Myth Land (unedited)

XXIX

All had turned into breathing statues on the ground. The only things that moved were their eyeballs and chest. The silence they gave me was the worse words of humiliation I ever got.

It was almost dawn when my fear had completely gone, and I only felt like there were boiling rocks inside my chest. I couldn't feel my tears anymore. My feet were tense, stiff, and as ridiculous as it sounds, strong. I held myself back from the urge of wanting to kill someone, but I felt like there was something controlling my body to attack. What was it flashing in front of my eyes? Deaths. Foes. Cries. Everything that I had been witnessing was played back all at the same time layering one scene with another. Not leaving me a second to choose which scene I wanted to watch.

When the air felt warmer and the sun shone brighter, a huge shadow covered me and Licht's body. It belonged to the baboon who just magically appeared. Made me wonder where he was all the time. Everyone around me bowed down to him. Some of them even kneeled.

'I want all helpers to go back to the Christmas tree,' then he disappeared once more.

Without any hesitation, they obeyed the baboon and immediately disappeared from my sight—hidden by the holiness of the tree. Meanwhile, the servants stayed where they stood. Some of them looked around trying to find their friends. Some of them whispered to each other. And I... I didn't move an inch. Glued beside Licht's dead body. Promised him to pay for what he had done and tried to do with my burnt eyes.

The baboon showed himself up at the peak of the tree.

'Dearest animals. This morning, we just lost one of our best colleagues. Licht. Best of the best wolves. One of the most trustworthy animals in our Family...'

Listening to him made me wanted to vomit, but I was used to it. First, Licht died yesterday at midnight. Second, saying one out of some animals implied that he excluded some other members. Third, where the human hell was he when it all happened?

'...and so, we are giving him a proper burial. Here, under the Christmas tree, is his last place to rest his head. A place where he belongs...'

I saw a smirk on his lips as he said a place where he belongs.

He ordered the wolves of the Family to take his body to the Christmas tree while the dogs from the lower level dug his grave. I stepped aside as they took his body away from me and watched them put him under the ground and buried him.

I could hear cries from both the Christmas tree and my surrounding as they covered Licht's body with more and more soils. For sure it was supposed to be a sad moment, but I noticed something funny.

Funny how they made a proper burial for their Family and let the dead servants' bodies neglected and rotten on the ground. It must be good to be the special ones.

After the burial, the baboon made another speech that I didn't pay any attention to. My eyes were lying on the ground while my soul was flying to the sky. The only thing I heard from him was we were ordered to go back to our cubicles. But before we left, he kindly said,

'All of you must be very tired. I think you need a day to rest.'

He just gave me a worse headache than listening to the buzzing sound of a group of insects around my head.

As I walked straight to the cubicle, I was wondering whether the other side of the Center experienced the same riot, or at least noticed what happened.

With thousands of stones filled inside my head, I arrived at my cubicle and threw myself to a pile of dried leaves.

I was woken up by the hunger on my belly and the heat of the sun that burnt my skin. My eyes were heavy, but I might be dead by hunger if I didn't wake up and eat.

'Good morning,' familiar voice made my heart dropped.

I looked to my sides, and there I thought I was already in heaven.

'Hyena! Decorus! I thought you were dead!'

Hyena laughed and hugged me with her paws, 'We thought you were dead. You were asleep for more than twenty four hours! We're glad that you're finally awake!'

'I don't,' I swear it was the first time Decorus engaged himself in a conversation.

Then, for the first time, I saw Decorus actually smiled at me. He sat beside me and handed me a couple of fruits which were not juice anymore.

'He picked them yesterday in case you wake up hungry. Who would've thought that our Decorus actually has a heart?'

'Ours, you said. I do not belong to anyone.'

I thanked Decorus and ate in silence. We didn't speak for a while, but somehow I felt safe.

After finishing my meal, they took me to the nearest clean puddle to drink. Then, we moved a bit farther from our cubicle. As soon as we found a quiet, leafy, tall tree, we stopped by and leaned our backs against the trunk. We were enjoying the breeze of fresh air mixed with the scent of dried blood. It was not unusual and that couldn't make us felt uncomfortable anymore.

'It feels more spacious now, doesn't it?' Hyena broke the silence.

'By seeing the massive number of deaths, I'm not surprised,' Decorus replied.

I nodded.

'I wonder where our friends are,' Hyena sounded like a girl who plans to have a party with her friends.

When I thought Decorus would say something, he looked away.

'Thought you knew,' I said.

'About what?'

'About our friends. At least about Sohpie.'

She shook her head, so I told her what happened. At first I thought she would be surprised or shocked—or would even cry, but she only let out a heavy sigh and stared vacantly at the sky. Later, she asked me about Fronisi, and I told her about the time when I met him. Again, she wasn't startled.

'I wish I could do something for them, or at least tried to find where they were.'

I shrugged my shoulder, 'Not your fault. We had our own things to do.'

'I know, but,' she repositioned herself on her seat, 'I just realized that I was being too busy trying to earn golds, being focused on myself and my ambition, and forgetting my friends. And now they're most probably gone... I miss them.'

'This is just another part of life that everyone needs to get through. Loss. You will face it whether you're ready or not. In fact, you have faced it.'

She sneered.

'I guess you're right.'

'Nobody has a time to be weak.'

'Or maybe you're just an expert at facing this,' I said to Decorus.

He was trying to bite his own teeth. Grinned at an invisible object in front of him.

'Sorry.'

'You said nothing wrong. In fact, you are absolutely right.'

For a moment, Hyena and I couldn't believe what we just heard. Decorus was actually opening himself to us.

-tsl

*) Hi sunshine! I hope you enjoy reading this chapter and excited to read the next one! Please feel free to leave some comments and give some votes if you like reading this story or specifically this chapter. It means sooo much to me. Thank you for reading this far, and I'll see you in the next one <3

Rise and shine,

The Sunflower Lady