Challenge: What is Your Favorite Indulgence?

[medjai]

*sighs* To slip away from the other Medjai and ride out into the desert with only my falcon Horus for company. To forget, when I can, that I carry the weight of thousands of years of duty on my shoulders. To cease being, if only for a few precious hours, a Med jai, a holy warrior, and be instead just a man.

cross-posted to Theatrical Muse

Comments

[evenstar_arwen]

Sometimes the simplest things can give the most pleasure, guilty or not. To escape what one is born to, even for a few hours, can be a rare gift.

Re:

[medjai]

A rare gift indeed. I sense that you speak with the voice of experience.

*smiles gently*

Yet, when duty and destiny are ingrained into you virtually from the time you are suckling at your mother's breast, it becomes difficult to see anything else by the time you become old enough to understand what these terms truly mean.

I was taught to ride horses and master swordplay as well as languages and history only so that I might one day be a good leader to my people. And I shall be a good leader. When I view my destiny now, I embrace it willingly. What the child blindly obeyed only because of filial love, the man gladly accepts.

...Still...I do feel guilty when I steal away and simply ride for the sheer pleasure of skimming over the desert sands, at one with my horse... Or hunting with my friend Horus purely for the pleasure of watching him soar through the sky.

[evenstar_arwen]

Maybe I do.

*smiles softly*

I would not let your heart feel guilt over the pleasures you speak of. You are at one with your destiny, and must allow yourself to enjoy these moments.

It will not make you any less of a leader, in fact, perhaps more. You may be able to see the same need in others, and allow them to slip away for a time too, to leave their duties behind and take pleasure in simple things, returning refreshed and renewed.

Re:

[medjai]

I thank you for your wise counsel, my Lady. You speak as one experienced in the skills of leadership.