CHAPETER ONE - EARTH REALM - ARUMA VILLAGE

***

My troubles with the god, Mandellon all started the day I went out with Lucan to see the old goldsmith in the next village.

We had intentions of selling two golden hairpins and a silver pearl we stole from our theft with the gang in return for twelve sacks of barley and four silver coins that will help us provide the food we wanted for tomorrow which will sustain us for the week.

Ryaku, a former Shibori and the Street Leader of our gang, had equally shared the goods we stole from the rich merchants amongst ourselves. Lucan and I both received our share fairly the night before our road trip to the next village though it was small compared to what the strongest in our group received particularly Bikan and Mandu.

As Lucan had advised, it was safer for us to take the usual route through the forest that wasn't under close watch by men from the Shibori corps who frequently dealt with the villagers passing the recently tarred road linking the village eastward to a bridge operated by a windmill and directly to the next community.

On the way, we met some few farmers also riding their goods on their trucks driven by fat oxen to the next village though they were slower than we were and we needn't fret of being caught by the nosy farmers who could expose us to the Shibori authorities since we were careful enough to hide the items we were planning to sell in the loose rucksacks with tiny straps we wore on our shoulders.

The sun was already intense by the time we had covered a mile on foot through the forest ever since we left the village dressed in the same tattered tunic and loose pants we wore when it rained last night.

The hot sun kept shining into my eyes and my throat felt dry with thirst walking beside Lucan who also felt the same. For the fifth time, I reached out to the left side of my girdle and untied the little water-skin I brought along for the irksome journey. Lucan saw me drinking the residue that was left inside the water-skin made with goat fur and felt annoyed when I bathed my black unkempt hair with the last of the water we had to quench our thirst before we got to our destination.

"Handel! You greedy scum!"

He yelled and tried to hit me with his long stick he had been wielding since we past the trees with spineless branches. Luckily, I barely evaded dodged it before it could touch my head and was surprised that he would want to hit me with all his might unexpectedly. He tried to hit me twice but I dodge it.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Shut up, bastard!"

He didn't give up and landed a hard blow on my hand with the stick. I reeled in pain and felt the bruise on my hand already swollen red.

"Ouch! That really hurt!"

"It's my bad luck I missed twice even when you are standing close to me"

"Put away that stick or else—"

"Or else what, huh?"

He feigned angrily and kept poking me with the end of the stick. I knew I couldn't defeat him in a real fight but he was getting on my nerves and was adding to the fatigue as well as the itchy pain under my left foot I had been nursing the entire time we started trekking on barefoot.

"Stop getting angry for no reason and let us keep walking"

"No! I can't go on not until you find something for me to drink"

"Is that the reason why you are upset?"

I asked figuring out the cause of the quarrel.

"Yes, it is!"

He shouted still fuming in anger and folded his hands like he often does whenever he was angry about something.

"Lucan, we don't have time for this"

"Sure we do have time to spare for some of the water you just drank!"

He replied still angry about the fact I didn't give him some water like he had done

"But the water's mine"

"Sharing is something we usually do back in the village"

"Of course, we do share almost everything in the village but not out here"

"We—"

He stopped halfway as soon as he realized that we had already gone far from the village and way deeper in the forest.

"Like I said, we have already left Aru valley and it will be nightfall if we delay any further"

I said resuming the bush path we had taken through the forest.

"But I am still thirsty!"

He cried out from behind as he watched me leaving.

"I'll find you a drink once we get to the village, so quit nagging or you want Mikiso to find out about this"

I threatened walking further away from him.

"Leave Mikiso out of this, you scoundrel!"

"Why…? Are you afraid she might scold you for hitting me very hard?"

I questioned still treading down the same path.

"I hate you for this. You always bring her up whenever you want to irritate me"

He replied following me from behind.

"It's your fault that you haven't defeated her yet in the Donjo contest"

"You sound as if it is easy to beat her"

"If it were up to Ryaku, you would have a chance to beat her. Nonetheless, when you do beat her, then I promise never to bring her up whenever we are quarreling"

I said as soon as Lucan caught up with my pace.

"It's a deal then"

He replied and smiled wistfully which cramped his dimples. We continued our journey and for the quarter mile before we finally arrived in Aruma village, Lucan kept wining that he was thirsty and wanted to satiate his thirst very badly with whatever liquid he had his eyes on but he found none neither could I find some water for him to drink like I had promised with the two lucky copper coins I had kept in my little red pouch that was dangling on the girdle beside the furry water-skin when we luckily reached Aruma before sunset.

Nothing had changed since the few times I visited Aruma village, and the poorly unkempt streets as well as the houses that looked like the same with the ones we had in Aru valley, had always looked unchanged in their appearance including the people living there. To me, the villages all looked exactly the same and for me, that was how the world I was living in looked like.

After a few unsuccessful tries, we gave up searching for water in the open streets fairly crowded with people and went straight to find the goldsmith shop to fulfill the purpose for being sighted in Aruma village.

Soon we got to the shop and found it to be a bit crowded with people drinking inside. Not only did we discovered that the goldsmith had transformed the first floor of the two storey building to a local pub but he had hired four new Hyko men equipped with swords to guard the entrance.

Lucan and I were told by the first guard we met to wait outside and left us to discuss our presence with the boss who was having a drink inside alone by himself at a corner just beside the entrance. It came to my notice that his boss was their leader judging by the way the guard kept trembling in fear when he was informing him of our presence.

I could barely see the two swords that he kept behind his back.

Lucan was a bit distracted by his square face as well and like I saw when the two men were chattering in silence whilst the noise rages inside, he too saw the scar on the left cheek of the man whom I would come to find out later from an acquaintance working for the goldsmith to be Hazel.

In spite of the terrible scar on his face, he was still as good looking and handsome like the newly wedded young men that often celebrate the annual Aro festival with their bride back at Aru Valley but not as brazen and masculine like Ryaku whom Lucan and I knew to be loved and adored by almost every girls in our village despite known for the being the leader of the notorious activities we committed as gang though he was never caught.

My patience was wearing thin standing outside and wanted to go inside despite knowing that the entrance was heavily guarded. I took notice that Lucan was distracted with something else and found out he was having stomach trouble the moment I heard a growl from his stomach. Even the guards heard it and were upset at both us.

"Don't upset us with that empty stomach of yours"

"Keep it down otherwise we'll send you away"

Another guard rejoined before I could intervene.

"I'm sorry but I can't help it"

Lucan apologized. I drew closer to him and surreptitiously whispered something in his ear.

"Lucan, there are some dumplings in your rucksack"

"That's right, I forgot about that"

He hurriedly opened his rucksack and brought out the dumplings but the guards seemed less interested in seeing him eating right in front of them.

"What now? You can't eat that here"

"What a bunch of losers? We have a strict rule that no one is allowed to eat"

"Except they go inside"

"But—"

"If you don't want any trouble, you two better abide by our instructions"

The tallest guard warned and we both nodded. Lucan felt bad that he had to wait to enter inside before he could eat anything and kept his dumplings back into the rucksack awaiting instructions for us to gain entry.

***