"When will we reach there?" Waahi asked as she fluttered her head around at new surroundings, with her hands around her brother's neck and the leaf umbrella protecting her from rain she sat on her brother's back, who in turn was moving forward on an empty road.
The intensity of rain had decreased since last night, but it still caused the frequented naked road to be filled with mud. So he walked on the forested area next to the road which had some grass on them so as to ignore the mud.
"Soon little Waahi, the town is close we will be seeing the carriages soon enough." Wyati spoke while taking in heavy breaths, carrying his luggage and his sister in this weather had taken a toll on his body, but he didn't want to stop for fear he may get caught.
As the area outside the villages are usually dangerous, Wyakti remained in a heightened sense of state, his ears flickered at the slightest disturbance caused in his proximity while his eyes searched for the source. But in this weather, it was hard for him to differentiate the rain drops or the small animals.
All this time he accumulated a lot of fatigue during his run, but he didn't camp out to rest for fear of pursuers. But considering his identity, it was another matter altogether if they would even care about him or his family.
"Waahi let's sing… your brother likes singing with you." Wyakti implored his sister as his other hand went into the bag and took out a boiled potato, though they have been cold now since they were cooked last night, but it was still a delicacy in this damp and cold weather.
"Brother really likes my singing?.." Waahi asked with an energized expression, which was then more enhanced as her eyes fell on the potato that Wyakti took out.
He broke the potato in half and gave one piece to his sister while he started humming on a tune he often heard in the village, his sister followed just after his and started to sing on the humming beats of her brother's while she stuffed the potato down her throat in an instant.
Both of them didn't know how to sing in reality, for them singing was just humming few beats, but it was enough for them to lighten the mood of their journey. And so they kept on their path, while Wyakti also kept a watch out for any kind of danger.
*****
Wyakti reached his destination Beil town the next morning, though he was forced to spend the night on the road, it was a blessing that the rain had stopped by then, but while his little slept in his bosom, he kept a maintained his vigilance with some trouble, as he hasn't slept for 2 days straight now. But that short rest had disseminated his fatigue somewhat.
The town was in an energized state as people celebrated as the rain has ceased, and the business can be resumed again. Though it was still midday, the middle of the square has already been filled by people of the surrounding villages, who came here to conduct all sorts of market transactions.
"Brother! Is this the place we are going to live?" Waahi asked as she hid on her brother's back, the surroundings here were new to her, she hasn't seen so many people at one place in her life. This small town, which was actually just a bigger village when compared to their previous home was the only place in the surrounding that contained a market. Beil was the hub area of this region and all sorts of business deals were conducted here.
"No!! this is not a good place… we need to go to the city, which is much larger than this place!!" Wyakti answered with wonder in his voice, he was looking for a caravan to prevent any risk while travelling, and large caravans have some tight security with them.
"Hmm... are there potatoes in the city?" Waahi asked curiously while still hinding on her brother's back.
"Yeah!! There are mountains of potatoes and even sweets..." Wyakti's mouth kept his sister's imagination busy by boasting about the city, while his eyes were searching around the square. He didn't wait much to achieve a success, as he found a group of carriages lined together in circle, while rations and items were getting stored in them.
"Young aster, is there a place for a coolie?"
One of the worker who was overviewing the work turned around and found a hunchback boy with a straw umbrella on his head, a raw moldy smell came from the young man that caused the man to frown a bit, and the dirty face and mud covered clothes didn't give the foreman a good impression of the youngster.
"Piss off boy, there are no more jobs left here!!" The man gave out a harsh reply as he resumed his work giving no heed to Wyakti anymore.
"Master please!! I can work for free, I just need to get to the large city!!" Wyakti spoke out to clarify, his voice was not weak, but clear and strong. But no rely came from the man again, he acted as if Wyakti never even existed.
Wkyakti looked at the servants loading up the caravan, they were also staring at him. But while Wyakti's eyes held curiosity, theirs held hostility and gloating. The low level workers like them are pretty protective of their source of income, they know all who work in this line of duty, for them Wyakti was a new face, and the more faces arrive in search for job, the less it would be for the older ones.
There were some elated to see the newbie getting denied work and in his first day, while there were others who were planning to teach the newbie his place.
The foreman knew what was going in on the minds of these coolies, but he didn't say anything. 'The more attention you give, the clingier these people become.' The man muttered under his breath, while his eyes tilted towards the side to see if the boy had moved, but Wyakti still remained.
He didn't have much of a choice, he needed to go to a city.
"Master… how, how much money would it require to travel with the caravan!!" Timidly but with a clear voice, he asked the foreman again, he didn't ask to travel in the caravan, he just wanted to travel alongside them. Even though in this case, the caravan would not provide a thing, but at least he would be able to borrow security from them.
"I said piss off!! A beggar like you can't even afford that much money!!" The foreman creased his brows as he hurled back at Wyakti again, he was getting annoyed by this smelly boy.
"Oye kid!! It takes 20 silvers just to enter the caravan which your poor ass can't even afford, so just fuck off and stop harassing our master!!" One of the servant who has his ears toward the conversation the whole time got up and reprimanded Wyakti while at the same time licking his master's boots.
"Kid get out of here for now… we will teach you about work soon enough!!." There were some others who thought it was Wyakti's ploy to get employed by the caravan, hence they still maintained the same plan of teaching him a lesson.
