Chapter 4

  The varied assortments of masks, made from simple bags used to store grains and other perishables, to those colourful and belonging to old and worn-out clothes, were being donned by the raging mob.

  Feeling safe behind their disguises, protecting their identities, they spared no mercy as their venom was hurled at the two despite everything they had done for them. No thought of praise for either one's brave actions at confronting the beast that had slain their brothers and sisters crossed their minds; only feelings of contempt boiled over and rose to the top of their lungs.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Saikougott said. “What's going on here, everybody? What's all the commotion about? The beast has been slain, and you are all safe now. Why are you so angry?”

  As if poking a hornet's nest or touching an open wound, the crowd erupted and created a wall of anger that hit the king’s ears all at once.

  “Saved us?” yelled one of the villagers. “Your brilliant idea of lighting the beast on fire did nothing to stop its rampage through our dear village! You only made it worse by having the flames spread out and torch our homes,” the villager pointed behind him. “Even now, those with the power to do anything are battling against the raging infernos spreading to our beloved homes. What do you have to say for yourself now, oh great child king of ours?”

  He didn’t need to add the word child.

  Saikougott was at a loss for words examing the plumes of smoke rising from behind the mob, seeing the bright lights flicker in the distance as the sounds of wood creaking echoed off into the distance.

  “OK, wait! Hold on just a moment! I was only trying to help all of you. As your king, I saw you all in great danger and risked my own life to help you. “

  “Help?” said another villager, chuckling to himself before he frowned again. “How did you help exactly? Villagers were burned alive or crushed under the falling debris of the collapsing houses, thanks to you! We'd have had a better chance of surviving had you stayed behind in that palace of yours. Away from everyone else. “

  The king had no way to refute this, seeing the combined efforts of his people hard at work trying to expunge the flames that had stopped spreading but were still consuming everything they had worked hard over the course of years to build. Still, he knew he had to explain himself.

  “My subjects, I believe you judge me too poorly in your rattled states. There were no other alternatives that I could have thought of that would damage the beast. Look at yourselves!” he asked, pointing at the crowd in front of him. “I see far fewer of your numbers than before my plan was hatched. That means some of you got away safe and sound. “

  “And many more of our numbers would have survived if not for you, we had precautions in place should such an unfortunate catastrophe set foot in our village. Precautions that you would have known if you were still truly our king!”

  Saikougott’s words were stuck in his throat as that last line was uttered. Did he really just say what he thought he said? The world froze for the split second as that phrase echoed back and forth in his mind like the echo of a hollowed-out cave.

  “What did you just say?” Saikougott stuttered. "I am your king. I tried to save you all. This is my divine duty as your king that I swore to uphold, and this is how you—“

  “Our king is strong and mighty! If he were here with us now, then he would have made fodder of this creature that lies on the ground before us, “he pointed to the corpse of the dead asurak. “You've allowed our homes and our livelihoods to be taken away from us, shadow.”

  Saikougott gulped as he tried to breathe. “Look, be angry with me. I understand that you are all dealing with a lot. But I would appreciate it very much if you showed you’re respects to my friend here for saving us all today,” he said, gesturing to Lyaikomi to his side, who was alert for anything being thrown at the two.

  At the suggestion of giving thanks to his friend, the crowds' clamor crescendoed to its highest at the thought of stooping so low after everything they had done.

  “You want us to give thanks to that?” said a woman. “Would you also want us to give thanks to the chickens and pigs that feed our stomachs. “

  “Hey!” Saikougott yelled. “Don't talk about my friend like that! She was able to take that thing down when—”

  “You call her your friend? No king of ours would ever acquaint himself with one of the blemished,” one villager said.

  “She's not a true Devakian. She does not possess what we have nor will she ever, “said another.

  “She is no different than the scale beast!”

  “monster!”

  “Freak!”

  “When is the last harvest?”

  “It will never come!”

  “Kill her!”

  “We’re never leaving this island!”

  “Our birthrights will never be ours!”

  “He’ll never come back!”

  “The blemished must die like the rest!”

