In the silence of the garden just outside the palace, as the wind blew gentle through the trees, a figure slowly descended down from sky above. Angelic in appearance with a pair of steel wings attached to her back that shone brilliantly underneath the rays of the sun.
She landed next to the lake and then sat door on the grass cover ground, crouching down to see her reflection in the lake. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was seeing as she looked down at her reflection, unsure if she the person she was looking at was meant to be the Su Baera or was simply nothing more than a slave.
Ibaeran took in a deep breath, recalling everywhere she had been during the past few days. After arriving back at her home in Ijawana upon retrieving the Dumo Stone, she, instead of travelling straight to the palace and giving the Dumo Stone to the king, venture out in to the four nations. She wasn’t sure why, she just felt as though she had to see for her the kind of hardships her people were going through. It wasn’t a pleasant, seeing men, women, and children toiling away, laboring through the entire day with a moment of rest, their screams and yells echoing through the lands as they were brutal beaten to the point of death for nothing than simply gazing at their Uha Tamunaran masters. In the south, north, east, and west, it was the exact same grim story of anguish and misery. She spent a day in each nation, observing from high above as her people suffered in the cruel hands of the Uha Tamunaran. She watched it all with a hand clenched tightly in to a fist, summoning every ounce of will power she could muster to resist the urge to rain down from sky, where she hovered over the sorrow and misery of her people, the full fury of the Su Baera. She tried her best to hold back her rage and just observe silently from high above but she soon reach the threshold of just how much of her people’s pain she could tolerate when she was in the Nation of the East and witnessed a frail old man forced to push a massive stone slab and by his side a hulking Uha Tamunaran who had enough strength to lift the entire stone slab with just a single arm while putting little to no effort in to.
The Uha Tamunaran screamed and yelled at the old man to move faster even going as far to whip him occasionally whenever he felt as though the man was slowing down. It was truly a dreadful and painful sight Ibaeran had the unfortunate fate to witness and she found herself struggling to control the intense fury that was slowly building up her as she continued to watch the frail old man suffer.
The Uha Tamunaran yelling at and whipping to the man over and over again until the man reached a point where his old, frail, tired and aching body just couldn’t carry on any more and he collapsed on the floor. The Uha Tamunaran, seeing that the man had collapsed, rather than showing tiniest bit of empathy towards the frail man, became raged at him and the grabbed by the neck and, fuming with rage, kicked him away with his massive feet, sending the poor man flying before colliding on the wall of a nearby building.
The frail man, despite having kicked by the Uha Tamunaran and his frail body collided with the wall, was still alive but only just barely clinging on to his life. The man then felt a hard blow on his body, breaking whatever bones that happened already fractured upon impacting the wall. The frail old man then looked and saw the menacing dark shadow of the Uha Tamunaran that sent him to the wall and delivered that bone shattering blow to him.
The Uha Tamunaran then held his neck and lifted him off the ground as though his little frail body weighed nothing more than a feather. The frail weak man then looked in to the eyes of the Uha Tamunaran he served, and seeing a gaze hatred and disgust staring back at him. He then felt the Uha Tamunaran’s grip on his neck grow tighter and tighter, slowly suffocation in his crushing grip.
“Ple..ase, have …mercy”, the man spoke weakly, using the little bit of breath he managed to draw out from his lungs.
“Mercy”, the Uha Tamunaran laughed.
“We’ve already showed you all mercy by allowing you all to leave in our world. Look at you, you’re just a frail weak old man, you not as strong as us neither are you as powerful as us, you and the entirety of your kind don’t deserve to breath the same air and yet you still have the gall to ask for mercy”, the Uha Tamunaran began tighten his grasp on the man even further.
“The fact that we permitted your kind to serve us is mercy in itself, and in return you simply have to serve us but you incompetent insignificant little human can’t even do simplest of task right”, said the Uha Tamunaran as he raised the man above his head and readied his massive fist.
“You and the rest of your kind are just as ungrateful as you are weak and you don’t deserve to live”, said the Uha Tamunaran before launching his fist straight for the man.
The man expecting an impending life end blow to come, closed with a heart racing with complete and utter fear and dread, and shed a tear because he knew he life would soon come to an end. Then there was a massive thud as the Uha Tamunaran’s fist collided with something but, much to the shock and relief of the frail old man and the horror of the Uha Tamunaran, it wasn’t the face of the man, no it was something never of them expected, a sight of hope for the old man and a reason to dread for the Uha Tamunaran.
