Gracia, many years ago.
Komugi floated high above a rich mansion and watched as a young boy, no older than ten, raced around the courtyard. An Ol Mahum, more feminine in appearance then the Ol Mahum that roamed around Aden crouched to the grass with their paws covering their eyes. She was surprised as she heard it speaking an audible tongue, but frowned as it was a language she did not know.
She flew closer in curiosity, and followed after the giggling boy as he raced into the house and searched for a place to hide. He had light blonde hair cut off at his chin, and wore a brown suit that appeared to be a miniature version of an adults. The boy paused in a hallway lined with suits of armor and glanced around worriedly. The Ol Mahum's voice was growing louder as it reached the end of it's counting, and he whimpered in anxiety. His face lit up with a smile as he found a hiding spot behind a curtain that sided a doorway.
He hit a piece of lumber with his elbow as he dashed behind the curtain that shifted slightly. Komugi followed it up and gasped as she realized it was propping up a guillotine blade that sat hidden in the doorframe. The house was booby trapped! She figured it was protection against thieves, but such a harsh, deadly protection!
She peered behind the curtain in worry, scared for his safety over his choice of hiding spots. The boy breathed attempted to control his breathing as he hid, but only managed to breathe louder as the heavy curtain blocked out much of the air from the room. He snickered as he heard the Ol Mahum approach and shifted in excitement. Just as the Ol Mahum reached the doorway, the boy jumped out from behind the curtain with a "Boo!" startling the Ol Mahum. The beast's arm swung out as it turned quickly, hitting the lumber and dislodging it. Komugi turned away with a gasp and shut her eyes quickly as the guillotine blade came down on the beast, a sickening 'SHUCK' sounding through the hallway as it hit the floor. Komugi looked up slowly with a sickened expression to find the boy staring in shock at his friend. She did not dare follow his gaze, as the spatters of blood that decorated the boy's face and clothes were enough for her. Unblinking, he crouched to the ground and lifted something bloody from the floor, staring at it without expression.
"Gayatri? Why'd you drop this? Don't you need it?" he asked in a tiny voice, holding whatever he held out to the mass that had once been alive. Komugi felt bile rise in her throat, and winced her eyes shut again.
"ZAKEN! Don't look!" a woman suddenly cried, and a pretty blonde woman wearing an elegant brown nobility dress flew down the hallway to the boy. She smacked whatever he held from his hands and pulled him away from the mess, covering his head with her arms. "Don't look! Forget you saw it!" she sobbed, rocking him slightly. Behind her, Komugi heard the shouts of the rest of the household as they came racing towards the source of the woman's scream. There were shouts of disgust, and several Ol Mahum servants howled.
"What's the matter with Gayatri? Why won't she wake up?" Zaken asked, his voice muffled. The woman sobbed aloud and just continued to rock the boy Zaken, not responding to him.
Later on that evening, the woman whom Komugi learned was Zaken's elder sister stood outside of his bedroom with an older man, crying daintily into a handkerchief. The older man was Zaken's father, a handsome, distinguished looking gentleman wearing a suit identical to the style Zaken had been wearing. His blonde hair was slicked back, and he had a thick, bushy mustache.
"He doesn't understand, no one has ever told him of death before!" the sister, whose name was Marnin, sobbed. "He thinks Gayatri has to be sent to the repairman to be fixed like our clock was!" she hiccupped once, and wiped her eyes. His father sighed and consulted a pocket watch with a grim expression.
"We'll leave it for now then, we're safe from the turmoil of war here, its best if we let him keep his innocence for as long as possible. If it becomes an issue I'll figure out a way to explain it to him, but for now pretend what you will to explain Gayatri's absence to him." He said, patting Marnin on her shoulder. "He'll be fine, don't worry yourself." Her father said, lifting her face by placing a finger under her chin. "If worse comes to worse, we'll just find an Ol Mahum with similar markings and teach them to be Gayatri. The Ol Mahum learn fast and are obedient, I'm sure he'd be fooled." Marnin smiled lightly at his words, and nodded.
