Capítulo 21: THE HIGHER THE GAIN THE HIGHER THE PAIN.

The sun is setting while painting the sky in an ocean or orange, pink and the stubborn blues that haven't faded by the evening.

Although Navi isn't standing high enough to see its full majesty, he could still see a massive mountain-like structure that seems to stretch to eternity being faintly illuminated in a shade of orange by the resting sun.

Still in a slight daze of the brilliance of rhe sky's nature, Navi hears his mother's calm tone as she tugs his hand to get his attention.

"Come with me..", She says thus causing him to stumble out of his daze as he awkwardly follows her lead while visually trying to take in a bit of everything he comes across.

The vast wooden architecture of the guest house was far more endearing than he had imagined. The serene environment, the placements of small trees, lanterns, balconies and even colours that expresses only one thing, peace and comfort.

Navi stays still, he is completely blown away by the fact that he've been living in such a massive, social and peaceful environment for such a long time. The dressings and bearings of the people calmly trailing through the walkways intrigues him as he takes in the social system of the place for the first time in his life.

Their smiles, the chuckles, the arrogant postures, the indifferent faces and even the overly pompous ones all intrigued him. The environment is wide enough for everyone to have their own space without need for over socialisation and yet everyone has their own person as they mostly moved in small groups.

"You once asked me what I do for a living..", Eleanora starts talking as she watches her son take in the world for the first time.

Hearing his Mother speak, Navi turns his head upwards to her due to their height differences.

"I'm an artist of the body, soul and of the mind..", Eleanora says calmly to her son without looking at him.

"People who come in here with thoughts and emotions too much to handle come to people like me for relieve, either through music..", Eleanora says while Navi looks towards a top balcony where a woman wearing similar clothes to Eleanora's work clothes gently plucks the string of a long instrument to produce soothing music to another expensively robed woman who's sitting on low but luxurious seat. Another Geisha in the sam serene balcony moves slowly to the slow rhythm in a simple yet comforting dance.

"Through conversations over meals and drinks - sometimes through massage while sometimes, the customers just need an ear to listen to their stories or maybe a bit of comforting words. ", Eleanora explain while observing the entire structures of the Guesthouse alongside her calm and listening son.

"Truth be told, it is not the most dignified job in the world and it has its own ups and downs but I've never been exactly ashamed of doing this job either. Infact, in some sense I feel a bit of the opposite. We are artists, breathing.. living pieces of arts that serve a very disturbed part of the world *Deep breath*.. but not everybody should be allowed the privilege of art.". Eleanora says with her grip on Navi's tender hand subconsciously tightening a little in a almost unnoticeable manner but Navi was able to feel every bit of emotion in his mother from that grip.

He shows no reaction nor did he ask questions as he just enters a weird state of calm. The mother-son duo calmly observes the entire workings of the Guesthouse for a while more before Eleanora tugs Navi's hand.

"Let's go..", Eleanora says to Navi who immediately complies. Hand in hand, the duo slowly walks out of the vicinity of the guesthouse and into the streets.

Slowly, they moved together. One step at a time, they slowly moved while Navi silently takes in everything on the streets into his curious mind as they walked in a direction that seems to be uphill.

The streets weren't too crowded as people walked up or down in robes or armour. Navi observes as some of them carryied weapons and others(Traders) running small stalls.

Navi observes all of this quietly as he only follows his mother's lead until she later breaks the comforting silence.

"What did you wish for your birthday this year?..", Eleanora calmly says as they keep walking uphill.

".. Honestly, I didn't have a wish.", Navi honestly admits with maturity in his tone as they continued their stroll at a casual pace.

"I'm going to tell you a simple reality of this world right now,.. wishes don't magically come true.", Eleanora calmly says without looking towards her son as they keep on walking forward for a while more in silence.

Navi just keeps quiet as he listens to his mother's words which would be considered extremely harsh considering his age but he has long since been mature enough to accept this reality.

"You have to make your wishes come through. If you are to set a goal then set the highest possible goal for yourself and slowly move towards that goal. You will stumble, you may feel pain and it may even feel impossible yet in the end,.. you might not even get to reaching that goal but atleast you would see how far you can get.", Eleanora says calmly while Navi also keeps his calm as he absorbs his mother's words.

Ever so rarely does his mother truly gets serious with him but when she does, he takes no second for granted as she is his biggest role model.

"Everything comes with a price. The higher the stakes, the higher the price and the higher the price, the higher you gain. Victory is only reserved to those who are willing to pay a prize.", Eleanora keeps talking while Navi patiently listens as she once more takes a break from speaking.

"..Sadly, the goals people like us can set is only so limited", Eleanora says as they keep walking.

"Why?..", Navi asks his mother clearly very interested in her speeches direction.

Eleanora smiles sadly a little as she looks at her sons face.

"Because we are only are only a small part of the world,.. an isolated part.". Eleanora says while swallowing hard at her own words.

Navi doesn't fully understand everything his mother has said but he didn't ask any more questions as they just quietly continued their stroll until the night fully sets in and the stars showed their brilliance in the dark.

The duo strolled around the upper parts of the Outskirts in a full circle before coming back home.

After his first stroll out, Navi's mind clung unto his mother's words tightly as he thinks on them over and over. He takes a quick shower while a little surprised to find out he has no mental energy left to spare for any thoughts on nightmares as he finds himself deeply asleep as soon as his head hits the pillows.