Birds chirped noisily perching, wiggling themselves onto the dangling branches of the big oak tree. It was dawn and the children, looking all haggardly, awoke from their slumber. The sleeping chambers were separate for the boys and girls.
Waking up for them had always been a mere feat except for this unkind one morning, many having kept themselves from falling asleep that night, were unable to even get a wink of rest fearful of the new monster sleeping within. Now that they had two monsters living under the same roof as them, was all the more worryingly reason for having kept themselves from falling asleep, albeit with just one eye closed and the other quite awake.
All night they had fought an excruciating honorable battle. Though childish and laughable,their frail bodies and brains couldn't help but give into the sweet nectar of slumber. The weak willed of conviction fell dead asleep, with the usual suspects have resorting back to their usual selves; snoring, farting while others spoke in there sleep,mumbling and cursing; furthermore, the screaming of a burning capital couldn't do the trick either.
With birds of prey all time early risers, for that one juicy worm, they too had one thing and only one thing on their minds. That was none other than a bowl of hot porridge and loaf of bread. Even the heavy sleepers couldn't let such a treat pass them by, knowing all to well a day without such a rejuvenating meal was bound to be an awful and miserable long day for them.
And so knowingly,they'll sprung to the eating chambers, ready to put something into their ever ravenous bellies. Famished and tired,they were at the very least bothered as to wash their haggardly looking faces. Morning meal was a revered meal of the day after all.
Pumpkin stood behind the table with a pot of thin porridge and a bucket of leftovers bread. They'll stood in a queue, holding firmly to their bowls and spoons. Like ants,they took their food and hurriedly on they went to get a seat. In they digged,gobbling every drop of porridge and every crumbs of bread. Nothing was wasted;even she knew that little cleaning of the hall was needed. Zulu sat next to Saber,on a wooden table, at the furthest corner of the hall,alone, eating theirs without a care in the woods. But behind them, glaring eyes watched like hawks, and now the morning meal,for Zulu that's,seemed tasteless and to go with it, a loss of appetite.
"Hi, Saber!" Zulu called.
"What's it, Zulu?" asked Saber, gobbling a large chunk of bread.
" The other children, they're staring at us!" Zulu informed. Saber seemed unbothered by it, chewing his bread.
"Don't let it bother you, friend. Let them watch, they will tire eventually,"replied Saber. And there and then,Alekk walked in, and everyone's eyes instantly shifted to him. He really did stick out like a sore thumb.after all he was the boy who had knocked Markus's lights out. Zulu now understood how it felt to be odd one out,to be feared and shunned. Their eyes were hostile at the insufferable pestilence.
"It must hurt to feel out of place, doesn't it?"Zulu asked, gazing at Alekk's new hostile foes. " Afraid so,but-?" Saber hesitated. Zulu now shifted his ears and eyes to Sabers.
"But what?" asked Zulu curiously.
"It's just that,the boy is weirdly strange and other thing seemingly awkward was his punch,that just a mere punch could burn Markus! How is that possible?" explained Saber.
" Hmm...it did seem strange though. Now that you mention it, he does seems weirdly creepy even for me, "replied Zulu intrigued.
" He's quite strange,that's for sure,"Saber answered back. The new boy, Alekk,walked out again into the open field knowingly, with a bowl of porridge or bread, that his presence wasn't all that welcomed.At the door,two other friends sat down on the chilling floor, while they ate their breakfasts in the serenity of their own making. Esia was growing fixated with him, of his power, as she gobbled down her porridge . And then something outrageous happened out of a sudden, a lethal pungent smell was spreading throughout the entire hall as some began to throw up their already eaten breakfast while others rebuked the perpetrator, hastily sealing off their noses from the intoxicating stench . It was a fart,a reeking frigging fart.
" Darn it!who's the one that farted?!" roared one boy, pegging his nose tight.
"It stinks, for heavensake!What in god's name does he eat?" asked Lysa,a pretty dazzle of a girl. She was,to put it right,the queen of the orphanage. But within their choking midst, one boy wasn't going to let it slide,of a girl sullying the boys good reputation.
