Facing the reality of the situation, the golden brother knew what had to be done. He gathered every bit of his remaining power; he created an orb that shined in five brilliant colors. But before he could act, the demons jumped into action, shattering the orb into pieces that flew across the land. With the last of his strength, the golden brother willed the twelve largest towards the divine beasts.
With a sincere smile, he said, "I and my brother failed to be the gods this world needed. So, now it is your turn. Take my power, become the gods we failed to be." The golden brother said with his last breath. Turning to dust, disappearing on the weeping wind.
Glowing in radiant light the beasts transformed, taking human shape, and overflowing with power stood tall and faced the horde of demons before them. Despite their heavy hearts, they wasted no time jumping into action. They fought alongside the people pushing the seemly endless hordes of demons back.
The children look at the elder starry-eyed. Let's be honest so was I. I'd done my research on the game, but I never run across any lore for it. Just the basic mechanics and gameplay. Details like this were left out altogether. In fact, this wasn't a secret or anything. Everyone who played knew that there was no backstory. Most thought it was so the players could make one up, but maybe that's not the case?
Amid the conspiracy theories running through my head, one of the younger children spoke up,
"Hey, Granny, where are the divine beasts now? Can we meet one?”
The cheerful atmosphere quickly became somber. The elders and older children fell completely silent like they had lost all their energy. The younger children just sat there waiting for an answer. The oldest elder, known as Grams, motioned the young boy forward. Patting him on the head she softly replies,
“Little one, you may meet them one day, but not today.”
A loud “AH” of disappointment was let out and echoed in the large tent. Grams shoots me the “look”, I quickly gathered the children and made our exit. Daylight blinded us as we left. The younger children, who just can’t sit still to save their lives, quickly overtook me and the older children. They laugh and giggle without a care, but the older children remained silent and listless.
“Are you guys alright?” I asked, stopping in my tracks, turning to face them. They look at me in surprise, some even jumped when I asked. Even so, none of them answered or even looked at me. As I’m starting to open my mouth to ask again, a raddling sound catches my attention. Quickly I run towards the young children ahead of us.
The sound of breaking pottery and screams fill the air. Everything happened so fast. As a young red hair boy runs in front of a pottery drying rack. The wind picks up, shaking the rack so hard that the ropes holding it together snap! Everything comes crashing down! Dirt, dust, and shards go flying. Everyone in earshot drops what they’re doing and comes running towards the sound.
Seconds pass quickly in slow motion. A crowd forms, the dust clears, but all is still, no one dared to move or even make a sound. Running at full speed the older children catch up, pushing their way through the crowd. Only to see me under a pile of wood and broken pottery.
I was in a daze but getting hit in the head with half the kitchen dining set will do that. Though that’s not important. Looking down the red hair boy is curling up in my arms, his eyes shut tight.
“Han are you alright?” I asked him, trying to keep my voice from shaking, and failing I might add.
He looks up at me but can’t get any words out. I start trying to dig our way out of the pile. The older children were the first to help us, followed by the younger children, and then the adults. One would have thought the adults would have been the first to act but guess not.
“Hey, careful! Their sharp shards everywhere, take things slow.” I said as the children start moving the shelves causing leftover pieces of pottery to fall and shatter even more.
After a few moments, we were free. Tears ran down the children’s faces. Sitting up I checked on Han, who had a few bruises but was no worst for wear. Knowing he was alright I let out a sigh of relief. A man with dark brown hair dressed in green ran up to us panicked!
“Are you two alright!? I’m SO sorry! I was sure that I tied it tight!” He said franticly as he helped me up. Hans was still frozen on the ground but sprung to life when he hears Yi scream,
“Your bleeding!”
I look down and my arm is bleeding! In all the commotion I didn’t even notice the gash in my arm! My eyes grow wide and panic wells up inside of me but looking towards the children seeing the fear in their eyes. I can’t freak out not now, not with them.
Taking a deep breath, I smile, and answer,
“I’m ok. It’s not as bad as it looks, I don’t even feel it.”
“BUT, BUT Your BLEEDING! Your HURT! You're NOT ok!” Han said tears streaming down his face as he holds on to me tightly. The other children join in grabbing on to me crying and wailing.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
I keep telling them, “I’m ok, I’m ok.” But nothing I do is calm them down. The others around us tried to help, even pull them off me, but they stick to me like glue.
“My, my what do we have here?” A voice rings over the crowd. Grams appears walking calmly towards us. At a glance, she knew what happened.
“Now, Now give the little lady some room.” She continues as she jesters to the children to move away.
“But… But she’s hurt, we…. Must… Not again….” Ham replied.
“Yes, I know she’s hurt that’s why I’m here, little one.”
Reluctantly, they slowly let me go. Grams takes a hold of my hand, looking over the wound, and saids,
“Hmm, it doesn’t look as bad as it seems.” She looks toward a brown haired woman in blue and asks,
“Mew, do you mind taking the children home?” Mew nods gathering the children. The children look at me, and I smile back trying to put them at ease. Mew leads them away and the crowd slowly disappears.
