Chapter 2: Life

It was a day much like any other day.

The cries of condors echoed in the sky. They blended with the cries of newborns emerging in the arms of their cooing mothers from the medicine man's tent. One by one, the men of the day galloped across the golden grass, weapons and wares in hand. And the elders, sitting in their chairs, watching the village continue as it always has.

It was a day that ended unlike any other day.

Fire. Fire erupted and turned the grass gray. A tint of soot and smoke. Choruses of the dying played across the barren landscape. Screeches and whimpers from newborns went silent, replaced by the screams of the flames. And the sun, once barely emerging in the sky, was beating down on the leftovers of the horses scattered over the bodies of elders and the ripped walls of tents; the men had met a much worse fate.

Crunching noises. The sound of shoes stepped over embers.

Two people walked across the massacre site. Armored in gray suits with black fabrics and wearing ivory masks. Masks that had the appearance of animals. One was a wolf. The other, a salamander. But they were no masks. The humans behind their shade were animals in their hearts. No human walked so calmly among corpses.

"No signs of him, taicho." One of their voices resounded monotonously.

"Damnit." The other huffed, annoyed. "We have three days to find the boy. If we return to Danzo-sama empty handed…"

"Don't worry taicho, we have one more village to hit before we have to report to base. Several hours from here. The nightfall will give us ample cover."

"Good."

The fox-faced one turned to one of the horses. Its lifeless eyes stared hopelessly back at him.

"I'm growing tired of this place. It's savage. Dangerous."

The salamander-faced one scoffed. "This is Chuud. Land of Steppes. Nobody stays here for long."

"Tei Ta! Wake up, rrrr!"

I rolled in my cot, grumbling for her to go away. Spirals of dark blue shone through my eyelids telling me it was night. A few sprinkles of red meant a torch was lit somewhere. Still, far too early to be daytime. Fuck that. I wanted five more minutes.

"Kuurulgai is tonight! Guk will be mad if you're late!"

I never got five more minutes.

I slowly opened my eyes, feeling sand flake off my lashes. A round, brown face with eager, pink eyes greeted me.

"What do you want from me Saah?" I croak words this time instead of grumbling. "I'm late all the time anyway. If Guk wanted to kill me for being late, I'd be dead already, hmm." Her head tilts at me and she laughs.

"If he killed you, then he'd be stuck with me. Is that what you want, rrrr?"

"At least you'd finally get a tent to sleep in, hmm." I smirk at her.

"Don't be so crass!"

"I put the ass in crass, hmm. You know this Saah."

Reluctantly, I crawl out of my cot and step on the dirt below. I'm in a tent about five feet wide. It's beyond me how Saah managed to fit in here without waking me up. Nonetheless fit in here with that god-awful torch of her's. It a bundle of sticks with dung on top. When she lights it, it reeks. It's not like we take bathes, but I'd still prefer if I started my work-night without shit smell racing up my nose.

Then again, she sleeps with the horses, so she's probably used to it.

"Do you light that before or after you come in here, hmm?" I point at her shit stick and make a face of disgust.

"Depends how loud I want to be, rrrr. It's not like I'd wake you anyway." She pokes me and giggles. I grin and push her playfully. It always surprises me how quiet she is. I've been a light sleeper since I was young. Always awakening to the cold colors of my inner eyelids. My eyes closed, but my ears open. Listening to the footsteps of the village women refilling my water or dropping a bowl of dried yak's skin to eat. That shit tastes like hairy jerky, mind you. It's garbage. Sometimes I listen in vain for a heavier bowl to hit the ground. Maybe a plate of venison, or a ground bison platter. Something with flavor. Something filling. Much like my sleep though, I never get what I want.

Almost on queue, my stomach growls. Saah looks down at it.

"So are we gonna stand here or what? You're late. You're hungry. It's Kuurulgai. You're running out of options here Tei Ta."

"You're the worst alarm clock I've ever had."

"I'm the only alarm clock you've ever had." She retorts.

"What luck, hmm." I roll my eyes, defeated, and follow her out of the tent. No need to get dressed of course. We're both already wearing the latest in slave attire.

