It's cold, the rainy night wind from outside made the damp cave temperature unbearable for the child whose body only wrapped in worn out clothing. His malnourished body trembled as he clenched his fist and teeth and two tired eyes could be seen on the child's dirty face. One ought to question the reason behind the state he was in.
The sad thing tried his best to survive.
He kept his eyes open no matter how much the desire to rest them begged him.
Since he couldn't afford to, afraid that any stray beast might stumble upon him and any unforeseen dangers. Amusing how the situation seemed, the child wouldn't even get to fend any beast off with that frail body of his.
He miraculously survived until now by feeding himself sorts of grass, bearable to his tongue and bitter water dripped from the cave ceiling that had mixed with bat droppings. For nights. Yet tonight might be the last of this child's struggle. The beat of that small heart changed by the seconds, this was the only far he could manage. He rested those eyes.
⸻●❁●⸻
A small laugh echoed deep within that very same cave. It was a man with bared upper body, what covered him was only a piece of tattered cloth below his torso. Stained jewelries, bracelet around his left shoulder and rings on all ten fingers reminiscent one this figure was of royalties. His long grizzled black hair lengths to his shoulders as they covered his face and fangs which were now bared by a grin.
"The little meat stopped it's breath."
Only now that he muttered some words, he watched the child from when the child first arrived at the cave.
Living here all this time there was nothing he could entertain himself with, until just recently. It amused his great self as he watched it entered here to shelter itself from the heavy rain. Shivered as it entered that day, huddled as of now. Even though breathless.
It cleverly foraged the weeds that grew here, ate any insects that crawled by and crunched its thirst with the dirty water dripped from the stalactites above.
On the second night it seemed to muster a little bit of energy when it attempted to catch the hanged bats for a few times, threw sticks and rocks at the critters. Yet all of that was futile efforts.
On the third night, it stumbled upon a Seridara. A tiny five petals flower which glowed green in the dark. The thing was joyful when it uncovered the flower between the rocks. It was still here, the little thing didn't pluck it out. It arranged the rocks to make a circle around the flower even. He guessed it liked the flower.
On the fourth to the fifth night, it only sat looked at the flower and did nothing else. He didn't know what was going on in its head those nights and on the night of the fifth, this night, it stopped to move.
"No."
He unconsciously muttered that word for no known reason. Why? Did he grew fond of the creature over these past meager nights? The figure wasn't certain in the usual fondness other mortals would found such as love and pity, but he for certain didn't want his sole amusement to be gone.
He stepped slowly towards where the child was and no apparent rush could be seen, his dignity as of royal blood refrained his being from doing so. In those movements, his hand swiftly catched a bat from the ceiling along his walk.
The critter wriggled and screeched with pain in his grasp as he pried open its gallbladder out with his very same hands.
One of the wonders of this land, a unique kind of bats that contained Geliga stones which could evoke the wrath of the sky and invite its strike of lights if one offers them towards the clouds.
He inserted the stone down the mouth of the lifeless child and dragged the body by the arm to where rain pours heavily.
Then streaks of lights could be seen among the clouds accompanied with loud sounds.
The strikes grew into fierce strikes with each passing moments and seemed as if it tried to reach near and near to the earth.
As it happened.
Bang!
It became true and struck near the man's feet. Yet, it didn't even flinch his dignified figure.
"No, you musn't, i want my meat fresh."
That was only the beginning of the wrath of the sky strikes the earth, then after that the second strike landed on the child like a beast hungrily snatched a meal that was given to it. A loud boom followed, the first it struck the body, the body twitched. The second time, life entered the eyes and the third time a scream erupted.
"Enter the cave." The man said to the child he just brought right from the dead.
⸻●❁●⸻
The pitiful thing awake from what was to him a little nap, when he felt a strong feeling of something struck his chest and screamed out a loud voice he never did all his life. Tears flowed as he began to think of his death, unbeknown he had just gone through it.
They found me! "Please, i dont want to die!" he shouted while he wished that they, the bad people he thought got him, still had a bit of sympathy or humanity left in them to not kill him.
"Who's going to kill you, meat?"
The child then heard someone speak to him, an arrogant voice by the tone. Though felt, that someone cared for him, cared for his well-being.
"Who are you?"
"Present yourself inside before you are burnt."
⸻●❁●⸻
The man stared at the child from what appeared to be a throne carved from black rock. His red eyes normally would strike fear on anyone. Yet the child felt strange comfort in them.
"Thank you mister."
"Hm."
He gave a brief respond and due to a child's curiosity, the conversation was easy to be continued by using useless topics spontaneously came to mind.
"Ah mister! your nails are so long, how many months you don't cut it?" the child looked at the man hands and feet, they lengths more than a finger and seemed to be sharp enough to do more than graze someone's flesh if ever happen to touch.
"In a quiet some time." he uninterestedly glanced over his own fingers then glanced back to the child, seemed livelier than before after gained the energy back from all the food he fed.
It look more appetizing now, but i guess it need more time to become plump. A few more days of feeding perhaps? The goats on this mountain are plenty enough.
These were his thoughts, nevertheless they didn't have any real evil meaning, in truth he wished for the child to be healthy again.