Preparation
A deep silence filled the atmosphere as none of them spoke. Arat finally broke the mood
"Mister didn't you want to speak?"
"Yes but I didn't imagine you would sit outside in such a cold night"
He replied, then coughed.
"I know you are a child. Even though your voice seems to come from beneath a metallic object, I can still hear the childish tone in it. "
Arat was impressed by the old man's hearing, no matter how strong or fast his grand-father was he had a heavy ear, but this old man could hear better than him despite his age.
"I'm Okay. the cold doesn't bother me."
Arat said.
"I don't know what you have to fear from a dying old man like me, but I won't insist. As long as I can talk to you before I die, I'm satisfied."
This guy is sure lonely. Well I kind of wanted to talk someone who didn't want to kill me too I wonder how the other people are like grandpa never let me come face to face with any one.
"I want to tell someone the story of my life before I die, so that I can be remembered."
He continued.
He wants to be remembered, is it normal to feel like this when you are as old and lonely as him?
"I was born and grew up in Tehnil in the Estoros empire. Right in the middle of the ring."
Arat quickly remembered the map of the world his grand-father had showed him before, on the ring shaped continent that seemed to be the exterior part of circle, inside it was the swirl sea surrounded by ring-shaped land, The ends of the ring didn't connect in the southern part, leaving it open to the sea that covered all the known world, including their ring-shaped continent.
The old man carried on.
"I grew up in a city, behind tall stone walls that many dreamed of. My father was a merchant there. He would bring my mother and sister fabulous clothes and fabrics in all colors and patterns."
Arat was was intrigued by the old man's story opened his eyes wider like a child hearing a fairy tail.
"Every once in a while he would take me with himself to the market he worked in. It was filled with all sorts of sights and sounds, the clanging of black smiths hammering iron , the rich aroma of spices in the air and the vibrant colors of clothes and jewelry people wore."
The sound of the old man's quiet sobs reached Arat's ears.
"Even though I can't see anything anymore, I can just remember them like they are before my eyes, I can smell the red pepper and turmeric, the sweet vanilla and every thing else."
Arat tried to imagine the scenes the man described, he didn't know what turmeric or vanilla smelled like, he could neither picture a marked nor what a group of people wearing colorful clothes jewelry looked like.
"What happened after that?"
Arat asked with interest.
The old man straightened his throat.
"My father died of an illness, I still recall its name, scarlet tears, yeah that's that what they called it."
He sighed.
"After that, my mother married another man. He had two daughters and a few pastures where he bred cows and horses. He didn't make as much as my father, but at least we lived better than many people. He then grew his business and left us to find a new house in the capital, but he never returned. The roads were filled bandits at that time. This left me as the only son in my family. Once I was fourteen, I went to work to feed our mouths, the fortune that my father had gathered were taken by his own parents and my uncles, the pastures my step-father left behind became mine."
"So you were doing Okay, right?"
Arat said.
"Raising animals isn't simple. It was hard to do so at my age, but the main problem was the devils. They raided the farms at night, attacking the animals more and more. Even if they didn't kill them, their bites made them sick. The disease spread, and many died. This didn't only happen to me. Others suffered too, which made the price of everything go up in the empire. My mother, an elegant woman whose only skill was cooking, started working as a maid. Was it anyone other than her they would leave their children."
"But it wasn't enough. My mother started working multiple jobs, which finally hurt her as she fell ill. My sisters and I could barely earn enough money for food, let alone to cure my mother. I sold the house. But despite spending most of the money they couldn't really cure her, she became bedridden and could no longer work, this led me to …"
Arat felt a cold breeze and shivered. He clutched his hands, as his fur coat was still wet and his tattered clothes weren't as warm as he had hoped. He sneezed.
Achoo!
Water started running from his nose. The old man had paused once he heard this, he then coughed and spoke with a warm tone.
"Child don't harm yourself, come inside. There is a nice fire here, I even have some left over soup if you feel hungry."
