Two Clocks of Rustica🔊

Once there was a lively, bustling township named Rustica in the heart of Andovan, inhabited by various trades of men and women, farmers, musicians, poets, smiths, and weavers.

In Rustica, everyone had an innate time-keeping enthralled in the rhythm of their pulses—the Centurion Clock they inherited from their ancestors. The rhythm not only ruled their livelihood but also stipulated their philosophy.

Among the people of Rustica, lived an amiable, jovial man named Old Felix. Known for his enormous wit and colossal wisdom, Felix was a blacksmith by trade. Locals revered him for the tingle in his jingling laughter that could even lighten up a funeral. His forge was always alight, birthing art from raw heat and unforgiving metal. What stood out was his sad-looking clock that never ticked, speaking of a long-forgotten tale.

Eliana was Rustica's heartthrob, the youngest and most skilled harpist. Just like Felix’s forge, her music knew no pause. The rhythm of the Centurion clock echoed in her tunes flawlessly. Yet, she was restless—her music sought something, a missing heartbeat perhaps.

One summer dusk, Eliana saw Felix's lifeless clock. Puzzled by its silence, she asked why it held no rhythm like the Centurion Clock. With a heavy sigh, Felix shared a tale from his youth.

He was just like Eliana—vivacious yet searching. One day, he found a stone with a peculiar rhythm. He shaped it into a clock that would beat to its unique pulse. Everyone despised his clock that defied the Centurion rhythm. Heartbroken, he silenced the rhythm of his clock, making it adhere to the township's tradition.

Eliana felt resonance with Felix's story. Her restless music was hungry for the silenced rhythm. Courage ignited in her heart, she asked Felix to give life to his clock again.

Rejuvenated, Felix restarted the lone clock. It brought back an alien rhythm to the town. This made Eliana's harp sing a melody that Rustica had never heard, which wasn't in the rhythm of the Centurion Clock.

The strange pulse instilled fear, then curiosity among the people. Slowly, they touched a new kind of freedom they had unknowingly longed for. Farmers found a new pace to till their lands; the poets and weavers spun their words and looms to this novel tempo. The township of Rustica was not bound to one, but danced to two rhythms – the Centurion Clock and Felix's clock.

In Eliana's lilting melodies and Felix's revitalized zeal, Rustica discovered the joy of defying conventions and embracing change. The Centurion Clock still stood tall and proud, but next to it also lay the heart of Felix’s clock. Each had its melody, and in their symphony, lay the harmony of Rustica.