《Epitaph of Everything》Chapter 2. First Step

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After much demonstration, practice and many sudden eye to eye meetings with the ground, Naive stood outside its coffin. No longer limited to sights of the ceiling, the skeleton looked at the cavern once more.

Despite the sudden nature of its arrival, the coffin didn’t seem to have affected the ground at all. It sat on top of a small plateau near the center of the cavern with a short set of steps carved in to reach the ground level. The ground itself was littered with coffins. There was no discernible pattern, coffins were placed on rocks, under alcoves where the wall jutted out, standing upright against each other, laying down alone.

Curious, the young skeleton used its talent in speech to ask its first question.

“Coffins?”

Natus, the skeleton who had taught Naive everything he knew, did not know how to answer the question.

“What about them?”

Thrown into confusion Naive retreated into its own mind. What about the coffins? It gazed out at the display of tiny stone bedrooms then glanced back at its own and found a difference.

“Not open?”

“Their owners usually close them when they leave this place.”

Once again Naive was flooded with curiosity and struggled to let it out. After much contemplation and concentration it knew just what to ask.

“This place?”

“It’s where all of us first leave our coffins.”

Leaving? There was more than what existed in this cavern? Naive realized it didn’t know what this cavern was and pushed out its curiosity once more.

“What’s the name of this place?”

“I don't know if this place has a name.”

This shattered Naives world view. How could it tell what this place was without knowing its name? Are there other things without names? What do you call them?

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Before Naive could voice its existential chaos again, Natus cut in.

“I don’t think these questions are making you learn very much. I’ll show you the cavern exits and teach you some essentials that will help you when you leave for the first time.”

Leaving! Naive was reminded of a thought it had not too long ago. Raising one leg to follow after Natus’ lead, Naive, who had seemingly mastered the art of standing still, very quickly discovered locomotion to be a far more demanding task.

With a regularity that edged on tradition, Naive continued to bludgeon the solid stone ground with its skull until it learned to walk. Compared to Natus’ mechanical and repeating steps, Naives gait was an uncoordinated stumble of missteps and jerks of correction. After raising from another failure to meet foot with ground, Natus’ advised to stick an arm out before hitting the ground.

What a novel suggestion!

Natus pointed out exits and told what he knew about them but Naive found it difficult to follow along as Natus rapidly shifted from explanation to directions to warnings to procedures and repeated the process as he quickly went on to explain the next exit.

“This is the last one I know about. It’s a straight tunnel and the things that exist there are simple and won’t limit you for long, although there is a danger of the larger creatures swallowing you whole so you should try to..."

Naives thoughts blurred into nothing as its teacher blathered on. The way Natus’ words wiped clean its mind made Naive think of the pitch black inside the coffin.

“Good luck Naive. Go out and learn everything you can.”

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