  “Go back to your Palace, shadow!”

  “Yes!”

  “Stay away from us!”

  “False king!”

  “Child!”

  “Give us back the old one!”

  “Shadow!”

  “Shadow!”

  “Shadow!”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Saikougott's ears rang with the cries assaulting him from all sides from the hidden figures, till they blended into one voice. One being. A being whose presence towered over him and his world, overshadowing everything any Asurak that could have shown itself to him right now. And with hatred that would make even the strongest warriors falter and wish to never fight again.

  Saikougott tried his best to calm the crowd, but his voice was nothing but a wind chime against the typhoon blowing all around him. Try as he might, he could not get a single word through to his people. Looking at the formless mob rant off and badmouth them with no Fear of punishment from him, he tried to keep it together. To keep the mask that he worked so hard to build intact, as it was slowly crumbling and turning into dust in the wind.

  At a loss for words, Saikougott just stopped reasoning. Stopped thinking as soon as a shine began to grow in his eyes. Tears began to pool in the corners of his eyes as he was on the brink of crying and breaking down in front of everyone.

  He just wanted to help.

  Lyaikomi, who had been making sure no one got near or threw anything at herself or her friend, was beginning to lose patience with the crowd. Not because their words were cutting through her, for her time spent in this place, she had grown all but numb to it, but because she took one glance behind her and did not like what she saw.

  Examining the building anguish forming in his eyes as his lips trembled, Lyaikomi knew that they had overstayed their welcome and had to go. To get away from everything and save what little of his heart was still intact.

  But she wasn’t going to leave. No, not quite yet. For just as her smaller friend had come here for something. She realized that she, too, had to do something before she could leave.

  Before the dam within him could be torn down, He felt arms wrap around him. Warm arms that enveloped him and silenced the voices in an instant as one took center stage amongst everyone.

  Lyaikomi laughed.

  The crowd’s clamour went silent as they saw Lyaikomi laughing come out of nowhere. On and on she would go, as though she would soon suffocate from not taking a breath.

  Confused as to what Lyaikomi was laughing so hard at, Saikougott wiggled inside of Lyaikomi’s arms to get a better look at his friend.

  “Uh, Aiko? What are you laughing at so hard?” He asked.

  Lyaikomi’s eyes gleamed with mischief as she glanced over at the crowd. “Oh, I’m just laughing at everyone putting all their failures on both of us.

  Even with their eyes obstructed from the small gaps in their makeshift masks, Saikougott and Lyaikomi could clearly see their eyes bulge out from their sockets at the audacity of her words. In no time at all, their clamor had moved away from the king and aimed directly at the girl instead.

  “What did you say! How dare you talk to us like that, damn blemish!”

  “I said you're all weak and pathetic for piling your mistakes onto our shoulders. And here I thought that this land was full of almighty, all-powerful beings called Devakians. I would have thought that you all would be oh so great at defending yourselves, but apparently, I was mistaken. Silly me, I guess it was too much to expect for you all to take care of yourselves and deal with your own problems. Instead, it took a small devakian child and a so-called worthless blemish such as myself to save your hide.”

  “Watch your mouth, girl! Know your place. “

  “Don't act so high and mighty because we weakened the beast for you. You only got lucky. “

  “If you were the first one to face that thing, then you wouldn't be so quick to talk foolishly to us.”

  “You think you're better than us?”

  At the last comment, Lyaikomi felt a smirk creeping on her lips. “Oh no, I don't think I'm better than you people.” She paused. “ I know that I'm better than you people!” she laughed.

  The crowd's anger boiled over, and the restraints that held them back from wanting to avoid the King's ire were beginning to run empty.

  “Don’t toy with us, girl!”

  “If not for the king's and queen’s grace, you would be dead immediately!”

  “Don’t think you could stand shoulder to shoulder with us!”

  “If Raisikio or the shadow even ordained it, you would be dead within moments!”

  “And no one would weep for you.”

  “I say we do it! The shadow can’t say anything!”

  “Let’s get her!”

