It was also a new concept to Nyurta.
Only in legends and fairytales had he heard of mighty people flying in the sky. Once, his mother told him "There lived a great wizard who could change the weather, make fire from air, and fly like a bird in the sky. He watches over us common people, preventing us from diseases and catastrophes. He protects us from the Royal Capital."
His eyes would glimmer when her mother recounted him stories before bed. He wanted to be just like them. Obtaining great powers and saving their village from danger.
But now, Nyurta looked around himself. A dark room dimly lit by a few lamps. There were several beds, and his was at the corner. Most boys were now asleep - with only Jack and him awake.
Jack was holding the picture book. "I want to be like him in the future Nyurta" his expression was of hope and expectation towards the future.
There were no windows here. Very dark, with the faint smell of dust. Overall, this was a very uncomfortable place. Compared to the brothel with the extravagant setting, they seemed like polar opposites.
Yet, in the dark surroundings, Jack's words and hopeful expectation seemed to glow brightly.
"Forget Jack." Jack looked at him in confusion.
"That thing is far far." Nyurta pointed at the book. "Let's sleep now, and think tomorrow's work" it was indeed very late. To Nyurta who was far away from his home, he was even more tired.
...
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Nyurta was awoken by a sequence of loud noises. It sounded as if a metal basin had been bashed by a bat or club.
It was indeed so. And it was time for work.
"Jack wake up! It's work time and if you don't stand up, they hit you!" Nyurta heavily nudged Jack. He was a heavy sleeper after all.
"Wha.. what? It's morning already?" making him get up quickly, Nyurta grabbed his bowl.
They didn't eat any breakfast. Drinking water was the only privilege they had. To even eat coarse black bread was a thing only the rich could afford. Eggs? Heh, why don't you go ask the city lord?
Jack and Nyurta drank their water, donned on their hats and went out. The water didn't taste good at all; it had a slight taste of copper and minerals.
It was time for their routine work in the factory. Separating gray powder from the black. There were heavy instructions regarding this job. Such as not lighting anything on fire, or bringing lamps inside the factory.
The supervisor warned, there would be heavy punishments were they to do that.
The work began, and it was just a monotone action - very boring. The small stones would sometimes be crushed a little bit, causing dust to come out. It would then be inhaled, causing a series of coughs.
Nyurta's hands separated the small stones by color roughly, and did what he can while the assembly rail moved. The kids after him would take care of the other details. He too, has been dealing with the roughly separated small rocks.
After what seemed like a long time, the work finished. It was time for midday lunch.
It was finally time to see Erika! The girls worked in a separate factory and the two groups had lunch together.
Just as he joined with Jack and left the factory, there was a loud noise.
BOOM!
It seemed as if the world was ending. Just around fifty or so meters in front of him, there was an explosion. Black smoke rose up into the sky, and dust seemed to dominate the entire area.
Fierce wind blew past his face, as he uncontrollably shut his eyes. His ears were ringing, and his mind went blank.
Nyurta had never witnessed such a sight before. The magnitude of this explosion... seemed beyond what humans were capable of. Almost as if a god made it happen!
Nyurta kneeled with his eyes closed. He took both of his hands, and clasped them together in a praying motion.
He had begun praying to the god he had never before seen, and only heard of from his mother.
"Dear god, please quell your anger... please do not take out your anger on this servant..."
If others saw this sight, they would've been speechless. After all, religion was not dominant in this region. Nyurta doing this was almost like a clown performing for the audience. However, what can they say? The boy had been sold by slavery. Maybe his hometown had this tradition.
Even more so, people didn't have any time to pay attention to Nyurta right now. They themselves had their eyes shut and their ears ringing.
For Nyurta, a long time passed. He gradually opened his eyes and got up from his kneeling position. Beside him was Jack, also in shock. Perhaps, not so much time has passed after all.
Nyurta looked around him.
Right now, shocked people barged open the doors. The entire upper echelon of the Dandelion House currently in work have been alarmed. Finding this sight, their faces had become unsightly.