Looking at him with fearsome gaze brimming with anger and pure rage, and with her steel wings spread out, Ibaeran held the Uha Tamunaran’s mighty fist with just a single arm, holding with so much strength and might that the Uha Tamunaran could not free himself from her grasp.
“It can’t be you’re…”, the Uha Tamunaran spoke, his body trembling and shaking out of fear and complete and utter dread.
“Su Baera”, the voice of the old could be heard from just behind Ibaeran as he was still being held in place by the trembling Uha Tamunaran.
Ibaeran’s eyes widen for a moment upon hearing the man call her the Su Baera, but it was only for a fleeting moment before her focus returned to the Uha Tamunaran. Then, with her grip still held firmly on the Uha Tamunaran’s fist, crushed it with enough force that it caused the hulking Uha Tamunaran’s bones to break, causing him to yell out in pain and let go of the man he held. The frail man then fell to the ground, still breathing and alive.
Then, just as the Uha Tamunaran was beginning the get a grasp of the events that were unfolding before him, he felt a might blow hit the base of his stomach causing to gasp out of both shock and pain before he was sent flying straight in the wall of a building. Upon impact, the wall broke apart, causing its debris to fall and collapse on the Uha Tamunaran.
The Uha Tamunaran then found himself lying down on the ground with piece of the wall scattered all over him and in immense pain. Then as he looked up and saw her once more, glowing brilliantly with the power of the Su Baera flowing through, hovering ever so closer to him before finally stopping once she was above him.
He could see it in her, an unrivaled rage that was unlike any other, like an inferno fueled by years of suffering and having to watch her people suffer alongside, helpless and powerless to escape the miserable fate they imposed upon them, the fate of being nothing more than slave to those monsters. Back then she was powerless and could do nothing but simply watch and endure in agonizing silence, but now, feeling the power of the Su Baera coursing through her veins, she realized that she was no longer the powerless little weak slave she was back then, no, she now had power, power greater than that of those monster.
Ibaeran then crushed one of her hands in to a tight fist which then began to glow with the power of the Su Baera following through it. She then readied to deliver single blow with enough power to put an end to the life of the Uha Tamunaran just like his kind had done to her people more times than she could count. She then raised the fist, ready to strike as she thought back to the agonizing screams for mercy that came from her people right before they met their ends in their hands, along with all the pain and anguish they must have felt during those moments. She then thought about, Preyina, her closest and dearest friend, the only person that gave her the strength to want to continue live and endure all the pain and misery the Uha Tamunarans inflicted upon her, and then her rage rose to greater heights and with it her entire body became engulfed with a brilliant glow of pure power.
The Uha Tamunaran could feel the raw emanating from her body, it was greater than anything he had ever seen before and words could not begin to describe how immense and great that power felt, and from looking at her eyes alone and seeing all the rage that laid within along with her fist which shone with a brilliant glow of pure power, he began to feel the exact same feeling he had inspire in the hearts of all slaves who served under him, fear, dread, and powerlessness before a being of power that was far beyond his. The Uha Tamunaran then began to tremble and shake out of fear before opening his to utter the exact same words the frail old man said to him mere moments ago, “Please…have mercy”.
Ibaeran upon hearing his words felt the blood underneath her skin begin to boil. He begged for mercy like the slaves he tormented, like the frail old man who’s life he was about to end mere moments ago, how disgusting could that Uha Tamunaran be, to forget that there was such a thing as mercy when you’re the tormentor and then sudden recall it when your life it the one being threatened. Ibaeran greeted her teeth in immense rage before launching her fist straight Uha Tamunaran. The Uha Tamunaran watched, his gazed locked on Ibaeran’s fist which was bathed in a brilliant glow of power, as her fist moved in blink of an eye and then appearing mere inches away from his face.
Ibaeran’s gaze was locked on him, still filled with anger and rage, with her fist, still glowing with the raw power of the Su Baera, held firmly in place mere inches away from striking the Uha Tamunaran. And as she looked at the Uha Tamunaran who’s gaze was fist solely on her fist, fearing that the fist may collide with his face at any moment and end him right where he laid, she realized that at the very moment she was the one with all the power not the Uha Tamunaran that looked down at her and her people, and if she wanted to she could put an end to his life just like he along with his race had did to so many of her people, all she had to do was allow her fist to collide with him, one strike, that’s all it would take *sigh* but as she looked at him, seeing the look of fear and dread he wore on it, she saw something familiar and upon seeing that she just could bring herself to deliver the final blow.