Strutting out into the moonlight in our fashionable brown rags and misfitted furs, I'm greeted by unfamiliar sights. The camp is filled with men.

Usually, the camp is empty at night. Men are in their tents, fucking the women or sleeping their buzz off. Daughters are sold to merchants when they come of age, so Saah is the only woman who isn't in a tent or riding a dick.

Couple that with how feasts occur near sunset, and it's quite unusual to find the men out at night. There are too many risks. Too many terrors.

But tonight is different. It's Kuurulgai: Election Night.

I follow Saah to the center of commotion where the fire-pit is. Here, the oldest men are gathered, sitting on silk pillows and armed with mugs full of liquor. They're red-faced, laughing and joking with each other. Their swords at their hips jingle and clank with their every move. They're the electors. Tonight is the night they come together and pick a new leader for the clan.

A big honor.

A big fucking bore.

"Tei Ta Ra! Come here, boy!" one of them coos at me. I don't make eye contact, and approach him. Eye contact from a slave is a sign of disrespect. Disrespect means lashings. I'm in no mood for that. I just woke up a few minutes ago.

"Guk no danna." I recite his name per-usual and bow. Out of my peripheral vision I see his red face hobble side-to-side. He's drunk.

"Tell me boy," he pauses to huff and take a gulp of liquor. "Ahh. Tell me, boy. The story. Tell me, tell us how I found you. Tell the story again."

Here we go again. He wants a story-time from me.

"Guk no danna, you were most merciful and kind to me," I repeat the tired praises he whipped into me with a belt since I was young. "I was a young boy abandoned on the steppe. Left for dead. Abandoned by gods and men. That was when you found me. In your strength, you looted a golden manger from the temples of Uih, full of riches-"

The other men are laughing and drinking, making commotion far outweighing my little speech. Assholes.

"-and in your highest mercy, you placed me in the manger-"

They're ignoring me. I can feel that their eyes aren't on me. My mind begins to wander. It does that sometimes.

"and brought me here-"

Should I even keep going? They might have forgotten me again. Once in a while, when Guk makes me do this charade of his, the men get bored and move on to different things. Maybe this will be one of those times. Maybe I can sneak into the background and get ignored for a night.

"-as your humble servant, hmm."

Suddenly, Guk's body language changes.

"What did you say, boy?" He sounds angry.

"I-…I was placed in a manger, in your high mercy, and you brought me here as your-"

"No boy! What was that sound you made?" He gets up from his cushion and grabs me by the neck. His hand is warm on my skin. "What was that little squeak you just made?"

I will myself not to look in his eyes. The crowd is quiet. "I…I stuttered, hmm. My apologies, Guk no-"

He heaves me up with his hand and throws me aside. On instinct, I tuck and roll on the ground.

"Sloppy slave sounds! To me?! Watch your mouth, boy, and respect your master! Don't talk slave slang unless I tell you to!" his yells are muffled as I regain my balance. Dialect is of utmost importance to the clan. If you speak out of tone, slip up one word or one phrase to the wrong person, you tread the fine line between informal and insulting.

I stand, but still keep my eyes low. Slave slang, he says?

"My deepest apologies." I mumble. He scoffs in shock.

"Are you dumb, boy? Address me by my name! Or maybe you forgot which mouth you're using!" I clench my teeth. That insult. I feel my anger rise.

"My deepest apologies, Guk no danna, hmm-"

A wooden mug strikes me across the face. I fall to the ground clutching my nose. Tasting iron.

"You have a smart mouth. Don't make me cut your tongue. You have others to spare, boy." A chorus of laughs sound as pain shocks through my nose. I feel blood drip across my lips. My hair is wet and I smell alcohol. The asshole threw his cup at me.

A moment passes as the laughs subside and I stay on the ground. I get up, but nobody is facing me. Just like that, things are back to normal. I've been dismissed. My time as play toy was quick.

This is my life as a slave. Do what I'm told. Beat up for fun. And forgotten until Guk feels like showing off again. And every time, he's drunk off his rocker. At least this time he didn't beat me for being late.

