The Fortibi are Roman mythical creatures but many people mistakenly believe that they are monsters. The Fortibi don’t really have a purpose either and it doesn’t really contribute to society in any way. Because it doesn't really do anything, people think that it kills people during the night even though no one has ever mysteriously died in its region.
What most people don’t know is that a Fortibi actually has a very personal goal in life. Every Fortibi has to have travelled one thousand kilometers without returning to its home location. It needs to make it back to the place he was born in time to be able to die peacefully. But once a Fortibi sets off on its journey, it does become very nice. If Fortibi sees anyone that clearly needs help, it has to help him or her or otherwise, its kilometer count starts all the way at zero again.
There was once a female Fortibi who was about halfway through her journey and was starting to head back to the place she was born. She was already about twenty-five years old and would only have three more years to live. The first half of her journey had taken three and a half years because she was so old and now she needed to make haste. Before leaving on her journey, she had enjoyed twenty-one and a half years of calmness and peace. But people had been warning her since she was three months old to complete her journey in time or her death would be very cruel. So she began her journey having calculated that she would have just enough time to complete it.
This Fortibi, like all others, had very weak legs so she had to walk the whole journey by hand. After the five hundred and sixty third kilometer, her hands really started to ache. Because of this, she was happy that she heard a beeping sound in her head which meant someone needed help. She looked around and saw a little girl crying and shouting something in Russian. Fortibi didn’t understand Russian but it was clear that the girl had lost her parents. Fortibi was thinking quite fast because she knew that the child would start crying even more if she saw her. But it was already too late. The little girl had seen her.
Unlike almost everyone else in the world, this little girl wasn’t scared of Fortibi. She stood up and started waddling to Fortibi. Her hazel coloured curls were bouncing with each step. She had dirt all over her face and clothes. It seemed like she had been on her own for a couple of days. Fortibi scanned the rest of the area but there was no sign of any adults anywhere. Fortibi decided to put the girl on her feet and continued walking. She would probably bump into the girl's parents. Fortibi’s kilometer count started declining. It didn’t go all the way to zero, probably because she was helping the girl but not in the right way.
Fortibi had started walking again and her kilometer count just stayed the same. She figured that once the girl had been returned to her parents, she would get all the kilometers she had walked back.
After walking for what seemed like seven kilometers, Fortibi couldn’t know the precise count, there still wasn’t any sign of the girl’s parents.
Fortibi feared the worst. For the parents and for the girl.
It had now been a few weeks and Fortibi and the little girl were still walking. Fortibi’s kilometer count was now declining by five kilometers every day but Fortibi was almost back home. Fortibi spent all her time thinking of all sorts of scenarios and she had finally figured out a plan. She would just raise the girl herself. That must be some sort of a good deed. The girl was already so familiar with Fortibi that she spent all of her time talking to Fortibi. Fortibi thought that the little girl didn’t even know that she spoke a language that Fortibi wasn’t familiar with but, Fortibi had already learnt a few Russian sentences which might be useful in the future.
After three more years of walking, Fortibi and the little girl had reached Fortibi’s house. The little girl had grown a lot and Fortibi was very old. Fortibi’s kilometer count was at four hundred and fifty because even though her kilometer count declined daily, she had done some good deeds along the way. Fortibi didn’t fear a painful death anymore. She was happy that the little girl was now big enough to be able to take care of herself and frankly, the little girl was all that mattered to Fortibi now.
