The Musafir
The World in a Fumed Cup of Tea
MANTINGAN arrived at a small village located at the foot of two large mountains that looked like twin brothers. This place became a stopover with the North River Angel when they just started their journey.
As at that time, Mantingan visited a shop facing directly on the two mountains. On the second floor of the tavern, he could never forget the beauty of the face of the River Angel which was in harmony with the elegance of the view of two large mountains that spread behind him.
At the same table as before, he ordered a cup of hot tea. The air was so cold it was about to crush the bones. Be the tea in the cup does not last too long its warmth, Mantingan must warm it again using internal energy.
“Brother, we saw you coming here on a buffalo, so we were going to offer you something. We have fresh grass from the foot of the mountain worth five bronze pieces for a bundle if you will. In addition, we still keep the best stockpile of wine in the whole region.” A servant came and said in a friendly tone.
“Give him ten bindings.” The mantel took out a piece of gold and gave it to the servant. “And do not drink wine, just bring me more bitter tea.”
“Brother, the morning is still fresh and the store has just opened the curtain. We don't have change for this amount. Do you have silver pieces?” The servant had not dared to accept the gold piece in Mantingan's hand.
“Just bring me the best food you have with that leftover money.” Mantingan.
“Good. But to prepare for that, we need a short time. Instead, we will present a maid to accompany you to tea.”
Mantingan wanted to reject him immediately, but he recalled that one of the last tasks he had to pay off before resigning from the martial well was to look for the meaning of the martial world contained in a cup of tea. If someone else wants to accompany him to tea, then it is very good, he can exchange ideas with that person.
And so the servant left in a hurry, and no other table came to him, for only Mantingan stopped in the shop.
It is indeed a reasonableness if this store is empty of visitors. The village that has a view of two large mountains that are opposite each other, with no matter how beautiful the scenery, is still not the main route of trade. That means, this village is very rarely passed by visitors from outside.
Mantingan himself deliberately avoided the trade route because at that time he brought the North River Angel who was being hunted by black warriors. The path he chose crossed with this village.
The mantan is almost immersed in his contemplation, which can be very dangerous because the memory of Chitra Anggini's death can always be sticking out at any time, but he heard the sound of footsteps climbing the stairs. He turned his head and found a woman carrying a teapot with two clay cups on a tray.
When he saw the woman's face, Mantingan immediately remembered the beauty of Chitra Anggini who was very attractive every pair of eyes. He let out a long sigh while moving his head vigorously, trying to expel all ideas about the woman!
“Brother, can I sit here?” asked the waiter after he was close enough to Mantingan.
“Of course.”
After sitting down and putting the tray on the table, the woman again said, “Brother, I am actually not the servant who promised to accompany you to drink. Daku is the son of the shop owner who coincidentally is getting a share of guarding this store. When I heard an important guest wanted to be accompanied by tea, I immediately became interested. So forgive me for having to replace that servant. But if you feel objection to my existence, then I will not why to get away.”
“No need. My sister's arrival has been a great honor for me. Sister certainly still has a lot of other work to complete, but Sister is accompanying me here.” The mantel dismissed that politely.
“Other jobs? Brother, don't you see how there are no other visitors in this shop besides you? All my work is complete already, all I can do if you do not accompany you drink tea is just sit pensively.” The woman laughed softly. “Daku Nadara's. Can I know what you're doing?”
“Call only daku Jaya.” The mantan answered briefly while smiling faintly.
“Good. I think you're a little younger than me, aren't you?”
Mantingan can capture the meaning of Nadara's speech. Soon he took a teapot on a tray to fill the two small cups. It is customary that the younger ones pour the drink for the older ones. Although he was actually a customer in this tavern, Mantingan did not mind at all.
“Why do you like tea?” ask Nadara later.
“To simply warm yourself, Sister,” replied Mantingan.
Nadara slightly muttered before saying, “Typically men prefer wine to warm their bodies, rather than tea or ginger drinks that are less delicious. You are not just any man.”
“Tuak will only get me drunk, Sister.”
A pair of Nadara's eyebrows shot up with a smile. “Ah, that means you are a martial world warrior! Aih, I just realized the reason why you brought a sword to this tavern.”
“About the despicable swordsman went crazy,” Reply Mantingan.
“I've heard stories of warriors who never touched palm wine in their entire lives to maintain vigilance. The mediation of the tip of the needle alone is able to bring a swordsman into the afterlife. Is that true?”
The mantle just shrugs shoulders. Didn't he say just now how he was just a despicable swordsman?
“I always wanted to be a swordsman,” continued Nadara. “Beaten as fast as the shadows. Bouncy from precarious to precarious. Challenging swordsman cloth fights under full moonlight without mega-mega. Doesn't that sound very happy?”
