in acknowledgment. Spiders, snakes, lizards, and birds abounded. As they proceeded, she noted other similar faint marks.
Knowing him, she didn't press her last question, and was eventually rewarded with a response.
"We have trained in many places, and you have learned many skills, even skills that most would relegate to the realm of fiction. You are even more proficient than I in a few areas," he said. "However, when it comes to who and what I am… none of that matters. All of my skills, my training, none of it is the core or essence. This final test… no disciple before you has faced it. You are the only one."
She blinked in surprise, but remained silent.
He understood the question in her heart, anyway.
"Do you believe in a God?" he suddenly asked.
"Eh?" she blurted, not understanding the sudden change in topic. "What does religion have to do with this? You've never been much about religion that I can tell, other than how it psychologically affects people's thinking and choices. I always got the impression that you thought it was a private matter."
"Religion may be personal, but it can never be private," he replied. "The very nature of religion itself makes it impossible to ever be private."
"Hmmm, why is it impossible?" she asked.
"What does religion actually mean?" he counter-questioned.
She thought for a bit, as she knew that if she recited a dictionary answer, she would earn nothing but cutting ridicule and possibly a bone-numbing smack.
"Religion is what someone chooses to believe about the cosmology of reality?" she ventured.
She abruptly came to a halt when he blocked her progress with an outstretched hand. She glanced around, and noticed his gaze focused on a nearby tree. She focused her mind as he had taught her, and with her sharpened perception, she realized that some of the shadow in the tree was not a shadow at all. A jaguar stared down at them, it's golden green eyes barely visible between the leaves.
The man raised the ring to his face, and his eyes picked up the subtle glow of the fire opal. A presence swept outwards from him, cold, chilling, deadly. The jaguar squalled suddenly, and with a faint rustle of leaves, disappeared.
"Very good, but not quite. True religion is the beliefs about cosmology, as you said, but only those that actually affect the believer's choices. A person can say they believe something, but if it doesn't affect their choices, then it is meaningless, and not religion. A God is not even required. Or rather, people often make an ideal rather than a person to be the God of their religion," he stated.
"For example?" she inquired.