Emptiness

Chapter 2(b)

Solum couldn’t help but feel happier as the seconds passed, because he was home now. Solum and Iri’s little home was the most beautiful home in the entire Vabeo, deep in the forest, where none could reach them easily except for the animals residing in the woods.

Solum picked up the bag he had brought and kept it on the crudely crafted wooden table. Everything inside here of their home was made by them.

Solum put the nightflowers in a corner, knowing it will provide light for them as long as they are not wilted. But they will only wilt in sunlight, so this night was safe.

Solum put the plates and candles he had managed to buy the previous month with him working in the garden of the town people, one of the many jobs given to the lowlifes because of how risky it was.

If their gardens had bloches- colonizing ant-like creatures that suck your blood or to hunt rats in their gardens, the town people would give these kinds of works for them. None of the people of their class did jobs like this, so they called lowlifes to do the work, and they only had to pay half, since they were lowlifes and they didn’t have the right to complain. But some kind people did give their full p*****t, and he had gotten lucky with one such family.

And Solum had only given half of it to his mother, saying, they only gave this much, and his mother wasn’t suspicious as this was what they usually get.

Solum was the only one brave enough to do this job in their Garbage, as many didn’t want to get their blood sucked.

Stupid people! This was why they had to study, as it was mentioned in the books that Bloches were afraid of fire. He takes advantage of that and earns money this way whenever a job like this comes.

He used the rest of his money to buy a set of plate, a jug to fill water, and some candles, in case Iri runs out of nightflowers. There will be a job like this next month, and Solum hoped he would get paid like this. This way, he can buy things for his Iri.

He had kept these things hidden from his mother and had managed to sneak them away with him when he escaped his house.

If he were able to earn before, he would have brought these kinds of things way early, but none gave any kind of jobs to a child. He was short for his age but somehow managed to get jobs that gave him money only a year back, as none was ready to take on risky jobs like that.

Next time, he will buy Iri some cooking utensils and blankets. He didn’t want Iri to eat fruits and grilled meat all the time. He wanted him to have food like normal humans. He wanted Iri to have everything, and for that, Solum had to earn a lot.

The small log house had only two furniture. One, a small wooden table, if you would call that a table, and two, a cot in the corner with a bed. It wasn’t a bed per se but a blanket stuffed with feathers and whatever Solum could find to fill the space inside and stitch it the best he could with the sewing skills he had.

Solum was from a poor family, not that anyone of their Garbage was rich or anything. But he was from a family who didn’t have the head of the family, only a mother looking after her children. So, they were poorer than the people of their class, lowlifes. That was why Solum learned many things at this young age, because they could not afford any luxuries like new clothes or something so simple which was easily available for ordinary people.

So, Solum had to learn quickly as soon as possible to not only know but skillfully do things from knitting clothes to plumbing work.

Because none would come into lowlife’s garbage place, let alone do things for them. Solum didn’t know if he should feel angry about the injustice happening to people of his class or feel lucky that he didn’t belong to the class even below than the lowlife class, the nameless.

The children who were all abandoned by their parents, the people punished by the law to live as nameless, and the people who were born with a creature like features and the one standing in front of him was the one belonging to a class worse than the nameless class.

Look at him, look at his Iri…

His bright blue and red heterochromatic eyes shone bright with joy and content just because Solum had come to visit him and that he had brought whatever he could steal from the Garbage.

Solum didn’t steal much from the lowlifes living along with him in the Garbage, even though they were cruel to him because he knew how difficult it was for lowlifes to have anything and to earn some money so that they could settle for life in the village instead of the garbage.

Any lowlife can earn a last name and make their family and their future generation escape from the taunts and cruel life of being lowlifes only if they earn enough money for registration.

And Solum knew that even if any of the lowlifes worked hard all through their life, they would never earn that much money for registration. In fact, it was a sadistic taunt done by upper-class people to make them run around after cash.

