As much as Ahlong insisted on calling that place in the middle of nowhere an island, nothing could convince Peh that her new home was more than a pile of rocks. After almost a year grounded on that barren, her freedom felt like a captivity worse than before. She missed the plantation. She missed her dad. Wanting to return to a place that represented so much evil made her feel guilty. Having to help those who caused the death of her father made her feel furious.
For the first few months after the mute girl escaped, she and the other plantation dwellers sailed here and there in blue kingdom ships, ending up in that damned lighthouse. Little she did more than cry and sleep during the first months. Soon after, the turmoil of politics brought the first people from all the islands. There was not a day that refugees from Hanan, Tampra, Muet and who knows where else did not arrive. People who were fleeing the imminent disaster that rulers were preparing for the world.
Peh, who in other circumstances would be delighted to aid the hungry and helpless, had to hide her sorrow with fake kindness every time the ladle filled a bowl with chicken bone soup. Almost a hundred bowls for the fifty people waiting for a turn to relocate somewhere inside the Maze. That week, the ships were late, so the next day, there would be more mouths to feed. She thought many times about travelling to a new home and starting anew with the sea people, but her father would never leave. He would stay where he was most needed, so she did.
Finished the dinner, she carried the big sack of bones to the warehouse. After the brew, there was no profitable substance on that remnants, and yet, Ahlong wanted to keep it for who knows the reason. Nothing had sense with that crazy man. Around the canvas tents hosting the newcomers was the wasteland the keeper called home. A stone sandbank, packed with junk corroded by salt and filled with red ribbons everywhere. Further, the new floating village on the east coast was growing bigger. Families that, tired of waiting for the ships to the Kingdom islands, had settled there, using the rotten wood the keepers had dumped. Peh spitted on the ground. Those people, who were cared for on arrival, feeded and settled, now did not even have the decency to share a catch or help aiding newcomers. Another part of her new life she was sick of. She’d easily give up, but father would say life is nothing but always doing the right thing.
At the entrance of the foetid home of Ahlong’s birds, Oleg was struggling to keep his feet straight. Like every day, the argument was with the keepers.
Three were the people in charge of the improvised refugee camp. Ahlong, who cared more about his pigeons than of the starving people around him, Joy, a lame who did what he could even if it wasn’t much, and Oleg, a Blue ranger who functioned well during the mornings but spent the evenings drunk. “The chickens won’t last long. We need the pigeons!” Oleg shouted, sounding pretty mushy.
Ahlong crossed his arms and nodded effusively. “Pigeons cannot eat. Only Chicken. Want more food. Eat seaweed. Seaweed soup really good for sick. Right Joy?”
“Yes, yes!” said Joy, taking Peh’s sack from her hands with a gentle move and a grisly grin.
“Bones again, seriously?” Oleg asked.
“Good food for pigeons. Inside very nutritious.” Ahlong took the sack and strode inside the pestilence. “Oleg, stop drinking my buzz, that more important than food!”
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Peh curtsied in silence, ignored by the ranger and lightkeeper. Joy, the only one who notice her, waved and threw a flying kiss as she minced away with bristly hairs. Ahlong’s companion was a strange old man with a pure heart and although he meant nothing immoral, she couldn't help but find him repulsive.
Finally, after an exhausting day, she had her hour of solitude. Until sunset, she’d throw pebbles into the ocean, listening to the waves hit the rocks again and again. That was her medicine. Her salvation. When darkness would take the world, she’d return, drink bone soup and sleep in a tent full of people either sobbing or snoring, waiting to start another crushing day.
The second pebble bounced twice, and she smirked. “Pomona, the girl from Tampra, tried again to steal mummy’s napkin. But I called her off.” She said in the Muet-luma language, the one she once shared with her dad. “I didn’t use my fists, just scared her. You’d be proud.”
The next stone flew with furious intensity. "I hate this place. How much longer dad?" the waves, answered for her father. Stay until you are no longer needed.
Twenty pebbles later, the sun set. She didn’t feel like going back. She was tired of bone soup and people sobbing and snoring around her. Instead, she sat over the cold rocks, hugging her legs. Many feared the night in the lighthouse. It was said there were mermen who, after dark, roamed the place looking for flesh, praying on Ahlong’s birds or on girls stupid enough to linger alone in the dark. She was once terrified about such stories, but not anymore. If the mermen came, she’d welcome her fate bravely, like dad.
Waves hit rocks like a lullaby of nature. With her head hidden between the knees, she didn’t realise she was dreaming until her own snort spooked her out. It was already pitch black and the new moon barely reflected over the water. Occasional glows lurking from the depths were not scary anymore. She was smart enough to know that there were no mermen but just fish's eyes reflecting the starlight. As Peh turned to go back inside, the corner of her eye caught a different type of brightness. A cloud of light growing from the depths.
Instead of running away like everyone with a bit of sense, she remained, petrified by fear and curiosity. As the glow closed quarters to the shore, she felt ready to face her fate. Yet, as th two glowing torches took a defined rounded form right below the surface, she crumbled back and fell over her butt. Her hand reached to a rusty rod and her breath froze. She was ready to die, but still scared of death.
The round eyes broke the water's surface, mounted on a round head. If that thing was a merman, the terrifying myths everyone feared were nothing more than a pathetic, small and clumsy creature. Squeaks and clunks pierced her ears at each small step. Peh stood abruptly and waved her puny weapon from side to side. “Return to the hells, devil!” The monster of the seas stopped. Motionless and silent, its demonic eyes pointing at her directly.
“Didn’t hear me? Go back to the abyss!” Mentally, Peh sang that prayer father taught her to scare mountain spirits away, hoping it would also work with the sea beasts.
The creature’s head moved with a loud screeching sound, waving the spotlights around the shoreline. When the light returned to blind her once more, the monster talked in a diabolical voice. “Fear not, child. I’m not here to hurt you.”
She didn’t believe it, of course. “I’m going to bring others. Leave this place or they will kill you!” She lied. Ready to run away, she knew well the only thing she'd do was to hide in the tent and tell no one. Who believed she would not dare to go, and who didn’t would laugh.
“Wait!” it said as she stepped backwards. “Who you have to bring is a man called AhLong. That’s who I need. And tell him to bring his toolbox. I’m in need of a new body.”
“Ahlong? How..”
“I know a lot of things, child.” Cut the creature after a noise that may well seem like a chuckle. “More than you could ever imagine.”