Sea of Lies

Chapter 11

[Read comments for important author's note.]

Cain knocked on the door. He waited for a moment, the man standing outside the door staring him down. Sub opened it and poked his head out. He moved aside to let him in.

He brought in fresh bandages. Sub sat at the table and began to unwrap the old ones since they were bloody and falling off.

Cain got a wet rag to clean his arm. As he wiped the blood away, he saw some sort of tattoo on his arm. There were dots, lines, and swirls that went from his wrist to his elbow.

"I didn't know you had tattoos." Cain laughed as he rang out the towel. Sub stood up. He went over to a dresser in the room and took out a small tin. He dug two fingers into it then wiped it on his skin. It covered up the green with a tanish color. He then pulled up his other sleeve, revealing an identical tattoo, and rubbed the makeup across it.

"Do they have a meaning?" Cain asked as he handed Sub the rag to wipe the makeup off. Sub nodded, but stopped to think for a moment. He put the rag in the bucket of water and went over to the table. He grabbed a paper and pen and drew something.

There was a zero, a five, and a ten. Sub showed it to Cain. He pointed to the zero and then to the tattoos on his arms.

After, he pointed to the five then pulled down his shirt to show a tattoo on his chest between his collarbone. Finally, he pointed to the ten and two on both shoulders.

"I thought I saw that Elijah had some too," Cain mumbled as he put the paper on the table. Sub nodded. He pointed to the numbers again.

"Oh," Cain looked at Sub's tattoos again. "Is it like a cultural thing?" Sub's face lit up and he nodded. He picked up the pen and wrote on the paper again. He wrote 'every five years'. Cain took the rag and cleaned Sub's arm again.

"I never learned much about Oadriums. To be honest, I thought you guys were all trying to kill us." Cain laughed as he wrapped Sub's wounds. He looked back up at him. Sub's eyes stared down at the ink on his arm. 

1715

"Happy Birthday, hunny!" An Oadrium woman cheered. Her husband picked up their son and tossed him in the air. The boy giggled as his father caught him again and lowered him down again.

"Hmm. Where should your new mark go?" He mumbled. He bent down to his son's eye level. "How about here?" He laughed before tickling his son's neck as he giggled again.

"Here! Here!" He pointed to his shoulders. "I want to have the same ones as you and Mama!"

He picked his son up and carried him out of the house. They made their way through the village. Most of the hunters had left already. Qierons Oadriums wandered about, doing morning chores and cleaning up after breakfast. They were made of the younger members of families.

They reached a hut covered in glowing stone, pearls, and other gemstones. A woman walked out. She smiled and welcomed them inside.

"Ten already, Sub?" She chuckled as she sat the boy down in a comfy chair. "I swore I saw you yesterday for your fifth birthday."

"He wants the same ones as us," The mother smiled and showed the tattoo on her shoulder. It was an eye with triangles above it and below it with a swirling design around it. Her husband had the same thing.

"Perfect."

-

"Thank you!" Sub cheered as he left the hut. He held both his parents' hands, walking between them as he looked over his new tattoos. They had a thin layer of ointment over them to help them heal.