Meeting the Carthae

The dark sky soon gave up into the light as the sun started to rise. Its joyful color burned the night of loss into a memory of the tragedy.

Heavy footsteps sounded as they followed the slow rushing sound of the lady's tiny leafy feet. She introduced herself as one of the guardians who ought to protect this world, as she had said.

"Where are we going?" Alex asked.

"To death," Rabi replied.

Faces of extreme confusion flooded the students' expressions.

"You're joking, right?" Gloyd said in disbelief.

"Not really. The place where we are going is the place of death. The creatures there are responsible for every death that happens in the marshland. We call them the Carthae, also known as the scavengers of death."

"Are they the gods of this world?" Alex asked.

"According to the legend, they were the first species who lived in this world, not us, but for them. We are going there because they are the ones who know if your friend is still alive." Her feet stopped.

Alex looked at the surroundings and saw nothing but trees and swamps that were common in the marshland.

Alex looked around, "There's nothing here."

"The carthae can't be seen by those--." Rabi did not finish her sentences when Kent decided to speak.

"I see it," Kent said.

Rabi smiled, "Only those who have acquired extraordinary power can see the Carthae."

Kent stopped moving were her eyes gazed into the sky. From Alex and his friends' perspective, they don't see anything but trees and swamps, but Kent and Rabi see more than that.

Kent talked slowly, "It looks like a primitive village."

Rabi nodded, and she ordered everyone to stop moving and let her come in first. She warned everyone to not make themselves seen for the carthae do not like everyone who visits their place.

"Kent, what do you see?" asked Alex, putting himself beside Kent, who was busy looking at Rabi, who had just entered the village gate.

"Rabi just entered the gate."

Alex and the others asked what the village looked like so that they could visualize what the carthae's place would look like.

"Bird skulls – at the top of both their village posts where the gate has been erected." Kent replied, still busy looking at the plant lady who continued to move inside the village."

The curious minds of the others who do not see the village continue to ask their classmate a question.

"Do you see it now? The carthae?" asked Ivan, who is now beside Kent.

"Not y---. Yes!" Kent's answer changed immediately as she witnessed hooded figures suddenly appear above the village's houses.

The wind blew hard, and thick clouds suddenly gathered, as if the power that can change one's weather suddenly appeared.

The clouds' thickness covered the joyful rays of the sun, making the day look like night in an instant.

"What's happening?" Alex asked.

"It's the carthae. They're here." Kent replied, her eyes still pinned at Rabi.

Rabi stopped, and Kent knew why.

"The carthae, everyone. They don't look like they're there. You can still see the things behind them. As if they're-." Kent couldn't finish her sentence.

"Transparent?" Alex asked.

Kent nodded.

"Can you describe them to us, Kent?" Darline pleaded.

Kent's brows met, focused on getting a better vision of the creatures. She can see them, but she can't describe them. As if they do not need any description but only that they're black hooded creatures who are almost transparent.

"They're black in color like they're wearing a hooded cloak, standing on top of the village houses, looking at where Rabi is." Kent tried to describe what she saw.

"What's happening now? I can see Rabi move towards us." Alex said.

"I don't know, I can't hear them, but I can see that she is communicating with the carthae," Kent replied.

Rabi walked toward them, and they immediately moved toward her and asked them if Christian was safe.

"How was it?" Alex asked Rabi, who had just arrived.

"I said that you have a question to ask. I did not say what specific question, but they allowed themselves to have an audience with you and hear what you say." Rabi answered.

Rabi guided the others to follow her. They entered a woody marshland, which wasn't common in the area.

The others were hesitant to go, for they could not see anything but woods and wet soil. But it all changed when the trees and swamps were suddenly replaced by tiny houses – houses that they had not seen before but in books, because it's not made neither with concrete or hardwoods but mere sticks and leaves.

The students except Rabi and Kent wondered. Their eyes bulged as they witnessed a place materialized instantly without seeing it getting built. Like magic, everyone thought. one that they could only see in children's books and movies.

Not long when they saw black hooded figures who appeared above the houses, standing there, looking at them. As Kent described earlier, the figures were almost transparent, for they could still see the things that were behind them.

Alex thought of the legend Rabi had shared earlier. The carthae, the first species of this world. The first species to ever lived on earth was a cooperating cell that clustered themselves to become an animal in their past world. But in this world, it's these hooded figures.

Rabi continued to walk, students still following her. She guided them towards the center of the village. The place where they stood was empty of everything but the ground. The village's houses were facing the center, encircling it, making the center the heart of their town.

Everyone stood there, with the hooded figures encircled around them, gazing at them as if they were criminals who just will be executed later in their past world.

"Speak." The creatures said together. With its different pitches and tones, it is deafening to the ears of humans, making Alex and his friends cover their ears. While everyone was covering their ears, Kent just stood there and wondered how everyone was acting and how she had not done the same.

Rabi looked at Kent, "Unlike us, humans do not have the capacity to hear the voices of the carthae."

Rabi asked the carthae to speak in a manner that humans can listen to, and the carthae listened and spoke in a manner that Alex and his friends could hear well.

One by one, the hooded figures jumped in front of Rabi and the students, where their almost-transparent bodies became denser and denser, and black-colored feathers slowly appeared. Its hood soon became a head where a pointed beak also emerged.

