Friday, 25th March 1453
"What is it that you need to inform me that I had not known? The grey mice family had approached me since I overhead them talking the other night and I was surprised that there is another person who is just like me and able to communicate with the animals." Mystic Windtalker asked me as she explained how she had overheard the conversation of the mice and she intervened and knows about what happened in the Orphanage.
This news was brought forward to the founder of the Academy and was advised to approach the Orphanage and to try talking to the occupants to stabilise the situation there.
"Here… Come with me, Sister Windtalker. I have something to show you." I ushered Mystic Windtalker towards my rustic wooden bed where I slept with the rest of the children but was set aside to the corner of the dormitory instead.
I sat down on the bed as Mystic Windtalker sat at the edge of the bed and watched me reach underneath the bed and removed one of the wooden chests that had a key in the keyhole. I brought it up on my lap and opened the lid. I am sure that Mystic Windtalker had not seen so many coins in her life before, I suppose.
"Hmm, you seemed to have quite a collection of coins there. I believe that you had taken them from underneath the Matron's bed, am I right? It's alright, you can keep those. The friendly grey mouse had informed all about it to me and I know you would not use the coins for any other purposes right? They are for the children too, right?"
I was surprised that even the retrieval of coins had been informed to Mystic Windtalker and it seems that there was no secret left to hide. Indeed, I am using the coins for the children because I do not feel it right for the children to collect alms, to sell flowers or even learn the trade of thievery from me. I am the only one left in the Orphanage with the kind of skills and I don't think I would want the poor children to learn how to snatch, pickpocket and even lockpicking to enter homes when the occupants were away to the market to rummage through the house for valuables.
"Err…Yes, I had used some of the shillings to buy food daily from the marketplace. The children do not need to go hungry every day or night and they do not need to go and collect alms or sell flowers anymore. But…I wished I could do more for the children here but I am not trained to guide them at all. I was here for the past 10 years and I learnt nothing and all I could do was to become a conniving thief in broad daylight, snatching their coin pouches unawares and then would go into some of the homes to pillage for valuables. I… I know its illegal, but we were trained by the goons of Big Mama and were told to 'collect' as many bounties as we can. They even said that these bounties are for the children and there would be no food if we failed to bring in several coin pouches per day in the marketplace."
I was clutching the wooden chest close to me as I was close to tears and my hands were shaking as I was trying to control my tears from falling. When I was finally unable to control my tears, it fell in big droplets and onto my apron that I was wearing. Mystic Windtalker held her hands and placed it tenderly once more on my shoulders this time and I was shuddering as I was crying in torrents…!!!
Images of those horrid men touching me as they satisfied their lust made me spat at them. "Let me go, you animals…! I am not your slave and I would rather die than to serve you…! I am a survivalist and nature is my home…!"
These words were screamed at those men when I was caught trying to run away from the Orphanage some months before last Christmas and was caught some days later. I was flogged, locked in a dark room for some days and had only a slice of bread and plain water to drink for the whole day. In that dark room, I had no indication whether it was day and night and I can't see anything and fortunately I had the grey mice to keep me company.
This was because I had cracked under pressure when an incident happened as one of the men had taken a 12-year-old during one of the nights from her dormitory where she was sleeping. Next, all I heard were howls of pleasure and screams of pain and agony.
The next day, the girl was returned to the dormitory but had a high fever. She was shivering all over, and even if we tried to cover her with a blanket, she was still shivering. She refused to eat or drink and one night she was shaking so badly that we had to call for the goons that had ravaged her. They took one look at her and carried her off somewhere and was never heard nor seen anymore till this day…!
After I had released all the bottled up emotions that I had kept all these months and years, I raised my tear-stained face and looked at Mystic Windtalker. "Would you be able to take care of these coins for the use of this Orphanage instead? I do not wish to see us be in hunger anymore and have not enough to eat every night. I do not have any proper education and so does the children here. Do you think if I go over to the academy, the children could also be coming along with me?"
After Mystic Windtalker dried my tear-stained face, she replied, "As I had mentioned before, this Orphanage would be run by some people from the organisation where our founder, Audemars Macleod would be assigned. Placing the children over to the academy might not be feasible as they are not awakened at all. You will get what I mean when we get there to take a look, would you like to do so today or some other day that you wished?"
Before I could answer, the silver ash grey-haired boy and girl barged into the dormitory and was out of breath when they announced, "We had been looking for you, Priestess Mystic…Come with us, we found something sinister…! There are skeletal remains in one of the rooms and it seems that the bones were there for some years already. It had been picked clean and somehow the skeletal remains were all piled on top of one another, like as if someone is going to light them up like a bonfire or something…!"
I listened in horror as my eyes were as wide as saucers and my mouth was opening and closing like a goldfish out from the water. "Awa Awa waa waa waa…" That's all that I could mouth the words at the moment when I heard the announcement. It was rather peculiar to find that the silver ash grey-haired boy and girl were not afraid to see any bones and were even describing the details of the remains of Big Mama the late Matron and the goons in such a comical way…!
Mystic Windtalker looked at me and she understood that the place that the silver ash grey-haired twins had discovered was the final resting place pf Big Mama and the rest of the goons. She knew that the Rat Clan had already settled the matter for me since they had called upon all the rats in the city and had a feast there for at least 3 days and 3 nights. When it was finally over, al that was left was the white bones that had been picked clean by the Rat Clan…!
"Come, show it to me then. If it needs a proper burial then we would be able to send some people to take care of the remains. If not we can always feed it to the dogs who would gnaw at those bones whether the bones were from human or animal." Misty Windtalker shot me a sort of an apprehensive glance before she followed the silver ash grey-haired twins over to the place where they had found the remains.
As for me, I sat there on the bed and looked at the pile of silver and gold coins in the chest.
Would I really abandon the children since I had found a better place than this?
Would the children once again be 'abandoned' and leaving them to the unknown people that would be so-called taking care of them and would not be tormenting them in any way?
Would the children have the freedom to do what they want in the future?
Would the children have enough to eat and not fight over the last morsels of food like what they used to do when Big Mama was still alive?
Would the children be able to learn to read and write as well? Since I would be going to an academy, at least the children would be able to enjoy such privileges as well, am I right?
Would the coins here be enough for the children in the long run?
All kinds of thoughts raced through my head as I thought of those poor children who were like me before years ago and wished that they would not suffer the same consequences as me.
"BIG SIS…!!! ARE YOU COMING ALONG TO TAKE A LOOK??? MAYBE THERE IS TREASURE UNDER THOSE BONES…!!!" The silver ash grey-haired twins hollered at me from a distance before they ran off to where the direction of the dining hall where Big Mama and her goons had been slaughtered and their bones been nibbled and gnawed by the Rat Clan.