Imagine for a moment a reality in which Jone had swallowed his pride, and lived in peace with the wereghouls. It may take a few tries, but at least make an attempt.
Jone might have learned to appreciate their culture, gotten over his gag reflex, maybe. He might have even learned what some of them were called. He might have found his soulmate. He might not have – the deal with the wizard was a scam, after all – but at the very least he might have found some happiness.
The Puke Chute would still be dug out, the wereghouls' affliction would still disappear in the following decades, and the SavCo lawyer would still appear out of the woods on that cloudy day to etch what the river was called into the record of history.
Of course, Jone would still die. But he would not die alone and miserable. He would have passed in the comfort of loved ones, and his name – and probably what he was called, "Jones" – would have been remembered as the creator of the Puke Chute.
But none of this happened. Jone did not let it happen. Jone was conquered by his sadness, and paralyzed by his anxiety.
A man with enough spite in his blood to spend a year and a half building a canal for nobody but himself, yet was unable to build the courage to make amends with those around him.
The march of time moves ever forwards. What starts as a mere trickle one day grows to be a full, flowing river.
The Purifiers' steadily increasing output of clean water eventually flooded the small, personal-sized canal, washing way the wereghouls' filth. At some point, the walls of the canal disappeared beneath the surface of the water, resulting in a curiously straight river.
Although Jone's memory was lost to time, what the canal – and subsequently, the river – was called was remembered. The Puke Chute, a river of clean water that traced through the valley, and spilled out through the foothills deep into the land, far beyond its intended destination, nature thriving in every acre it passed through.
His name or what he was called may not be remembered, but Jone's legacy would end up being a curiously straight river called Puke Chute.
An act of (unintentional) kindness that he gave in death, when he could not in life.
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Fool's Beginning, Fool's End (At The End, Everything is Okay: The 0th Story)
AventuraSam Martin has spent a lot of time in an underground stasis chamber. After a few millennia, he is awoken by a strange girl who tells him that he is eligible for a refund on his Life Preservation service. Freshly awakened -- and thoroughly confused...
