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Somewhere, far from Livihha, a dark grey room made of dark stones, muddy, sticky, and splats of blood of red and green on the walls and floor. Large rusty cubic cages that will fit an adult pig, pile up to 3 like stacked boxes with someone inside. The stench and smell of the inside is like a dead rat.

A wooden door that was locked was opened by a strange dirty tan girl who had not showered for days, big brown eyes, her face had bubble cheeks, long messy brown hair, wearing a torn and poorly sewn long sweater that reached her knees with different dark colors without underwear, her feet had many bruises and scratches of bird-like marks and thorns from plants ran towards from the end corner of the room.

"Dante!" The girl screamed, calling with keys clasping in her hands.

"Dante!" The girl screamed again, calling someone who was familiar with her. "O-Oba?" [S-sister?] a voice like a croaked child without water for days. Their language is far different from Livihha. "Dante!" She said with a joyous smile almost crying and ran up to the cage with her keys inserted one by one, witnessing a bloody girl in the cage, naked with deep bruises of brown and red marks like she was beaten, her left arm was butchered, seeing the skin of his left arm like it got skinned out, her face on the right side had a lizard-like scales to rough to touch, her eye on the right was green but the pupil is sharp like a cat and her other eye is the same as the girl opening her cage.

When the girl opened the cage, she felt relief and hugged her softly, she was worried if she was hurting her, considering her condition."Iki..Dante. Iki," [We're safe...Dante. We're safe,], she said to her, crying. The other girl cried and hugged her back and said to her with a hopeful smile "Abayi imo, Oba. Abayi," [I was waiting for you, sister. I was waiting,]

"Imona no beiya, sha ang abayi," [We are going to escape, you and I,] the girl said while hugging her other half.

Suddenly, the eldest girl's body glows into a radiant gold. "A-aka?" [W-what?] the girl with big eyes questioned, noticing her body glowing. "Anya eh, Oba?" [What's happening, sister?] The other girl noticed, worried about her. The girl with big eyes hugs her a little tight. "Dante, oka ina baiiye, imonna no bei-" [It doesn't matter, Dante. We are go-] words got cut off, and the girl with big eyes disappeared out of thin air.

"Oba!" [Sister!] The naked girl screams. "Oba!" [Sister] She screams again, almost shrieking and crying, tears won't stop pouring from her eyes. She called her many times, but she would not go back. She is not coming back. She cried again.

"Oy! Piyente okis yobo?!" [Oy! What the fuck is that noise?!] A 6'4 tall tan skin beard man hanging at the door, with no clothes on and his dick, slanted down like it was used for the occasion. The man looked in the other direction, calling. "Ami, oy! Koy baba ominios!" [Oy, everyone! This bitch going to escape!"

"Eek!" Dante peed.

CHAPTER 6

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"We're being invaded."

"What the..." I couldn't process my words correctly, and at the same time, my ears and head were hurting because of that screeching bird noise. It won't stop. It feels like a bird screaming close to both of our ears, even covering is useless.

The noise stops after 3 long screech. I thought my mind was about to explode, and my head and ears started ringing unimaginably. My head hurts. I'm unbalanced, and I can't correct my posture. I look like a hard patient, if I am correctly describing myself or if I'm only exaggerating.

I steadily placed my knee on the floor. I felt dizzy all of a sudden. My head hurts. My ears hurt.

It's starting again. Shit. My heart beats rapidly again. Calm down. Calm down, Tuk. For a moment I have calmed down for now.

I noticed Carlos standing carefully after that screech out of nowhere, smacking his right ear behind. He might heard it as well like mine. "Tuk? Are you alright?" He said with a concerned tone. "Ye-yeah..." I said, and then my vision started to blur for a few seconds. I shook my head, and then my vision was back to normal.

"You look tired?" Carlos said with a question written on his face. He really is worried about me.

I felt somehow fatigued; looking down like a falling rag doll with a string attached, but I recollected myself by forcing myself to gain strength. "Don't worry," I said to him, grabbing his arm and steadily standing up. Carlos supports me. "You sure? I really am worried kid, especially you're parents were..." Carlos paused for a moment, I think he was trying not to trigger me, and then he continued then looked in the other direction, "Bad people."