  The crowd rushed over towards Lyaikomi, only to trip and stagger away a few seconds later, the moment instincts kicked in. Upon meeting her eyes, visions of what would transpire flooded their collective minds if they’d taken a few steps further.

  In their visions, they saw severed limbs, shattered skulls, caved-in torsos, and far worse play out, not as a possibility, but as a certain outcome.

  " You wish to fight me?” Lyaikomi said, snickering as she strode towards the crowd.

  The so-called warriors in the mob shot back to their feet, nearly tripping over themselves on the gravelly floor as they rushed back with the others, who also started huddling together and stepping back as she approached.

  “I just got done killing a 10-ton creature with my bare hands that made you all look like a bunch of blood spillers. Do you really want to test me right now?” she said, jabbing her fingers into the air for emphasis. “And with just this group here?” she pointed at the group consisting of 30-40 villagers. “You’ll need more than that if you want me to worry. I think you’ve all heard the stories.”

  Lyaikomi took a stance, readying herself as she did for the asurak, viewing the upcoming challenge as no different.

  “Alright, One-on-one or all at once. Let’s go.”

  Despite having a hard time swallowing everything the petulant girl was throwing out. For as much as they all wanted to tear that grin off her face, they knew they would have had a better chance dealing with the Asurak before she arrived. Sensing the ravine between them and the desire of the girl who would like nothing more than for them to act, they stood down, hating themselves that now even their pride has been burned away on top of everything else.

  Lyaikomi, lowering her hands, giggled before turning back to Saikougott. “Thought so.”

  Sensing killing intent from behind her as one woman raised her hands and formed a crystal shard around the tips of her fingers, Lyaikomi blitzed towards Saikougott and slung them over her back into a piggyback ride.

  Hesitating at the moment she pointed at the King's back, the rest of the crowd tackled the woman to the ground to make sure she couldn't strike even if she had planned to. Not wanting to risk their entire village being destroyed by the Queen's hands if word got out that the king was harmed in any way.

  “Ha! I saw that coming! Better try harder next time, cowards! Go get those giant bluefin tunas delivered to the city before it gets dark, when you're done cleaning up!” Lyaikomi laughs, bolting towards the green foliage of the forest entrance, laughing hysterically as the outraged cries began to fade the deeper in both of them had gotten.

  “Damn, we sure got them, didn't we, Saikougott?” she asked, glancing back at Saikougott clinging to her back.

  “Aiko, why did you say all of those words? You know they were already mad. You didn’t have to do that for me. “Saikougott muttered

  “No, fuck them!”

  Saikougott opened his eyes.

  “No, seriously. How dare they talk to you like that after you went out of your way to help them? Don't listen to them. When I was running towards here, I counted how many villagers came this way and got an overhead view of the village before I spotted you. You're right, Saikougott, if you hadn't stepped in, then more people would have died than they already had.”

  Saikougott couldn't believe what he was hearing. Did he actually help people? He asked his friend.

  “Absolutely! As reckless as you were, if you hadn't stepped in to do something about that beast, then people wouldn’t have had enough time to evacuate when they had the chance. Some of them may have been caught in the fire and the rubble, but far more escaped with their lives than the mob behind us realizes. As far as I'm concerned, you did your job perfectly, little one. Don't let them tell you otherwise. You're a better king than they give you credit for.”

  Saikougott cracked a grin at his friend's words. “You're not just saying this to make me feel better?”

  “Of course not. Although I’m not sure if I’d call you brave. Foolish perhaps?” She grinned. “But then again, that’s still a step above what everyone in that mob was at least.”

  The tears that had threatened to spill in front of the angry mob had finally started to leak, not in shame but in relief that someone thought of him in a positive light.

  “Thank you,” he said to Lyaikomi, smiling as his arms tightened around his only friend.

  “Anytime,” she smiled, racing through the canopy floor, light filtering through down on them.

  As Lyaikomi ran through the thick foliage, Saikougott finally let his mind unwind and rested his chin on Lyaikomi's shoulder. Enjoying the ride and letting himself relax in the knowledge that at least one person had acknowledged him today.

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