Ibaeran let out a deep sigh before retracting her fist and turning her back away from the Uha Tamunaran and then turned her attention to the frail old man on the floor not too far away. She looked at the sorry state he was, it looked as though almost every bone in his body was broken with blood sipping out his body.
Ibaeran then went to him and then unraveled the tight fist she wanted to use to strike against the Uha Tamunaran and then allowed the power of the Su Baera to pour out of the unraveled fist and bathed the man in it brilliant glow. The man felt a sense of warmth and peace wash over him, he felt his frail body begin to heal and the immense he felt flow through his body vanished along with his wounds.
The man then opened his eyes and gazed at Ibaeran, spotting steel wings behind her back which shone with a brilliant silver hue. Eyes then began to water with a smile forming on his face and that same twinkle and spark Ibaeran saw in eyes of the other slaves back in Ijawana appear once more in his eyes.
Ibaeran then heard sounds of muffled murmurs and whispers of shock, awe, astonishment and fear, before raising head to see that a crowd had formed around her of both slaves and the Uha Tamunaran masters that served them. The slaves looked at her with the same twinkle in their eyes while the Uha Tamunaran’s gazes were that of fear, shock and disbelief.
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Ibaeran, having to witness those gazes once more, simply let out a deep sigh before beginning to ascend upward to the sky to avoid those gazes but before she could take refuge away from those gazes, she heard the voice of the old man call out to her, saying with teary eyes, “Thank you Su Baera”.
And upon hearing the words of the frail old man Ibaeran couldn’t help but smile slightly as she retreated in to the sky.
After that found herself roaming about through the skies seemingly aimless. She then brought out the box holding the Dumo Stone and then looked at it, knowing the kind of the power the Dumo Stone possessed, having witnessed it first hand in Dumo Kiri, she couldn’t help but wonder if handing it over to the king was the right choice to make. She then let a deep sigh, as she wondered to herself what other choice did she have while recalling the monstrous power the king possessed. She then felt a knot in her stomach along with heart sinking down with guilt and shame as she continued telling herself over and over again that handing the stone to the king was the only way to save her people.
She was brought out of her train of deep thought when she spotted what seemed to be a small city near. From the distance Ibaeran didn’t seem to recognize it but as she ventured closer to Ibaeran was finally able to recognize it. It was Kiripapaboa, land of those deemed useless by the king. There, high above the sky she hovered above the city of those damned and deemed useless by king, casted out of their homes and forced live in the barren, arid, and dry waste land where the city stood upon.
Ibaeran looked the people of Kiripapaboa and saw as the Uha Tamunarans their lived their lives. The Uha Tamunarans there, unlike that one’s that ruled over her people as their wicked masters, weren’t selfish savage brutes eager to showcase their powers to oppress those weaker than them but rather they seemed like people who were just trying their best to live in a world for the rejected and caster out. Ibaeran couldn’t help but feel a greater sense of pity for them than she felt for her people for at least the prejudice behind the Uha Tamunaran scorn for her people was out of sense of superiority they felt as a race over them but the people of Kiripapaboa were of the same as them and jet they were still casted away and forced to live in exile away from their people all because their king so no value in them.
Ibaeran then flew over the city and watched as the Uha Tamunarans tried in their best to survived with the very little they land had to offer, spotting a man, a thin a twig, seated dirt covered floor with root protruding out of his body and on to the ground underneath, using the roots to consume whatever little nutrients were in the infertile soil, a mother present a small bowl filled with what looked like a disgusting slimy drool that not even a slave would eat, using her sprinkling in a little bit of silver dust from her hand in to give the drool a more appetizing taste for her child to eat, and finally a sight both warmed and at the very same time shattered her heart was the sight of three Uha Tamunaran children seated at the top of one of the broken building . They were Felesh, Kolar, and Etar, the three children Ton’Onama introduced her to when he first brought her to Kiripapaboa.
Kolar, the red skinned girl, held a rectangular wooden plank and then, using her powers to change the color of anything, she began forming different colors on the wooden plank to create a picture.
“Hey guys, take a look”, said Kolar as she showed the picture she had created to her friends.
“Umm, what is it and can I eat it”, said the skinny Etar, greatly annoying Kolar with his response.