Grams guides me back to her small gray tent. Bright color rugs line the ground, incense sent the air making it smoky, and shelves filled to the brim line the walls. Sitting on flattened cushions, Grams darts around going from shelf to shelf gathering bottles and boxes. All the while I’m gritting my teeth as the adrenalin starts to wear off and waves of pain hit me like the beach on a stormy night.
After what feels like an eternity Grams sits in front of me, putting everything she collected on a small wooden table to our right.
“Now child let's get started.” Grams saids as she gently but quickly starts peeling back layers of my clothes, let me tell you this old lady can move! Before I could blink, she’d untied my belt and I was topless. All I could do is watch her work. Cleaning away the blood she saids in a low voice,
“My, my this must hurt a great deal.”
“Yes, but I’m a big girl I can handle a little pain, grams.” Her expression lightened.
“Grams I want to say thank you. If you hadn’t come when you did, I wouldn’t have known what to do.” Smiling she finishes up and replies,
“It’s an old hag’s job to help you youngins. Think nothing of it.” She moves to a shelf on the other side of the table and asks,
“How’s about some tea? I’d say you’ve earned yourself a break.” I nod and she begins making tea.
The tea around here is a type of green tea that’s sweeter than what you’d drink back home. So, it’s treated more like a dessert than an everyday drink. It’s one of the few foods around here that I can stomach. It’s not that the food is bad per se, but how do I put this? It lacks any real flavor and if it does have a taste then it tends to be overly bitter because they pickle everything.
Grams sets a warm steaming cup of tea on the table in front of me that’s sadly too hot to drink. As we wait for our drinks to cool, we get to talking. It was small talk really, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Before I knew it I’d opened my big mouth.
“So, Grams I’d been meaning to ask, it’s about the children.” Grams puts down her tea and focuses on me.
“Well, they have me a bit worried you see. There are times when they just aren’t themselves. One minute there happy-go luckily kids and then the next their sad even angry. The older children especially and what happened today. I’m not an expert on children but the way they reacted isn’t normal.”
Grams sat there silent for a moment; her expression hadn’t changed. I’d honestly started to feel guilty about asking. What right did I, a stranger, have to question her about what was going on in the village? Especially considering the kindness they’ve shown me. Even so when I see the dead lifeless look in their eyes, I can’t help but feel like I should do something. After all, how could I call myself an adult if I stood by and did nothing? An image flashed before my eyes as those thoughts flow through my mind. A little girl with short, ragged hair and tattered clothes. Everything was gray and I couldn’t make anything out. She was faceless and yet I could see tears run down her face.
As I was dealing with my moral dilemma Grams took a deep breath and replied with a somber smile, snapping me back to reality.
“You truly care for them don’t cha?” There was a pause and her expression darkened as she looked away from me,
“Thank you for that. I only hope that you’ll continue to watch over them after everything is said and done.”
Her words took me by surprise,
“After….” She stood up and cut me off,
“Now, now look at the time it's past the hour of the bird. You’d best be going.” She said as she turned away from me to the shelves behind her.
I could tell I wasn’t going to get any more from her. I get up to leave opening the flap when she saids one more thing,
“You hurry back now, don’t stop for anything, and tomorrow night avoid the crimson eyes.”
I turn to her, but she remains still as if she hadn’t said anything at all. Perhaps it was the light from the open flap or the fact that I’m crashing from the adrenalin but for a moment after I left it seemed like the bright colors of the tent had faded to gray.
Walking on autopilot I let my mind wander but was brought back to earth by the sound of shouting voices. It wasn’t hard to find the source, I only turned my head to see the red hair warrior boy and short girl in green from the forest. Standing in front of Fei Hong’s father, Zheng He, and the other clan leaders.
“You can’t let this happen! Fei Hong doesn’t deserve this!” The red hair boy yells.
“Chai Chen hold your tough!” The orange hair clan leader snapped! Reached out and grabbed Chen, lifting him off the ground.
“Hey! Let him go!” The short girl screams, jumping and grabbing the man’s arm. But despite hanging on it like monkey bars it doesn’t move.
“Let him go, Chang!” He saids putting his hand on Chang’s shoulder. He waits a moment then drops him and the girl lets go as well.
“Chen! Chen! You alright!?” She asks franticly as he lets out heavy deep coughs.
It takes him a moment to calm down then he replies,
“I’m... humph… fine Ai. Just FINE!” His voice was raspy and horse.
“Liston Chen, Ai, this is hard for everyone…” The tall woman in green began to say but was cut off by Ai.
“HARD! HARD! How was it hard for you old fools!? You didn’t even try! All those people died and for what!? For you to roll over and….” Ai was cut off by He.
“Enough! That’s enough of this! This conversation is over!” He yells in a booming voice that echoes across the village. Everyone who’d stopped to watch quickly dispersed including me, but that didn’t stop the whispers.
“Not again…” a person muttered.
“It’s already that time….” Said another.
“…. we should…. But… the crimson eyes” one whispers.
“Shhs… keep quiet…” One person saids to another.
“Poor children….” This was the last one I heard before making it back to my tent. When chills run down my spine, I turn around, but nothing is there and no one around. Just the setting sun and hazy outline of a mountain against a blood-red sky.