"Thank you," that somehow brings a smile to my face. It feels good to be understood, however, in the wrong direction rather, because of my lie.

A knock on the door was heard, Carlos and I did not notice the people at the front door, we made ourselves look like fools rather than reliable employees. Outside at the window, there are strange chubby men with more strange and too-exposed clothes; wearing loincloths that reach their ankles with small green and gold patterns in a squared shape. Brown and red animal skin tied on their arms and feet. Something written and burned on their chest like they were burned with a hot metal, I hope it was a hot metal, an upright thin hourglass shape, and on the middle of the hourglass was a circle.

Dubin-sak got out from his counter and walked straight to the door, shushing us to behave like we have visitors. They are visitors, but I don't know what kind of visitors are they.

"Ochan sak!" The chubby man said with an unfamiliar accent, bowed with his head and hand on his chest. Carlos looked very confused about what they were saying, and I was more confused as well. Then, I remembered that Dubin-sak said that I would only understand them if they let us understand them, then that made me guess that they might be close-minded people, and hearing them say with a "sak" in a different language with a different accent sounds suiting and pleasant to hear rather than saying it in English because it sounds stupid and unwanted. "Are we being attacked?" Dubin-sak concerns. "Iwe, sak," the chubby man said in front of Dubin-sak with his eyes closed and nodding. "Taiya, obenya kabes miosa," said the chubby man with a bright smile on his face, but I felt like he forced himself to smile. I just felt it.

"Oh, that's wonderful news indeed!" Dubin-sak sighed with relief like stress was eating him up from worrying. Reading his reaction, I'm guessing those intruders were the people on my planet. I'm not stupid.

Another thought of mine, people from here think we're invading them, and the higher-ups made a conclusion, and I think I know how this will turn out.

I counted three possibilities of how this will turn out:

A. Trial

B. Execution/Persecution

C. Prisoner

"Obien mei sa," The chubby man said with a gesture of putting his hand on his forehead and then twisting down with his palm. Dubin-sak was surprised to hear that. He nodded and did what the chubby man did, "Obien mei sa."

"You understand them, Tuk?" Carlos looked at me observing them. I answered obviously "No."

"No need to be angry," he said with his arms flying around. I wasn't angry, I was only observing them, I guess my serious face made people think the other way about me. "Sorry," I ended up feeling a little guilty. I noticed some chubby men looked at us, with suspicious eyes.

"Fala mei sa, sak," said the chubby with his hand on his chest again, closing his eyes, bowing again. Dubin-sak nodded and they all moved in the other direction. I just noticed that there are lots of chubby and not-so-chubby men wearing the same loincloths and animal skin, outside talking with people at their front door house by looking out the window.

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"D-Dubin-sak," I called him. "You all should prepare now," Dubin-sak called in a serious tone. "Uh. Prepare for what?" Carlos questioned with confusion written on his face. "That is strange, don't you all know the Calls of Devarra, Salili Nahar?" Dubin-sak is making a suspicious face on us, and it is making us confused even more.

It starts beating again. I don't know about that, but I uttered immediately before Carlos could utter or make it worse, "W-we have different cultures and beliefs, Dubin-sak. Sorry for the misunderstanding." I compromise with him, hoping he would believe it. "Up North is pretty new to me, son," He said with a sigh of disappointment, and I noticed he said it in a straight voice, he literally thought Up North was a place, country, or town. Shit. Fuck!

"I-I can show you Dubin-sak of what we believe and our writing system," I said with my heart racing, I think Carlos was concerned behind me. "My love of new information has sufficed me, but information alone can't help or save you, son." He said it to me, and it hit me because he's right on that. I stayed silent, looking down.

"So then. Who are those people anyway?" Carlos started. "Didn't I tell you to prepare?" He gave a sarcastic tone. Putting his hand on his waist. "W-well we are. We don't have much stuff to bring with, Dubin-sak" I said to him with respect.