Solum knew it just as much as everybody in the garbage does. But that didn’t stop them from trying to become someone with a last name.

Solum shook his head so that he could leave depressing thoughts away.

But looking at Iri, Solum cannot help but get more into depressing thoughts.

Iri grabbed his hands and made Solum to touch his horns.

“Look at them, Solum. How grown they have become.”

“Yes, Iri. It’s really beautiful to look at.”

Iri beamed at him in pride, not knowing the harsh reality and history behind it.

Iri was a name given by Solum to the person in front of him.

Iri belonged to a class that was abused by the entire society, even worse than the majority of nameless classes.

The class of Horns.

Every person had the last name as Horns in that class, to indicate the horns they had in their head.

Horns people were not accepted by the society and were feared and killed everywhere, not because of the horns but the powers they held in their horns.

Every Horns people have their own unique power, but there is a common power they share, that is Mard – Mind accessing, reading and destructing. Horns people can read anyone’s mind and destroy their memories or alter them into something else.

That was why they were the most feared and also on the verge of going extinct because they were the class that was most murdered for power or to avoid them getting into society.

And looking at Iri with his beautiful horns, Solum didn’t feel anything but joy and pride at him. Solum had found Iri in the forest one day when he was forced out of his home by his mother and had stayed in the forest for days. That was when he found Iri, bleeding too much under a bush, four years back.

Solum had stolen things for the first time that day from the upper-class people who had Egav using every trick in his pockets for a medical book from their library.

Solum was the only one who knew how to read and study because he had wanted to learn even if he would be punished, so he had secretly listened to many of the classes taught by the teacher even when he was a child, risked getting caught and beaten by his mother.

That had come in use, sneaking into the school and stealing a library book to understand what sort of herbs, in general, was used to heal a person.

So, with that knowledge, Solum had stayed near Iri for over a month, trying to heal him as best as possible.

And when Iri finally was strong enough, Solum had to head back. No matter how his family was, Solum had a family, and he could not turn away from his responsibilities. And that was years back.

Solum knew that Iri wasn’t happy with his decision of leaving him in the forest, but what could he do other than that? He cannot take Iri to the village, for they will call the officials and kill him. Nor can Solum stay here with Iri for months because eventually, his family will report to the head of Garbage to find him.

He didn’t want to risk Iri’s life.

Solum touched the horns, chuckling at the color of it.

Iri had a blue right eye and a red left eye, and the horns were the exact opposite. The red horn was on his right and a blue horn on his left.

Solum withdrew his hand from Iri’s horn quickly, not alerting Iri, though. Because he didn’t want Iri to catch even a glimpse of what Solum goes through every day.

If Iri knew even half of the torture he goes through in his life, Iri would never agree to stay in the forest and would want Solum to be with him. But it was not possible.

Maybe in a few years, when his family was independent without him and his mother well settled, he would fake something like going to some other Garbage village to look for work and come live with Iri. He would not leave him alone like this.

Solum knew that Iri would not like to stay here forever, being hidden in this forest. Just days before, Solum had been thinking about how it wasn’t even a life to live so inferior to everyone in fear of being beaten to death. Yet, here he was, doing the same thing to Iri, keeping him hidden from the world.

No….

He cannot take Iri out of the forest now. Maybe in a few years, they both can disappear together and live happily in a small hut, all for themselves, not being afraid of anyone.

Solum wanted to wait for that day when everything would be alright, in where they could live the way they wanted without being bothered by anyone.

Till then, they had to survive….

There was a rustle, and immediately, Solum took the small knife from his pocket and pushed Iri behind him. Iri’s fingers gripped the back of his shirt in fear.

Even if Iri doesn’t remember the earlier days of his life, there was fear ingrained in him which showed Solum of how painful his past must have been.

Solum might not have any Egav or any inherited power from his family. He was a plain human and didn’t matter much when it came to the world. He wasn’t anything but an ant in front of the grand things.

