*WARNING: Gore/Disturbing descriptions/extreme violence*
On a cloudy summer day, in the afternoon.
Taz stood on the small white river bridge near the library. She rested her arms on the guard rails while eating her bread loaf.
She looked at the running river beneath her. She admired it and enjoyed its murmur, which gave her clarity and peacefulness.
The bridge was less crowded than usual. It had a handful of people enjoying the scenery; lovers, friends, family, or the lonely people who chose to spend their afternoon with the river as their company.
Hajras walked into the bridge and stopped after seeing Taz. Before he approached her, he was confused about what Taz wore.
She wore a white cotton dress with a stiff-short collar, close-fitting from the waist up and loose-fitting from the core down. It had light-grey vines from her legs to her shoulders knitted on it.
Hajras approached her and said, "I was hoping to find you, but not like this."
Taz turned to Hajras, smiled and said, "Cousin! You're back!"
Hajras pointed at Taz and said, "What did that witch do to you!?"
Taz looked at her dress, then at Hajras and said, "Hey! My mother made that for me."
"Out of all the design choices available, you choose to look like a miniature version of A'saal," Hajras said.
"A'saal is a nice woman. I don't know why you hate her," Taz said.
"NICE? did you spend time with her?" Hajras said.
"Yes, I work at the library," Taz said.
"WORK? Since when!?" Hajras said.
"Two months ago!" Taz said.
"Huh," Hajras replied.
"You would have known if you were around more," Taz said.
"I know," Hajras said softly.
"That's your answer?" Taz asked.
Hajras pulled a small notebook from his pocket, handed it over to Taz, and said, "I told you to have faith in me."
Taz took the notebook, looked at Hajras and said, "is this...?"
"Read it first and tell me what you think about it," Hajras said.
Taz started reading the notebook while Hajras rested his arms on the guard rail, looking at the river in silence.
Taz read it. A worried and terrified expression grew on her face as she read page after page and returned the notebook to Hajras.
Hajras looked at her and said, "What do you think about it?"
Taz pouted, looked at Hajras and said, "I don't know what to say."
"Well, at least we finally know our true family name," Hajras said.
"Al-Hayja tribe, although if what the notebook said is true. This is more complex than we thought," Taz said.
"It is," Hajras replied.
Hajras and Taz talked more about their discovery while a man stood behind them and gave them his back. He eavesdropped on their unusual conversation.
He watched them as they left and muttered, "The demons of Hayja are still alive."
Later that day, in the evening.
Taz stood in the middle of the library's first floor. She was sorting the new patch of books the library had received.
It was quiet and dark, with only the moon's gentle light illuminating the place as it shone through the large windows. It was empty as the library's closing time neared.
A'saal was in the storage room on the second floor, caring for the more valuable books they had stored.
Taz finished sorting and went to the library's main door to lock it. She approached the door and pulled the key out of her pocket.
She was about to put it in its cylinder when someone opened the door from the outside.
Behind it was a man in dark robes. He was tall, carried a sword in his right hand, and wore a black face mask.
Taz stepped back slowly and said shakily, "We….. are closing now."
The man walked toward her slowly and said, "What I seek is vengeance, not books."
He thrust his sword toward her, and she jumped back and evaded it. She continued to step back, then tripped and fell on her bottom.
He walked toward her and said, "Pay for your sins."
He raised his sword, ready to slice her young body in half.
She crawled back and begged the man to spare her, only to receive silence from him.
She closed her eyes and shielded her head with her arms as she panicked and whimpered.
Then she heard a loud thud followed by the sound of a snap.
She opened her eyes and saw the man, his head turned in the opposite direction, falling to the ground.
Behind him was A'saal, but her eyes changed.
Her eyes were that of an owl.
They shined bright under the dark. Looking at them closely, one might imagine he was staring at a raging burst of blue flames locked behind her captivating eyes.
A'saal stared at Taz and said, "hide! I smell more of them outside the door."
Taz ran and hid behind the keeper's desk.
A'saal turned around as she heard heavy footsteps nearing. Three other men came in and stopped in front of the door.
They all wore the same clothes as the man before them.
"That abomination killed him," One of the men said.
She glared at them and waited for them to start the first move.
One of them charged at her with a dagger in his hand. He tried to stab A'saal in the heart, but she evaded it as she stepped quickly to the right.
She grabbed his face with her left hand, then used flame magic and burned the man's face as he screamed in agony; simultaneously, she used reinforcement magic to get a firmer grip on his face. Escaping from her clutch became impossible.
She lifted him by his head, slammed it straight to the ground below and caused it to rupture like a watermelon under high pressure.
The rest of the two charged at her and swung their sword at her neck. Their swords landed, yet they didn't decapitate her or at the least injure her neck.
