CHAPTER 1:
Little Child Running Wild
For three hundred years there was a shakan who would secretly feed children in the farmland village of Arbon. Dragging her cane across the dirt, she’d walk to the closest stool for a seat bringing fruit, baked fish, fresh bread, and gum made from her candy garden.
All the children recognized her by the large rich medallion she wore around her neck. It had wooden links studded with sapphire and gold. It was in the shape of three serpents. One serpent had emerald in its mouth, shining as bright as the red sun. One day a wandering ten-year-old spotted the medallion on the shakan’s neck and became mesmerized by its beauty. She would have done anything to get her hands on it. Her family was extremely poor. She had planned to steal it from the shakan while she was off guard selling fruit to other children. By time the child snuck her way toward the shakan to snatch the necklace, it was too late...the shakan caught her red handed.
“Little one, why do you want to steal from me? All you have to do is ask!” she scolded.
Frozen with her heart thumping out her chest, the child replied, “My f-f-family n-needs me. We need the ions (money)”, she said shakingly. The child was thin with amber skin, matted purple hair, and dry lips covering her small, jagged teeth. Twirling her in a circle, the shakan quickly noticed her tattered clothing and keloidal body; rubbing her fingers across each scar like a blind man reading braille. The childs feet became callused because she wore no shoes. Staring deeply into the childs eyes, the shakan smiled.
“Here - you take this!' Throwing a lumpy drawstring bag into her arms. Nails pact with dirt in her nailbeds and eyers murky yellow, the shakan glanced over her head-to-toe. "The eyes are the windows of the soul and do not lie!" she says vigorously. The shakan had seen this spark before. The power of prophecy flickering in darkness. She was unsure if the child was aware of what her soul foretold.
magic eye
Her innocence is as bliss as a spring flower, she said to herself. The little girl remained stiff as her knees and teeth clattered together uncontrollably. With each nervous breath, her small chest expanded more and more. Waving goodbye to the little girl, she cracked a crooked smile.
“You go on home now. I’ll see you again...very soon.”
Turning away, the child ran as fast as she could home without looking back.
After arriving home, she bee lined straight to her room. Winded by the long run, she clenched her chest tightly. Both her lungs were on fire. Her legs had red scratches and dead bugs were smeared across her forehead. Running three miles through the burning savannah into the wet forest will do that to you. Cleaning her face off and drinking some water, she opened the bag given to her by the shakan. A surprise came over her.
No. No way! She screamed with excitement. With a patois accent, her father yelled out from the other room. “Vee keep it down in there! Hold yuh water in ya mout!” He was resting after finishing all the hard work he did last night.
“Sorry Baba!” she replied while squealing in excitement. There they were scrumptiously spread out on a quilt in the middle of the floor. Inside the bag were ten apples, ten oranges, five sweetsops, a pound of watercress, spinach, muricata and a few solid ions. Vee shook the bag hard one last time.
CLANK – CLANK
A heavy metal object hit the ground sending an echo through the room. If she did not move her foot in time, all five toes would have been crushed by the weight of whatever fell. She could not believe her eyes. It was the large glowing medallion she saw on the neck of the shakan earlier that day. It sparkled brighter than the yellow stars amongst the horizon.
She picked it up and wiped it off with a dirty rag. Her face stretched from ear to ear. She thought about all the candy and food she could barter for in return for the rich medallion. In that moment she knew it would become the end of her suffering for her family. Laying on her back looking toward the roof, she fiddled with it, rubbing it between her nimble fingers. Til’ suddenly, a click and popping noise came from inside the medallion.
Startled, she quickly sat up and slowly opened it up. It looked like the mouth of a Venus fly trap. Inside of it was a small object. A tan drawstring pouch made of goat skin with small pieces of paper folded inside. In the corner of each piece of paper there was a number labeled next to a letter. Each number must be matched with each letter, she said methodically to herself. Like a puzzle, she frantically put them in numerical order and realized small passages with symbols written on them. The passages were too small to read to the naked eye, so she snuck into her father's room and grabbed his magnifying glass.
He would use it on mini expeditions in Arbon to study poisonous insects under rocks. That always creeped her out and so she never really went into his room much because of this. But this time it was different. Starting from one piece of paper to the next, she began to read each passage out loud.