But that doesn’t mean Solum won’t give his all in protecting his friend, Iri.

Solum’s grip on his small knife tightened when the door of this small house opened, wondering who would come at this time.

And in came a boy with caramel hair and brown eyes, with his hands tied against his head, not at all fazed being at the end of Solum’s knifepoint.

Solum couldn’t help but get irritated at the grin directed at him.

Such a bastard!

“Oo... Scary..”

Solum withdrew his knife and kept it in his pocket again while Iri jumped at the newcomer and laughed when he twirled Iri just like Solum did.

Solum harrumphed, not liking the way Iri went to that idiotic boy.

“Will you stop calling me an i***t, Sol?”

Solum turned his head away from him, rolling his eyes, not at all surprised with the way the boy knew his thoughts.

“I am sorry, ok? I couldn’t come and visit Iri, Solum.”

Solum knew that boy hadn’t come and visit Iri with the way he found out there was nothing new in this house when he glanced at it early. Solum put the knife back in his packet and tied his hands against his chest, irritated at the one in front of him.

“It was not as if you were any different. You also didn’t come. Why are you blaming me alone, Sol?”

Solum glared at him and charged in with the intention to whack his head, but Iri jumped on them both, and they fell on the ground, laughing aloud. Solum let go of the pretense and laughed with them.

“You didn’t change one bit, Mico.”

“You as well, Sol.”

The three of them got up and hugged, huddling together, feeling at home.

Mico was his friend, just like Iri. The three of them were best of the friends and got together every once in a while.

Solum met Mico after a year, since he rescued Iri in this very forest. At first, he had been afraid and didn’t trust Mico with Iri when he found Solum and Iri playing near the pond. But over days, they had managed to become friends, and he trusted Mico to look after Iri when Solum could not be with Iri.

Mico was from a town on the other side of the forest. He didn’t belong to garbage as Solum did, nor was he like Iri. Mico’s father had a job in the military as a chef, and he had lost his mother, so most of the time, Mico was alone at home, and the servants came only twice a week. Mico was the same age as Solum and went into the forest to kill boredom.

Since then, Mico has been trying to sneak away food for Iri. He didn’t want to steal things from his home as the servants would get suspicious as they took care of all the things in the house. So, he would always bring a lot of food for Iri. For that, Solum was grateful, for he could not bring much food to Iri.

This time he brought a bag with him.

“Look at what all I’ve brought you, Iri.”

Iri went over the bag to look over the things Mico had brought.

Solum questioned Mico with his eyes.

“Nothing much. I got some money from my father and relatives for my birthday last month. So, I decided to spend some of it to buy blankets and clothes for Iri.”

Solum felt grateful for meeting Mico, as it would be impossible to take care of Iri all alone. It might not be much for Mico, but it was everything for Iri and Solum. Despite being an upper-class human, Mico had kindness and mingled with them. Mico was a great person.

Solum hugged Mico and watched over Iri rampaging through the bag Mico brought, making him smile at his childlike enthusiasm and innocence. He hoped to protect it.

And Mico’s hand hugging him back made him feel at peace that they both would protect Iri. Solum wished Mico would accompany them when he and Iri leave this forest and live somewhere else over the years, but it would be selfish of Solum to ask for Mico to leave his family and live his life as an outcast.

He wished he could stay with Mico and Iri forever…

Mico pulled him closer in the hug, and Iri joined them with a pout for being left out. Solum and Mico hugged Iri, laughing together.

Solum sat on the floor, urging them to sit with him and explained about Vabeo and the star Mercos along with the power level in Egav and the crazy story the teacher fed to his students when Solum sneaked into knowing about what he was teaching, making Iri and Mico laugh.

They usually met at the full moon of either Della or Niten, and it was nowhere enough. Three of them didn’t want to part as they felt at home right here in the dangerous forest where they were ready to face the predator animals but didn’t want to face the humans in Vabeo.