A'saal glared at them, grabbed their wrists firmly, and electrocuted them until they fell to the ground.
A'saal stood up, leaned her head back, inhaled deeply and muttered, "I am getting too old for this."
A'saal looked at the bodies and focused on the left to hear his heartbeat; It had stopped.
She then turned her attention to the one on the right. She heard his breathing and his heart beat irregularly, but he was still alive.
A'saal picked up a sword from the ground and pierced it into his heart.
A'saal wobbled back to her desk, sat on it and said, "Tanaz, it is safe now."
Taz stood up, came to A'saal's side and said in a shaken voice, "Who are they!?"
"I don't know, but….." A'saal covered her mouth as she coughed repeatedly and said, "We need to go to your parents and let them know."
"Do you need help? Did they injure you?" Taz asked.
"No, I'm fine. Let's go before more of them show up." A'saal replied.
A'saal Stood up and said, "Stay close to me and close your eyes until I tell you so."
Taz nodded and closed her eyes.
A'saal grabbed Taz's shoulder, guided her out of the library, and carefully walked out, as she didn't want her to step on one of the corpses.
The river street was empty, as the current time was long after the market's working hours.
The lamp posts lit the road with warm yellow light from magical stones.
The smell of seawater filled the air as the stream's murmur filled the ambiance.
"Open your eyes, Tanaz," A'saal said.
They headed to Taz's house and hoped to find a solution to what had happened.
They reached the alleyway where Taz's house was in.
Something wasn't right; That's what A'saal thought.
The house had a squad of six guards standing outside.
A'saal stood in place as she processed why the guards were present at Taz's home, then the smell reached her.
Taz ran to her home. She wanted to see her parents badly after what had happened to her.
A'saal shouted, "Tanaz, Don't go in there!"
Her calls did not reach her. She tried running after her, but it was too late.
Taz ran through the guards and went inside the house before A'saal could catch her.
A'saal tried to go in after Taz, only for a guard to stand in her way. She pushed him aside and went into the house.
She found Taz frozen in place as she looked at her parents' corpses.
They were sat up on the other end of the living room. Decapitated, their heads were placed on their lap, and their garments were soaked in blood.
Nawar and two other guards went into the house.
He shouted, "Get her out of the house now!"
One of the guards grabbed her arm and tried to pull her away.
Taz resisted and refused to move.
He took hold of her and lifted her as he turned around to walk out of the house. Something unnatural awakened within Taz.
Her face turned red, and her facial veins expanded.
She growled like a wild animal, forcefully broke free of the guard's hold, and landed on the ground.
The guard grabbed her arm again, but Taz pulled him close, punched him in the face, and fell unconscious to the ground.
Nawar and the remaining guard moved swiftly to subdue Taz.
After a short struggle, he managed to pin her to the ground and bend her left arm behind her back.
Yet she didn't stop her ferocious frenzy. She tried to get up, and Nawar pushed her down with his right knee with his body weight behind it to keep control of her.
Taz mustered an unnatural strength, lifted herself using her right arm, and shrugged Nawar off her back, making him fall on his back.
She stood up, glared and growled at him. Her threatening stare at Nawar displayed both wrath and pain. As if she was a wolf cub protecting the remains of its parents from being desecrated any further.
Nawar sat up and pleaded to Taz to stop, but his calls never reached her, as her mind became clouded.
The other guard snuck behind Taz and locked her neck in a chokehold.
She moved his arm away from her neck, placed it in her mouth, bit his forearm, and removed a large chunk of his flesh as the guard tried to pull his arm away from her mouth.
The guard fell to the ground and screamed in pain and agony as the newly given hole in his forearm started sprinkling blood heavily.
Taz spat the chunk of flesh on the ground as A'saal shouted her name.
A'saal approached Taz and muttered, "These guards are useless."
Taz stepped back and stood in front of her parent's bodies as A'saal came her way.
A'saal stood in front of Taz and glared at her sharply.
Taz charged at A'saal swiftly, but A'saal evaded her to the right at the last moment and grabbed her collar with her right hand.
She swung a powerful left hook at the back of Taz's head, knocked her out for good, and fell to the ground on her face.
A'saal looked at Nawar and said, "This is the second time I've done your job, Nawar."
Nawar stood up and said, "like the first time, you let people die before you decided to step in."
A'saal ambled to Nawar and said, "What a fine joke this is, Nawar! The failure of a soldier, the most pathetic fighter I have ever seen, becomes a sergeant of the guards. Because of your incompetence, a child had to witness the decapitated bodies of her parents."
Nawar ambled to A'saal and said, "I became a sergeant because I'm a human, not an unnaturally bred monstrosity like you."
