Caesar

CHAPTER TWO; A GOLDEN DEATH

Caesar's feet moves walking on the dark orange sand on the streets of Mountaingroin. He is alone unaccompanied by his men. His heavy golden sword is tucked in its brown pouch. His eyes move observing the beauties of Mountaingroin- the enchanted land.

He had been to many places but had never seen anything like Mountaingroin; a land so rich and unique. His eyes aimlessly explores, there are posters of him hung on almost every wall, with various worship writings referring to him as the god of Yunchi. As he looks at the writings, a morose sinister expression forms on his exquisite face.
"If they view me as god then they should expect mass destruction."

His low toned voice speaks barely in a whisper. His eyes constantly stares at the big versions of him plastered on every wall. Statures of him in gold stands at the front of the temple and at its feet, offerings are made. Various woman with decorated scarfs move dropping more offerings.

"Hwansu, god of Yunchi, when the gods turned their backs on us, The Hwansu backed us placing us right back on our feet!" As his eyes read, a sardonic laugh escapes his mouth, one so dried and drained. It stops when something warm, moist and sticky cups his foot, holding on to it.

He looks down, his face more morose and colder than it was before.
A crippled man holds on to his feet, his skin discoloured with plastered dirt on it, his garments; a coat of many colours but certainly not of bright ones but of dull rags which are made from various recycled rags sewn haggardly to form a cloth.

He sits beneath one of the posters with a Rusty bowl in front of him and cleans his face with his frayed haggard garments. His dirty moist hands grab on to Caesar's expensive white boots staining it. The bowl by his side is full of stale brown waters and a rotten piece of bread which soaks the brown water sinking in it. His hands pick up the bread throwing it into his mouth then greedily drowning in the stale waters as if Caesar is going to take it away from him. He speaks as he greedily munches the dirt he viewed food.
"You are rich on Yunchi's money, Hwansu. Give me some of that ill gotten money..after all i am a son of Yunchi not a damned foreigner like you!"

Caesar looks down at the crippled peasant. He snickers silently mouthing to himself; " The worse thing a peasant could do... is not to know his place."

Did he owe this peasant some dimes he was unaware of? He laughs out almost scaring the Man.

"Money?...I happen to have some of that 'ill gotten' money you earlier spoke of! The question is... do you want it? And Can you...do what it takes to have it?" He brings out a flattened piece of gold of emerse high quality tossing in his hands.
The peasant's eyes are gummed to it like an ant that finally found some sugar following its every movement as his hands reach for it greedily.

"There!"Caesar throws it far, way further than the cripple could reach. His eyes stare down at the peasant
"If you want it...fetch!"

The cripple crawls with his only available leg towards the gold. As Caesar looks at him, crawling thorns form and pierce their way through the ground. The peasant crawls desperately in pursuit of the gold. The thorns prick into his flesh claiming some drops of his blood. The further the Peasant crawled, the further the gold is drawn away from him, dragging against the ground.

He crawls closer to the gold on the wet ground filled with thorns which pierce deep into his flesh. Finally, he is inches from it bleeding profusely from the thorns as he continues reaching for it.

"That would be too easy for a 'son of Yunchi, don't you think?'" Caesar says as he slips the gold past the beggar's near approaching fingers back to him as he sighs tiredly.

With one look at the rusty bowl, it engulfs in a raging flame and Caesar tosses the gold into the flames. The Beggar hurries to catch it but he's too late as the gold merely misses his grasp seconds before it falls into the burning flame.

"Now, you can get it!" Caesar's cold eyes stare down at the trembling man as his hands dip into his pocket bringing out a lighter which he clicks.

The beggar's mouth utters, his voice shaky and hands to the ground as he realises that he didn't have a choice.
"Fr...from the flame?"

"Go on!"
Caesar stares down at the man who shakes trembling as he reluctantly crawls towards the flame.

"Note, i can get impatient...any moment from now, you may lose some dimes...tik! tok! tik! tok!..."

The pace of his voice is low and slow with stressed emphasis on 'tik tok.' The sound of lighter clicking in the prevailing silence makes the beggar more frightened as he looks up to the crazed Man who towers above him. His eyes stare up as he realises that it wasn't a request, it was a command that he couldn't afford to disobey for consequences he feared would be so dear for doing so.

The Beggar crawls forward as vines curl round his skin cutting into it. He struggles fighting his way through the vines, screaming loudly as the thorns and vines slice through his flesh.

Finally he is close to the raging flame as the gold remains static in the flame. He hesitantly puts his hand into the flame shouting louder as he tries to retrieve the heated gold from the flame. The sound of meat burning and the smell of it persists over the atmosphere. Finally, he brings out his burnt hand and the gold.

The piece of gold clings onto his hands like a hot knife would to meat gumming its flesh. He uses his only leg to crawl, relying on both his hands to advance forward. He finally approaches Caesar who stares at him with unfeeling eyes.

"Tthank yyoou Hwansu!" The Man utters trying to bear the stinging pain as his hands brings out hot smoky fumes.

"Did i say you could have it? Your screams swayed me from giving it to you...it was too noisy and i hate noise!"

He stares down at the wide eyed cripple who clenches on to the gold refusing to let it go. Fighting to retain it. An unseen force drags it from him, he loses balance falling to the ground and the gold returns back to Caesar who holds it like dirt with only his thumb and the finger closest to it. After observing the Cripple for a while, he throws the gold to him.

The peasant snorts observing the gold piece, it colours are burnt off and a steel sliver colour is beneath the gold paint.
"You tricked me...this isn't gold...!"

"I never said it was!"

"I will kill you...i swear to god, I'll..." He violently crawls towards Caesar.

"How would you? you'll be dead before...1...2..3...4...5...!"

The beggar's skin immediately becomes pale and he screams loud in pain for a while. Finally, he slumps down to the ground lifeless. The poisoned vines and thorns disappears and so does his body.

"... seconds!"

He walks away retracing his steps back to the suite prepared for him in Mountaingroin. His lips part and words run out of them;
"Ingrate peasants till the very end, that's what they all are.

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