Niku hops along the large, flat stones in the stream. The water is shallow here, and ripples over the little rocks that make up its bed. High embankments rise seven or so feet on either side, so he jumps from island to island as if traversing his own hidden valley. "A red stone," he says to himself. "A red stone." One catches his eye and he pulls it up from the water, shivering as droplets run down his forearm. The stone is more ochre than blood-colored, though, which is what Taylen said he needed, so Niku lets it fall and continues his search.
He hops to another protruding rock. Right as another red stone catches eye, something plops into the water beside him. Clods of earth are tumbling down the embankment, and when Niku looks up to see what's causing them to fall, he went still.
A man, extremely tall and pale, looks down at him. He wears deep red robes, and a white cloth covers the lower half of his face. Short white hair catches the sunlight, and steel-gray eyes glare down at Niku. Behind the man, Niku can make out the back of some creature--he sees rippling fur and a leather saddle--but it is certainly not a horse. Over the lilting rhythm of the stream comes the thudding of other mounted creatures approaching beyond his sight.
Without any sort of signal the man leaps down into the stream. Water splashes Niku and he falls backward into the current. It bites like ice at his skin. From beyond the embankment, a voice calls in a tongue Niku does not recognize. The man in front of him answers over his shoulder, but keeps his eyes on Niku. Presently two more men of like appearance to the first appear on the embankment's edge. Their eyes look unkindly down upon him. The man in the stream jabs a finger at him and says something hatefully in his foreign tongue.
Niku starts to cry.
The man scowls and stalks forward. Niku panics and starts to scramble away but a hand clutches the back of his tunic and pulls him back. The man turns him around so they are facing again. "Home?" the man says.
Niku looks up and sees the man is pointing at the opposite embankment. He repeats himself. "Home?" Niku just shakes his head. He can scarcely see the man for the tears in his eyes. The man scowls again. "Bare-mouthed savage," he says in his own tongue, and then knocks Niku down. Water splashes on Niku's face, he gasps, tries to scramble away.
The man pushes him again, and then brings down his boot, holding Niku beneath the gently swirling surface of the stream.
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The Unending Epic Written to Appease a Friend, Tell a Tale, an...
خيال (فانتازيا)Each day, the story grows. The tale begins when two lives are suddenly and irrevocably twined together, and a boy from a lonely farm and a girl without a people find themselves each other's only friend. Little by little the fabric of their lives wea...