"Are you okay, Tei Ta?" Saah rushes to me, a damp cloth in hand. She pats my nose. It stings. I smell juniper. Medicine.

"Yeah. Same shit. Different day." I meet her pink eyes with my own. They're concerned.

"That doesn't mean you're okay. You could have dodged. You've dodged before."

"Uh huh. And then he would've kept going. It's…better this way." I feel weird. A knot in my stomach. Am I lying to her?

"You always sass him and get hurt, but this was reckless, rrrr!" She pulls me close and tightens her grip on my nose with the cloth to stop the bleeding. "One of these days he won't be drunk. And you'll be dead."

"You're a drama queen, Saah." I chuckle. Then I wince. My nose still hurts. Damnit.

She helps me up and we walk off to the side by the horses. I take a seat on one of the boxes and she sits next to me. Taking the cloth from her and pressing it to my nose, I watch the lot of them laugh and drink by the fireside. For seventeen years now, I've been tortured by these men. For as long as I could remember, they've taunted me and treated me like garbage. If it weren't for Saah consoling me every night, I would've cracked a long time ago. So instead of crying, I test the waters. Little by little, I figure out what makes them tick. And soon enough, maybe one day, they'll crack before I do. And then in the chaos, I can escape.

I have a headache now. The pain is getting worse for my nose. I can feel my eyes watering. Sometimes these schemes of mine work out better in my head. In action, they're more hit-and-miss. That and I have a low pain tolerance.

"Tei Ta." Saah takes my hand and places something in it. I look down. There's a piece of bread. I glare back at her.

"You just told me I could die, right?" She smiles smugly.

"Yeah? So what, rrrr?"

"So why don't you take your own advice and stop risking your life stealing from the pantries, hmm?"

"How do you think I sneak in your room without waking you up? It takes practice, rrrr. Now eat up, you're gonna get blood on your bread." She turns to face the horses and takes a bite of her own bread chunk, out of view of the men walking around the camp. I follow her lead and spin around to take my own bite. The texture is a welcome change from yak skin. I savor it.

We snack quietly for a few minutes, the only sound being the cheering of the men and the beat of my blood vessels in my battered nose. Finally, Saah breaks the silence.

"Tei Ta, be honest with me. Why didn't you dodge that cup, rrrr?" Saah turns to me, her face expecting an answer. She never lets my emotions go unheard. She can see it in me. I'm off.

I sigh. "I…" I drop the juniper cloth in my lap and look at my hand. Bandages are wrapped around them. Only my fingers are exposed. The fabric covering my palms are wet with my nose blood. Foreign writing in black ink dots each strip. "I heard him mock my hands, hmm. I can take his jests. I can take his blows. But my hands…they're me. I can't let him take down the only part of me he's afraid of, hmm."

For as long as I can remember, my hands have been sealed. Some magic spell keeps the bandages from breaking. And supposedly, keeps some curse from spreading out of my hands. Nobody ever tells me what lies underneath, but Guk's words give me some clues.

I can't move anything underneath them. Sometimes when I try, I just feel numb. As if my hands lose all feeling. Whether it's the spell from the bandages or just years of not awakening what lies under there is beyond me. The closest I'd get to anything comes when I'm almost asleep. I feel like someone yanks the covers off me. A rush of cold. But only on my hands. As if I'm leaking cold from my palms. A gap of air where my skin should be. And a grating feeling that something is moving under the fabric.

"He will never take that from you, Tei Ta." Saah smiles and hugs me. Her warmth contrasts with my mind recalling the cold of my hands. Snapping to reality, I hug her back, and smile. She really is the only thing keeping me sane in this terror of a life I live.

"Promise me something, Saah," I whisper. She nods into my shoulder. "Promise me you'll stay with me. And if we ever escape this place, promise me you'll come with me wherever we go, hmm." She stops hugging and looks at me. Our eyes are locked. Her pink irises burning with intensity.

"Tei Ta, I will always be with you, rrrr." She grins.

I grin back. My chest feels fuzzy. This feeling. I don't know what it is. But it feels good.

I hope it lasts. Forever.

However long that is.

Hmm.