Felesh then used his boneless limbs to take the picture from Kolar to take a closer look at it.
“What the hell is all this green stuff and this, is looks like a log with green hair and weird balls on its head”, said Felesh.
“Give me that”, said Kolar out of annoyance as she took back the picture.
“You two are the greatest bunch of idiots I’ve ever met”, said Kolar with a pout and turned away from her, annoyed that her two closest friends didn’t appreciate the picture she made.
Felesh then let out a sigh before he and Etar went to her.
“I’m sorry Kolar, you know I can’t help that everything seems like for to me”, said Etar.
“Yeah and I really don’t get what this is suppose be”, said Felesh as he pointed at the picture.
Kolar then let out a deep sigh before saying, “It’s a field okay”.
“Okay but what’s a field and is it tasty”, said Etar.
Kolar upon hearing Etar response could help but laugh a little, “No you idiot. A field is a place filled with these green things called grasses that stretched miles and miles, with massive trees made of wood and green stuff called leaves with tasty juicy fruits growing on it”.
“Uhmm, you had me at tasty fruits”, said Etar imagined himself eating on of those juicy fruits in a field.
“Ton’O told me about them”, said Kolar said followed by a deep sigh as she looked up her head on to the horizon with look of sadness on her face.
Felesh and Etar, seeing the sad look on her face as she gazed out in the horizon ahead, knew exactly was going on in her head.
“Stop it Kolar, you there is no place for us out there” said Felesh his voice heavy and cold.
“Yeah, we’re the rejects after all like rotten food, nobody wants us” said Etar with a fake smile on his face that failed to conceal his pain.
“I *sigh* know, I just wish we could all go out there together and see the world. It doesn’t even have to be a large part of the world, just a small field would be enough”, said Kolar with tears slowly sipping out of her eyes.
She then looked down at the wooden plank on her arms, seeing the picture of field she created using only the memory of description Ton’Onama gave her, in the picture, she, Etar, and Felesh were busy playing and laughing about in field happily, without a care in world. A tear then fell down from her eyes and on to the picture on her hands, as she wished with all her heart that small little wish of hers would come true, even though she knew it was just an impossible wish.
Kolar then felt a head on shoulders, she turned to see Felesh.
“Stop crying well you, it doesn’t really suit you”, said Felesh as he wiped away her tears.
“Yeah, and tears are way too salty and taste disgusting and bitter”, said Etar on the other side while childishly sticking out his tongue.
Kolar upon her friends said could smile slightly before letting out a deep sigh before saying, “You know, it would be nice to play in a green grassy field but I guess being with you two idiots isn’t half bad. Now who’s up for a game of mouth toss”.
“Oh me, I’m starving”, said Etar enthusiastically, eager to get something in his belly.
“When aren’t you starving”, asked Felesh causing both him and Kolar to burst out laughing as the three of them got up and left.
Ibaeran watched as the children from high above in the sky. Having watched and listened to everything they said, Ibaeran couldn’t help but understand the frustration and agony of wanting something that was just right out of your reach as both her and the Uha Tamunaran child as well as all those in Kiripapaboa seemed hunger for the exact same thing, freedom, from the rejection placed upon them by their own kind and, from the binds of fear and servitude placed on her and her people. Ibaeran couldn’t believe she was feeling sympathy for them, people of the same race as the monsters that brought only pain and misery to her people, but there she was hovering over Kiripapaboa trying her very best not a shed a tear for the poor souls down below.
The sun soon went down and the cold dark cloak of night covered the city. An eerie silence filled the city down below as the Uha Tamunaran, scurried off in to their broken down homes or whatever dark corners they could find and use for shelter against the chilling cold of the night and rest for the night after surviving another of strife and misery in Kiripapaboa. There, in the cover of the night, Ibaeran flew through the city, listening to the dead silence of the city as the people shut their eyes in a deep slumber, journeying to the land of dreams the only place where they could find some semblance of happiness away from the reality of the life they had to live once they awaken.
Ibaeran flew through the patch black city whose only source of light during the night was stars above the night sky and brilliant lunar rays of the moon. As she flew through the darkness, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of familiarity with the calm, silent, and nights of the city. It all reminded her of Ijawana and her time as a slave, and looking down at the below Ibaeran was reminded even more of her life in Ijawana as a slave. From the broken homes littered about throughout the people were forced to make do with, all seeming like they were a hair’s breath away from collapsing, to piles of people lying on the streets, homeless without a roof over their head as they were no homes left for them and so they were left to wonder the streets and lay under the open skies chilling and freezing breeze of the night blew around them.
