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La Manchaland is the happiest place on Earth.
The walkways of the carnival are bustling. Bright crimson lights are beaming, cascading the amusement park in its illustrious shade of red. Music blares across the lands, loud enough for all to hear. The Ferris Wheel turns in its same sluggish rhythm, the centerpiece of this joyful, radiant land.
Bloodfiends and humans coexist here. A feat previously deemed to be impossible, as bloodfiends are notorious for their infinite, ravaging bloodthirsty tendencies. It's in their nature to be thirsty hogs for the rivers that run beneath the flesh, after all. Such a beastly feature is persecuted by humans– a reasonable pursuit, because violence is the only language everyone knows how to speak. What insect wouldn't attempt to escape the web?
But, maybe.. they wouldn't have to live in fear of the intricate silk brocades woven upon the tree branches. A world where they can be at peace, friendly, forever. A dream that sounds so silly. Foolish, and naive. It is foolish, indeed. The one unreachable star amidst a galaxy just in the reach of the holder's palm. Yet.. La Manchaland serves as a testament. It's worth it to explore the seas in the sky, maybe.
I wouldn't have thought this way before. The way my father would sit on his throne, a cold stare on his cliff-faced frown, always looking ahead at something that was never quite there. He was unsatisfied with his life here in the castle– even with my difficulty, I could tell that he was not apathetic, but tired. Longing for something more than just this wild thirst, yearning to feel something more than a dying spark. This family wasn't enough, and these chill brick walls are nothing more than a prison of his own making.
Similarly, I looked forward with a blank, guarded expression. I still do now, but.. admittedly, I do feel the same best in my heart as he does when I hear the tales of fixers from afar, the storybooks written about fantastical tales of dragons and faeries.. I was most intrigued, yet also perplexed by when Bari would explain a peculiar form of entertainment: an amusement park. People found enjoyment from being swung around at high speeds? Preposterous. I've never heard of a taller tale. Yet.. father listened with bright eyes. A dream already brewing in that brain of his. I sighed, knowing that my fate was already sealed, and it would not be long before I succumbed to this desire as well.
I never knew that one person could change so much. His mind, once closed, was opened by the blue fixer with amusing stories and a poet's tongue. Mine slowly did as well. But he.. almost completely changed. I was almost disturbed by this transformation of his. Especially when he finally agreed to partake in a war.
It was terrifying. It reminded me of loud noises in the distance, craters forming in the pavement, houses crumbling in the distance as families broke apart. I remember the aftermath, lying in a crater aside the street accompanied only by ghosts. I was cold, lonely, hungry, scared.. but incredibly numb. I wished to die in those distant explosions. And so I tried. But.. Father brought me back. And it's Father's presence that makes me comfortable. It's Father that empowers me, and by His side I fought valiantly.
After the war, I didn't allow myself to feel proud. I almost felt filthy, for slaughtering my fellows. But.. I pushed these feelings aside. I found it immature to feel sad and embarrassing to feel prideful. Others handle their emotions so much better than I have.. so I must deal with them myself, treating it more as a burden to express rather than a freedom. I stayed surveying by His side, as I always had.
As his right hand, I had heard and endured many strange things. His ideas that come and pass as quickly as clouds in the sky, his interests that wane just as fast as he had developed them. It was infuriating to see someone this indecisive. He was never firm on an idea immediately, no matter how much he enjoyed the thought of it.
So.. one day. To hear him declare his new thoughts, I met it with a faint exhaustion in my words.
“ Sancho! I have conceived an idea most ingenious! „
He had declared with a smile.
“ What is it now… „
I asked with a reluctant sigh.
And our lives changed.
I knew there was no going back the moment I became attached to his side. Though, I was grateful for him showing me the thrills of life, so of course I needed to repay him with my unending loyalty.
I followed endlessly. Our paths were strung together like the sewn fabrics he had given up on attempting so long ago. I knew it was inevitable that he'd move on from this carnival sooner rather than later, as he has done with all of his other hobbies that now lay abandoned across our living spaces.
We journeyed for a long time, alongside Rocinante, our loyal steed.
I had never known that this adventure would be not a thrilling tale, but instead one of hardship and despair. And a world of evil awaited us once we returned. My knees shaked, threatening to give up as the shoes on my feet forced me forwards. I couldn't hear, see, or think. I just didn't want to leave him. To see our worlds fall apart. But once I woke up from the bad dream..
I was walking along a pier aimlessly, not a memory to my name. All I knew was the lighthouse full of fixer-themed enrichment and the calming ocean waves that killed me to sleep at night.
I grew restless at times, locked up in the lighthouse for what felt like centuries. My pen would run out of ink, my books would be skimmed hundreds of times, I would run out of paper, and I'd be left with nothing to do.
Fate came in the form of a colour fixer with red eyes, a piercing gaze that would chill my soul to the bone if I dared to stare. But he had promised me, saved me from boring monotony. And so I followed. That was all I knew how to do.
I followed. I followed. I followed. I followed. Carrying a lance and galloping triumphantly forward. I don't even know where I got the old English, but.. I was becoming just like him. Engulfed in an endless dream, reaching for stars that were too big for my palms to hold.
Eventually, stars will collapse in on themselves, creating a powerful and luminous supernova. These become different stars, or worse.. a black hole. Something that will consume all in its path, not picky on what it chooses. My Father's dream was a generational black hole, cursed to consume more and more of myself until we were naught but the same.
Black holes are harmful scourges to anything around it. Once someone helpful, black holes are the antithesis of a star. If they're so destructive.. how do you get rid of one?
Here's how.
You raise your lance up high.
You aim for the abdomen.
And you thrust it forward with all of your might until the skies rain blood onto the carnival below.
To where the walkways are empty. The lights are dimmed, plunging the amusement park into quiet darkness. The speakers have stopped working, the park quiet except for your sobs. And the Ferris wheel will stop turning, the blood melting and falling apart. You pick yourself up and shout your name with a devastated cry. But you will leave with a smile on your lips.
Because
La Manchaland is the happiest place on Earth.