Avalon wasn't sure of what he was feeling. He was on his way back after running an errand for Aunt Sally. Aunt Sally was the only one nice to him. She once gave him a whole piece of bread to eat with his meal. Bread was really yummy. Only worse than meat. Usually, he would be out with the aunties in the market or with the uncles, helping unload what he could.

Today though, he was given an important task by Aunt Sally. He had to visit the Big House and ask for Mr. Doc. It was an odd name, but the guy was an odd fellow. Whenever Mr. Doc visited, it was usually when one of the aunties or sisters' bellies were all big and round. Mr. Doc said that he'd come by whenever he had time. That always confused him, Mr. Doc would be reading one of those books, but when he came, he'd suddenly remember that he had something to do.

Avalon gave Mr. Doc the message nearly 30 minutes ago and was on his way back to the aunties. The aunties and him lived at northern part of the grounds, but Mr. Doc was all the way on the other side. He just realized that Aunt Sally asked him to come back as fast as possible and she said that if he was super fast, he'd get some bread for dinner. He really wanted bread, but she was all the way on the other side of the Big House and he'd never get back in time. His mouth was salivating and his eyes were glazed over at the thought of that chewy goodness. He had to get back as soon as possible.

The only way he'd get back soon enough was if he went through the master-only place. Aunt Sally said to always go around, but this was an exception, right? She also said to get back here as soon as possible. Weighing his options inside his head, there really was no other option; he had to go through the garden.

He looked to his left and then to his right, and seeing nobody, closed his eyes so nothing stuck them and pushed through the green wall.

When he opened his eyes, he saw heaven. He saw Elysium. Fields of color spread before his eyes. Blues here, purples there. Arches of green and yellow and fountains of blue. Statues made of gold and a pond as crystal clear as the eyes of the Ancestor. A symphony of nature more beautiful than life itself. All of it framing a girl about his age. She had long, straight black hair, flowing like a waterfall on a summer evening. When she turned her head, their eyes locked and they didn't stray. She had amethyst eyes with an ephemeral glow like a light behind a magnifying glass. Her soul was shining through more brightly than the midday sun and more beautiful than the glow of sunset.

There was only one thing missing. Avalon looked around, searching for something that he himself did not know what he was looking for. Then he saw it, a yellow Lillie flower. Its petals drooped, but it was bright and full of life. He plucked the flower, strode toward the girl, and placed the flower between the crook of her ear and head. "Hi, my name's Avalon. You look really cute."

The little girl blushed and looked away.

"Hey! You there! What are you doing?!" A man shouted from far away. He looked toward who yelled and panic spread across his face. He turned around and ran. He ran as fast as he could and before he realized it, he was at the Aunties' house. That was the fastest he ever ran and the shortest time it ever took to get home. He opened the door and rocketed through the house to his room and slammed the door. His surprised Aunty asked him what was wrong, but he refused to answer.

Then it all started. Men of iron and steel marched into everyone's homes and dragged out all the men, women, and children. They chained the men to the center posts, held the women by their hair and the children by their legs.

The soldiers split and an iron man on horseback came through, with the girl sitting between the mane of the horse the chest of the man. All the children were crying, except Avalon; he refused to cry. Scared he was, but pride won out. The man took off his red mohawk striped helmet. His chiseled face was grim and a deathly aura swept through the ones gathered that had enough courage to look him in the eye. The soldiers let go of the women and children, but none dared to move.

"Come forward now, receive your punishment and all will be forgiven. Delay and I will execute one woman and child every minute. Every man will receive 20 lashes for every child and woman I'm forced to kill," his faux benevolence fooled no one. 

Avalon was too scared to move. He shook with primal fear. Aunt Sally met his gaze and a look of understanding graced her face. She steeled herself and stepped forward. "I did it, master," she said.

"You stole the block of cheese?"

"I did, master," she answered.

"Liar!" He growled. He pulled his sword from its sheath, swung it down, and returned it all in one swift motion.

A swollen second passed before she screamed. Her hands fell off and blood sprayed the crowd. She fell to her knees, clutching the stubs that she had once called hands. He motioned his hand and a soldier came forward. He unstrapped his dagger, grabbed her tongue, and cut it off. Her screams turned into garbles and her mouth spilled blood.

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Avalon felt sick. Guilt and disgust and fear twisted inside himself like a ball of writhing snakes. He couldn't breathe. Every breath came faster and faster. The soldiers and slaves around him multiplied. Up was down, down was up. Then relief came up his throat and out his mouth.

"She claimed to have stolen, so she has been punished for stealing! She has lied, so she has been punished for lying! Reveal yourself or another child and woman shall die, and the dirt, you filth live on, will be dyed red!"

