Chapter 2 – The Four Slaves of the City of Storms (2)

Days passed. Shig took the piece of metal from Leiko and bent it to shape a totem. Shig asked Leiko to bring him twenty scraps of metal and any kind of gem. Shig was a Cornus. He belongs to the race of ‘Horn’ people that worships the Totem God Malfuso Dol Foranto Ig. In human tongue, the Cornus God was simply called Malfuso of the Horn. He was the war god of the Horn people. Their wise and strong God that bestows them power in their time of need.

The ‘totem’ that Shig was making allowed him to summon the blessing of Malfuso that would allow him to move faster and possessed the strength of a bull, as long as dawn was two hours near and that there should be three planets in the sky shining brightly from the distance. Shig persuaded Leiko to take the risk and steal the scraps of metal. Shig was strong enough to bend the scrap metal and form it to the shape of his God.

“Malfuso...”

“My people’s God, Our True Savior, the Cornus’s Guiding Light. He should help us escape from this place.”

“Will this be truly enough?” said Leiko with worry. “The owner had situated riflemen on the rooftop. There are three lancers and armed officers patrolling the courtyard and the exit.”

“It should be. Or is your God fickle?”

Leiko frowned. The Goddess of the Cattus people, Neleko have given her people the blessing of the moonlight and the grace of the cat. Born with the features of a cat, the Cattus people can ask for the blessing of their God as long as the conditions are right. The conditions are that the moon should be up. And that there should be two twinkling stars and the two moons should had three whiskers; a sign of Neleko's presence

Such conditions are unfair. But luckily the condition will be met at the same time that the totem will be completed. As long as they have the totem and the blessing of the Goddess Neleko, they might escape from the mansion and hide in the back alleys of the city of storms until they get enough coins to travel out of the desert city and head back to the City of Chalampom, situated near the sea of Gigantes Ocean.

“It will. Neleko has proven herself to us. I should worry about that totem of yours working, Shig.”

“It will work. If not then we will miss the chance to escape. I rather not stay in this dirt-ridden room any longer.”

“I share the sentiment,” said Leiko. “And...You better hide that totem for now Shig.”

“Is he here?”

“That should be him...” Leiko’s brows narrowed as she looks at the two guards carrying Joshua. The deprived man’s head was bloody and there were traces of semen on his thighs. The guards clearly had enough of his deranged face, so they threw him into the room, his face smacking heavily on the stone floor.

“Joshua...Are you okay?”

Kioko, Leiko’s younger sister approached Joshua. She patted his head and looked at him worriedly. They became friends after spending times playing in the room. Whenever Shig or Leiko was getting played with or used like stools or chairs for the degenerate masters of the mansion. He would play with the little girl. Distracting her from the cruel truth behind that door, where man’s cruel and vile nature can be truly seen.

“He got used by the Dolce of Alva huh.”

“Most men would fawn over that drill-like haired bitch. Too bad they do not know the true colors of that lady with a fetish for having her asshole poke.”

Shig smiled wearily, he looked at the wounds that Joshua obtained. “Looks like that sadist truly had her way to this human, look, she didn’t even bother to remove the choker on him.”

“And his full of bite marks too, down on the neck and down to his navel. I’ll never understand humans and their fetishes.”

“Are you fine Joshua?” Shig kneeled near Joshua and patted his cheek. Kioko looked at Shig with doll-like eyes and asked, “Is Joshua fine Uncle Shig?”

“He should be little lass. Give him some space will you?”

“Okay.”

Obediently, she started to her feet and went to where Leiko was. Shig tapped Joshua’s cheek again. This time it made Joshua awake. He looked at Shig and nodded his head. Like usual, he crawled to his spot, grab his ragged blanket and covered his body with it. Shig took some of the bread left behind by the guards and threw it towards Joshua. He took the bread. He ate half of the bread before offering it to Kioko. Leiko made a look of confusion as she watches Kioko take the bread and sit near the deprived man.

“A man with a soft heart, something rare these days.”

“Foreign he is...Kioko likes him.”

“A rarity isn’t it?”

“Kioko knows how to stay away from people. She has this talent of seeing through people lies. He is a good person or a good liar.”

“Still can’t trust the human, Leiko?”

“I can’t. Not after all of this. Having your chastity stolen, played like a toy, and then fed me pills that ruin my womb for their own pleasure. I’ve been tainted and in our tribe’s law, I should be thrown down to pit for mating with male of another race. I am destined to be alone for the rest of my years. And you expect me to open up to a human just because he is nice to my little sister?”

Shig could not find any good words to reply. He left Leiko alone and watch on the corner of the room with his burly arms crossed. There was a closed window covered with metal bars inside the room. Shig’s eyes pointed there as he prays to his God. Although, his God was that of War, but it was also a God of the Wise.

To Shig, all beings had their sliver of Evil. He had witness companions die before him. Friends killed out of evil and out of greed. Maybe Shig had become jaded from all of his travels. Or was it the roads Shig traveled that made him see things calmer?

“O my Wise and Mighty God, may you guide us in our escape.”

And so he prayed...that such mental fortitude would stay.