Nyurta then looked at the sight of the explosion. By now, the dust had settled.
The explosion had happened around the place where the gray stones were transported. He happened to have seen them being carried by a large car a week ago.
Nyurta didn't go there to check. He couldn't, as the supervisors had already gone there, and nor did he have any wish to. To his horror, he has discovered that the explosion didn't happen without any casualties.
Just a few meters before him lay a separate human finger. The meat on the base had splattered on the ground, and the nail had become more crisp.
If he looked hard enough, he even discovered a corpse.
A large rectangular shaped metal had squashed the body to a nearby wall. The wall had been colored red. A gruesome sight to say the least.
A streak of terror flashed past his eyes.
'Jack? Jack!' Jack was safe. Fortunately, he was just in shock.
As for the girls, where could he find them? Not to mention, all kinds of people were rushing in from the buildings. In this chaos, he could perhaps only recognize Jack who was nearby.
"Jack! Jack!! Stand up!" Nyurta took Jack's arm and tried pulling him upwards.
"If you don't get up, you will be trampled on!" Jack finally opened his eyes, and looked at him. His eyes were full of fear as he nodded his head and got up.
The two quickly left the scene and went to the sleg.
"What was that Nyurta?! Did you see??"
"It was BOOOM!" Nyurta gestured with his hands, his hands expanding outwards. And then, he pointed upwards and folded his hands into a prayer.
Jack's face was incredulous as he also imitated Nyurta. At least Nyurta knew what he was doing.
When they got to the lunch place for the sleg, the food wasn't there. It was predictable why it was like that.
Who could've guessed that this chaos would be caused?
Even in the slums, the place where the lowest of the low gather, an explosion of this magnitude had gathered much notice immediately. Especially from the supervisors. They all held grim expressions as they walked about.
But all that Nyurta and other could care, the food was hot and the supervisors' attitude nice. Fortunately, it wasn't long before the food came. And it had little meat as usual. Still, it filled the small stomach of Nyurta.
That night, Nyurta finally saw people other than the brothel customers, and the workers. The people had serious expressions as they wore an upright blue hat. With no chance to eavesdrop, he could only look as they entered the building.
Perhaps they were also customers? They didn't seem like one...
Since the brothel was closed today, they didn't have to do any work. This was a very rare moment. So, the children were left to their own wills.
Of course, leaving the Dandelion House establishment was a big no-no. They were slaves. If they left, wouldn't they escape?
Since such a time was rare, Nyurta brought along Jack, Yuri, Ruri, and Erika as they spent their free time together. They decided to play hide and seek, and also play catch the liar.
After it was done, they were bored again.
"In my land, we play this game five people. If good, we get ghost answer." Nyurta said, and the others were instantly intrigued. Limited by their surroundings, their choice of games were very narrow.
"Four stand in North, South, East, West. Rest one stand middle. I become the middle because I know. You four, do what I do now." Nyurta expressed himself after much deliberation over what words to choose.
And then, he started doing hand gestures. The index fingers form a mountain, the middle fingers point down together, joined from the first joint, while the ring and pinky are pointed towards the middle person.
"This. To sky." Nyurta showed the index fingers.
"This. To earth. We get power of sky and earth." the middle fingers.
"These. To me. I am target" the pinky and ring fingers formed a horizontal mountain.
"Finally. The strong fingers are joined to close off the surrounding" Nyurta referred to the thumb.
The four did what Nyurta said. They were curious to this game after all.
Following their completion, Nyurta then stood in the middle and then put his hands in a cross before kneeling and bowing twice.
Once.
Two.
"Now, make the hand signs inverted. Don't change it but make the finger point upside down" Nyurta said. After they did that, Nyurta bowed for the last time.
Three.
A silence ensued. Nothing seemed to happen, but they didn't make any noise nor did they move as Nyurta reminded them not to. After waiting for a while and just as Yuri was about to complain, Nyurta's nose started bleeding.