The Next Stage Of Evolution (Efed Story)

The Next Stage of Evolution!

A Prologue...

Long before the tales of the Bible, the era of heroes and legends, the myths of sophists and philosophy, was the true story. The story from which all others are now derived. It was a tale of love, power, hatred, and glory, true events which became a tale, a tale which becomes a legend and a legend which became all others.

These were the days before humanity had committed its original sin, a land where people lived harmoniously with each other, where the human race began its first infantile steps towards an identity from which all individuality could be drawn. The gods were on one side, equals on the other, innocence and hope reined.

Many will have heard variations of this very tale, all clusters of humanity throughout earth cling to their explanation of the days where the gods disinherited our fair earth, an explanation of the flaws in humanity and the perfection of nature, a need to seek the forgiveness of the divine to compensate for the animal nature of our existence. Where Science will try to explain everything in its own way.

This tale will take you to the world where the destiny of mankind was played out, the original beginning, the original sin. This is the tale of how man became more than just another being but evolved into much more this is about Evolution...

Today to Evolution was much like any other day in these troubled times. It was dark and it was miserable even as the sun beamed through the treetops and a gentle breeze wisped across the forest path. As he stomped gently through the forest in the ancient Myan lands, tears of pent up frustration and anguish could be seen welling in the corner of his eyes, and gradually falling, ominously, one by one to the earthen floor below. Where Evolution was, he did not know, where he was going, he did not care; Evolution was quite simply, lost in his own anger

The animals of the forest also could sense something different about this man, this was not the ordinary traveler they have come to know. Indeed, the sharp eyes of the birds and the noses of the creatures below, even the rodents on the ground, could sense the melancholy emanating from this man. As the tears fell from Evolution's face and landed on the ground, all that the salty water touched turned black and to ash. As he walked past trees vibrant and green in their prime, the leaves would noticeably begin to wither away, as if this man was singlehandedly bringing the darker seasons to this glorious summers day. Although time was lost in the depth of this, Evolutions emotions, his slumped shoulders and weary look on his face suggested that his melancholy was not only the result of the most recent event on Friday Night 12 as he lost his tag team championships, but it had the depth of one resigned, one who was not only down on his luck but who had given up, not with his own life, his own misfortune, but with the whole world.

Indeed, this sense was all speculation from creatures of the forest, what dark thoughts raced through this mans gentle ambling was something that the birds, the bears and all of nature's creations would not be able to understand. Evolution himself would not be able to articulate these thoughts, and indeed he did not try. He simply walked around in a state of mental hibernation as he cocooned himself in his own thoughts.

As is the nature with all paths, be they forest paths created by the pattering of animals feet, or carved out of granite by the cold hand of man, they tend to come to an end. And despite the nonchalant and gentle pace of his ambling, the birds and the animals sighed a palpable exclamation of relief as this Evolution emerged from the forest on the outskirts of a Myan Temple, a tiny savior the war-torn country of Mexico. Evolution walked up to the Myan Temple walking straight in, as tended to be the case in most towns, was the central hub of the community. And so, the unlocked and open door, a temple most remarkable for being ordinary, if slightly more run down than most, was to become the scene for Evolution to try, again, to explain the beginning of his next stage of evolution.

As Evolution sits in the Myan temple the wind blows a cool breeze through his hair while he sits there contemplating his thoughts. A couple of Myan priests walked through but did not attempt to approach the man, the myth as they knew exactly who he was when they saw him sitting there. He sat there for several hours before he left.

Evolve Forward A Few days...

Evolution
Man is equal parts novelty and folly. He is a novelty in that he desires the abstract into physical existence. He is folly in that he fails to perceive the relative importance of cherished ideals in the natural order. All too often, his insistence on the precedence of ideas creates a sense of crises when confronted with the impersonal void. And yet, he must attempt to reconcile the disparate elements of his existence, if only to safeguard his sanity from the fact that he needs to evolve to become more than folly or novelty.

Evolution discovered the truth of this eminent necessity As an aesthete, he believed in the prior value of beauty and imagined that something like a cult devoted to artistic excellence thrived throughout Mexico. The same couldn't be said about the lands to the North, where savage McStrumpers commemorated the drunken exploits of their ancestors in verse. They believed they were perfect they were the greatest beings on the planet, the smartest they refused to evolve, that their God would take care of them. Gods dwelt among men in chiseled effigy statues of their Gods everywhere life was art and art was in life for the American.