A minute passed and no one did anything. The master raised his hand and two soldiers stepped forward and grabbed one of the sisters who had a big belly.

"A twofer! How delightful", he smiled. 

"No! Please! Don't do this! Please! Stop this!" Alfred, one of the uncles chained to the posts, screamed.

Avalon, couldn't handle this anymore. He moved forward but was blocked by one of the aunties. "Don't. He'll kill you," her voice was shaky but stern. He looked up at her face. Her fur was tear-soaked, but her eyes held a resolve he couldn't understand.

He couldn't decide what to do. People were getting hurt and were crying, but his aunty said to stay. He always listened to his aunties, but looking around, he saw the men, straining their chains, snarling and growling in desperation. The women were crying in despair. The other children were just as scared as he was. Why did they have to cry? All he did was give her a flower! A flower!

Aunt Sally was on the ground. She wasn't moving. Why wasn't she moving?

Get up, Aunt Sally. I need you. Tell me what to do. What should I do?!

Aunt Sally suddenly groaned. A soldier next to her looked down and he could practically see the sneer on the soldier's face saying, 'filth'. He kicked aunt Sally in the stomach and she groaned in pain.

'Stop. Stop. Just stop. Stop this.'

He jumped on the soldier who kicked Aunt Sally.

"stop it. I did it. Stop it! I did it, ok?!", he yelled, desperate to stop the madness. The soldier picked him up and slammed him into the ground.

The master came forward and said, "You came inside of my garden, laid your eyes upon my daughter, and touched her with your filthy, disgusting paws." It wasn't a question. Realization hit Avalon. He knew who it was from the beginning. The whole time he was playing with them. He was torturing them for the fun of it. He cut off the hands of Aunt Sally and was going to kill the big sister for the fun of it. 

Avalon's face twisted in realization and despair.

"Ah, that's the look. I think I like it even better than when they scream in pain under me. Oh, but that is also so good. I just can't decide!" He faced the other direction, but snapped back and smashed his hand in Avalon's face. Blood, teeth, and saliva went flying. "Your kind belong in the dirt, you filth! Don't ever touch or look upon my daughter or your betters again. Do you hear me, you disgusting mongrel!?"

He tried to respond, but his face hurt so much.

Avalon stopped thinking. He stopped listening, He didn't want to be there anymore. So, he stopped. He stopped thinking. His crying ceased. His body no longer shook. 

Hours and days and years went by. He knew his body was moving, but he didn't care. Time was meaningless. An eternity nothing more than a short microcosm in the whole of the universe and a second lasting for an eternity. His body was tired and sore.

Pain struck his body and the taste of iron filled his mouth, but soon, they stopped too.

Then everything came back. The universe was shoved down his throat. Time unraveled and laid before him. His life from birth to death. His people and loved ones, spread across time and space. Time rewinded, faster and faster. Humans, demi-humans, beastmen, creatures of the dark, dwarves, elves. From buildings that scrapped the sky to hovels and huts to holes in the ground and caves in mountains. Monsters of collosal size that could swallow mansions whole shrunk until they were lizards. Birds, horses, reptiles, oxen, cows, pigs, insects, they all dissapeard and in their place something resembling none of them and all of them. It crawled back into the oceans.

All plants and all things living disappeared. The ground became molten rock, the oceans disappeared. An explosion of unimaginable size consumed the planet. The universe rewinded even faster, the ever expanding universe collapsed and then time began again.

The universe exploded. From nothing to everything. Energy and matter split the nothing into something. The something grew. Larger and larger. The pure energy cooling and forming into radiation and quarks and electrons and protons and neutrons and matrons. Matter formed from the chaos, planets and stars and solar systems and galaxies flew across the expanding universe. 

The universe was beautiful. Eddies of purple and blue and red and green and yellow. Unimaginable and undiscribable colors twisted and expanded and collapsed. And all of it was silent, perfectly silent.

*snap* 

Like a bow string, he was flung back to the present. Lieing in a pool of his own golden blood and beaten to the brink of death. The soldiers and the master were gone and the others were nowhere to be seen.

He felt so cold. So empty. The infinite was trapped in the finite and his mind throbbed. Flashes of what happened came to him.

After he had fallen to the ground, he was pummeled. Every soldier and man was told and forced to punch or kick him. Every bone in his body was either broken or fractured. His body was more bruise than skin. He remembered at one point, he looked up and saw the girl. The reason this all happened. They locked eyes and Avalon mouthed the only thing he could think of, 'why?'

So much pain and despair. So much sorrow and hatred. So much discrimination and unfairness. 'Why did this have to happen? Why is any of this happening? Why do you hate me, us?', he recalled thinking.

He passed out from pain. So much pain. His body was in pain. His mind was in pain. Then no pain.

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