Legend of the Holy Sentinels: Night Hunters

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT - DEFIANT NATURE

The cold zephyr rushed forth in a hurry to converge with the bright light of morn that has been slowly enveloping the lands of Nagozul, introducing the warmth of the summer sun on its wake. The blanket of cold calming fog that occupies the secret training fields just a couple of miles east of the city has been holding their own with dwindling success as their body dissipate by the minute. Even in this unreasonably early hour, Lime seems to have managed to secure her unwavering determination, never yielding to sandman's unending cheery invitations, as she strained her body stretching, warming up her muscles, for yet another rigorous day of weapons instruction.

It has been over a month since she saw her master Karus and hearing today's good news about his return fuels her persevering heart even more.

"It's morning. Where is he?" she asked panning her sight all around.

"Q-q-quit askin' me i-f - if - if... M-m-master Karus is where..." snapped a young fellow behind her, sharpening his sword with his rare black water stone - a gift from Karus that he likes to flaunt to anyone. "He said he-he-he'll be back daybreak an hour after. N-n-not yet hour daybreak after."

At quick glance, any man, even without any medical apprenticeship, could rightly conclude that this pouting young Daomagarian man is an aberrant, a mistake in conception; a mistake that everyone regards as highly unacceptable taking into consideration their level of sophistication on medical sciences.

Some might go on harshly and identify him as a retard having no place in their world. Even some Medical Casters frown upon his existence as if insulted by his very being with features too extremely abnormal to be possible. He has a large hump on his right shoulder, a crooked spine, an unusually large arm imbalanced from his legs and feet, a drooping figure on the left half of his face and some thinning patches of hair, not to mention the limp when he walks. Kids on towns usually call him a monster with his physique including his unusually long canine teeth protruding even when mouth closed. His stuttering and sometimes incoherent speeches make him more prone to insults and disappointing snickers. Everything about him makes insensitive people cringe in both shame and disgust.

Even ordinary sympathetic people feel uneasy near him avoiding contact altogether as a resort of preventing any offense or misunderstanding resulting to anything they might do upon interaction which in turn adds insult to his condition without them even realizing it.

He's not good on the eyes, people used to say. You have to get to know him before you ease up on his hideous appearance, they said. They try to be understanding. After all, they are the inhabitants of the Holy Lands. But sometimes some people can't stand the pressure of seeing something so unusual, so uncommon, that all instincts will clamor up for a reaction - a reaction that would usually lead to fear or disgust instead of being sympathetic and kind.

Some people, who happen to think positively, ignore his flawed look for he is undeniably a victim of what they call a result of a malfunctioning blood combination from the two most powerful lineages of Daomagar, the Daomagar Clan and the Maskara Clan. A one in a trillion chance of disaster: one that should have been humanely put down as a newborn baby just like the hundreds of recorded infants who have suffered this blood abnormality over the span of thousands of years. This has been applied as a Daomagarian tradition even as a means to exact sympathy on disfigured infants who usually die within the year of their remaining life in the most excruciating of way.

Bathala be praised that this was not the case for Karus saw something different within his gnarled façade. He saw him as something special, unique, marvelous even, that the monster himself cannot see within. He molded him from a bitter and aggressive boy, hating his existence and everyone around him, into a humble finely tuned swordfighter that can only be compared to a middle-ranking military sentinel. The spark of magnificence Lime has witnessed too consequently as he help her in her training, night and day, for over a month in Karus's stead.