Imagine Evolution's disappointment, then, when he arrived at a rather simple Mediterranean village after a harrying commute through a mountain pass. The journey was realized by means of a rust-colored bus which heaved like an old animal. As soon as it came to a rattling halt, Evolution looked at the driver with apprehension. It occurred to him to fire a line of indignant questions, but, alas, he wouldn't speak the native tongue. It also occurred to him to grip the man by the shoulder, to telegraph something of his feeling, but the driver's shy aspect filled Evolution with a different kind of foreboding--an understanding of male weakness.

But the maps were correct; Evolution was indeed where he had asked. With trepidation, he followed the driver off the bus. He shielded his eyes against the sunlight. The day was sunny and the glare was enough to blind a man not cautious enough to fix his eyes on the ground.

The driver walked along the side of the bus and opened a hatch from which he extracted Evolution's shoulder-strap travel bag. With ginger and almost fear of harm, he meekly handed the bag to him. A sea-borne breeze cut through the scene, diffusing the salty scent of a distant shore. Evolution's eyes continued to struggle against the daylight and the ubiquitous haze it cast over everything in the visible distance like a veil.

These events, measured against his expectations, produced an astounding deficit of enthusiasm in the man. Evolution was already considering turning on his heels and returning to the city when he was approached by a youth. The boy, who couldn't have been more than fifteen, wore a tattered green tank top and green basketball shorts. A native, he seemed comfortable in the heat even though it made him sweat feverishly.

Native Boy
"American?"

The boy said, with a pronounced accent. Evolution nodded.

Native Boy
"You look for ancient places, no?"

Evolution's eyes widened. He nodded as if this kid knew more for than his age should.

Native Boy
"I take you. My uh Aunt has a place for you to sleep. Ten dollars, Russian."

Evolution followed him to a house which looked somewhat bigger than the other buildings in the village. The doorway was low. Chickens freely roamed the interior like residents. A portly woman wearing a food-stained apron greeted Evolution with a sour look, the image of recalcitrant age. The boy ran up to her energetically and spoke to her in foreign gibberish. She stared him down, rather suspiciously, and, after a moment of anticipatory silence, landed a firm blow on his cheek. The boy reeled with a hiss and Evolution stared a hole into the woman before he gestured to leave. Before he reached the door, however, the boy was at his heels.

Native Boy
"No no," he said, wildly, "

She said why I don't offer the guest to drink. I have... bad manners."

Evolution sat across from the boy at a rough-hewn wooden table whose red paint faded to reveal splotches of the natural wood grain. The boy's name was Mika. Over the years he had made a living by guiding tourists to the ruins. From his trade, he had acquired a passing acquaintance with a variety of languages. The business was not only lucrative but edifying. There was one thing which bothered him about his job, however--how tourists expressed confusion at the relative modesty of the village as if its proximity to the ruins placed an obligation on the residents to perpetuate the exalted beauty of the past. Evolution nodded, adding that he too thought as much. To this, the boy replied with analogy and irony.

Native Boy Mika
"So, in America, it is coca-cola and Mickey Mouse everywhere?"

He asked Evolution looked a bit confused or a bit amazed at the question for a kid so much smarter than he lets on to ask such a dumb question.

Evolution
"Oh, goodness no, since the great war America really has nothing, McStrump has done nothing for them so I stay away from there maybe you should go there and see for your self one day,"

Evolution replied, lifting a spoonful of soup to his lips.

Evolution
"Hmm. This is quite good, the woman is quite a good cook."

Native Boy Mika
"So what brings you here?"

Evolution paused to contemplate an answer. He laid the spoon aside. For a moment he was struck by the seemingly simple, though no less profound, nature of the boy's question. Evolution is one who normally does not tell strangers his business but this time he is up to speaking as the boy has a serine since about him that makes Evolution seem open to him. Why had he assumed as much? Evolution brushed his chin. He didn't have an answer, at least not an adequate one. It was quite simply a matter of,

Evolution
"Well, you know, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and this country is a place that will allow me to evolve into the next stage of evolution just as this country has since the great war."

And the only thought that beauty deserved a permanent home in the world--a place where it is allowed to remain, unmolested, like a distended limb. It seemed to Evolution that the land in which he found himself seemed like the ideal place for such an indulgence if only the Americans could be taught to love beauty as much as the ancestors did. Objections to the contrary, Evolution didn't understand Mika's attitude. Here too the boy replied with an unusual degree of precociousness.

Native Boy Mika
"So you have not now believed in certain balance?" he said.

Evolution
"What do you mean? Do you keep the same appreciation if all is the same? I think not that way. Everything is as was given in the beginning. But wouldn't you want everything to be as beautiful?"

Native Boy Mika
"How can that then be of a fair manner to what has ugly quality in life?"

He said, with some impatience as he sat there looking at Evolution.

Evolution
"Because of..."

