Xa'Gun held the precious female creature in his arms for an unknown amount of time.
Calming down, he breathed in deeply the smell of her hair... Wait...! This wasn't Hellie... Hellie smelled like the morning breeze... This smelled like the fresh waters of a running stream.
Xa'Gun gently pulled away from the Orcess in his arms to look at her face again and looking into her eyes... "D-Demze?"
"You were... You were having a nightmare..." Demze spoke sounding shyer than usual.
Xa'Gun grunted in understanding, as he put Demze down on the couch next to him, as he sat up. Feeling many muscles in his body silently scream at him, from the previous day's workout.
Demze looked at Xa'Gun's silhouette in the darkness, backlit by the moonlight of the early hours.
Feeling Demze's eyes, Xa'Gun grunted in question.
"...What kind of nightmare where you having...? If... If you'll tell me." Demze's voice trailed off.
Xa'Gun looked into Demze's eyes but didn't see that usual cunning look that they possessed... He remained guarded, never the less, "Hmph... Why do you want to know?"
Demze looked down at the floor, into the darkness that was the burrow, as she spoke, "I'm... I'm, too, haunted. It's not every night... And... Thankfully, it's gotten better in recent years, but I dream of terror... Xa'Gun... In my dreams, I'm powerless. I can only watch the same things happen over and over, and I'm never able to do anything to prevent it... I can't stop it from happening... Every damn time."
Demze sighed, "I'm sorry... Maybe I'm still a bit drunk, but... No offense, but what could scare an oaf like you? Did someone steal your piece of meat when you were a kid?" Demze laughed.
"No, if you really want to know. My sister died in a fire..."
A long paused passed, as Xa'Gun huffed his breath, and continued, "I wasn't there to save her... She was of poor health. By the time I made it to our home, she was... She was..."
"What was her name?" Demze asked interrupting, as Xa'Gun felt a slim hand pat him on the lower back.
"Char...Charlotte... Her name was Charlotte." Xa'Gun sounded choked but cleared his throat to mask his feelings.
"We can build her a shrine... I can help you. That way, you can pray to her spirit... Maybe your thoughts will reach her, and in turn, it can console you in some way." Demze added.
"I didn't even get a chance... I-I couldn't get her body or ashes back. The damn city removed us... Relocated me and all the other slummers to another place... Wouldn't let me in... They beat me until I couldn't move, and then just dumped me on the side of a road."
"...Wait... What did they do with the burnt ruins?" Demze asked probingly.
Xa'Gun glanced as Demze before responding, her voice took on that cunning sound, but he answered it since he spoke thus far, "They got rid of the ruins, and built a bathhouse."
"...You know that was planned, right?" Demze spoke again.
"Wot...?"
"The humans burned down the slums to get rid of them, and then built what they wanted to in its place." Demze placed a finger on her lips while thinking out loud.
"No... No, they couldn't have done that. Why would they do that, they could just move us... It was just slums."
"That's right... It was just slums, so who cared, amiright? If I can think of it... Someone there thought of it too, but no one said anything... Silenced? Maybe."
"Wait..." Xa'Gun searched his memories. Many of the people of the slums that didn't die in the fire, died in hand fulls, or just disappeared in the months after... He thought it was just more bad luck, and hoped it didn't find him, "Many did die after that, others missing... I just... Thought it bad luck."
"No... They were killed or paid off depending on usefulness, and the city got a new bathhouse. Humans killed your sister, Xa'Gun... Always, always, always remember who slights you. Never let them get away with it." Demze's voice hardened at her talk of revenge.
Xa'Gun remained in thought for a moment before something touched his mind, as he spoke, "I'm not dumb or an oaf, Demze... 'What happened in the past comes to haunt us in the future.' That's what you told me. Who slighted you? Or should I ask... What dreams haunt you, Demze?"
"...I... I can't answer, you, that... At least not right now..." Demze fidgetted now that the talk shifted back to her.
Xa'Gun let out an angry grunt, "I told you mine... And it's not something I've ever told another being in existence... And you won't tell me?"
"Listen, I know it sounds bad... But I just can't tell you... I... Haven't gotten my... Well, it's better if you don't know, at least not yet... Maybe one day, I'll tell you."
"If you like me, like this damn mark that throbs on my neck, then you'll tell me." Xa'Gun stood up to his impressive height.
"...I... I can only tell you a bit... My two sisters and I are adopted by the current Blacktongue Cheiftain. This is because our father was killed. Midka and Hellie weren't there, but I watched our father die, and I also watched our mother grieve to death... That's what haunts me... Are you happy now?" Demze's anger flared now that she exposed a part of her heart.
Xa'Gun remained silent for a while, just standing in the darkness, as Demze sat on the couch.
"No... I'm not happy." Xa'Gun turned to walk out the backdoor to the back courtyard, as he left Demze sitting on the couch with these words, "I wished that never happened to any of you."
Demze watched the shroud that was Xa'Gun leave, as she closed her moist eyes in thought.
*******
Xa'Gun sat down on the soft earth, as he was about to feel for the qi in the heavens. It was just a moment before he felt that Demze might have been right... He was stupid.
Xa'Gun laughed, as he got back up and walked to the barbell that held two large stones. He remembered the day before Hellie told him that these two stones where 30kg apiece. Making the total amount to be 60kg.
Xa'Gun squatted and lifted as Hellie taught him, and lifted it to waist high. He did this several times, even at the protest of some of his muscles. Jukzuk told him that some muscle pain was fine, but always react when it's sharp pain... Never let it hurt with sharpness.
After warming up, Xa'Gun put the bar down, as he slumped on the cool morning ground. The sun's rays started to peak between the mountains and through the valleys. He listened to the sounds of nature, and then the rousing of the Orcs in the distance getting up to start their day.
He got up and looked at the bar again... It felt too light. He went over the other stones brought. He rolled them over to the bar, and took the metal spring clips from the metal bar, and put the stone weights on the bar, and clipped them again, so they wouldn't move.
If memory served him... The total weight should be 90kg... He lifted and found that it gave some resistance... It seemed to him that his skin still did not turn that red color like when he strained himself. His veins didn't bulge. Xa'gun stood up, thinking about when he did hard labor, it was rare that he would have that action. He would never lift more than he could...
[Maybe that's it.] Xa'Gun thought... He must lift more than he should...
Again, he undid the bar and rolled the largest stones he had in the yard for the barbell. He attached them, in addition to the stones already on it, and then counted up how much this was...
[Ummm... That's 90 plus... well that's 120, and added it... carry the one... 210kg...] Xa'Gun wiped his forehead of sweat. If it wasn't for Jukzuk telling him he must not the numbers to improve, he would just move the weight. He wondered what it matted as long as he could lift bigger and bigger if the numbers were going to get bigger and bigger.
He shrugged. Walked to the bar, gripped it, and squatted to pick it up.
"Tin-Can! Don't do that, without someone to watch!"