Hearing the woman's words, Mantingan shook his head slowly. “Saudari Nadara, what if the martial world is not like your very beautiful shadow?”
“I'm sure I will undo my intentions to become a swordsman. After all, can't the short stories be uncertain of the truth? Even if I think about it, it is impossible for a human being to go faster than sound, bouncy lightly like a cotton swab, then forsake each other in vain for the purpose of seeking the perfection of imagination. It all sounds like a made-up story for scribes only.”
Nadara lifted the teacup and started sipping it slowly. But a moment later, her pair of beautiful brows furrowed.
“It's sweet tea,” he said later. “Brother, didn't you order bitter tea?”
“Ya, bitter tea,” Mantingan replied.
Nadara shook her head while repeatedly clucking in annoyance. “There must be something that clogs the minds of the workers here so they are so negligent. Brother, forgive that negligence. Let me rebuke them and bring bitter tea for us to drink together.”
The mantan simply nodded without saying much. He glanced at the cup of sweet tea before him, appearing to be two-three dead ants floating on the surface of the water, while there are still many other ants that desperately climb the surface of the cup only to then plunge themselves in the heat of tea water.
Mantingan thought for a moment. Do the ants know how much their efforts to climb a teacup will bear fruit on mere death? Wouldn't their comrades who died floating on the hot water be a valuable lesson for them not to repeat the same mistake?
Suddenly, an idea was struck in the contemplation.
“This is what Kiai Guru means about the martial world in a tea cup?”
The mantle was stunned for a while. Didn't the ants have much in common with martial arts warriors? The ants were desperately climbing the surface of the cup, only to find death in the sweet tea water. And warriors are also struggling to climb the path of martial arts with all the quest for knowledge and deep training, only to meet death in battle.
Do they not both think that what they want to achieve is perfection, although in fact it will only lead to a mere encounter that takes lives in vain?
Even now it is thought by him that the way Puspa in Kotaraja when concocting tea also holds great meaning about the martial world. The woman was about to make a cup of tea so perfectly, that to achieve it she had to throw away the previous cups of tea.
Mantingan can quote the main idea to be conveyed by Kiai Guru Kedai, namely that the search for perfection is futile. This idea is not limited to the martial world.
The perfection of life sought by martial world warriors is only a delusion that leads to futility. Similarly, the perfection of taste that many ants are looking for in the tea cup.
Mantingan's mind had to split when Nadara returned with another pot of tea. It must have been a bitter tea, so bitter, that it was impossible for any ant to even bother climbing a cup just to die drowning in that bitterness.
“Brother, I've brought you bitter tea. As an apology, let me just fill your cup.” Nadara picked up a new cup and started filling it. There was a slight worry on the girl's face as Mantingan did not reply at all. “Brother Jaya, are you mad at me?”
“Saudari, look at the ants in this cup,” said Mantingan later, which Nadara really did not expect his reply would be like that. “What do you think?”
Quiet for a while, Nadara finally replied, “They are animals, Brother, who is naturally stupid without thinking. They just died for nothing in that cup.”
The wide smiling coat. “Isn't that also the warriors happened in the martial world?”
“Civil Meaning?”
“What did you say about the impossibility of the martial world earlier?” The mantel asked back.
“Are you offended by what I said, Brother? I just think that it is impossible for any human being to move at the speed of sound, bouncy as light as cotton, and pierce each other for perfection that never existed.”
“Your last idea, Sister Nadara.” Mantingan thrust his cup of sweet tea in front of Nadara. “These ants also died in vain for something considered perfection.”
____
note:
After fighting for more than 25 days, I decided to stop pursuing the monthly target of 60,000 words. As I said then, my laptop HDD was in trouble, so more than 7,000 words (the latest count) just disappeared. That's equivalent to three days of writing.
As a result of that completely unexpected incident, I had to go the extra mile. This makes me have to stay up every night, even though from morning it was sitting in front of the laptop.
Budiman readers certainly know that I choose a style of language that is "criminal" for the Musafir, so to write it can not just be arbitrary. It takes a lot of time and thought to make it as beautiful as possible.
After a few days of staying up late, also with an irregular diet, I began to get the impact. At the beginning, I was just carefree and feverish, but still I could force it with the "young" motivation intake of YT. Then after that, I began to experience hallucinations for the sake of hallucinations every night. That was so horrible.
Not wanting to die young at a productive age, especially when I have not found a mate, I decided to "pair the brakes" and stop for a moment.
For that, Dear Readers, if until the end of the month, the Musafir will update erratically, because I want to take a recovery time for my health.
Wow, so long x wide like this. See you back. Thank you!