Wyakti having all kind of insults hurled at him became speechless, it was not as if he was angry or annoyed by the humiliation, he has been through worse in his life but seeing some kind of misunderstanding had formed between the workers and him, he tried to speak up and clarify but stopped as he felt his little sister trembling on his back.
'She is scared!!' Wyakti moved from that place to a close alleyway, he didn't stop the whole way as one of his hand reached on his shoulder and rubbed his sister's hair a little.
"Don't worry, nothing will happen to you, I swear!!" Wyakti spoke as he entered the alleyway filled with rancid smell, these kind of places close to markets are usually used as outside toilet for the population visiting the market, but Wyakti ignored the smell wand walked deeper in the alleyway to find a clean spot, which due to the rain was harder to find.
His search came to an end, as he found a place that didn't had much smell, but it seemed to be occupied by some other people as there were 4 shabby tents made up of dirty clothes, and presumably owned by beggars.
'They must be in the market now!!'
Following his thought, Wyakti removed the umbrella exposing a small mountain attached to his back.
"Look Waahi…. Bad people are gone! No one is here!" Wyakti ensured his sister, while lifting her up from his back. The small peach face had snot coming out of it's nose, while the eyes were wet with tears.
He raised her toward the sky and spoke. "Look as I said no one is here, even the sky is empty!" Wyakti reassured her again while smiling at the snot filled nose that was covered in tears.
'Sun is good for a growing kid… I shouldn't let her be cooked up on my back the whole time.' Wyakti face was bright, he ignored what happened in the market at the moment as his whole mind came to making his sister happy again.
"But..but those bad people…. were going to beat you…..!!" Waahi spoke while sniffing soundly, she was not scared because the men shouted toward her, she was scared for her brother, she didn't want him to get beaten again.
"Those people?.... don't worry my great little sister, for your brother is strong! I beat them so much that they ran away whimpering for life." Wyakti boasted, while fiddling his hands all around to show what he said is true.
"Brother really beat them up?..... Brother is really strong!!" Seeing that no one was around, a smile blossomed on her face. The little girl though that her brother had beaten everyone in the market as there was no one around. The innocent her didn't notice that her location has changed, as everything was new to her and memory of a 3-year-old was not that strong.
"Oohoo, such an innocent sight!" As both the brother and sister were lost in their own world, one of the shabby tent parted up and a silhouette of an old woman can be seen inside, her dirty face held a creepy wide smile on her face as she eyed the siblings.
Hearing the old woman, Wyakti went on full alert while he hid his sister behind his back as he eyed the woman from afar.
"Haha!! Such a protective big brother!!" The old crone amused while she glared at Waahi. "Little missus, do you want some resins?" The crone tried to entice Waahi, which was somewhat successful as the little girl peeked out of her brother's back and glared at the resins.
"Waahi… get on my back!! We are going somewhere else!!" Wyakti, assessing that the old crone was no danger to him nor his sister ignored her and instructed his sister to get on his back again, as for now she was barely able to stand at the moment. The little girl had her whole concentration on the resins as she ignored the call of her brother.
"Young man do not hurry!!" The old woman spoke as she was Wyakti lifting his sister up, it was a long time since anyone had come to this place beside the same old beggars and throwaways that are too wasted to do any work and earn a living of any kind.
"I see you are pretty mindful of your sister, though this place doesn't look much, but it is a good place rest!!" The woman was speaking the truth, due to infamy or the poor nature of the residents of this small encampment makes no one interested in this area.
Wyakti halted his actions at this, he understood this fact too. He needed a place to hide his sister, while he goes out and earn some money for the caravan.
"So what's the catch?" Wyakti asked as he placed the umbrella on his back hiding the small mound of his back.
"Just some coronas, and I can give you place to stay." The woman understood that these 2 were new here and didn't had a place to stay, they may not even have much money on them, but she will still allow them to stay. As her eye contained a hint of mockery and greed hidden away by the calm smile of her face.
Wyakti nodded toward her after some contemplations.
"Waahi!! You must be tired right?... Just go to sleep for now!" Though unresigned, her 3-year-old body was prone to sleeping a lot as her brother's calm words entered her eyes, she nodded and closed her eyes and went to sleep in just a minute.
Wyakti took out a single silver corona from his back as he moved toward the woman.
"Here take it." Wyakti came face to face of the woman and placed the coin on the ground in front of her.
"Such a great and intelligent young man!" The woman instantly became a cougar and instantly snatched the coin from the ground, scared that Wyakti may change his mind. But.
*splitter
"Wha?...." Blood gushed out of her neck, which left her stupefied her chest was soon covered with blood as an unresigned howl tried to escape her mouth, while she tried the futile attempt stop the blood from escaping her body using her thin hands.
"Don't worry O' kind lady, for there is an afterlife." Wyakti spoke in a kind tone while he flicked a rusted knife before placing it in his bag.
"?" Only question remained in the woman's mind, when did the young man took out the knife, and when did he slashed at her neck, she didn't know.
As blood escaped her body, she fell on the floor, but before the blood gushed onto soil, Wyakti kicked the woman's body back inside her shabby tent, while he followed up with stealing the resins from the woman's corpse.
After cleaning up any evidence of his arrival, Wyakti placed Waahi into a clean looking tent that was next to the one with old woman's corpse in it.
"It's time to wait now!!" Sitting next to his sleeping sister, he pinched her cheeks in jubilation, which caused his sister to frown.
"So cute!"