The boy leaned forward in anticipation. Evolution's lips parted, to speak, but he only succeeded in inhaling.

Native Boy Mika
"What can this beauty be, if not the ugly harmonized?"

Mika quipped as the discussion had grown tiresome. Mika's relentless curiosity had become irritating, verging as it did on a philosophical cross-examination. His hand returned to grip the spoon. It was cold, and Evolution imagined the broth was as well. A feeling of loathing took root in the pit of his stomach. The boy had unwillingly instigated a revelation Evolution was not prepared to accept. Like the apostate, he could feel his faith fading away. He stood up and asked Mika to see the bathroom.

This too was disappointing Mika led Evolution to a round ditch behind his aunt's house. The stinking crevice was shallow and covered with large flies. Evolution raised an eyebrow he held his stomach as he could feel the gas building up. Despite his reservations about using the primitive toilet, he was nonetheless compelled to dismiss the boy, lower his jeans and squat over the hole.

The bowel movement pained him terribly the sun beat down on him relentlessly and warm drops of sweat lined his forehead like glittering jewels. As soon as he felt the excrescence slip between his buttocks, he wiped and walked away from the hole, resisting any temptation to look at what had evacuated his body. He couldn't be sure, but he left more than he could account for in the cavity.

Evolution felt feverish. He returned to the house and summoned Mika who was presently engaged in another frenzied exchange with his aunt. At the sound of his name, the boy turned around. "Yes?" he said, his eyes wide. The stalwart matron also looked at him with anticipation. Evolution stammered to his seat at the same rough-hewn table, like an injured animal, and asked for some water.

Mika approached the shaken aesthete with the requested libation. Evolution gulped it down hungrily, a faint whimper arising from his contracting gullet. There was something of desperation in his thirst.

Native Boy Mika
"Have you feeling sick?"

Mika asked Evolution shook his head. He was thoughtless, his head a hollow channel for the stray gusts of wind which blew through the stooping doorway. At length, he spoke a few words.

Evolution
"So when do you we visit the ruins?"

Too ill to make the hike, Evolution resigned himself to sleep. He had developed a fever earlier in the day. At this, Mika's unusually distant aunt took compassionate interest in Evolution. She sat at his bedside for some hours, holding a cold rag to his forehead. He shook and wheezed, speaking in broken phrases, more oracle than ague. At an uncertain point in the time, Mika's aunt left the room and blew out the oil lamp on the nightstand. As he trembled in the darkness, Evolution thought he could hear voices taunting him. From this state, he passed into a dream, a seamless and phantasmagorical transition.

Dream Sequence...

Evolution wandered the surrounding forest. The day, though sunny, was a monochrome vista, grey, cold and still. He walked among the trees aimlessly, conquering small hills with limp and whimper. Here too, in the dream, Evolution was ill. Eventually, he reached a mountain on top of which stood an ancient military fortress. He balked at the sight, the object of his journey attained at last. However, as he admired the weathered marble and graven reliefs of days past, he started at the howling of wolves. Quickly, with an unusual degree of instinct, he crawled to an alcove behind a toppled column.

From his nearly acquired position, Evolution had a clear vantage point onto the courtyard behind the main gate. The howling continued, drawing nearer with Evolution's mounting anticipation. At length a grey-furred wolf crossed the gate's threshold and walked to the center of the courtyard, heaving with exhausted panting. The wolf glanced this way and that, lifting its snout in the air, chasing a scent. It glanced at Evolution with cold blue eyes, deep as icy pools. Evolution felt his heart stop. The wolf spoke.

Grey Wolf
"Man is equal parts novelty and folly,"

The grey Wolf said as it stared into the eyes of Evolution.

Grey Wolf
"Divine and profane."

Gazing into the wolf's eyes, the words froze Evolution to his core. An alien feeling racked his soul. Why had the wolf spoken and what did it mean? The wolf pointed its snout aloft and issued a blood-curdling howl, protracted and melodious. Evolution found it unbearable. He muffled his ears with his hands, rocking in a place like a mental patient. What did it all mean? Why had he ventured afar? That realization was the universe trying to communicate to him? Then, out of frustration, he broke into shouts, matching the intensity of the howling. For a moment he heard his voice imposed over that of the wolf and their joint cacophony reached the ends of space. Wake up, Evolution. Wake up.

Native Boy Mika
"Wake up."

Mika stood over Evolution, the latter became lucid gradually, sitting up in bed like a dazed amnesiac. He felt like a phantom, weightless and diaphanous. The fever had subsided as the beginning of his evolving had started.

Native Boy Mika
"Are you better feeling?"

