The Boy who spoke in Idioms

 I am not exactly the social type, and I am not really proud of it, but it is these limited set of social exposures which almost always brings me in contact with people whom otherwise I would have rejected as out right social outcasts.

I vividly remember the first encounter. It was wee hours of a chilly January, and I was out on one of my usual "Think in the stillness of the night" strolls. I don't quite recollect the topic of my mental misery that morning, but it was intense. I would occasionally mumble arguments to the pressing thought experiment, and shake my head in disagreement as the argument failed to justify the premise.

"I can offer a penny for your thought." The voice startled me out of my self imposed isolation.

I was so deep in my own head that I had not noticed any one else sharing the trail with me.

"Oh, Its nothing, just some philosophical arguments to keep me busy while I hike along the trail."

"Your mumbling caused a stir, now I am all ears with ants in my pants".

He piqued my interest and I decided to share with him the topic of my mental discourse, and at his requests, my self centered mumbling was turned into a louder monologue with an occasional contribution from the stranger on the trail. The stranger  was a young boy in his early teens, with a face full of patchy pubescent growth, and occasional pitch shifts in the voice.

The chance meeting soon became a regular event,  because we both lived in the same neighborhood, and he took the trail every day that time to collect his newspaper deliveries.

He was not exactly the mouthy one, and I realized why we could comfortably share the trail every morning. He loved to listen. He was silent most of the time, but on the occasions when he spoke, he would always be on point. My mental monologue now had an audience and a critique, and I soon realized the lengths I could push my arguments, thanks to a second brain. I slowly started enjoying the company, and this went on for a while.

Life in most cases blind sides you, and in my case it was in the form of a transfer. By the summer I had moved to a new neighborhood and soon my mornings were back to the old "isolated in my mind castle" strolls. I would not deny that I missed having someone add colour to my arguments, we humans choose to move on, and I did the same, but having some one to share the thoughts and conclusions was something I dearly missed.

I soon found a stage where I could share my profound thoughts, and soon had quite a following at my work place. My colleagues had become my sound boards and loyal audiences. This facade went on for a while, until I overhead a water cooler conversation, where some one was really annoyed with the constant showers of "intellectual fallacies" forced upon her. I confronted her, and gave her the stage. Her responses really stunned me. She said and I quote "You are not exactly the philosophical sod you believe your self to be. A kid armed with Idioms can add more to your arguments, than you can with all your knowledge."

Her words brought back what I had forgotten. 

I missed the boy who spoke in idioms.

Podcast with Warriors: Kragg's Adventures.

Host: Good morning dear listeners, today's episode is the first of it series where I interview war hardened warriors. Today with have with us "Kragg", also known as the "Immortal zombie brained vampire.". Hello, Kragg, why don't you introduce yourself to our listeners

Kragg: *Ruffled voice* Howdy, its a pleasure to be part of this podcast.

Host: Let's start with a simple question. Whats your favourite wake up routine.

Kragg: That is a tough one, but I know what I love the most in the morning, "The deafening sound of the battle horn, panicked men, gunfire, painful screeches and a cup of brandy".

Host: Interesting and vivid. How long have you been in the war business.

Kragg: If my memory serves me right, it should be close to a 1500 years.

Host: So you are an immortal?????

Kragg: Calling me an immortal would be a stretch. I am from the Inguari tribe, and men in my tribe live upto 5000 years. Humans do not understand our tribe, so they just call us any thing from the  immortal soldiers, vampires, zombies or just some expletives to denote defiled creatures of nightmare. In the recent years we tried UN, but gave up and just accepted one of the names the humans gave us.

Host: That is an eye-opener. I support diversity, inclusion and non-discrimination, so you are always welcome here, brother. Why don't you tell us about your recent war experience?

Kragg: The most recent in my memory is "The war of three states", and I have no clue which three states are the participants of this war. All I do is fight for the highest bidder, collect my payment, and splurge it on immoral deeds, and then wait for the next war to break out. Its a pretty good gig. The payment is good. There is ample amount of blood and gore, and the cherry on the cake is the pillaging. I have raided close to 300 towns, and have partaken in some 1000 pillaging including the smaller villages.

Host: Ooooh, Pillaging, sounds interesting, care to share your observations during these pillaging fests?

Kragg: You are putting me on the spot. The human rights people are not going to like my response.

Host: *Disclaimer* The following are the experiences of the warriors, the channel doesn't support or condone the choices or activities these warriors share during this interview.

Kragg: You are a crafty one. Humans are always a predictable lot.

Host: So with the disclaimer out of the way, we can continue with our story.

Kragg: Well my favorite part of the pillaging is where I get to play with human egos. As long as they are winning, their ego stands out, but the moment they start losing, they bring in their Gods and curses. I have never really grasped the idea of "Gods and punishments", but I like playing with those ideas. That reminds me of one of the pillaging I was part of, and It was a boring event. The other human soldiers were more interested in defiling the living, and it kind of took the fun away from the entire idea of "pillaging". There was no killing of innocent civilian and out of sheer boredom I tried intimidating  one of the inhabitants of that village. He brought up God, and just to humor him, I pretended to feel angst and pain. It was a fun experiment to see despair setting into his eyes, as I tore his limb from limb, while fake-crying in agony of the curses he put on me. It was enlightening. The actual fun started when I brought in his son. The extend to which a parent would go, mostly in curses - I mean, he had no arms or legs left to flail around, to protect their offspring is commendable. The kid I used as a medium to understand the extend of human grit. I pulled out the kids tongue first, along with the vocal chord ......

Host: *Cutting the feed* Due to the graphic description of war on kids, we have to cut short the podcast. Thank you for being loyal subscribers. Your support means a lot to us and people like Kragg. Thank you all, and we will be back with a fresh episode of "Podcast with warriors"