A'saal gripped Nawar's neck with her right hand firmly and said, "Do not test my tolerance, Nawar." She gently swiped her left index and middle finger on Nawar's scar and said, "We both know what happened the last time you did that."
A'saal pushed Nawar away, walked out and said, "Do your job well this time, Nawar Or the next scar will be much deeper."
"Fucking bitch," Nawar muttered as he rubbed his neck.
On the following day, at noon.
Taz was confined in a cell.
The cell's interior was small and squared.
The walls were painted grey. They were polished and clean.
The door of the cell was a large black steel door, and in its center, there were symbols written on it that Taz couldn't read.
On top of her bed was a small window barred with thick steel rods.
As to Taz herself, the guards who transported her wrapped a thick leather muzzle on her mouth.
After her bite attack, none of the guards wanted to be her next victim. Her left ankle was cuffed and tied to a two-meter-long heavy chain locked onto the bed's frontal leg.
Taz sat on the bed and heard the cell door open.
A man came and sat down on the ground before her. It was her uncle Ahmad.
Ahmad looked at Taz and asked, "Are you okay?"
Taz nodded.
Ahmed then called a guard to remove her mouth guard, which that guard hesitantly did.
"How are you feeling?" Ahmad asked.
"My body is sore. Everything hurts," Taz replied.
"What's the last thing you remember?" Ahmad asked.
"I remember seeing my parents. Then everything went dark," Taz replied.
"Tanaz, I can't explain your situation nicely, but I will say it to you plainly if you're ready to hear it," Ahmad said.
"What happened?" Taz asked.
"You killed one guard and injured another beyond repair," Ahmad said.
"I did!?" Taz replied.
"After you saw your parent's bodies, you started attacking everyone in your proximity," Ahmad said.
"I... I didn't mean to do it, uncle!" Taz said.
"I know, Tanaz, no child of my dear brother would do such a thing, but the generals of the guards won't see it that way," Ahmad said.
"What will they do to me!?" Taz asked.
"They want your head, but I won't allow them," Ahmad said.
"I didn't mean to do it, uncle," Taz said.
"That's why I struck a deal on your behalf," Ahmad said.
"What deal?" Taz said.
"You will be handed over to the military when you reach adulthood," Ahmad said.
"What will the military do to me?" Taz asked.
"I brought your case to the Military generals. They were more than happy to take you in and overlook your crime since you bear the curse," Ahmad said.
"I am not a fighter. I would die if I went to them," Taz said.
"I know. That's why I must prepare you before they take you," Ahmad said.
"How?" Taz asked.
"A'saal offered her help. She contacted an old friend of hers. Her associate will arrive at Babilim after a month or two if all goes well," Ahmad said.
"I am not sure if I am ready for all of this," Taz said.
Ahmad stood up and said, "Tanaz, we are never ready for anything. The only thing we can do is survive."
Tanaz looked at Ahmad and said, "Are you leaving, uncle?"
"Yes, but I will visit you whenever I can. In the meantime, you'll stay in this cell until A'saal's associate arrives," Ahmad said.
"Thank you for your help, uncle," Taz said.
"Stay strong, Tanaz," Ahmad said.
In the afternoon.
Ahmad went alone outside of Babilim, going to the west side. He walked on a road paved with stone. It had pine trees on both sides.
He soon reached a graveyard that was reserved for the peasants.
The graveyard was extensive and covered around three-square kilometers of land. It had a high clay wall that was five meters tall.
Inside, the paths were organized in a grid-like formation; There was a wooden sign at each intersection. It pointed to the assigned numbers of the graves in its row.
Ahmad reached his brother's grave and looked at it. It had a marble tablet on it, where his brother's name was engraved. He sat in front of the grave and sighed.
He planted a bottle of rum on top of the grave and said, "I heard from your friends that this was your favorite drink, little brother."
He chuckled softly and said, "It's funny, little brother. Random peasants know more about you than me. I always asked myself how that happened. How did we turn from brothers to enemies overnight? When I knew you had debts, I paid them. When I heard you were imprisoned because of a drunken fight, I ordered the guard's lieutenant to set you free. When I saw your daughter for the first time, I persuaded the building company owner you work in to give you a promotion. I despised the thought that my niece was living in the slums."
He sighed and said, "I just…. I wish you never rejected me and banished me from your life. I wanted us to stay like the brothers we always were. I had hoped you would one day open your heart to me, little brother, but in the end, death embraced you in its arms before that happened."
He stood up and said, "Until the day death embraces me, I hope you and Yasmine live happily in the afterlife, and I hope to meet you both there to hear how you lived your second chance in life in Babilim."
His tears poured from his eyes as he groaned, he wiped them repeatedly with his right thumb, yet they never stopped flowing. Ahmad stood at his brother's grave crying silently and alone for hours until his tears dried and he returned home.
The End