He nodded at us with his eyes closed. "Those are the Children of Ishstar," Dubin-sak said, and then he continued, "They are trained to gather information and spread it to the public, commanded by Ophannari and Rhonorred," he paused for a moment, and then he continued "And the sound you heard earlier is an announcement that we were being invaded, but the Children of Ishstar said they have captured all of them," he said with relief, but I don't think all of them are captured, there is us here, and might be more.

"And will be holding the Calls of Devarra, Salili Nahar, and on you go you two," he commanded us to go out, but I forgot Emil upstairs. I lied to Dubin-sak that I was going to the bathroom, and headed upstairs. I witnessed Emil on the stairs, her face was still blank and lost just like I was. She is still wearing the same outfit from Ghorne, her eyes sparked when he saw me, it was almost like she was alive now, "Tuk?"

I don't want to tell her to go upstairs and tell her that it's okay to rest for the day because I feel that I am making her useless and unwanted. "Y-you ready for the job?" I ask with a forced smile, trying to be positive with her. I'm trying my best not to hurt her. "Yeah," her voice sounds so soft, she's in between unalive and alive. "Dubin-sak is calling us to do some things like I don't know what that is," I told him the truth and I continued, "Dubin-sak said you sh-should handle the books." I lied as well because I wouldn't want to worry her.

She laughed. "The name. It sounds stupid," she said and I laughed as well. "Haha. Well, we better respect their cultures." I said. "Yeah," she finalized. "I'll be back," I said to her.

As I was heading downstairs, she immediately gave me a fast kiss on my lips. My eyes went wide, shocked. I didn't expect this. I wasn't prepared. I wasn't at all. It happened so fast that I didn't know what to react. Should I be flustered? Should I be shocked? I don't know, what kind of face to look at her. There was a pause, and the only face that Emil saw was my shocking face. I suddenly looked down, covering my face with my hands, I pretended to be blushing like in those romance movies I watched with my parents: It was the opposite, the man kissed the woman on the lips, and after that, the woman hid her face with her hands, blushing, and that made the man giggle.

"S-see ya," I said my farewell to her while looking down, both pretending and nervous at the same time. I felt that made her feel alive again. Please Emil, not me.

Not me.

I hurriedly ran outside, seeing Dubin-sak feeling like he is angry at me. "I'm so sorry, Dubin-sak. I was talking to Emil," I said while panting, still remembering what just happened. I couldn't focus. "Tuk!" Carlos shook me, realizing I was out of focus. "Mr. Dublin said we should follow him," Carlos reminded me. "Are you really okay, Tuk?"

"Yeah, so sorry. I was out of focus," I apologized for being weak and uneasy at this time, everything just happened so fast, that I couldn't process my thoughts correctly. "Dubin is there," Carlos pointed to the crowds, people around us were walking in the same direction as Dubin-sak was walking.

We followed, and I noticed the people around us wearing green, brown, and yellow clothes. None of it is familiar to us, but their clothes are the only thing that relates to us, most of them wear gold brown long sleeves with a small badge; it's the same fox-like animal, I could barely recognize from afar but the color and texture of the metal made it recognizable, almost most of the males wear the same badge, unlike females, they wear silks with the same green color but the texture isn't; some are long, some are cut, some don't look like silk at all, and some mixture of green and red, they also wear a green tight dress reached their knees and up to cover their shoulders, it looks like it's hard to breathe in with that, lastly female don't wear shoes, slippers, or heels, while men wear a look like skin tone bandages, covering their foot.

They really looked weird at all. I think this is what Dubin-sak meant to be prepared. I blinked in surprise now it made a little sense, it looked like their clothes were supposed to be ceremonial purposes.