Ibaeran let out a deep sigh upon seeing the miserable state of the people down below suffering a fate seemingly if not worse than what she and had people had to go through as slaves. At the very least, as a slave, if you worked hard enough and the Uha Tamunarans saw use and value in you they would provide the very minimum of amenities to ensure that you live to be put to work another but there in Kiripapaboa, it didn’t matter how hard you worked or how much, as it was struggled to get a muscle of a meal that was barely enough to fill your belly much less luxuries like a roof over your head. Ibaeran, then looked down at the city below with sad eyes filled nothing pity for the Uha Tamunaran that lived there, she even found herself wanting to help them. But what could she do, may be the Su Baera now but she don’t believe even the power of the Su Baera would be enough to free the poor soul in the city below from the horrible and miserable state they were in, and even if she could, was truly her place to help them, people from the very race that torment and brought nothing but pain and misery upon her people. Ibaeran began to question if it would be right for her, after everything she had been through witnessed in the hands of the Uha Tamunaran. The torment, the pain, the anguish, the misery, and loss she had had to endure all because of them, after recalling all of those horrible memories, Ibaeran began to pounder to herself if it would she could herself to help them after everything she had been through and had to endure.
As Ibaeran pondered, her gaze caught something, a sight then she couldn’t help but be intrigue by. Descending down from the sky and on to a pitch dark alley way she found them, huddled together to keep warm, the three children she was watching earlier during the day. Kolar and Etar snuggled up together with Felesh wrapping his boneless body around them, forming a blanket around them so they could keep warm against the chilling winds of the night.
Ibaeran watched as the children slept soundly and peaceful, and felt her heart sink. These children seemingly had nothing, no home or family to look after them, all they had was each other to embrace and keep each other warm through the cold nights. Ibaeran then came closer to them, being careful not to make a sound as she went to them. She then noticed Kolar holding that wooden slab with the picture of the field she created. The red skinned girl kept that picture close to her as slept, holding on to the seemingly impossible as that was she could do, hold on to it no matter how impossible and unlikely of ever coming through it may be.
Ibaeran then let out a deep sigh smiling a little as seeing the little red skinned girl cling on to that picture even as she slept reminded her of Preyina and how despite everything she had been through as slave she stilled on desperately to hope and the belief that someday things would be better, someday they would be free. It was an impossible but one she held on to still the end.
“… the most annoying thing about change is that it comes when you least expect it and in the strangest way possible”
Those words echoed in her mind, reminding her of how much her dearest friend held on to the hope that one day their people would know freedom, holding to that belief to the very end.
Ibaeran then felt a tear make its way done her face as the memories of Preyina rushed through her head, remembering her smile and laughter and how always had something to say to make her laugh or giggle even the grimmest of situations. Ibaeran upon recalling all those wonderful memories she and Preyina shared couldn’t help but smile and giggle a little as she recalled all the jokes and games she would play with her, which sometimes got both of them in trouble with their Uha Tamunaran masters but they would always end up laughing about it all at end of the day.
Ibaeran then looked at the red skinned girl and her friends before letting out a deep sigh. Thinking about Preyina and how she believed in what seemed to be impossible, and yet it was all tha nks to that impossible dream of hers that was where she was at that very moment. That dream gave birth to a promise and that promise was what pushed Ibaeran to go so far, fight in a tournament as greatest warriors of all four nations, being victorious and claiming the steel wings of the Su Baera before finally journeying out of her world to Kiri Dumo and retrieving the Dumo.
Each and every single thing she had accomplished so could deemed as an impossible dream and yet she did them anyway, and all because she wanted to fulfill the promise she made and make another impossible come true. Ibaeran then looked down at the red skinned thought to herself, she had already accomplished so much of the impossible so far, and accomplishing one more impossible deed wouldn’t hurt.
She then gazed at the girl one last time and thought about how strong she had to be to have to live such cruel and misery life along with her friends and still have the strength to hold on to a dream, just like her Preyina. Ibaeran flew away in to the night sky to try and fulfill and impossible dream but then just as she left, the little red skinned girl, faintly opened up her eyes, half asleep, and caught a faint glimpse of Ibaeran flying off with her still wings shinning as though as though it was star, before drifted back to sleep.