THIRST IN HELL

CHAPTER 9

I left my safety cleft an hour after waking up. I was hungry and had no idea where I was.

I moved cautiously, pausing from time to time to listen if there was anybody nearby.  I had to find the path through which we were brought into this land as slaves, so as to visit the old ruins.  Also, I needed to gather something edible and some drinking water.

I could see a dense forest far away, beyond a huge valley, but in the place I was, there were only shrubs, thickets and big rocks. I moved on, practically jumping from behind one thicket into another like a timid wild hare.

Along the way, I came across something worrying. A killed mammoth. The animal had been torn apart. Many others had been thrown into a deep abandoned quarry pit nearby.

I noted that the creature that had killed them had not eaten their flesh. Their bodies were intact in exception of their missing tusks, which had been brutally removed.

I felt frightening incase I encounter that devouring creature. It could kill me for my nails, seeing the such seems to be its diet.

With a disturbed heart, I moved on towards the valley. As I walked, I gathered small strange fruits from the shrubs to eat. They were quite tasteless but good to save the day.

Once in the valley, I quickened my pace, aspiring to quench my thirst for water. What I found left my mouth wide open. The water was there, fine... but stinking, glossy and blackened water.

Plastic cans and bottles were scattered all over the surface of stagnating water. Used fish nets and heaps of garbage also spread carelessly in the river, blocking its natural flow. Even rats and flies would not dare to go near the filth.

"Were the beings who did this in their right mind or insane!" I cursed.

I concluded that they must have been chronically insane.

I turned around, now twice as thirsty as before and walked away slowly. Away from the awful smell and towards the forest.

I penetrated the forest, its intertwining canopies covered the whole sky making the land below somehow cool and friendly. I could hear sound of different animals, merrily enjoying their life in the wild.

The forest seemed full of splendor, except for the occasional thorny creeping plants that scratched my skin and some seemingly dangerous wild animals that sped across infront of me. This, I took as warning that those of my kind as well as me, did not belong to the wild, and neither were we welcome to meddle there.

I soon found out why beings were not welcome when the forest ended abruptly. A very large portion of forest trees had been cut down and taken away leaving behind an ugly scene. A scene of lifeless rotting tree trunks, thorny shrubs and a badly eroded soil.

Selfish beings!

While at the place, I felt so exposed and had to adopt my old style of cautious motion. I could see that even the wild animals felt likewise, seeing how they avoided the cleared region.

I was a being fleeing from the fellow beings to the wild.

Towards evening, I traced the route I had been searching for. Objects that had been dropped by the tired slaves formed unmistakable route marks.

Following the trail was not hard and after a three hours walk, I reached my destination, the fallen empire's desolate ruins. By then, darkness had already set in.

The place had been chaotically messed and was mysteriously quiet, with many caves pulled down and then left collapsed. A home for wild dogs, and a place for which I had very bad flashbacks.

Using the torch, I sought for what was once Glutton's magnificent cave. I found it but collapsed rocks and dirt had blocked its entrance. I had to move the stones away to gain entry into it. It took me half of an hour to move the huge blocking pile. 

On entering in the cave, I started my search, a thorough search for Glutton's precious stones. The long search turned out unproductive. Too tired to continue, I sat down on an abandon rock to rest before resuming with the search.

I then removed all the things from the cave and started a new search. Still in vain....even after two more hours had passed.

At last I felt so desperate, but just as I was about to give up, I flashed on something in a tiny crack on the cave wall. The leather porch that Glutton had used to carry my rune stone.

I enlarged the crack to pull the porch out and sure enough, my rune stone was safely inside. Besides, the enlarged crack revealed a hundred of other hidden precious stones and some coins. Useless coins now that the residents were in captivity.

I fastened the porch in my pocket and walked out, intending to leave that desolate place as soon as possible. But when I got out, I saw a large flask of water at the centre of the compound.

I went closer and flashed my torch into it to see if there was any water left. I found some water inside. I quickly tilted the flask, eager to quench my long time thirst.

Before I could taste the first drop, I saw silhouettes of several beings against the horizon's dim night light, coming to me from all directions.

They suddenly, flashed their bright torches onto me, momentarily blinding my eyes. It is then that I realised I'm trapped in between them. Nowhere to go. Seeing that, I decided to continue with my quenching anyway, and quenching myself I did.

The king spoke. The very same king I had escaped from early in the morning. He spoke in a majestic victorious tone.

"Mr. Sojourner, had you thought you can just escape from me and leave your little debt unsettled, using two wrongs to make a right, hmm? 

No being can really run from me! Or is there.... Miss Wanton?" 

Miss wanton replied to him very easily, like a replaying tape

"Nope! None of the beings can ever run from you, even if they tried it, My Lord!" 

I was too confused to react. I was only thinking how the king possibly knew where I was, my moves. But after just a few seconds, I needed no explanation.

Glutton's worker walked past me into his former master's cave and later came out, his hands full of precious stones, even beyond their holding capacity.

What I found more dramatic was that Miss Wanton was there, collaborating with the king and acting to be a fragile, very innocent naive girl. I had neither seen her nor heard from her ever since the raid.

My hands were tied tightly and the long journey back to their territory started.

Back for me to pay the debt I owed this land, a debt for doing what was unlawful there.