The Chronicle Of Jawata (Compilation Trial Edition)
6. Slave 1000 Gold Pieces (2)
”Where am I?”
Lorr En was wide-eyed, finding himself in a strange room behind a dark and stuffy cage. He saw a group of children in the same cage. I woke up first, apparently, with the kids
While the children of the slaves were astonished to see the action of Taja was considered magical. Taja saw one of them visibly suffering a great deal of pain due to the wide, rotting wounds on the legs. Taja approached the boy and hissed one word ’Eist’ many times. Slowly the severe wound on the child's leg began to dry up and heal even though it was still slightly black.
”Magic!” someone from them involuntarily exclaimed, followed wide in the eyes of other children as a sense of amazement.
”The mechanism is very powerful, my wound instantly healed. It no longer hurts!” the child has just healed.
”Peri?" the whispers of the voices of the children while stealing a glance towards Taja.
"It seems, he is also like us ..” a child says that.
”It's just a figure of speech!” take other turns. Then the children were coiled, shabby, and all dressed, silent during the observation of Taja, Lorr En and Neirra one by one, from the tips of the feet to the hair. Then they talked about more.
”To my knowledge, a fairy creature resembling a stone ... land ... water ...,” one or two children said no nonsense. Their attention was drawn to the unorthodox-faced Neirra.
”He was ..., what?” their rumour rang out to Neirra's ears.
Taja shifted to the side of the children clustered in the corner of the room, then faced them one by one. He touched the forehead of a 10-year-old boy who happened to rest at the front. Although she was a bit scared at first, she gradually calmed down.
Long enough a pair of Taja eyes looked seriously at the boy's eyes. It was getting sharper and stronger to the point that the boy felt his head fill hot and immediately bowed in limp.
”Pusing ...,” his voice sounded raucous while holding his own forehead. Breathing is heavy too.
While Taja also no less limp. He stayed down long enough to catch his breath. The boys had no idea what Taja was doing. Slowly he turned his face forward.
”Kita ... is ... where?" Taja stammered that sentence.
"Who ... those humans?" Taja added, greeted by the confused face of all the kuce children in front of him. Trying to hear Taja's stiff sentence.
"Why ... are they so unfriendly?” More and more people are communicating with these kids. His voice was soft, somewhat broken and paled because he first spoke in the language of people outside of Gunggali.
Lorr En and Neirra were not far behind Taja, much to the astonishment. But they understood what Taja had done.
Taja smiled small, ”That's not against the rules, right?”
A girl, one of the children replied after a long silence.
”You think those bad guys will be friendly towards us? This is a pirate ship and we are being caught,” he said flatly.
”After slaughtering our entourage, they caught us. I had heard that they intended to sell us to a country,” another child chimed in.
”Perompak?”
”What is it?” I don't understand the term the boy said.
”Man sells man?” I don't understand the meaning of the children's answers at all. They looked, back feeling confused because Taja's behavior was considered too innocent.
”We have been more than 10 days in this ship,” added another, most mature among them.
”At least five children have died on the way due to illness without treatment,” another chimed.
”We just resigned, unable to fight. If we fight, we will be killed one by one,” the boy explained.
Look Taja's eyes fell on the last one to speak. He seems to be the youngest child. The logic of the plate between sobs and tears dries for days. His body was very tired, just like the others. Almost every day hunger thirst.
”Peroppers. Bad kind of man!” muttered Taja in his mind.
”Close to me all of you ...,” Taja stretched his arms out toward the children and was immediately welcomed. They crammed together, docked as close as possible to Taja. One two girls voted in Neirra's arms and several others in docked to Lorr En's side.
Slowly Taja whispered shahdu incantations, similar to a lullaby to dismiss the children's fears and anxieties even though he himself was overwhelmed with even greater fear.
”Be calm, you will feel calm if you approach me ..” whispered Taja, dismissing the anxiety of children. He forgot that the spell he spoke would cause unbearable fatigue and drowsiness. One by one the children began to fall asleep.
All of them fell asleep, not least Lorr En and Neirra. Only Taja was awake in the dimly lit of worn-out shells. Hugged the kids. Every now and then he glanced over the ventilation holes of the air that was rusty because it was inedible with age, it looked a reddish outside atmosphere. Sky dimmed. A step of his mind, worried about the unexpected, filled with explosions of anxiety and fear.
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