A six-foot-tall bird appeared in front of the students' faces. Restraining themselves is a bit of a job, for their mouth could not stop them from opening a little, highly appalled by their transformation.

The black bird moved towards them, "Carthae, the scavenger of death." Its voice was deep; hearing him talk, even just talk, shows high authority to those who listened to it.

Carthae looked at Rabi, who was smiling at him, "Nice to meet you again, Rabi."

Rabi bowed and greeted the carthae like an old friend. "These humans here have something to ask you."

"And what would that be?" asked the bird.

"About our friend." Replied Alex.

The bird eagerly listened.

"We're asking if he was still alive," Alex added.

The bird nodded and moved backward, opened its wings where it expanded so greatly it almost covered all of them. Its wings flapped, and it soared above them where it was divided again into an almost-transparent figure.

Like a moving wind, it entered the village houses instantly and soon returned above and transformed again into a huge black bird. The bird came down and faced Rabi and the students who came looking for their friend's safety again. Its huge black wings folded and spoke to the people in front of it.

"Alive." The bird muttered.

The students fell to the ground, sitting as they suddenly felt the weight being pushed heavily on the ground. Even their bodies couldn't believe what they heard as the carthae spoke the word that would give them so much happiness.

Kent's eyes turned heavy as tears fell down from them, incredibly joyous to the news of her classmate's safety. They hugged each other as they heard it, and Rabi stood there looking at them, smiling.

"Thank you, Carthae." Tears still falling from his eyes, Alex thanked the creature.

The creature bowed, accepting their gratitude.

"However," the creature's voice suddenly changed. "He's not safe."

The students wiped their tears as they heard what the creature said.

"He's a prisoner. To a being in this land." The creature added.

"The eartheaters devoured him when we were on our way to a mission. We thought he's already dead." Alex said.

"He will if you won't help him." The creature replied.

Rabi slowly stepped forward, "Eartheaters are creatures my sister has command on."

Alex, in disbelief, "So, your sister was the one who took Christian away from us?"

"That's why I don't understand. My sister does not use eartheaters that way. She only uses it when there are creatures who invade her territory, like my vines here in the marshland." Rabi explained.

"Wait, you said you're one of the eight. That means eartheaters aren't from the marshland but from the land where your sister guards?" Alex asked.

Rabi nodded, "Yes."

"Then, where is she from?" Alex asked again.

"The void. Her name is Ranthi."

Dumbfounded, Alex tried to clarify things as their situation got weirder and weirder.

"Can't you contact your sister, asking why he captured Christian?"

Rabi moved her ear from side to side, "I can't. After birth, we were put to the lands we had to guard. And that also means cutting the connection between the eight of us. One cannot enter the land they weren't guarding."

"That's a bit sad," Kent said.

Rabi gave an awkward smile, "Not really. The tribe where I came from had one role: that one role was to guard the world. And we all understand that."

Alex tried connecting the situations by thinking of possible reasons why Ranthi used her pets to capture Christian when she wasn't using them like that in the first place.

"Do you trust your sister?" Alex asked Rabi, who was looking a bit worried, too.

"Yes, that's why going here will also give me questions," Rabi replied.

Alex focused. Putting his attention to the bird who was still standing in front of them.

"You said earlier that Christian was being held by one of the creatures 'here' in the marshland, right?" Alex checked.

The carthae nodded.

"That means, after being eaten alive by the eartheaters, Christian was put back here somewhere in the marshland. The question is where." Alex said.

The students tried to think, too, by giving a bit of suggestions to their starving minds.

"Do you know what creature captured Christian?" Gloyd said to the carthae.

The carthae chuckled, "death is peace, and peace is death?"

Alex did not speak.

"What do you mean?" Kent asked.

The carthae smiled, "We, the carthae, believe that one can only experience true peace after they die. And as the ones who wish for someone's perished, we actually long for your friend to die."

Alex was shocked. This creature was no different from the queen bee. They just entertain themselves with death. But Alex thought that he was powerless against these creatures. However, that will not stop him from acquiring power that will defy all the laws of nature. And he will, he thought, change this world to a better one. One that everyone could enjoy its abundance. Not polluting it and nourishing it instead.

The carthae continued to chuckle, "However, since I enjoy you kids moving towards your probable destruction. I'll give you a hint of where your friend would be."

Alex stopped thinking and gave attention to the bird of death.

"leisurely but extremely mighty, I cudgel with a stick to beat. Beware the earth that is soft. My house isn't worth to carry."

Upon uttering the clue to the students, the huge black bird divided into shadowy figures, laughing its way above the sky, where they soon faded into the dark.

The thick clouds brewing in the sky faded away instantly, looking like it never happened, as the sun's rays started hitting the marshland again. The carthae's village disappeared instantly like it was just a hologram in their old world, leaving them with the trees and swamps that they had seen before they were given the ability to see the hidden village of the called scavengers of death.

Alex stood there, at the center of where the village was once located, thinking about the clue. "I didn't know that bird could be so poetic." He managed to tell a joke.

His classmates gave out a laugh. Sad but happy about Christian's situation of being alive, they started to think of a clue.

"The carthae, huh?" he whispered to himself. Scavengers of death, it said. They were like what they were being described – scavengers.

Dark thoughts came to Alex's mind. Killing the bird wouldn't be an easy task. But we can, with his power, we can survive this place even more, especially now that we know that he's just a…."

Alex smirked.

"A vulture."