Not unlike the others that had walked beneath that holy bridge of the insane people of Marsh, the blond haired boy paid his respects with a subtle bow. Not enough for many of the onlookers who believed some sort of discomfort or hardship was the only sincere way to pay homage to the bridge. His gesture, while much more than was usually seen from outsiders, still allowed the feelings of contempt to arise in the wicked townspeoples’ minds. Better for him to just move on now, but the plans of this young man were quite the opposite, and now, he would never dive into the water or toss his purse into the river in respect for the bridge or its enthusiasts. How he survived as long as he had up to this point was a testament to the natural resilience of his people, or better put, the generally astute understanding of the art of bullshiting that seemed to resonate naturally in their minds at a very young age. So the question today, ‘who is this kid?’ Followed by an even better one, ‘why did he choose to travel by means of the rivers when roads had been carved out years before?’ The answers to these questions weren’t known by anone in the insane town, but truth be told, we weren’t dealing with brilliance here, nor was the spirituality invoked through this ceremony much to marvel at either, if not for the natural setting it created to allow for even the most idiotic among them to easily understand what to look down upon without having to be told. The one they turned to for direction on such matters was more like them than they cared to understand, he too could not manage to break through the low ceiling that generations of rough bridge-mandated inbreeding had established. Wisdom of a certain quality, though regulated to the picking of only the worlds’ low-lying fruit, was still enough to manage a necessary exploitation of the generally gullible nature shared by those around him. Immediately his impression of the stranger was the same as that of his people, though instead of speaking to this, his instinct urged instead to do the opposite, as it had again and again in the past, ultimately making him who he was to the people. As the bridge provides, so does he, in ways that nobody is supposed to understand, just respect, admire and give things to.
“Our guest did not arrive here by accident.”