Myth Land (unedited)

XXVIII

Note: I hope you can get through this. I'm with you...

I couldn't decide which one was the worse; stepping on a puddle of blood or seeing a mass murder in front of my eyes.

Licht walked ahead to study the situation and tried his best to tell everyone to calm down. I hadn't seen any dead bodies, but sure many were wounded even paralyzed by the time I arrived. Monkeys, wolves, foxes, and owls; all was fighting while screaming at each other.

The sound of broken bones.

The sound of someone losing its breath by being choked.

The sound of someone desperately screaming for the opponent to stop.

The sound of someone begging the other to kill it rather than leaving it lived to only be tortured.

All forced their ways into my eardrums and slid down to my chest, farther to my stomach. I wanted to reach for Licht but realized he was nowhere to be found.

I tried my best to hide behind a small rock that was big enough to cover my body.

'You stole it!'

'I swear I don't! Why would I?!'

'Desperate filthy creature! We know you hide it!'

'No! Please! Why would I?!'

'Because you are desperate to get more golds of course! Look at you! Small! Weak! Compared to us, I know you can never catch up!'

'No! I—'

Then the little high-pitched voice was beaten by the voice of a roar and a hand crashing itself to the ground. When the other lifted its hand, another growled to make another punch. And when there was no more attack, I could still hear the whiny voice crying. Trying its best to prove its innocence.

The deadly noise started to get louder and unclear, for I could only hear consonants as they raised their voices. I heard things coming out from the foxes' mouths about deals between the upper Family members, but of course I couldn't listen to them clearly; they were not the only ones who were roaring. Then I heard the monkeys yelled back at the foxes; things about eating the animals from the Outer as the solution for their crisis. My heart dropped the second I thought about my mama. Still I hoped what I heard was wrong. Besides, why should they go to the Outer just to eat? They are members of the Family. Smart must they be, and sure they could survive living around the Christmas tree with all the foods from the trees around them. Or couldn't they?

One thing that I found odd was not being able to see the baboon anywhere near. In this kind of state, I was hoping to see him right in front of my face instead of having to hurt my neck by looking at the peak of the Christmas tree. Not being able to spot him, I moved aside to avoid being attacked by those animalistic animals. I hid behind the same tree as where I was with Ieiunium. To my surprise, Licht was also there, and his face was paler than he already was. My lips were partly opened, but seeing his watery eyes and tensed neck, I closed my lips and just sat beside him. Not sure whether I was waiting for him to talk or simply waiting for the riot to end.

A couple times I tried to peek outside to see whether people had got tired of fighting, but in fact it was getting worse. For a moment I felt like a coward for hiding from and avoiding the fights, but if I let my emotion won me over, all my hard work of trying to be a decent intelligent human would be a waste, so I stayed. I stayed in fear. Fear that maybe my life would be over, and I should have gone home since the very beginning. Fear that if I went home, I would only disappoint my mama. I looked at Licht, and his light was dim. He was almost as powerful as the baboon and the calmest of the wolves, but I just realized that he and I were the same. We were only breathing creatures. We had worries.