Arat's ears perked up as he heard the word 'soup'. It had been some time since he had eaten the fish. Given his age, it wasn't enough to satisfy his hunger. He stood up and went around the small wooden cottage until he reached the front door, where a wooden rocking chair was placed.
Arat climbed the four steps leading to the wooden platform in front of the door and stopped behind it, ready for the old man to open it. Hearing no footsteps, he knocked to inform the old man to open it for him.
"I am sorry, but can you come in from the window I don't think these legs have enough strength left in them to move anymore."
You cold have said so when you heard me walk all the way till here, or you could just tell me in advance to come in from the window if you couldn't open the door! I can't tell him this, he may refuse to give me food then.
Arat returned to the window and climbed up inside the house, the old man was sitting opposite the window in a chair looking at were he thought the window was, Arat jumped from the window frame landing on the wooden planks of the floor the old man corrected the angle of his head to look at Arat's direction, the house had no rooms, only a fire place were the kitchen was, a black cauldron hung over the flames.
That's were the soup is!
This was the first thing Arat thought of. He walked toward the kitchen, but there was no other chair inside the house. Arat hesitated for a moment, then asked.
"Can I eat and listen at the same time?"
The old man chuckled
"Of course, feel free."
Arat grabbed a wooden bowl and a matching spoon and poured some soup into it from the cauldron, it was carrot soup, however what it lacked the most were carrots. It was more water than soup, which disappointed Arat who had expected something else.
Well, I don't think a blind old man like him has much to eat.
Sitting on the ground and scooping a full spoon of the dilute soup. He asked
"Mister what happened after your mother fell ill?"
"Oh, after that, that's when the tragedy began. I knew a friend of my father, and I asked him for some money, he introduced me to a man from the military. I talked with him and after a few days some people came over. They offered me some money in exchange of adopting my sisters."
"Adopting your sisters?"
Arat said.
"Yes, they said my sisters will be trained as nurses and doctors, they would be in charge of treating wounded soldiers who fought devils, but that didn't seem to be the reality now that I think of it."
"In all these years I haven't seen or heard from any of them, even if they had become doctors and nurses on the front lines of demon castle invaders they should have sent me a letter."
The deep regret and sorrow in the old man's words were unmistakable.
Demon castle invaders, they may be the same as those knights that wanted to kill the devils.
"It was later on that I found out the empire used female children to make devil brides."
Arat's ears perked up the instant he heard this word, he then thought loudly.
"Devil brides? Those female knights?"
The old man sighed.
"Yes, the angles of humanity, our only beacons of hope."
Arat's hand stopped midair, holding the wooden spoon. The scene of his grandfather's monstrous appearance fighting the female knights and tearing them apart with his gigantic mace flashed before his eyes.
He let go of the spoon and put down the bowl, looking at the man if he was one those knights himself and had tricked him to capture him. Mixed emotions and thought raced in his head, unsure if he should pity the man or consider him a threat since his sisters were devil brides. Knowing that the man said he hadn't seen his sisters from then and the fear those female knights had carved in his mind added to his confusion.
He continued.
"After I foolishly let my sister go with them, my mother's heart broke, this was the final blow to her heart after the death of my father and disappearance of my step-father she blamed and cursed me, I was still young and didn't get the meaning behind her actions and words."
"Didn't you try to take back your sisters?"
Arat questioned the man.
"They told me I have to give them back the money that they gave me, I had already spent some of it so our landlord wouldn't throw us out of the house, I offered the remaining money back, I hoped that I could at least take back my own sisters from them. But they refused. Either I had to give all the money or give up, it took me three years to gather the money but when I offered them that, they said they didn't even knew who I was and they refused to have my sisters adopted saying they had never wrote such names in their lists."
"What? They took your sisters and then claimed they didn't know them? Is that even possible? How? How could they just refuse to acknowledge them?"
Arat's voice rose, filled with anger.
Arat waited for the man to answer, but no words came. The old man didn't move. With growing unease, Arat stood and cautiously approached him. He patted the man's shoulder, but there was no response. He tried shaking his leg gently, nothing. Arat shook his arm next, and the old man's frail body collapsed to the ground.
