Darkness.
A female voice hums a sweet lullaby.
Eagleland, 2015
THE CIVIL WAR IS OVER.
HIDDEN IN THE MOUNTAINS, ARMED MEN STILL FIGHT THE NEW FASCIST REGIME. MILITARY POSTS ARE ESTABLISHED TO EXTERMINATE THE RESISTANCE.
The raw, raspy sound of an older male child struggling to breathe.
Drops of blood drip up the cliff wall, shown sideways. Ninten, thirteen years old is lying on the ground, clearly in agony. A thick ribbon of blood is flowing backwards into his nostrils, and the view goes skywards. As it does, his dilated pupils shrink. The small stream of blood from his mouth drips backwards into his lips, as well as the single tear that disappears into his eye.
A long long time ago, in the underground realm, where there are no lies or pain, there lived a Prince who dreamed of the human world. He dreamed of blue skies, the soft breeze, and sunshine. One day, eluding his keepers, the Prince escaped. Once outside, the brightness blinded him and erased every trace of the past from his memory. He forgot who He was and where He came from. His body suffered cold, sickness, and pain. Eventually, he died. However, his father, the King, always knew that the Prince's soul would return, perhaps in another body, in another place, at another time. And he would wait for him, until he drew his last breath, until the world stopped turning...
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~oO0Oo~
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Two cars and a large truck containing luggage drive through the forest.
Seated up in the back seat of the front car is Ninten. He's rather thin and doesn't have a strong build for a boy of thirteen, but he can make up for it with enthusiasm and his sometimes clever remarks.
He's dressed in his favourite shirt – a red, blue, and white striped one, and has a red and blue baseball cap that he never takes off his pile of straight, charcoal hair. He also had a simple, red bandana tied around his neck, which he also never unties.
The boy flips through a book of fairy tales which is seated on his lap. Although he does like doing things which is normal for every boy – for instance, baseball – he also has a fascination with old fairy tales. He reads the last sentence of one page and flips to the next. At his side is a small pile of more fairy tales, tied together with a leather belt. He may get teased occasionally for such interests, but he doesn't care about those few people.
The car rocks back and forth.
"I don't understand why you had to bring so many books, Ninten."
Ninten turns to the direction of his thirty-year-old mother, Carol, studying him, her enormous stomach evidence of advanced pregnancy. She too has black hair.
"We're going to the country, the outdoors."
She takes the book away from Ninten and looks at it. Half of that look shows signs of nostalgia from her past of reading such books. The other half of the look is told with a simple,
"Fairy tales..." She cradles her son's chin in her hand. "You're a bit too old to be filling your head with such nonsense."
She pauses, feeling nausea coming her way. She presses her blue handkerchief to her mouth, and gasps out, "Ask him to stop the car, please."
Ninten wastes no time and knocks quickly on the partition window of the sedan.
The caravan of cars comes to a screeching halt in the forest. It's color a mixture of greens, and gold from the sunlight above reflecting on its nature.
Carol exits immediately, one hand on her mouth, the other clutching her pregnant stomach. She leans against the automobile. Gasping for air, she battles nausea. While doing so, she looks up to see Ninten has exited the car as well, timidly approaching her.
"Ninten, wait. Your brother is acting up."
Ninten nods very quickly and takes that opportunity to explore a little bit of the forest. Not too far...
One of the military men, dressed in blue and wearing black, high leather boots around his feet walks up to the boy's mother. As Ninten moves casually on the road, he can hear the distant conversation among the crows' caws.
"Madam, are you alright?"
"Water – just a bit of water..."
"Water!" The man yells. "Water for the captain's wife."
Clink!
Ninten looks down at his shoe and bends down, picking up the small stone he's just stumbled upon. It's about the size of his fist, and carved into the rock is the outline of a human eye.
His eyes gleam, fascinated.
Deciding to keep the stone with him, he walks a little further, looking among the shrubs. A small, stone pillar sticks up amongst the grass and bushes. Deciding to investigate, Ninten walks over to its direction. His find makes him jump back a bit.
It's a statue of a satyr, it's mouth wide open and etchings of Celtic letterings carved in its body everywhere. A piece of its brutish face is missing – an eye. Ninten holds up his eye-etched rock.
It looks like it would fit... Do I really wanna?
Without thinking, he finds himself placing the stone in its rightful place – a perfect fit.
A strange gurgling and clicking noise emerges from the mouth – seeming to be from within its core. Ninten prepares himself for defence. The wind picks up, and before the boy can even react, a large stick insect has jumped from its stone home.
Ninten jumps, clearly startled, but then calms down and stares, intrigued by the insect as it crawls around the statue's face.
Ninten?
He smiles, and the insect jumps up and flies. He watches it zoom away.
"Ninten?"
He turns around to see his mother with a soldier aside her. She has summoned him.
"Come here." She motions the direction toward her with her hand. He runs to his mother's side, enthusiastically saying, "I saw a fairy-"
"Just look at your shoes!" She exclaims. He looks down to see his brown shoes covered in mud.
She puts an arm around him and leads him back to the car.
