The old woman grunted in discomfort as she opened her eyes.
"What is it Davi?" Although she had only been sleeping for few minutes, her voice was really hoarse.
"The basket! There are two pretty babies in the basket" Davi said, jumping up and down in excitement.
The woman mashed her wrinkled lips together to bring awareness to herself and stood up with extreme difficulty.
"Okay, okay. Let's go check it out" she said, sighing and scanning the room with her eyes. But there was no need to since her granddaughter was already pulling her in the direction of the basket.
"Look, grandma." Davi declared and released her grandma's wrist, squatting on the floor, she pointed to the fair balls of flesh within the embrace of soft silk. One of them had white hair while the other had pure black hair, apart from that they looked absurdly identical.
Davi's grandma brought the lantern closer to the babies to confirm what she was seeing. But she wasn't seeing things as one of the babies blinked while the other yawned then started making whimpering noises in its slumber.
"What... How?" The grandmother was bombarded with surprise and confusion.
"I know right? The horse was trying to save the babies!" Davi spoke with the same undiminished excitement. When her grandma looked at her she couldn't help but shake her head. The child had no single clue... What was she going to do with a baby? two for that matter... Moreover they looked like new borns.
Ohh gods! Who was the woman that ditched her children? Did she not fear they will not survive? Or that they will end up in the wrong household and be used as slaves? Did she not go through the pain of delivery for her to fear being apart from those beautiful babies even for a second? Alas- the woman in question was long dead... Buried peacefully under the shade of the pink flowers of cherry blossoms.
~~mwahhhh!!! A high pitched voice similar to a dolphin's scream echoed in the small hut and across the nearby street... It was coming from the white haired baby's mouth that was now awake and demanding to be fed.
Davi and her grandma flinched due to the sudden noise and turned to the crying child, a change has been brought to their lives, and it left different expressions on their faces. The young girl beamed in curious joy while the aged woman sighed in worry and confusion.
-
"But I wished things ended there... As young and fragile as I was, the gods didn't spare me or my brother and made life a living hell..." Kai paused and brought his eyes to Lucifer,
"Do you know that I couldn't take water or food because I will suffer from food poisoning afterwards? Infact my brother couldn't even eat because he always vomited everything that entered his stomach. At a time... we couldn't even breath. We used our fragile body to gasp for air but none entered our lungs... just imagine three months old babies having purple complexion because the gods cut them off their oxygen? So what do you think happened after being cut off from food, water, air and every other mundane thing mortals needed to survive? What did you think happened huh?" Kai asked the man in a pained voice.
Lucifer stared at the man sweating from pain and looked at his hands... Food and water? Fine, they could survive a few days without it, but air? His hands trembled when he imagined what would happen if he was cut off from oxygen, he would die in at most... Thirty minutes. And just like that, a progidy was dead...
He looked up. His carefree expression was replaced with seriousness and asked Kai with intense eyes.
"How did you survive?" He wanted to know. If they went through all that and were still standing, then the gods were not omnipotent. Infact they had a very fatal weakness and one was standing right in front of him... He was going to support this man no matter what, after all who wasn't tired of their unending destinies bestowed on them by the so called gods. It was about time their reign came to an end.
"How?" Kai asked and chuckled. "I can't even remember anymore." Kai said vaguely confusing Lucifer. How could he not remember? Did he die and resurrect to become free of need from what the gods provide?
Seeing his confused expression, Kai scratched his ear and said in lackadaisical tone, "Tch, I'm saying you should put something in old man! I can't just disclose such useful information without receiving anything in return now eh?"
Lucifer blinked in astonishment and brought his hands to his temples. 'how can someone still be playful in such situation?' he wondered if Kai also hit his head somewhere when he was young that made him able to perform emotional u-turns, if only he knew...
"What do you want?" He asked, giving up.
"Errmm..." Kai started, clearing his throat. "I heard that you own a very big institution" he said looking at the man from the side of his eyes and fiddling with his suit's cuffs.
"Yeah and so?" Lucifer asked, paying attention to what was about to come next so he doesn't enter a losing deal.
"You see... I want you to admit my younger brother in it" Kai said with an innocent smile.
"That won't be a problem, just provide his past certificates that's all" Lucifer replied. His brows were still furrowed though... That couldn't be all could it?
"You see... That where the problem is. Ren didn't go to any school, but since you are the owner it shouldn't be that hard to admit him, no?" Kai said looking pitiful.
'gods! What has he been doing with his youth then?' Lucifer asked in his mind but nodded to Kai. It wasn't that hard anyway. He was the owner after all. "Now tell me how did you survive?" He asked, getting back to the topic at hand.
"How else? With the aid of technology ofcourse... I was placed in an incubator for oxygen and was able to drink the blood of any mortal they fed me once purified. Oh! And also the oath my mom made was quite helpful too as my brother and I developed a resistance to their measly ploys, that didn't mean it wasn't hard though." Kai replied with a breathtaking smile and headed for the door, leaving a few more words.
"Come on, we probably spent a lot of time here. Let's go to the others before they think something happened." His voice faded into the distance as Lucifer's lips twitched in speechlessness. What technology?!
He really had made a loosing deal! He didn't gain anything from the knowledge at all!!