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The city in which I live is the only city in the continent that have any deal with the islands, as most of the other cities believed that they are curse and that is the reason why the Great Leviathan had separated them from us. That's why the Volans swim in between our oceans, that it is also the reason why their seas are so dangerous to sail about. I know that is just a lie, as the Great Leviathan would never do anything to hurt any of his children, even if they labeled him as the Outsider, an evil god. He is the beginning and the end of all things and he care about all of his children, no matter if they had forsaken him or not. But the people of those islands are strange indeed, some of them seek to find the Great Leviathan here, while others are scare of what there is in the continent, since they don't understand it. I suppose that if the people of the continent went to the islands they would be as frighten as the people that had come to the continent. But I really don't know, I just know that they had tried to settle in Pandyssia and they had failed, not because their resources were insufficient but because they choose poor places to settle down and so, great problems follow.
I had began to wonder if it wasn't actually true what the people of the continent said about the islanders, that they were indeed cursed by the Great Leviathan. That's because of the last request they made to the Caliph of our city, it was bizarre and strange. They asked for something that no living man should have asked for, of course the Caliph accepted the request as the trade would be of great value and worth. The Caliph asked my father to get what it was asked, I was surprised to hear what the islanders asked and when I told my father that I thought that it was a madness, that a curse of the Great Leviathan must had fallen upon them, he told me that I'm still young and need to learn much more about the world before I could said if anyone was cursed or bless by the Great Leviathan.
We did as we were asked, we found the sick rats, the rats that carry the sickness of the 'Bloody tears', a sickness that destroy everything that touches, a sickness so cruel that it had destroyed whole cities within a couple of decades. But we aren't afraid of it, we know how to repel it, my father is one of the best healers in the city, and he knows how to treat this horrible sickness. But he isn't the only one, the Great Council have the cure in its library and is well know that anyone that wishes to be a healer must recite the ingredients of the cure by heart, as it is one of the most terrible things that walks in Pandyssia one must know the cure by heart.
"I still don't know why, these men wish to acquire such terrible thing," I wondered aloud once we had captured the rats and we were feeding them.
"Men of the islands are strange, and you shouldn't question them when we deliver the cargo. They are proud and arrogant and believed that we are savages," he told me. "Tell your mother that you will be accompanying me, alongside the emissaries of the Caliph," I nodded and headed back toward our home to inform my mother the wishes of my father, of course she wasn't happy but there wasn't much she could do about it.
We departed two mornings after we had caught the rats, at sunrise. It was a bloody sunrise, anyone who knows how to read omens, would had told us that it was bad luck to start our journey in that day, that the outcome will only bring death, but my father being a man of science, he ignored these advices, saying that he had already made the necessaries offerings to the Great Leviathan, that nothing bad or ill would fall upon us. I wished to believe him, yet the emissaries of the Caliph had brought a priest with us, they thought it would be better, that it would be safer for us, that he would keep us safe from the wicked cargo we were delivering.
We traveled all day long, bringing several horses with us, alongside those that were necessary, I could only guess that we would be receiving a really big payment from the islanders for the sick rats. Once we made camp, I sat with my father, the priest and the main emissary of the Caliph and heard them talk of different things, of how the trade was with one of our sister cities was going on, of the predictions that the sages had made based on the reading of the whale bones and many other things. None of them talked about the cargo we were delivering as if talking about it would bring us bad luck, we all knew what the sickness was capable of doing. I looked at them and asked them if they knew the reason of why the men of the islands wanted the rats. The three men looked at each other and then the priest said that I shouldn't linger in those things that even if I was an educated young woman, that I shouldn't question the decisions of the men that lived in the islands. That they didn't like that, as they didn't see fit that a woman would question them. The emissary remained silence, but my father told me that they wished to study the sickness in case it would ever get there, that they wished to understand it. To what I simply said that why didn't they send some of their healers here so they could study how we deal with the sickness instead of exposing their land, that we would surely share our knowledge with them. The emissary simply looked at my eyes and said that they would never accept that offering, as they believed we were savages, and nowadays rarely did any trade with us, so offering what I had just propose would be a waste of time.
I went to feed the rats after I finished dinning with the three men, I think they were relieved to see me go as my questions were getting them uncomfortable, and they wanted to believed that we weren't delivering such a deathly cargo. I fed the rats with the special meat we had prepared for them, it will keep them drowsy and serene. They would be easy to handle by the men of the island, for whatever purpose they wanted them. I knew those rats, it was necessary to keep them like that, they were intelligent, very intelligent. The cages in which they were placed were special made, they had three locks, that must be activated at once for the cage to open, making it impossible for the rats to opened it, as regular cages were unless to keep those animals inside. As I fed them, most of them barely moved, being under the effects of the narcotics that were in the meat, but there was one, totally black and really big. It looked straight at my eyes with its pair of pinch dark eyes, it simply stared at me. It looked at me as it knew what he was going to do, what he would cause, and it was only one thing: death. I looked at it, then gave it its piece of meat and went to sleep, I tried to forget those empty dark eyes, that would be the doom of those lands, as I really didn't wanted to dream of the people with tears of blood running down their faces.