"Let's go. When we get to the mill, come out to greet the Captain. I want you to call him Father."
Ninten's head fills with panic. Why the hell should I?
It seems as though – like most – his mother had heard his thoughts.
"You have no idea how good he's been to us. It's just a word, Ninten... Just a word..."
They both climb back into their seats in the car, and the vehicles zoom off as they did before, leaving Ninten watching outside as the stick insect flies around.
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~oO0Oo~
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Giygas looks at his silver pocket watch in his black gloved hand. Its glass is cracked, and it ticks repeatedly.
The sound of a car horn flows through the atmosphere.
"Captain, here they come!" A soldier yells in his direction.
"Fifteen minutes late..." He mutters to himself.
The three vehicles move into the mill compound. The site consists of a pair of dark stone buildings with corrugated roofs, connected to the mill by a small stone bridge. A large water wheel hangs over the dry riverbed. The wooden beams and columns bear sculpted Celtic motifs and here and there, small, odd, carved creatures. The walls have been reinforced with hundreds of sandbags and wooden pontoons as if preparing for an attack.
Captain Giygas and a small group of servants and soldiers wait patiently outside. When the cars get closer and stop, they move towards them. As some start to bring out luggage, the front car's door opens and Carol and Giygas stare at each other.
"Carol." He greets pleasantly with a smile as she steps out. He touches her pregnancy with his palm and holds hers in the other.
"Welcome."
He moves aside, revealing a metal, manual wheelchair. Carol already knows where this is going.
"That's not necessary. I can walk perfectly well."
"Our doctor, Jeff, prefers that you don't exert yourself." The doctor, Jeff, stands behind the wheelchair. A thinner man of nineteen, with blonde hair and glasses, but he gets the job done well - the best on their team!
"No." She says sternly.
"Come on..." He says. He leans in next to her ear. "Do it for me." He whispers ever so softly.
She obeys, and falls into the seat of the wheelchair, quietly thanking Jeff.
Carol then looks back into the car.
"Ninten, come out. Say hello to the Captain."
Ninten clutches his books close to his chest and slowly moves out of the car. When he steps out onto the grass, Giygas says "Ninten." His smile is fake – like the boy's a waste of space. His voice shallow and deep, no interest in the thirteen-year-old. The boy looks so small and is pretty scared as he looks at the towering man.
I guess I should start... huh?
He raises his hand slowly, offering a handshake, the other clutching his books. The Captain looks at it offended. It is his left hand. Before the boy can correct the mistake, the man grabs his hand by the tops of his fingers, and squeezes, hurting the poor boy. He winces in pain.
"It's the other hand, Ninten."
Cold.
And his mother says nothing.
Giygas throws the boy's hand away like it's garbage, and turns.
"Paula!"
The fifteen-year-old blonde in charge of all these servants – strangely – turns around.
"Bring their luggage."
"Yes, sir!" She replies. Her eyes seem infinitely sad, and tired.
And then the boy is left alone, as his mother is taken into the mill. He clutches the books to his chest and tries to hold back the tears. He feels lower than the depths of Hell...
But then he looks up... And Paula watches him. He's staring at that stick insect, sitting atop a pile of old sandbags.
Had it followed him?
He doesn't waste a second. He walks quickly towards it, dropping his books carelessly to the grass. His pace quickens and he dashes to it and grabs for it. It zooms from his fist.
It rushes away to the right of the mill, to the edge of a small rise. The boy goes after it, so quickly his hat flies off his head, but he doesn't notice.
He keeps running.
But his pace slows, as the stick insect has gone into something too amazing for the boy to take in all at once. Among the trees is the ruin of an old stone labyrinth. It's circular, it's paths overgrown and partially blocked. Some roots and vines growing against its rock.
Should I? No... But I will eventually... It's too awesome.
Ninten slowly makes his way down the first corridor and looks beyond what's in store for him.
"It's a labyrinth." He hears.
He whips around to the young, female voice, to find Paula standing at the entrance. She's dressed in a pink pinafore. He walks towards her, smiling sheepishly. She has his books in her arms.
"Just a pile of old rocks that have always been here. Even before the mill. Better not go in there – you might get lost."
She hands him his dropped items, which he thankfully takes.
"Thank you!"
"Have you read them all?" She asks.
"Paula!" A male voice calls.
Paula turns around and Ninten looks beyond her shoulder. One of Giygas' solders.
"The Captain is calling."
She nods and turns.
"Your father needs me." She heads for the mill, Ninten running after her, desperately trying to get someone to listen to what he wants to say. To think about his feelings.
"He's not my father."
Paula turns her head, still walking. Ninten speeds up and catches up with her side.
"The Captain is not my father! My father was a tailor. He died in the war. The Captain is not my father."
"Well, you've made that clear enough? Shall we go?"
The two walk away together.
"Have you seen my mother?"
"Yes."
"Isn't she beautiful?"
"Yes."
"She's sick with baby. Did you notice?"
As the two walk towards the mill, the stick insect perches itself on the top of the maze's entrance, watching the two children get smaller and eventually disappear into the mill.