Once this happened Arat who was taken aback, jumped away, he turned the fragile body of the old man toward himself and held his head, his yellow and black teeth were rotten, at least what was left of them, his grey eyes were life less, even though he sat near the fire his body was cold. Arat put his ear on the left side of the old man's chest. He then let go of his head and let him lay on the ground gently.
Arat stood up looking at the man the only thing he thought of was how a person could become someone like him, he sighed and went to leave the house, he smelled meat, tuning his head the realized its source, the old man's corpse.
His demonic desires saw it as a source of food. Arat controlled himself, looking at the dead man's body once more his open eyes made Arat uncomfortable. He closed his eyelids and noticed a necklace that hung around that man's neck made of copper, it was a fish with two tails and heads. He took the necklace and stuffed it into his pocket.
"Mister I don't know your name, but you talked to someone, who will remember you."
Arat was about to leave but remembered he needed to gather some food for his journey. He searched the small wooden house and found a piece of dried meat in one of the wooden cabinets, two candles, and some potatoes. He took what he could and poured water over the fire, extinguishing it. As he walked away, no more light came from the small wooden cottage, it was now completely embraced by the darkness of the night.
Returning to the cave through the jungle he had a different feeling from the silence of the night this time, the story of the man had moved his heart. Inside the cave Arat organized what he wanted to bring over with himself while still thinking about what had happened.
Discarding the bows, since they were long and heavy, Arat decided that he would only carry one dagger the fur coat without the hat, and the brown shirt that he had washed. He put the filled water flask and the small leather pouch into his leather bag along with the books, necklace and iron slab.
Tomorrow I have to sleep the entire day, once the night comes I will wait until the villagers return to their homes, then I will ignite the farms and get back on the hill, one all the farmers and guards arrive, I will run for the mountain.
With this plan in mind, he donned the fur coat, rekindled the fire and went to sleep.
…
In the village, in a spacious stone house with a wooden floor, a long table surrounded by chairs that had animal skins on them, an elderly woman with curly hair sat. Before her, on the table, was a parchment covered with black cross marks.
She tapped her index finger on the table rhythmically, wearing a white shirt and holding a cup of wine. She stopped tapping and began playing with a strand of her hair.
"Were are you hiding."
She took a sip of the vine and cursed in a voice low
"What's this grape juice they give us."
The sound of knocking came from the door, Gabriella took her eyes off of the map, and said.
"Who is it?"
"It's me commander."
A rough female voice answered
"Come in."
The door opened and a woman wearing steel armor having a sword by her side came inside the room, she had blond hair and light blue eyes, the scars on her face were likely from her multiple encounters with wild beasts, she locked the door and reported.
"Commander, two of the villagers that separated the search party haven't returned to their houses from yesterday, no one has seen them since that time."
"Only two?"
Gabriella wanted to confirm.
"Yes one of them was a hunter he helped the other by finding tracks of animals, he excused that he had found track of a boar and wanted to hunt it for dinner."
The woman in steel armor said with a sense of honesty.
Gabriella stirred the wine in her cup and sighed.
"Two hunters suddenly disappearing finding a boar huh? This only means one thing."
She glanced at the blond haired woman, a wide smile appeared on her face.
"You know what to do, those two idiots went after that little demon alone, they are most likely dead by now, see if you can track where they went this may give us a hint."
"Yes commander."
The blond woman said but she stood there and didn't leave immediately.
Gabriella who had returned her looking at the map brought her head up and looked the blond woman staring at her meaningfully, her yellow eyes emitted a commanding aura. Her red lips moved.
"Anything else?"
"Yes, Helia and Yelva, they didn't make it."
The woman said.
Gabriella threw her cup at the side spilling the vine on the ground, she ordered
"Out. Go and find him."
The woman left the room. Gabriella rested her chin in both hands, her eyes gleaming with a monstrous intensity. Their golden glow was as bright as polished gold, and her black pupils had narrowed into sharp, vertical slits.