" What makes you think it was a boy? Don't girls fart? Don't their farts stink?"inquired Gregg. And the girls,on hearing him question them, were already ganging up on him.
"Only boys can defecate such stinking farts, unlike you , girls are well mannered!"retorted Lysa,the pretty girl. Pumpkin was already enjoying the ever lively mornings squabbles but not one bit did she fancy any less than them of having to put up with such stinking farts.
"That's right,it has to be a boy!" all the girls agreed unisonly.
"What did you all say? I dare you'll to say that again!"Gregg retorted,stamping the table with his sandled right foot,ready to confront the girl.
"Enough!" barked Erykk,a slender boy and one time Markus's rival,as he banged hard on the table,"we'll know to well who the culprit is, don't we boys?" With just that,all boys eyes, again, shifted to the most probable person capable of unleashing such a reeking fart to his fellow orphans,and he too felt the ominous raging fury emanating from their eyes;it was none other than Gantz.
Even Esia wasn't spared either,holding her nose tightly near to suffocating herself to death.Angrily, they'll made their ire known to the perpetrator of the heinous ordeal they were being forced to endure. Using their empty bowls, they sent them flying , hitting Gantz head on straight while he chivalrously shielded Esia from harms way.
"Get out,you farting swine!Get out farting swine!"they'll roared ragefully in unison, excluded of Zulu and his new found friend. The bowls, though wooden,were thick and hard. On seeing their ire wasn't about to cool off, Gantz and Esia in retreat dashed out of the hall to the safety of the field,and there they saw Alekk,like on the previous day, seated all by himself.
In one of the two designated sickchambers in the cottage,up the stairs , Markus cast a gloomy gaze at the roof of the cottage with his only unscathed eye,lying down on a wooden bed with bandages wrapped around his face. He was awake,and in pain. Even he didn't know what kind of pain anguished him the most,his humiliating defeat or his now deformed half face. Master Konn often dropped by to check up on him if he was yet to fair any better. But he wasn't, that was certain. His world had come crushing down on him like a boulder. Even his friends, and to add salt to injury,his best friend,Gregg,all whom he had taken in into his inner circle,had abandoned him, all of them, whom he had once called his brothers. They were no show and it pained him more.
There was no place for him in this world that he desperately tried to exist in,he thought. He was now a monster that everyone would run away from, the ogre from fabled tales that children were told to hate. A deformity, a creature feared to be seen in the dead of the night or dreamt of.
Markus burnt face still ached, burning like blacksmith's furnace. That night, not only were the children awake just because of the new monster that now lived under the same roof with them but because Markus also had a hand in that. In anguish,he was screaming in the unfathomable pain till the crack of dawn, that even the heavy sleepers couldn't escape away from it. He who had loved to inflict pain, now knew how unsavoury it tasted.
The hell itself. Is this what they felt? Now he felt sorry for them, for their pain and not having realized it sooner. Nevertheless, he felt justified,the pain he was once forced to endure, they'll needed a taste of it. His hopelessness,his anger, and his distorted world.
The tears, of his fifteen sunny seasons,the fifteen windy seasons,the fifteen rainy seasons and the fifteen harvesting seasons ,all those years he had to endure his unbearable pain,like a goblet filled to the brim, now came flooding out in a thrust. They would've filled an well,if i may say so.
The field was sombre and with Alekk in it, no one dared go out to at least let their silly selves loose. They'll remained in the safe confines of the hall, now that two monsters lurked within it. Outside was a bit chilly, and without having finished eating his porridge or bread, Gantz tightly embraced himself, rubbing continuously against his stiff skin in shivers. That couldn't be said of Esia: she was neither cold nor hungry. The grass was watery with morning dew but Alekk cared less, sitting under the same tree as before,lost in thoughts of some kind.
A chilly early morning wind passed through the field,sweeping the dry moist fallen leaves off the ground,as they danced into the chilly sky ,mesmerizing Esia,at there every turn and fall...