Mika followed up Evolution nodded he removed the covers from his legs and swung his legs over the edge of the cot. He rose to his feet with some difficulty, but once his legs were on the creaky wooden floor, Evolution felt grounded and secure.

Native Boy Mika
"We make a journey perhaps today?"

Mika said as Evolution stood there putting on his shirt as he gathered up a few things.

Evolution
"Yes, we do as I have to begin to prepare for my rematch with Boris Drago and Dash Ivanova, you see I am evolving and when I am done they will not be able to stop me. the Russian government won't be able to stop me and they will not be able to control me or the American government any longer."

Evolution said, with imposing confidence. They set out during the morning and arrived at the ruins before midday. The ruins were safely tucked away two miles into the forest. Toppled columns and rock etchings appeared along their path--confirmation that Evolution's forbearance and patience would be rewarded. They reached the foot of a small mountain. Glancing upwards, shielding his eyes against the glare, Evolution perceived a fortress which rose to the sky, an Olympian sized monument.

Evolution
"How do we get up there?"

Evolution said as he wasn't sure where to head next.

Native Boy Mika
"I'm leading you beyond to the path,"

Mika said as he pointed well beyond the monument

Native Boy Mika
"The road has not died."

Circumventing their point of entry, the two found the road. In sharp relief against jagged crags, a weathered path led them up the side of the mountain. The climb was steep and perilous. None of this phased Evolution, however. There was a marked change in his character. He was no longer cross at in his dashed loss championship. The idea and its corresponding reality had coalesced as a whole.

At the summit, the path opened unto a flat expanse. In the shadow of a neighboring valley sat the old fortress. Evolution experienced deja vu as his eyes focused on the main gate. It was identical to what he had seen in his dream. Remembering the possible threat of wildlife, he turned to Mika.

Evolution
"Are there wolves here?"

Native Boy Mika
"This the wolf's lair."

Evolution
"What do you mean?"

Native Boy Mika
"That's the name of this place."

Evolution
"But are there really wolves in this area?"

Native Boy Mika
"Wolves everywhere. Here is no difference."

No difference, indeed The answers gave Evolution a strange kind of satisfaction as he knew he was evolving just as needed. Mika was then called on to act as a tour guide Evolution wanted to know the history to the fortress, why it was erected. The boy beckoned Evolution to the center of the courtyard. He pointed at a large balcony buried beneath Ivy. It was the center of the fortress. From either side, two parapets extended in adjacent angles to form a trapezoidal enclosure.

Native Boy Mika
"This the place of Lycan, King of infinite legend. "

Mika said as he walked around the place. Evolution took in the dimensions of the fortress and looked back at his guide.

Evolution
"The name sounds familiar,"

Native Boy Mika
"Yes... You know of wolf-man?"

Evolution
"Wait. Lycan?"

Evolution said, with a smile.

Evolution
"Like lycanthropy? You're not saying... Not moving the picture. The first story, the beginning."

There was more substance to the boy's words than Evolution assumed at first. Evidently there had been a legend, based on historical fact. Lycan was the king of the region. The lands under his dominion were few, but his rule was notorious. Hardened tyrants resented any comparisons to the "mad dog".

So over the years, decades, and centuries, man has changed facts into legends into myths into plain history all the while forgetting that what it comes down to is pure evolution. Evolution and Mika walk around the grounds as they discuss the history of the place as they look for what could only be considered factual evidence of an evolved society.

Evolution stops as he comes across a stream leading into the mouth of a cave he leans down taking a couple of handfuls of it first washing his face with it. The cool water refreshing and invigorating calms him and refreshes him as he then takes a large drink straight from the stream quenching his thirst.

Mika sits alongside the opening of the cave with his back to it as he listens to Evolution speak about his plans for the future.

Evolution
You see, Mika, I have been allowing myself to stay in a cocoon for a while now, staying content with being nothing more than a mere caterpillar. But after losing to the Russians at Friday Night Fight 12, I have realized it's time to finish evolving. it's time, I become more than a caterpillar. I need to Evolve or go extinct and I will not go extinct.

Mika looks at him with an extreme interest he hadn't seen Evolution with this much passion or fire in him since they had met a day or so ago.

Evolution
I will take what is rightfully mine back at Brawl at The Wall, you see Mika, I was not fully evolved but by the time I step into that ring with Drago and his partner Dasha. I will be more than they know, more than they can handle and more than they will ever become. I will be Evolution personified. I will not only take them down while I take back Rayven and my tag-team championships but I will take back control from the Russians and Make America great again.

Evolution
Mika, remember one thing you must either Evolve or go Extinct!!!

The two guys stand up as they head into the mouth of the cave...