"You're right as always, father. I shouldn't worry so. But poor Gayatri! What a way to die!" she sniffled.
"Yes, it's my fault for letting Zaken play before I had the catch fixed on that thief trap…" her father said, putting an arm over her shoulder and leading her down the hallway.
"This isn't right! Don't just hide it from him!" Komugi shouted after them. She felt sick to her stomach over what she just heard, and it frustrated her that it seemed she was a ghost in this memory world. It was like the bite-dream she had when Zaken fed from her before; she was living his life again. Komugi bit her fingernails in worry, and then flew through the doorway into Zaken's room. She had the properties of a ghost in this world, and could pass through walls as easily as a spirit.
The inside of his room was dark despite it being late afternoon, and toys and books of every imaginable shape and subject lined the walls. Komugi pursed her lips as she glanced at them, and then to the massive king-sized canopy bed in the center of the far wall. Zaken was indeed a very spoiled little boy.
She sat down on the side of his bed to watch him sleep, but found he was wide awake. He laid on his side, staring at the far wall beyond her, his little fist clenching and unclenching as he thought. She felt tears well in her throat at the look of frustrated confusion that passed his face. He was definitely thinking about what had happened, no amount of hiding would change the fact that he'd seen death for the first time.
Zaken's face drew up into one of sadness, and he rolled over onto his other side, letting out a whimpering sob. He slid into crying, and Komugi's heart went out to him. She scooted over farther onto his bed and reached over his shoulder to smooth the hair from his face in a comforting manner. Her fingers went right through him, but she ignored it. Just the act of trying to comfort him helped ease her own heart, even though she knew he was very much alone within himself at that time. She hummed a lullaby her mother used to sing to her. As if he could hear it, Zaken's crying stilled, and he drifted off to sleep with a little hiccup.
The scene suddenly shifted, and Komugi found herself standing at the top of the grand staircase with Zaken, staring down into the foyer of the house. Flickering firelight came through the windows, and Komugi could hear shouts of fighting outside.
"Get him out of here!" Zaken's father shouted, noticing the boy standing at the top of the stairs for the first time. Marnin gathered up her skirts and hurried up the stairs towards him, but got no farther than the middle of the staircase when the front doors burst outwards in a gust of wind. Everyone shielded themselves as the wind blew into the house, knocking over and destroying trinkets and paintings. A tall, thin man with a black mustache, wearing bright silver armor stepped into the house as soon as the wind let up, his hand extended. He lowered it with a dark grin, greedy eyes surveying the room.
"Kill them." He said in a low voice. Oel Malhum, the larger, lion-like cousins of the Ol Mahum, raced in behind him and into the foyer.
"Get Zaken out of here!" his father shouted. An Ol Mahum archer, one of the servants of the house now armed for the battle, jumped off of the post he had taken up on the chandelier over the grand staircase, and grabbed Zaken just as a spear went through his father's chest.
"Let go! Papa! Marnin!" Zaken cried, struggling against the beast-man's grip as it leapt through the air and out an upper window. Marnin screamed as the Oel Malhum converged around her, and the last thing Zaken saw was her dress as it was torn from her body.
The Ol Mahum took him to a tall pine tree and crouched on a branch as high up as he could go, the boy pinned to his lap. He had a paw pressed firmly over Zaken's mouth, and watched as the Oel Malhum sniffed and growled, searching for their trail.
"Stop struggling!" he hissed to his young ward. Thunder rumbled overhead and the Ol Mahum, whose name was Giuseppe, looked up to the sky. "Please." He prayed, shutting his eyes. The Oel Malhum were drawing closer to his tree, and he knew that their senses of smell far exceeded that of his race. They'd be able to pick him out in a second. Thunder rumbled again, and the blessed rain that Giuseppe had prayed for began to fall. The Oel Malhum below grunted in frustration, knowing that the trail would be washed away now. He released his grip on Zaken's mouth when he was sure the Oel Malhum were out of earshot, and the boy bit him as hard as he could on his paw.