“Beneath the horizons lurked an empire full of imbalance and suffering. It waited in its cocoon for a chance to rise and take its rightful place alongside destiny herself. Somehow, no one saw this coming... and to be fair, neither did we. We didn't have a choice. The celestial lights, though innocent, only killed us faster. So, we embraced darkness and darkness became our only ally left. We decided to go back to the beginning to where it all started. Before we all made the final decision to give “death” a name...”
Before death had a name? she whispered. Baba had abruptly entered her room seconds later, bussing the door wide open.
“Vee, I got some foods are yuh hung--” He took a long pause and noticed she sat there quietly fiddling her hands behind her back. “What are yuh looking at luv?” Vee just looked up at him with an awkward smile and shook her head. He stood a few feet from her bed with his arms folded over his burly chest. His large hands squeezed both biceps, facing her with a stone-cold stare. “What do yuh have behind yuh back? And yuh betta nuh lie yuh undastand.” He slowly walked toward her with all six foot five of his weight pressed into each step. Her eyes slowly shifted downward. Whatever was behind her back magically made it toward his hands within seconds. The trinket swung like a pendulum right into the bridge of his fingertips. His eyes became bewitched by its sparkling spell.
“I’m sorry Baba. It was a gift from a scary woman...”
“A woman? I thought I told yuh not to chat wit strangers! Did you steal this necklace?” She sat there quietly not saying a word. “Dammit answer me! Did you steal this?!” Her lips twitched to the side and her eyes lowered in shame. He sucked his teeth and cut his eyes in disappointment. He suspiciously looked around the room and noticed all the pieces of paper scattered across the floor. He hated messes and became disgusted by disorder. “ Yah steal and then don’t clean yuh room? Unacceptable. Just un-accept-able.” One piece of paper snakingly made it underneath his bare foot. Squinting with both eyes, he lifted his foot and ripped it from his heel like velcro, then began reading it aloud.
“A large star froze and exploded to oblivion, causing crystals of light to take shape into 11 shards. Those shards, now separated, begin to spread throughout the cosmic womb of triple darkness....They became the builders of what is known as the Kore’N--”
“What is this fairytale nonsense, Vee? How did you find thi--” She cut him off and jumped to her feet grabbing the other pieces.
“Baba, I think this is a treasure story. We could be rich and wi nuh haffi starve any longer!” Skepticism swept his face as one brow rose above the other. “Just keep reading Baba. I promise to clean my room and yours too...please.” The begging of his princess softened the stern heart in his chest.
“Okay,” he said laughingly. “Com'ere.” As he sat against the red clay wall, he rested his head and folded a clean white towel beneath the base of his neck. The dawn of the red sun pierced through the blinds onto his sweating caramel face and peppered goatee. Vee sat beside him resting her head on the side of his face, waiting for his lips to open and finish the story. And as promised, he did just that.
“As eons passed, planets started to crystallize. Each planet, known as ‘Horizons’, differed in degree from one another. Stars, galaxies, and multi-dimensional lifeforms of the omniverse started to appear simultaneously amongst the Horizons. Life was a baby. A pure seeed crying out for expansion and infinite possibilit--
“Baba am I your baby?” she asked interuptedly. Looking up at her hair he realized it was matted and undone. He quickly got up to his feet, grabbed the rat tail comb off her bed and started picking away. A snap, crackle and pop noise came about with each stroke as he combed each section of her scalp into even parts. The brown of the walls reflected into her purple hair.
Her eyes still looked up at him waiting for an answer.
“Good times should be celebrated, and bad times give you the wisdom you need. Do you understand Vishta...”
To her it was out of the ordinary for him to say something like that so randomly. His face had that of a man who is seeing something for the last time. Vishta could never understand why he said it or what compelled him to say it in that very moment. But at the time, she was so young. She dared not to question Baba and held onto his every word. Looking up at him with wide eyes and a smile, she shook her head and hugged him tightly.
“Yuh more than that luv. Yuh are mi heart inna human form," he answered. She glowed at the sound of a loving father, and he glowed in reflection of his beautiful daughter. “Now let mi finish the story, ok?” She quickly agreed.
-End of Chapter One-
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