#3. "Life is a bowl of snakes and silver; you reach in and hope you don't get bit." - Chapter 35, pg. 206.
Unlike the Forrest Gump standard that most of us are familiar with, “My mom always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get,” which is a surprise about what flavor sweets or nuts you might get wrapped up in lovely chocolate, this Author of "Sparking the Inferno" shows life could be a pleasant or painful surprise depending on what one grabs on to. Silver, ooh la la, or snakes, yikes!
In the philosophical discussion just before Theis's statement about life, Aurnia suggests to him that there is a greater power steering people in Stragus to some preordained event or end. However, it is an end Aurnia cannot see, but senses as a prophecy underway after reading a letter from an unknown person revelatory of her life. The ever practical and cynical Theis, shares his lifetime of experience by branding her theory. "It's horseshit, is what it is......."
Theis suffers no fools when it comes to prophecy. He is all about free will and making his own present and future. He goes his own way and does his own thing. He decides where and what to grab in the bowl of life and gets either silver or snake bites. He scoffs at the thought that life is confined to what people long, long, ago said it would be. He is out to do something.....but what IS he doing? He was on the run for something. Is he still running from it? Didn't he kill someone? Who was it? Was it someone important? What it is about this boy? He questions why he protects Nevin, but then continues to do it anyway. Why? Is he going his own way and doing his own thing if he feels compelled to accompany, guide and protect Nevin?
ARRGH. Maybe there is a prophecy after all! Maybe it has to do with this boy, maybe it has to do with the Sharasil. Does it have to do with Theis, Aurnia, Raiya, or anyone else? Who else? what else? Where is this heading? Why is Theis so resistant to it?
Is his scorn for prophecy part of the bread crumb trail of foreshadowing that will lead us to the end of this first book? What part does Theis plays in this hero's journey? Is he the hero's protector, guide, or advisor? Could Theis be a mole observing Nevin, the Sharasil, and the unfolding of the inevitable? Perhaps, at the end of "Sparking the Inferno", we will get a glimpse of a preordained end where the inferno drives our band of fellows and steers us readers. Then again, maybe the Author is a free will "pantser", like Theis, and just reaches in the bowl of this imaginary life as he writes and hopes we all do not get "bit."
ONLY TIME WILL TELL!