Curse of the Jackalmen

the past

will be less rewritten than others but still.  if you're still reading you deserve a medal

(dedicated to VictoriaKaer for commenting on every.chapter! :D your advice has been most appreciated! )

I wake earlier than normal, almost as if my body knows that Hemite shan't be up to rouse me. The rosy tendrils of dawn have scarcely started to push back the shadows of night. I stay in bed, my chest is sore, and extensive movement hurts it further. To distract myself from the pain, and to pass the time, I watch Hemi sleep.

Asleep, she looks innocent. Well, as innocent as someone you know could kill you with her calloused bare hands can appear. The furrows in her brow, ever present during the day, have faded. Her mouth is gently smiling, a far cry from the normal frown. She looks younger, more like a normal thirteen, nearing fourteen year old girl. But this image was marred by the fresh scabs, and layer of freshly dried blood encrusting most of her. I've never watched her sleep before. She always stays up later than me, and rises earlier. I almost thought that she needed no sleep, but she seems just like the rest of us. Occasionally, her hands or lips twitch, and her eyes flicker beneath the lids. She murmurs and whimpers slightly, and shifts.

I wonder if she is dreaming of her homeland, Greece. I've never been there; I've only been to and from Egypt from Rome. She has lived in Greece, been in Rome and the surrounding countryside,and lived with me in Egypt.

I often wonder who she would be, and who I would be if fate had not played her hand so. But we shall never know.

Watching Hemite breath deeply with sleep lulls me back into slumber, soon we are both softly breathing.

I wake up wearily. My eyes still shut, my first conscious thought is "stupid sunlight of Ra." Then, I realize what sunlight means. I'm awake far later than I should be. My eyes snap open and I lurch into a seated position, hissing through my teeth when the movement reopens more than a score of wounds.

A firm hand presses on my shoulder, pushing me back onto my pallet.

"Hem, it's alright." Syn is already awake and dressed. His eyes peer with pity at me, so I shrug his hand off and stand. I don't want anyone pitying me. Seeking pity is for weak fools.

"I'll be fi-fine." My aggressive statement is falsified by a throaty croak from my sore, parched throat.

"Hemite. What will you, what will I do when you push yourself too far? When you're past the brink? Someday, you won't be able to take hell anymore. I don't want that to happen soon. Go back to you're pallet." His voice starts calm, then is empowered with conviction, which finally hardens into a direct order.

I haven't the faintest idea why but right then I wanted to disobey him; to prove that I can take it! I'm just as strong, if not stronger than many boys! I don't need pity, I hate being babied. I will take what is given to me and live with it. I am supposed to have fetched water, eaten, and roused Syn before the bells that signify the opening of market. If my guess is correct I'm an hour late.

"Hemite....." Syn warns, he had read my thoughts as they played across my face.

In reply, I stare.long and hard.into his eyes, wordlessly telling him I disapproved of the decision. I sat back down on the corner of my pallet closest to the door, and farthest from him. He sighs, and leans against the wall.

"Hemite," he returns my icy and formal attitude, "I thought they taught you obedience at the gladiator school...."

"Yes, Master they did." I shoot back with a cold glare.

His eyes soften, "Hemi......"

"Yes, Sir?" I prompt, continuing my formal air.

"Please...... I'm sorry." He locks eyes with me, and I hold his warm gaze until I can't stand it and look away.

I surprise him by smiling wanly, "It is not very Roman of you to fail to stand behind your decisions and orders."

He laughs slightly and leans forward again. "I suppose you would know.."

"Yes I would. Even before school, my mother would say 'The one good thing Romans do is stand firm.' She would tell me that when.........." A sudden wave of homesick loneliness washed.over me, memories of my mother, and the smell of her cooking, the way her tunic would fold about her short frame.... And A few memories of the day I left... Her weeping face as I was dragged away... NO. Snap out of it! I slammed those memories back behind their Shields and stone walls.

"Oh Hemi..." Syn croons, his hand stroking my head as a few tears trickle from my eyes. At his words, a faint laugh leaves my mouth.

"Hehe, Syn, you know, your nickname for me, Hemi means half in Greek?"

"Really? Never knew that!" He replies with false cheer, as if to try go keep me from dwelling.

"Yes, my mother would call me that when I was small, seeing as I was half as tall as most. When you started, I just let you." Again, my mother popped into my sore mind. I winced and fought with memories, trying to push them back into their cage.

"You miss your mother....." Syn states. A soft countenance on his face again.

"Yes...... I-i do." Saying the truth was more painful that it should have been. "The day that I was taken, my mother... She-she tried to s-save me. I-i i was ripped from her arms, thrown onto the ground and...and kicked for being disobedient.... She ran to protect me, and the Roman bastard hit her! He punched a woman! She hit the grass and was down long enough for him to chain me.... when she got b-back up, she ran after the wagon, her cheek bleeding. She was yelling, "Hemite, promise me you'll come back!" And, and I, I yelled back," my voice, and all restraint from the tears welling.inside me broke, "Mother, I swear I will return.... I swore it!" I choked the last words out before being reduced to sobs in Syn's arms.

I clutched Hemite in my arms, patting her head as sobs wracked through her body. I could tell she had hidden that memory for years, painful as it was. I felt sorry for her, but did not know how to adequately comfort her. I could not promise it would be alright, she may never see her mother again. Nor could I tell her to forget it. That day was the starting point for her life since then. So, I just sat there let her cry.

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if you continue reading this you deserve a reward.  some chocolate.  eye bleach