"Take me back to my father! He's hurt!" Zaken demanded, kicking his legs.
"Young sir, its best if we go to your aunt's house, your father will follow shortly after." Giuseppe lied. He had been given strict orders to never expose Zaken to death, and he would follow those orders even long after his master was gone. Such was the way of the Ol Mahum.
"Fine, take me there." Zaken said sullenly, giving Giuseppe a skeptical look. "I'm cold and wet, I want out of the rain."
"As you wish." He said reverently, and leapt from the branch.
They arrived too late at his aunt's mansion; the entire house was in flames. Bits of silverware and curtain fabric littered her courtyard, and Giuseppe stepped in Zaken's line of sight before he caught a glimpse of the bodies of the house servants. Zaken stared at the burning house with large eyes, his hair sticking to his face from the rain. Without a word he bolted back in the direction of his home, Giuseppe calling his name behind him.
Normally an Ol Mahum could easily outrun a human child any day of the week, but the combination of the dark and rain made it hard for the archer to track the boy. "Don't go back there." Komugi pleaded with him, gliding alongside him. She was afraid of what he would find when he returned.
Zaken ran with his eyes wide, only shutting them to wince as a branch would smack him in the face. His clothes were torn as he ran blindly through bushes riddled with thorns, and his skin was ripped open with small cuts.
His home was not far from his aunt's house, and he slid in the now muddy courtyard as he tried to stop. His lips parted as he pushed himself to his feet slowly. Lying in the courtyard amongst the bodies of their Ol Mahum servants, was the body of his father, badly mutilated and bloody, and the naked body of his sister.
"Young Master!" Giuseppe shouted, finding him. A fire had broken out somewhere in the back of his house, and the light flickered across the yard, creating a hellish display. Zaken fell to his knees again and clutched the sides of his face in a horrified grimace. He began to scream hysterically, his young voice carrying into the night. He experienced death fully for the first time, and it terrified him.
Komugi was pushed ahead an indiscernible amount of years, and she found herself following a blonde teen as he walked towards a busy harbor. She realized in surprise that it was Zaken, his hair now grown past his shoulders. He was extremely handsome, and she scolded herself silently for her giddy, girlish side's reaction to it. He carried an oblong burlap bag over one shoulder, and wore a slightly worn suit of a white poet shirt, rough brown peasant's pants and a heavy cotton overcoat that drifted down to his knees.
He paused on a hill that overlooked the harbor and gazed out to the large ship that sat at the dock. People crawled all over it like ants, loading cargo and doing last-minute fixes. It took Komugi a moment to realize the ship was set up for war.
"This is it Giuseppe, this is the ship I wish to work on." Zaken said as the Ol Mahum archer came to stand behind him. The beast-man now wore heavy armor and had a sword at his side instead of a bow, and looked more distinguished.
"Are you certain, master? It appears they will be heading straight into the territory war." Giuseppe responded, eyeballing the ship. "You are only fourteen sir, please think of your future." His servant pleaded.
"My future died the day that bastard killed my family." Zaken murmured, shifting the sack on his shoulder.
"Sir?" Giuseppe questioned. Zaken shook his head and faced his servant.
"I release you from your duties as of now, Giuseppe. I must thank you for caring for me these past five years, your clan would be proud of your loyalty." Zaken said, giving Giuseppe a wan smile. Giuseppe bowed deeply in thanks, and then disappeared into the crowd without a word. Drawn out goodbyes was not the Ol Mahum way; when your master no longer needed your service, that was that. You were free to do as you wished. Zaken knew that if he did not dismiss the beast, Giuseppe would wait until his long life was over for Zaken to return and give him an order. Zaken turned back to face the ship, and after taking a breath, shifted his pack once more and trudged down to the harbor.
