The child stood near the river, and as he wanted to swim, a sound came to him,
"Do not jump, child."
The child looked at the man who said it, and it was an old man, a very old man. The grey hair and the relatively skin body made himself be able to be differentiated with the trees around him. The kid asked the old man,
"Who are you?"
"I am the man who looked at the bank of the river, I am always looking at the bank, and I will never let you jump in it." said the old man.
"I will not drown, I am strong enough to swim." the child exclaimed.
"I am not in worry about your safety, although that contributes to the reason why I voiced my sound like how you heard it before. The worry that I have is on the holiness of the river bank."
The child tilted his head.
"Holiness of this river bank? What do you mean by holiness? And what do you mean by it having the connection with this bank?"
"Holiness means sacredness, child. This river is sacred, for it is connected with the deity of the river, the goddess Nahr, the goddess of the rivers. The river bank is the most holy out of all, there should be no junk coming in it, except natural junk."
"A goddess have connection with this river? I am sorry old man, but what is a goddess?"
"Haven't your parents ever taught you about what is a goddess?"
"No, I haven't heard it, old man, tell me more."
The old man stood close to the child, and began to lecture him.
"The world, how big is it for you?"
"It is big enough to be the home of me and of you. It is big to be the home of the birds, and the tree of the snakes. The home of the adults and the younglings."
The old man smiled.
"You have spoken long beyond your age, and long beyond what I consider great for a child. But here, I want to ask you, is there any world outside of what you have seen?"
"The world outside of what I've seen? Isn't that something that always happen? There must be a world outside what I've seen, but soon I will see it. I haven't discovered it yet, and as long as I haven't discovered it, I can't make it a knowledge, but only a speculation of mind."
"Where do you put mind, child? Is it not the source of knowledge? Think and you can get knowledge."
"That is the most foolish comment I have ever heard, there shall be nothing in knowledge if it's just the product of the mind, for what I've seen and heard, constituted what I will think. Even the way I think, stems from how the world looks like. The more I see, the easier I think. I am what I observe, and what I exert."
"Well, but from your mind, you can truly have concretization of knowledge, and you can know what you actually perceive better, right? So knowledge stems from the mind, not the observation."
"I don't say knowledge is not based on the mind, but it doesn't originate from the mind without observation. Anything that is non-observatory, is not a knowledge, but merely a product of a thought."
"But the product of a thought can be true!" said the old man.
"The product of a thought can be true, and equally the same chance of being false." the child exclaimed.
The two suddenly went silent, none of them arguing on one another. The child knew he had made a point, the old man knew that he couldn't argue further with the child. Then, the old man spoke,
"I know that you are of brilliance, and none can be compared to you in the might of your mind. I am in deep awe towards what you have said."
The child smiled, and the old man continued,
"However, about the goddess itself, the world is constituted of the things that are immaterial and material, the goddess is the immaterial form, and the river is the material."
"So the river is the material manifestation of the goddess?"
"yes, you are true."
"This is an interesting thought, old man, I will consider that, although I do think that the goddess is the immaterial manifestation of the concept of the river."
The old man turned silent. He never saw a child of this brilliance, and in response to that, he spoke,
"Let us have a discussion, far from this river, in front of many people."
"Let us have one, if you commit to the commitment, that I shall not be harmed of any cause." said the child.
"Your maturity makes me venerate you, how can I harm you? Now, let me bring you to my village, child, a greater beauty shall be found upon it."
"I will."