13
A Snag In The Sand
◊◊◊
The unhinging jaws moved the sand aside, showing a pair of razor-sharp teeth already dripping cloudy venom. The excitement of watching the fight had tensed Yaş to an extent he felt the need to relax. With a down guard and an unfortunate position of his body, the squatted Yaş left himself open for the master of surprise himself.
And so, the snake bit down on a most precious pair of jewels, thinking; 'like father, like son.'
'AH-YA-WHA!' Yaş shouted, reflexively standing up and grasping Cuma with both hands. He tried to pull him off of him, but it only worsened the pain.
'You son of a bitch!' Yaş shouted at Cuma, who was smiling through his bite.
Igniculus laughed, seeing the pain Yaş was going through, even clapping with his tiny hands.
'Still miss me?' Cuma said through his locked jaw.
'No, but I might after I fucking kill you!'
With Su out-cold, apart from baby Igni, that left only Cek and his offspring witnessing what was going on, in other words, no one cared for the poor Yaş in a most agonizing moment. They cared so little, that all three of them left shortly after, taking Igniculus with them as he gestured that he wanted to stay and watch.
An hour of pain, condensed in a small ten seconds, pass, with Yaş trying to plead for him to release, feeling the pain somehow getting worse and worse.
'Just let go already. You've had your revenge!'
'I'm not done injecting all my venom! This snake usually also paralyses its prey, but I adjusted its venom to purely hurt and hurt a lot!'
Angered, Yaş tightens his grip close to the snake's head.
In that moment a maid walks in, 'Lord Yaş, I got your clothes, where do you want me to put-'
'I'M GONNA CHOKE YOU UNTIL YOU FAINT YOU MOTHERFUCKER!' Yaş shouts at Cuma, squeezing him as hard as he can.
Looking down from the tribunes, it shocked the maid to hear those words, seeing her King firmly grasping a thick, dark, and long figure hanging from his crotch. She drops the clothes and starts running away with a rose red head hotter than the sky's sun. 'I-I'm so sorry m-my L-Lord!' she stutters as her swift steps echo through the halls in her departure.
Yaş' jaw drops, understanding the misunderstanding, easing his grip on Cuma, prompting him to finally let go, slithering away rapidly before Yaş gets back to his senses.
The snake leaves the building, cheekily laughing every foot. The moment his body feels the shining sun again, every citizen of Ryut hears their King shouting from the palace;
'CUMA!'
◊◊◊
'I'm going to hunt some hazuros*, do you want to join me?' Kairi asked, walking into Yuzdo's room.
'No,' he answered, sitting on his bed with his back against the wall, staring blankly at the sheets beneath him. 'He's hunting hazuros now? The year's night just passed…' he thought.
'Ah, okay. How are you feeling?'
Yuzdo shrugs his shoulders as if he doesn't know, even though his body aches with every movement and his mind is aching in its own right.
Kairi slams his palm with the bottom of his fist, 'of course! You just woke up, your body has to heal. I placed all the food in the storage house, I'll go get you some. Is there anything you'd like?'
Yuzdo doesn't respond.
'I'll see what I can find, be right back, don't go anywhere,' he said shutting the door behind him, quickly opening it again, making a gesture that he's got his eyes on him, after which he takes off for real.
Yuzdo rubs his hand on the sheets, finding a thin piece sticking out. 'Runga roton* hair,' he says to himself, pinching it. He gently pulls, stopping after noticing it only gets longer. He squeezes the base of where the hair's sticking out, wraps it around his fingers and snaps it off, letting it fall on the wooden floor.
He takes a deep breath, followed by an extended sigh. 'Where did everything go wrong?'
Turning his head to the emptiness of the room, his memories refurbish it. The warmth of nostalgia and the sight of his mother aches his already tender heart. The former Yuzdo emerges, determined to become the man of present.
'Let me through, mother,' he says.
'I beg of you, Yuzy, please don't go!'
'We've talked about this, we agreed. Don't make it any harder on me.'
'I changed my mind. I don't want you to end up like your father! What will I do without you!?'
'I'll come visit you from time to time, I promise. The future will be better if I do this, believe in me.'
'Please, don't follow him, you don't know what you're getting yourself into!' she screams out, stomping her feet on the ground like a toddler throwing a tantrum.
'Maybe, but I refuse to stay idle any longer. I've built enough shrines for the fallen.'
'I just put some stuff in a basket. There are some bananas too, but eat your Alemi's* first,' Kairi says barging in, putting a basket filled with different kinds of fruits next to Yuzdo.
'Meat will come later, this should make you feel better for now.'
Kairi takes a step back and looks at Yuzdo. After an awkward amount of staring, Yuzdo says; 'uh, thank you.'
'You're welcome,' he replies, still staying firm on his feet.
'I-I don't need anything else, you can leave.'
'I'm not leaving until you begin eating,' Kairi says, folding his arms, not breaking eye-contact.
Yuzdo's closed mouth widens, not in the mood to deal with Kairi's demanding personality. He complies and picks a needle covered orange one by the stem, a cidine*.
'Bowl?' Yuzdo asks.
'You can't make one?' he asks back, but without getting an answer, he already creates a bowl, shaping and hardening sand flowing from his palms.
Yuzdo takes the sandstone bowl and rubs his fingers on the inside, glazing it with a layer of ice.