"Next." The Chief Mate of the Derech Eretz barked, crumpling the rejected application and throwing it behind him. So many weak children and girls in bad disguises had applied to work on the ship that day he was about fed up with it all.
This town was the last one to be untouched by the harsh civil war that had broken out between territories, and the weak and frightened were attempting to escape it by trying to get on his captain's ship. They needed able-bodied people with nothing to loose, not frightened babies; their cargo was going directly through the war to supply the enemy side. His captain prided himself on neutrality, although he kept it a secret from both territories.
"Name." the Chief Mate, whose name was Eldridge, snapped to the next prospective youth.
"Zaken." He said professionally. Eldridge paused just as he had written the 'z', and slowly looked up to the youth with large eyes. Zaken shifted slightly, waiting patiently for him to continue.
"Hah! I know you! You're Luke's whelp! And here I thought you bit it when that war swept through your peaceful little home!" Eldridge laughed. "Serves your father right for not taking up arms to fight with the rest of those who lived in his territory!"
"Sir, please do not speak disrespectfully of my father." Zaken stated in an unusually calm voice.
"Don't you tell me how to talk boy, fallen noble like yourself is lower than a 2-bit broken whore that sits in the pigpen waiting for a customer." Eldridge snapped. Floating next to him, Komugi saw Zaken's hand clench the straps of his bag tighter, but his face did not change. "Sure, you don't even have to go through the proper channels boy, you're a perfect candidate for a deck washer!" he laughed heartily and waved Zaken past. "Just go tell that big man on the cargo ramp that I sent you, he'll put you to work."
"Zaken…" Komugi said, her voice rich with sympathy. What a cruel country Gracia was. She hadn't experienced much of her own country yet, and she wondered if it were just as mean. As far as she could tell the cruel didn't bother with public humiliation, they either killed you or left you injured so that you couldn't come back to exact revenge upon them later. She sighed heavily and followed after him as he made his way to the Derech Eretz.
Back in reality, Ryonai and Shizuka made their way through the Frozen Labyrinth, chatting merrily as if the air was as warm as a summer's day. Ryonai was there to farm pelts from the beasts in exchange for smithing items needed to build up his clan.
"All set?" Shizuka asked cheerfully, bouncing up to him as he cleaned the blood off his sword from the giant white bear he had just killed.
"Yup, got what I need…ed…" Ryonai's words drifted apart as he glanced at his girlfriend. She grinned happily at him from underneath a gigantic corsair hat that almost swallowed her entire head. "Shizuka, where did you get that?" His eye twitched as he tried not to laugh at how ridiculous she looked.
"That statue over there gave it to me." She said, pointing behind her. Poised in the act of running with his arms outstretched, was a frozen Kylon. His head was tilted back and his mouth was open, his hat having landed in his hands just moments before he froze solid.
"Hey, it's that zombie guy from the Outpost!" Ryonai said in surprise, circling around him. He tilted his head as a whining noise came from Kylon's frozen mouth. "Hey, I think its making noise, you think it's still alive?" he whispered, leaning his head in close.
"What's it saying?" Shizuka asked in a loud whisper, leaning near Ryonai as well.
"Give…me…..back….my…hat." Ryonai repeated, concentrating hard.
"Aww poor little guy, let's take him back to the Ice Merchant's cabin so he can get warmed up!" Shizuka said, tears of sympathy welling in her eyes. Kylon let out a whine of approval at her suggestion.
"Shizuka, he's a zombie, he'll probably eat our brains or something the minute he defrosts." Ryonai grimaced, shifting his armor before stepping away from him. Kylon let out an angry whine with this.
"Oh no, I never thought of that!" Shizuka exclaimed, putting her hands on her cheeks in surprise. "I guess we should hurry on our way then!" Kylon let out another angry whine as she took Ryonai's hand and walked away. The whining grew louder as Kylon attempted to scream for them to come back, but the couple returned to their conversation and could no longer hear him. There was a moment of silence, and then Kylon let out a noise that sounded like "nhuk."