From Roots to Leaves

Four brothers were sitting on the grass by the side of the dirt road. The bonfire is burning, and the body is warm when the night comes. When the moon took the sun's place, the light will be taken by the shadow.

They carried a wagon pulled by two old horses. Their carts were full of junk and other useless items. There they store the food that will be eaten tonight.

One of the brother is a man in his twenties. He climbed the wagon, looking for where he put the pot. From the pile of iron and wood, the object was pulled out strongly. He fell from the wagon and lay on the ground. His head spun dizzily.

"What was that!?" a slightly hoarse voice from the direction of the bonfire.

"It's nothing!" the man replied. "I got the pot," he stood up and wiped his clothes and walked over to his brothers who were waiting for him.

There were three men wearing ordinary clothes. Some are elderly, one is in his 'not so prime' age, and the last one is a teenager. They have short haircuts, when life is hard, they have little care just for haircuts.

"Bring the pot here, De," the old man called.

The old man's arm held a leather cloth filled with water. When the pot was given to him, he immediately poured the water in. The sound of water filling the iron pot echoed clearly. After it was full, the old man hung the pot on a hanger over the bonfire.

"Abim, where are the vegetables?" the old man's hand went up asking for something.

"Just a little bit more," the person in his 'not so prime' year was big and held a small knife.

His hair was already turning white. His burly body wrinkled, he could see the veins showing on his tan skin. The big man seemed to have a hard time cutting the vegetables, so his teenage brother helped.

He was just like his older brother, tan-skinned and slightly shorter than his burly older brother. He started cutting rapidly. They could hear the knife cutting knocking. When he finished cutting, he immediately dipped all the vegetables into the boiling water.

The elderly man put the minced meat into the pot and started cooking the soup while the others waited for the dish to finish.

The three brothers just watched the bonfire heating the bottom shell of the pot, they were silent and looked at it. Bored, the youngest brother started playing with the sand. The eldest brother stopped stirring the pot and closed it. Smoke came out of the skids of the pot lid though not much was visible leaving it.

"Royyan, stop playing with the sand. I don't want the food to be dirty because of that," said his elder brother.

The teenager acknowledged, worthy of someone who didn't know what to do. Seeing him, the younger brother took a book.

"Want to hear a story?"

"Another demon story?" The little brother asked weakly.

Seeing the cover of the book that reads "devil", the older brother hesitated to answer.

"Eh... no. It's different."

"Now we want to hear," said the big man. "Please, tell us this new story."

"Your lectures certainly bring results as a storyteller, Ade," commented the eldest brother.

Ade immediately stood up from his seat and walked to the cart looking for a new book. A large bag he opened, the contents were old antique books. He looked at every book, and all of them explained about the devil.

"Not this, not this one either," he muttered, rummaging through the book's arrangement. In the end, he found something.

A thick and large book, Ade does not remember that he has this book. He just didn't know what it was. Not wanting to keep his brothers waiting, Ade walked back with the big book by his side.

The brothers who saw it were immediately amazed by the size and thickness of the book. Abim, the second oldest can't wait to see the contents.

"What's in it, Ade? It's a huge book!" Aldi, the eldest brother exclaimed.

He dropped the book on the ground and dust flew everywhere. Ade coughed, he sat down and opened the heavy book. An ancient southern language, something that is almost the same as the southern language but sounds strange when spoken. Ade is a bachelor of history from the university in Uthgaard. This language he was a little familiar with, and he tried to explain what he understood from the explanation of the book.

"What did it say, De?" Ask the little brother.

"This time I brought a book called 'Demens' in the ancient southern language," he smiled a little scared. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to read you something I'm not very fluent in. So come closer and listen carefully."

Everyone started to get closer, they sounded curious about the story. Ade opened his mouth, and everyone waited for the sound to come out of him.

"Before I continue this story, do you know what demens are?"

"Yes, I know," answered Abim. "They're living creatures, who turn into mutants."

Ade gave a thumbs up.

"That's right. Demens are one of the mistakes we humans made. A mistake that brought us to the pinnacle of knowledge for the collective good. A lot has been affected by the results of this failure, and the payoff is still not as much as bad. I wish they didn't create these creatures, but what we can do?

Demens are humans, animals, and plants that change due to mutations. They become demens after crossing the line of what is called being a mutant. Not that all mutants are demens. However, it's safe to say all demens are mutants."

"You mean?"

"Aldi. Do you know about the legend of the inquisitor?"

The old man's body backed away and couldn't answer. He just shook his head.

"I doubt it, but you can answer it."

"The inquisitor is a soldier, like Abim. The difference is that if Abim is a human, the inquisitor is a mutant."

"Does he have fangs? Sharp nails?" asked the younger brother excitedly. "Oh! Does he have sharp horns?"

"Inquisitor... just like us."

"Then what sets them apart from humans directly?"

"Just looking at it can't tell if someone is an inquisitor. It's hard to tell mutants like them blending with humans. However, there's one thing that sets them apart from everyone else. If you see a very big and tall man or woman, there is a huge chance that they are an inquisitor or a huge northerner."

"How tall is it? One hundred and eight? One hundred and nine?" asked Abim.

"I'm not sure. Each inquisitor is different. What matters is that they are tall and very strong."

"I've never seen or heard of anyone like that," the eldest brother was surprised.

"Maybe they really are gone," said Abim pessimistically.

"Eh, Abim," the teenager rebuked the big man. "Have you ever seen the inquisitor?"

"Never," he answered, shaking his head.

"And I know why Abim never saw him, Roy," Ade said, baiting his little brother. to ask him a question

"Because of what?"

"Now I will tell you the story," he turned a new page in the dusty book.

"Demens, From Roots to Leaves. Chapter one: From Demons to Demens."