I saw Dubin-sak get swallowed by the crowd of green, brown, and yellow people. Carlos sighed out of exaggeration, "Welp, I guess we can find him later," Carlos said to me and I agreed, and out of nowhere, Carlos was pushed onto the ground by someone behind. I jumped out of fear, feeling the adrenaline of fear swallowed again, I saw one of the guards that I think they killed that man who was sharing the Lib yesterday. "W-what the hell?" Carlos tried to stand up but he was carried by the guards straight to the crowd. "Hey! What are you doing?!" The people witnessed made way for the soldier, and as I became more curious, I followed through the crowd, but I was blocked by one of those Children of Ishstar that Dubin-sak mentioned. "Maiwe, paraypes moyunde?" He looked at me and said it to me, but his voice sounded like he was asking me. His smile looked very genuine but I sensed malice in that smile, I became more nervous and anxious because I didn't want to be taken like Carlos. I forced my expression to make a poker face, but my lips were quivering. "I-iwe," I said to him, copying their accent like I know it means "yes" in their language. He quickly took my hand, taking me in the crowd, but I'm glad people weren't looking at me like the eyes they were looking at what happened to Carlos.

I heard a bunch of screams and crowds murmuring that I didn't understand, but some I understood. Screams that seem like a cry. A cry scream. When the chubby man took me through the crowds, I became more shocked and more fear endearing, people from my world are tied: Men, women, and children from my world with guards holding hands, blocking their way, and soldiers from behind with staffs readying and pointing at the people from my hometown. They are all standing and sitting on a large long bridge that looks like it is 1 mile or a mile and a half long, made of special stones with the color of gold and brown lines in a straight pattern. The bridge and the edge were carved cleanly. A large dark oak tree with red pure leaves, rustling, falling, and seemingly dancing in the air, dazzling, planted in the middle of the bridge.

I want to speak but I'm surrounded with people that are close-minded. I remained standing, afraid, and pretending that I'm one of these people. I look at them and pretend that I don't know what the heck these people are.

I searched for Carlos, moving my head, seeing crying people, and crying screams. They screamed like they weren't taught to speak when they were babies. Why won't they speak normally? Did something happen to them? I tried to think, overthinking some answers. My eyes went wide, the thought that I just thought about it, I wouldn't want to accept it. So I look at them again. Familiar faces, familiar clothes, I saw someone familiar, Khannah and Patch from my school I went to. I only know Khannah is my classmate, a religious addict like her parents, but she's smart but her being tied made me think that she has limits to her intelligence, and Patch, I don't know this guy, but I heard him calling his name by eavesdropping on his friends calling him that, while I am entering the school.

I see Khannah tied napping on some woman's chest that seems like her mother, screaming like the other screams that don't make sense, and crying. "AAHHH!! MAAAHH!! WAAH!!" I saw someone, an old man screaming but seem like he was yelling at the soldier. He forced his way out but he got struck by one of the soldiers with staff holding. The scream continued. I got shocked, my hands were shaking, so I clasped my hands together, preventing someone beside me from seeing me get shaken. I looked around, wondering why the people around me weren't afraid or shocked by this, they all looked so pleased.

"This can't be happening?!" I heard that familiar voice, I followed my eyes, seeing Carlos just witnessed a dead and burnt man on his chest. He was only struck once, he fell like a pushed statue, dead just like that. "You scumbags!" Carlos screamed and then ran toward the dead man, shaking him. "Sir! Sir! Please wake up!" Carlos' face is full of worry, frowning to the old man. "Are you all messed up?!" Carlos stood up when he just learned that the old man was dead, and no longer responding to his movement. "You killed an innocent old man!" Carlos shouted at the soldiers. I respect his determination and confidence. However, the soldier remained unfazed, because he couldn't understand him. "Have you no shame? Where's your humanity you people?!" Carlos' tone got deeper and angrier, readying his fist to the soldier who had done it.

I want to help, I really do. I fucking do want to help.

I'm so sorry.

I suddenly noticed a small blink on the orb, and then Carlos screamed like them now, and he was on fours, lowering his head, opening his mouth. Something pink wet mold came out from his mouth.

I'm supposed to frown. I am supposed to show fear. I'm supposed that I care. Yet, I took a step back, hiding behind the chubby man, hoping Carlos wouldn't witness me. I held the chubby man's arm, grabbing his wrist, pretending that I was held captive by Carlos and yet I didn't dare look away, I forced myself to stare at my people like my life is fighting for it, with my eyes widening out of shock and fear.

I kept thinking what happened to their mouth. Why they couldn't speak? Why do they scream like that? It's really simple.

It really was.

Their tongue got cut out.

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LET SLEEPING DOGS LIE