The next day we arrived to the destination but no sight of the islanders was found. I thought that maybe they had gone, but the emissary told me that we had arrived a day earlier. We waited in the bay in where trades in older times had been done. I asked my father that night if he knew why the trades between the two places had stopped he really didn't knew, but he guessed it had something to do with them abandoning the Great Leviathan, but wasn't really sure. Then I asked the emissary what would we be getting in return for the cargo, as saying sick rats made the men uncomfortable. He said that we would be getting: seeds, jewelry, fabrics, books and parchments containing different subjects. That it would worth the trouble. I simply nodded and then asked them if we would also offered them the cure for the disease, to what they told me that it hadn't been asked for, but that they would offered it any way. Afterwards I went to feed the rats and then to sleep.
The next morning was even darker and more sinister than the one we departure, it was bloody with dark clouds over the horizon, I felt uneasy and went with the priest to pray to the Great Leviathan. After the prayers were done, my father called upon me he looked at me and said.
"Cover your face and sex, they shouldn't know you are a woman, don't speak to them and do as I told you, that way I will be able to keep you safe from them," I nodded and went to cover myself.
It was pass midday when we were able to see a ship, a steel ship, I was amazed that it didn't sink, as most of our ships are made with wood, even some of them had metal parts, they are mainly made of wood. Then after another fifteen minutes we saw several small vessels arriving to the dock that the bay had. I followed my father and the emissary, they seem nervous, the man that descended from the boat was different from any other man I had seen. He had soft tone of skin and cold blue eyes, he also wore strange clothes, but I could clearly see a sword. He began speaking hastily and I could barely follow anything that he was saying, as I'm not fluent in their language. But the emissary and my father seemed to understand quite well what the man was talking about. My father turned to me and asked me to bring one of the rats. I did as I was told and brought back one of the cage, it was the one of the black rat. Then he asked me to open the cage and take out the rat, so I could show the man that they were what they were asking for. I opened the cage and the rat walked toward me, it was gentle, I grabbed it and showed it to the man. He looked at the animal and then nodded, I put the animal back in its cage. Then the man said something and several men got out of their boats, some began to carry down the boxes and walked down toward the beach. My father and the emissary told me to tell the men we had brought, to deliver the cages. I nodded and returned to our camp, I helped the men arrange the cages of rats, some of the rats sensed that something was happening or was about to happen and tried to fight over the narcotics and began squeaking, but most of them remain motionless, just looking as not caring were they were going.
I looked at the cages and count them quickly, fifty cages, fifty animals that carry the Red Death as it was also known. I helped some of the men deliver the rats to the smaller boats and make sure the cages were still intact and that they wouldn't open during the voyage. I set some of the cages one of the men approach me, he said something that I clearly didn't understood, I simply stared at him and proceed to arrange another cage. He grabbed me, I looked at him with fear, did he know I was a girl, I wonder. He smirked at me and I tried to get away but he held me tighter. I heard my father, I looked at him and suddenly the man with whom the emissary and my father had been speaking said something to the man and he let me go. I really didn't knew what he told him, and couldn't really care less, I quickly set the last cage and ran toward were my father was. He looked at me and asked me if I was hurt I simply shook my head, then he told me to tell the men to bring the meat for the rats and quickly show how to feed them and to bring also the smaller case were the cure for the disease was. I did as I was told, I told our men to bring the barrels full of the raw meat and I brought my father the smaller case. I approached the islanders with caution and opened up one of the barrels. I saw how their eyes shined at the sight of the meat, I could only guessed that they hadn't been eating meat since they had set off. I grabbed one of the pieces and let it fell inside the cage of the black rat, which quickly took the piece of meat and began to eat it. The men looked at me with surprise and disgust, they say something, and then one of them grabbed a piece of meat, he smelled it and was going to eat it when I hit him and made him drop the meat.
"No for rats!," I said the best I could in their language, which must had sound funny as they looked at me and laughed. Another man pushed me and grabbed a piece and said something that I couldn't make out. I grabbed his hand and made him drop the meat. "No for rats!"
He looked at me angrily and started advancing, he said something and then the man that command them said something to them, the man glared at me and murmured something. I simply took that as a signal to fly from there and went as quickly as I could to the camp. I saw in the distance, how my father seemed to offer the cure, but the commander shook his head and then gave my father his back and ride one of the boats, and departure.
The emissary and my father walked toward where I was, we simply stared at the smaller fleet that was making its way toward the main ship. We remained in silence until one of our men said that everything that we had received had been set into the carriages and the horses that we should leave as soon as possible. The emissary nodded and told us that we were departing immediately. The man nodded and set to tell the other men, and quickly started to dismantle the camp.
"They are strange men," said my father suddenly.
"Indeed, they are strange those men from the islands," agreed the emissary. Both of them walked away.
I knew they weren't strange men. No, they weren't strange they were just fool. Fools that had just let death into their lands, that had just welcome death with open arms.