The LightProtectors: New Adventure

Chapter 3

When the sun slowly disappears in the east of the horizon, making way for the cold night to fall, the bright moonlight above seems to blend in with everything, illuminating the way for lost wanderers. The whole space is completely devoid of sound from insects or owls, only the sound of the skin-severing winds whistling around is left. They creak open doors or scrape wrinkled shirts lying on the street. Everything seems to have sunk into oblivion. In that empty space, a small object lying on the side of the road began to wiggle up, letting the moonlight spread across its thin, sickly shoulders. The boy sat against the wall, his head aching like crazy, and the morning fever returned, even worse than before. He was panting, whole body become heavy, and there was no drop of sweat, which is the thing for him to reduce his fever. Every time the night wind blew, it made him feeling like having a cold convulsion and it is difficult for him to calm down. The young teenager had endured more persistent fevers than this but still survived without any medication. However, it was extremely hard to endure a fever, and even though he had had it many times, he still couldn't get used to it.
Take a deep breath, the boy tried to stand up, one hand on the ground, the other clinging to the wall. Under the bright moonlight, everything seems to put on a translucent white coat, clearly appearing in the dark night. After struggling for a while due to dizziness, he started walking quickly. The current destination he was aiming for was the eastern part of town, where most of the fierce criminals were concentrated. Unlike other areas, where the only source of water is food, in the East, there is another source of water. It comes from a small stream, although it is polluted, but if boiled properly, we can drink the water above and remove the residue at the bottom. Water is a pretty important resource, the boy had seen many corpses because of lack of water, lying on the side of the road, so he always think about this issue very seriously. Normally, he would sneak along the edge of the forest, out of sight of criminals, and steal some water that he kept in an old metal cup left behind by the old woman who grown him. Then at night, he would secretly light a fire on the western edge of town and boil water while everyone was asleep.
Thanks to all of that, he discovered a secret of the stream that no one knew thanks to a sneak peek of water at a random night.
With his quick feet, the boy passed through the center of town and looked at the large clock bathed in moonlight.

"It's twelve o'clock now..."-he thought

The young man grimaced, thinking with his aching head:

"If it's eleven o'clock, maybe the criminals haven't gone to bed yet, it'll be at least two or three in the morning to be sure..."

"but if I go now I'll probably get more, just be a little careful..."

With his uncertain intentions, the boy moved, continuing along the road to the edge of town. Towards the East, the sounds of talking and laughing of criminals grew louder, they lived in houses much stronger than other areas, some of them even had lights made from colored stones. remaining gold. The trash here has a hobby of beating and torturing others, because of occupying the water source, they have absolute power, especially the leader that people call "Big Brother".
The boy crouched slowly, following the big houses, avoiding the lighted windows and ignoring the mixed sounds like the groans of women who have to sacrifice their bodies for some water, the curses and beatings of the barbarians who are satisfied when torturing the poor people, or the laughter of criminals when talking to each other.
Placing his feet on the damp black soil, the boy was delighted to hear the sound of water gurgling in the narrow crevices. He quickly crept closer, lowered his body and hid behind a dead tree on the other side of the creak, turning against the town. Plunging to the ground, his whole body was covered in sweat, somewhat blowing away the pain and fatigue all over his body. He stared at the forest in front of him, where there was no green at all but only thin, tall trees, standing a few meters apart with the ash gray color on their body for some reason. While resting, he suddenly heard some rustling sounds from the ground right in front. The boy hurriedly put his hands up, in a pose as if he was about to capture something, and. . . 'bam', he darted forward and pressed his hands to the ground, holding on tight.The young man picked up the little thing, it was a relatively small brown four-eyed frog-like creature, struggling finding a way to escape. The surrounding ground also stirred as if it had just woken up, revealing little frogs crawling out of the warm underground place. Dozen of them made their way to the stream and drank water. Upon long-term observation, the boy noticed that this frog always appeared on moonlit nights at the end of each week to collect water reserves and breed. Every time they went out, they came out in large numbers, like flooding the whole stream, but the criminals were too indifferent and completely unaware of their existence. With abundant nutrition, the boy always waits until the day to enjoy delicious grilled frog thighs every weekend. The prospect of biting into a succulent frog's thigh made his drool flow unceasingly. He pulled up the long lap of his long robe, creating a hollow then catching frogs and throwing them in. Enthusiastic about his own work, suddenly the boy turned quickly and hid behind the dead tree, became completely silence. The sound of the mud being trampled on the ground resounded in the night, and accompanied by the sound was a drunken, bearded man, his whole body reeking of alcohol and his mouth muttering with incomprehensive words. He went to the creek, untied his ragged pants, and released the "flood" he had accumulated. The boy seemed to hold his breath, staring into the air, praying for the man not to see him. Indeed, he never see the boy, but he did see. . . a frog. It seemed that the bright moonlight revealed the presence of the little frogs, it was unfortunate that this bearded man could see them even though he was drunk. At first he was about to turn away because he thought it was just a rock, but after seeing it move, he grab it up by hand and then whatever happens must happen. Before the boy could leave, he heard a loud cry:

"Hey guys, look what I found!"

The boy was about to turn around and run away, but hesitated for fear of being discovered.
Soon the whole creek was filled with criminals holding torches, each of them eager to catch the poor little creatures.

"Hurry up and catch the Frouye, we're in luck"

It seems that "frouye" is the name of this kind of frog, according to their unclear conversations, this type of frog is very delicious - which the boy also agrees - and expensive. Taking advandtage the moment when the whole area was in turmoil with fighting and shouting, the boy quickly lowered himself and slithered away. One hand clutching the hem of his shirt, the other dragging his body, sweat continuously poured out like a nearby stream, seeping into the damp ground but he didn't feel tired at all. After a few minutes, he looked back, breathing a sigh of relief when he was at a relatively safe distance even though he was only five or six meters away from the chaos. However, after turning around and wiping his forehead, what the boy saw made his whole body freeze. A chill ran down his spine causing him to shiver uncontrollably. It was a muddy shoe, which wasn't there before. The boy was silent, breathless and motionless. His trembling little heart pounded wildly in his chest, hoping that the person standing in front of him hadn't noticed that someone was lying at his feet. But his hopes were quickly dashed when a low, muffled wheeze rang out:

- Oh, it looks like there's not only a frog but also a big "rat" tonight, isn't it?

Having said that, he shouted with a hoarse throat:

- Brothers, we have this "rat" here. . . Cough cough. . .

There was no time to think, before the man could stop coughing, the boy leapt forward, knocked him over and finding a way to escape. Surprised, he bellowed as if he had been castrated, alarming the whole area. Now just being caught is enough to end the boy life, the screams of criminals are heard behind him, filled with obscenities, threatening that he cannot escape or how they will torture him brutally. But he don't have time to cared about such things. Running from the forest into the town, he ran as fast as he could, still holding onto the wiggling "food" in his hand.

"I must lose them!" he thought.

After turning left and right multiple times, the boy flew through the alleyways. He wriggled his way through the drowsy homeless people awakened by the shrill screams and the flames from the torches, who would soon be trampled mercilessly if they not run away fast enough. The boy helplessly searched for a place to hide, but nowhere seemed to be safe from the search of the criminals gang, everywhere there was interrogation, shouting and bright torchlight, overwhelming the bright moon tonight. In an instant, he jumped into a shabby wooden house through the window. In the corner, next to the haystack, were many old wooden crates, illuminated by moonlight through a huge hole in the roof. The boy ran to pull the crates, one by one, put right under the hole, stacked them on top of each other and climbed up. He tried to tiptoe, stretching his whole body up to reach the edge of the roof. The moonlight right now is like the moonlight of hope. But in his haste, he slipped, slamming his chest and chin on the top wooden crate. The blow was quite strong, causing dizziness and he almost bit his tongue. Suppressing his pain, his breathing was getting faster and faster as the tumultuous sound drew nearer and nearer. There is no time, hesitation means death, the boy climbs up the crates to try again. Reaching up high, this time he tiptoes even with the tips of his toes. Touching one hand, he clung to the wooden plank covering the roof, then the second hand, then the elbow, the arm, the chest, etc. . .
Using what little strength he had left, he finally managed to climb up to the wooden roof. Lying aside because he couldn't continue, the boy's eyes start to blurred, replaced by a black color even though it didn't close at all. He opened his mouth to inhale air, but his lungs seemed to be gone, leaving him helpless. As if the torment wasn't enough, the boy's heart suddenly tightened, aching due to overwork. The pain was so great that it made him writhe, having to close his eyes, grit his teeth to endure. Hands gripping the wooden planks in order not to fall, he could hear the sound of interrogation from the road, and even screams. But everything is getting darker, darker,. . .

And he lost consciousness.