A Leap of Faith

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 23388

Mary put down the stick, and looked sternly at Checkers. "Give me a chance not to understand, Checkers. I have not travelled more than three leagues from here since I was married. My days pass in cleaning, washing, repairing, and cooking, in an endless cycle. I am not complaining - Bennie is a good man, and we have been able to get through the lean years. If I had to trade my life for anyone else's, I probably would not do it. But doing the same things year after year is a trial of its own - one of the few breaks that I get from the monotony is hearing news from the rare traveller that comes through here."

"I had a number of reasons for asking Bennie to spare you. You looked sad when we found you, and almost human. I would hate to have someone try to kill me if I were hungry and sick, without so much as trying to talk. But I am also curious. Nobody around here has ever seen a Glider, and we do not know what goes on in the Dolomite Range. Your people are very secretive. All we know is that your people have killed settlers attempting to enter the eastern valleys, and that dragon does not pass through your homelands. We also have never seen you send anyone in an organized resistance to the dragon - we only see one of you go at a time, and you that go are all very badly provisioned, unprepared, and ignorant of the country, and yet would rather be sick and die than talk to us. So yes, I guess we will never understand."

Checkers was stunned by the rubuke. These distortions of Glider behaviour had to be corrected! Mary certainly was not a Glider, then. Checkers asked herself why she felt that way - the proper reaction would be to treat the outburst from this woman as one would treat the barking of a dog, and yet she felt that Mary not only deserved a respectful reply, but that she might have had a point about it being polite to tell a little about herself and her nation. But the Glider mistrust of the thinking prey was deeply engrained in her thoughts. Confused and frustrated, she performed the Steward's Exercise.

The Steward's Exercise was one of the "exercises of detachment" that Gliders performed when they were threatened. Threats took many forms, ranging from physical threats to potential for damage to one's reputation. The Steward's exercise was simple - Checkers would pretend that she was someone else, a steward who was responsible for her behaviour. She would imagine herself as little more than a robot with no control over her destiny, and the 'steward' would not have to bear the consequences of his decision. The reasoning for the exercise was that it would allow Checkers to sort out the facts rationally, and behave in a Glider-like manner. She found the Steward's Exercise useful in warning her when she was driving herself too hard, or engaging in wishful thinking - when she could pull it off. Checkers often had problems performing this particular exercise, but it seemed to be just the exercise to perform at this moment.

The steward's evaluation was harsh. Her mission was to kill the dragon. She had problems crossing a relatively benign stretch of grass. She was not succeeding in her mission. She was also dwelling too much on her rejection - that was cluttering her mind. But what about Mary and Benjamin? They did not have any respect for her or her kind. Why should they? the steward told her. You have to earn it. But I have been trying so hard to be a good Glider. You are going by the rules, and not following the spirit of the Glider ideal. It is important to understand why the rules exist, but you are in not in the RDL anymore. The others failed because they could not apply the ideals properly to their changed situation. It doesn't mean that you have to fail as well. Trust Mary. She probably knows the lay of the land.

Checkers awoke from her thoughts, having taken a great leap of faith for a Glider. She would cautiously give this stranger information about her and her people - in her own way.

  1. Checkers answers Mary.

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