Myth Land (unedited)

XXIII

There was another feeling that couldn't stop eating my organs as I climbed down the tree. The kind of feeling that made me feel like my head was clipped between two huge walls in a dark alley. The kind of feeling that made me feel like there were invisible claws choking my neck. The feeling that squeezed my eyeballs to get the juice from them. It was as if the wind blew me hard enough to drag me back to Ieiunium, yet I defied it by throwing myself to the ground. Letting the Earth embraced me.

Yet at that time I landed on the softest land I could ever remember. My heart skipped a beat when the land yelped. I rolled myself to the side and stood up right away. Before me stood a tiny hamster whom I knew very well.

'Philip?'

Recognizing him was not as easy as how I retell you about how I met him. He lost the fur around his eyes and the color of its skin had turned into purplish blue. His left arm was bent towards his stomach. His right foot was missing. As his jaw was drooped just like I was, I could see that he lost one of his teeth.

'Philip?'

He still didn't answer.

'Philip... It's me. Pearl. Philip, are you all right? What happened to you?'

'P—p—pearl? I—I-I can't believe it's you! D-d-do you... do you have some guulds? I-I-I... I got hu-urt. L—Look! I got hurt s-so bad. D—do you have some guulds for me? For me to eat?'

I took a deep breath and my tongue felt twisted when I said,

'No, I don't have any gold with me. At all...'

He sighed and looked away from me.

'What happened, Philip? Did someone hurt you? Were you attacked?'

When my hand was to reach his shoulder, he slapped the back of my hand with his still functioned paw.

'Ugh! N-n-nno! I h-hurt muh-myself!'

'You... you hurt yourself? That doesn't make—Why? What for, Philip?'

'To get p-p-pity, Pearl. People wh-who hap-p-pen to pass by will see me in pity. Oh, p-p-poor creature! or Dear, I know i-i-it's hard...I can't imagine how it feels to be you. Then they will hand me some of their gold leaves. They d-d-d-don't mind that they are just as strug-g-g-gling as I am. I am here as a-a-a vvvictim. Wh-who doesn't feel sorry f-for a vvvictim?'

I only stared at him for a moment although he only showed me the back of his head.

'So... the bruise and your feet?'

'Oh, these?' he lifted his chin and broken arm. I hit my face with a rock, broke my arm with a wood, and a few days ago, I decided to cut my leg.'

'For the leaves?'

He nodded, 'S-s-so are you g-g-giving me some guulds or not?'

It was all felt like meeting Fronisi for the second time. The difference was at that moment, I was the one who took a few steps back. I staggered on my feet. Then turned myself around. As I moved my body I could feel my internal organs were to escape from my mouth. 'Headache' is not the right term to describe how bad the confusion I got had affected me.

In those seconds of turning my body to leave, the picture of the very first day he arrived at the cubicle flashed before me. How he cried because he was hurt. How he said another animal bit him. Then I knew he must have been lying, and my friends and I were foolish to believe and have pity on him.