The Book of Ra

The shriek of the Roko awakened the sleeping boy, its cry was far from what even the most tolerant man could get accustomed to hearing daily. The ugly bird couldn't even keep its tongue inside its short beck, it would always show itself with it hanging on the side, to make things worse for the poor bird, its blue feathers and the red streak running along its back didn't help improve its aspect, but despite that, each family had one as the bird was able to accurately shriek at the same time every morning, not only that, the bird could be easily trained to cry at other predetermined times and it would do it accurately every day.

The boy, despite not owning one, could hear the shrieks coming from all the Rokos inside the city, never failing to wake him up, willing or not.

Woken up, he could already feel the hole in his stomach, food was never something he could indulge in, from what he could remember, he had not once felt sated despite eating as much as the other children, it was never enough but he never complained, he didn't feel that he had any rights to complain seeing as he didn't pay for the food nor the room he slept in, the children could only help around the orphanage as the old woman supervising it wasn't able to take care of them on her own.

The boy's face was expressionless, there was no joy, sadness or the mischievous expression normal for a boy his age to have, nothing could be seen, the other people in the orphanage had not once seen any other expression beside the neutral one, even the strict old woman owning the orphanage was wondering if there was something wrong with him, there was no way to tell what he was thinking, making her feel uncomfortable.

The boy scratched his head, ruffling his already disordered red hair, the bright redness of his shoulder-length hair was unusual for this land, increasing the distance the people around him kept from him, but the boy didn't care as he didn't want to create a connection with them from the beginning, along the years they took the liberty to find trouble with him or make childish pranks at his expense, he found all that senseless and the actions of unhappy people.

Then there were the other children in the orphanage, despite the distance between himself and the others, they didn't make his life difficult, but they also didn't get close to him, despite that, he didn't hate them.

After a few years from when he was found, the people outside the orphanage began to find trouble with him, that was when the people that bothered him started to encounter strange incidents.

Moving his blanked to the side, he stood up on the stone floor, surveying his room, he had the privilege to have his own room, part of that was because no one was willing to sleep in his company. The old woman had no choice but to let the boy sleep in the unused attic, unused because there were more holes in the walls than actual wall, there was no protection from the cold of the night but during the day there was a nice breeze chasing away some of the arid air, during the night he could also admire the stars so he didn't mind his accommodation, he liked the quietness and peace, he also knew that the rooms of the other children were hardly any better, at least he had one for himself.

Admiring his own Royal Room, the boy moved to a corner of the attic and took the broom and shovel that were leaning against the wall, the broom was made from hay bound together by a thread, he made it himself as he couldn't clean his room every day without it, part of his need to own a personal broom was brought by the fact that sand always accumulated wherever he slept, strange as it may seem, that was his situation, he didn't dislike it, on the contrary, he liked it, as for why, that was hard to explain even to himself, maybe because it was his loyal friend or because it made him feel at ease.

Done with his cleaning routine, he clothed himself, not much remained of the original material of the garbs, his clothes were mostly patches, bringing together colours that shouldn't be brought together, that was to be expected as he didn't know how many generations wore them before him, maybe they were even older than the building, he thought.

This was his routine, at 14 years of age his life was already a hard one, but that was hardly something new in this area of the city, there were many like him, but there was something more about this boy.

For that we must return to 14 years ago.

He was found by the old woman's husband Pampa, when he was still alive, flowing in a basket alongside the sand river at the border of the city. At the time, the old man was fishing like he did all Sundays, no one had ever seen him caught something, but despite that the old man didn't fail to be at his preferred fishing spot every Sunday, he always bragged that it was his lucky spot.

That day the old man returned to the orphanage he and his wife owned with a big catch, but it wasn't any fish, it was a baby with red hair and blue eyes, the old man was beaten by his wife for bringing a new mouth to feed to their already meagre table, later that week he was able to finally catch a big fish, it would have been more accurate to say that the fish jumped into his arms to the surprise of the other fishermen that were always fishing away from him for the fear of being infected by his bad luck, that night he and his wife had fish to eat but he died suffocated by a small bone.