'Be sure it's resistant enough,' Kairi comments.
Yuzdo picks up a handful of peanut shaped, small yellow fruits* from the basket, boloris*, laying them beside him in the bed. His motions are awfully slow. Yuzdo looks up and sees that Kairi has left, yet kept the door open.
Carefully, Yuzdo holds the prickly fruit over the bowl, pulling out the needles one by one. With each needle pulled, the fruit gains an additional hole leaking a purple fluid. He pulls one out too quickly, causing a little drop to fall on the sheet to his right, corroding it with crème colored Yu rising. After all the liquid drained out, Kairi came back in. Yuzdo gave him what was left of the fruit, and without saying a word, Kairi took it from him, leaving the room again.
Although their reunion wasn't long ago, after decades spent together, no amount of time can cut the bond of brothers in arms completely.
Yuzdo drops the peanut shaped fruits he put beside him in the purple juice, mixing them gently by moving the bowl. Bubbles form and as they pop, a fragrant aroma spreads around the room, causing Yuzdo to smile ever so slightly.
'Food heals more than the body alone, am I right?' Kairi says from the door. Yuzdo's smile fades. He puts the bowl on his lips and chugs it with three big gulps. His body tingles for a few seconds.
'Be sure to finish the rest, I'll be furnishing some homes,' Kairi says, afterwards looking around him at Yuzdo's empty room. 'I can build some furniture for you first if you want?'
'No, it's fine. I'll be joining you soon.'
'Great! Oh, by the way, there's a sewing kit downstairs, you know, for the holes I made in your robe and such.'
Yuzdo looks at his robe, only now noticing the poor state it was in.
'Should I close the door?' Kairi asks before leaving.
'It can stay open,' Yuzdo says, after which Kairi leaves. 'Sulking isn't going to solve anything, I need to get my shit together,' he thinks, 'maybe joining him again isn't that bad after all, for now at least. I don't see anyone else around, and it seems like I don't even know what I want myself.' He puts his hand in the basket to pick his next item.
'Chalk and pearl, coal and diamond, one be the other vibrant.'
◊◊◊
Su gasps for Yu in a sudden awakening, looking startled around him. He sighs after confirming he's in Castle Ryut's infirmary, an infirmary only by name, since it's merely a single room with six beds, placed within the palace to add security and peace for the ill and wounded.
'Maybe some oranges on the side, slice them up and leave the skin, please,' Yaş said, lying in the bed next to him.
'What happened, did I win!?'
'Nah, you got smashed, son. He went easy on you, even letting you break his chain, which was really nice of him.'
'Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!' he shouts, hammer-fisting the mattress. Being familiar with Su's temper, neither Yaş nor the butler are surprised.
'What do you want to eat?' Yaş asked.
'I don't want anything!' he said, turning to leave the bed, but the moment he stands up, he falls back on the ground again, holding his crotch with both hands as he cries a squeak of pain.
Yaş looks down at the similarly injured Demon, 'some Alemi and an orange for him as well, get whatever is available.'
'Yes, my Lord,' the butler said before departing.
After some struggle, Su manages to get himself on the bed again. 'The challenge was sudden, but I'd prepared myself mentally for it long ago,' he said.
'You did well, really.'
'Are you kidding me? He didn't ascend, he didn't even move, and I still couldn't get a single hit in after everything I did.'
'He's a King after all,' Yaş said.
Not hearing any kind of response, he looked at Su's face, but his usual stern look wasn't to be seen, for his hands were cupped, blocking his eyes completely. Yaş had seen this side of Su before. The rising blue Yu from in between Su's fingers brought back distant memories to Yaş, with a softness in his face, he didn't know what to say to his stepson.
'Su?' Yaş eventually said.
'I d-don't know what to do a-anymore.'
'Su, if only you'd seen the tens of thousands of battles I've seen him in, or those countless before I even met him, maybe then you'd understand there is no shame in losing to him at this young age of yours.'
'I-I have to… to… b-be the strongest.'
Having never done before, in this moment he asks; 'why?'
He uncovers his eyes, revealing a fierceness as if he wasn't in the middle of a weep. The façade only broken by the still leaking Yu from his eyes. Yaş saw every difference from the usual face Su tends to show, the depth in his eyes, the folds beneath them, the way he shapes his mouth, the amount of stretch in his temples, all through the culmination of hours he spent watching his late lover's child. And so, his answer not merely registered within Yaş, but left a mark.
'Because I don't want you to die too,' Su said, 'this young age of mine carries burdens unfit for it, master. When my father passed, I tried so much to make mom feel better, but despite the smile she used to give me, I knew nothing really worked. It was only after you showed up-'
'Su, please.'
'Y-you didn't say a word, but when you held mother, I saw this look in her eyes,' he says waving two fingers in front of his eyes, 'and it was as if the clouds ran away in fear, your presence alone hurling them into the nothingness. I knew then what I wanted to be, but apparently… both of us seemed to be mistaken, right?'
'Enough!' Yaş shouts.
'Fine,' he says.
Yaş blows a breath of Yu out of his body, his mental state shaken significantly after understanding what shaped Su to be who he is today. Questioning if it's a path he should let him take, the King thinks.
We should all aim for greatness, but never should, nor can it come to many. That being said, who is deserving of the fruits born from these desires and why?
'Wait, why are you here?' Su asks.
'I-uh…'