Chapter 13 - This can't be happening

[Human Dialect] "So, apparently we’re called ‘Earthborn’ here,” said Naomi to Carol, Aiko, Tanner and Itunu. “Have you heard about this before?”

Laughing and finishing up his lunch, Itunu slapped Naomi on the back causing her to cough up the water she was trying to swallow. “[Human dialect] Where have you been Naomi? It was brought up in that message from the All Spirit, remember? The message talking about all of this being a game? It’s even in our status pages if you take a gander.”

Naomi looked flustered and turned to Carol, switching dialects from the native human tongue to English. [English Dialect] "I guess I’d forgotten. Did you know about this? About how we’re from what they call the fourteenth planet?”

Carol continued petting Teddy like a good human slave, as the dog gave little growling noises whenever she stopped to put her in her place. “Oh yes. We are also supposed to wield unnatural magic powers to a much greater extent than the locals do too!”

They all laughed at that, and between bites of an apple Tanner spoke out his own thoughts. “You know, it wouldn’t even phase me if that were true after all the shit we’ve been through. We are on a completely different planet after all, or a simulation. If it is a simulation then color me impressed.”

“I haven’t seen any signs of magic whatsoever,” insisted Carol adamantly, “And I highly doubt I will.”

Itunu looked deep in thought, looking down the long brown robe he wore and to the leather sandals of his feet. “If there was any truth to these stories of Earthborn though… we might have a chance of finding other people here that can relate to us and tell us what’s going on. Think about it… the All Spirit’s message talked about millions of us arriving here. We may not have seen any others like us yet, but what if it’s true? The monks have said that Earthborn have appeared randomly throughout the centuries, but they haven’t seen any themselves before us. They say we have periods of time that we’re immortal, and it matches up with the permanence cycle that pop up message talked about four months ago.”

Aiko turned to Carol with outstretched arms, “Can I hold Teddy!?”

Smiling sweetly, Carol handed the small, slender animal over to Aiko who gently stroked his head as he curled up in her arms.

“He’s beginning to like you more than he likes Tanner!” laughed Carol. “But he will always like me the most, of course! Where are Conner and Aron?”

Itunu shrugged indifferently. “Probably skipping chores again. They’re fed and clothed with a roof over their head and they don’t do anything in return. Selfish spoiled brats, the both of them.”

“Does that surprise you?” asked Naomi, genuinely curious. “It doesn’t surprise me at all.”

Carol sat silently for a moment, then took Teddy in her arms with determination in her eyes. “I’m going to go find them. I’ll try talking them into actually helping out around here, it would really mean a lot to the monks if they tried.”

Sitting back lazily, Tanner just rolled his eyes at the idea of those two twirps doing anything other than complain. Tapping his foot against the stone floor of the monastary, he glanced upwards towards the windows higher up. “Last I heard, they were making their way down to the river near the mouth of the forest. They should be somewhere over there, but good luck getting them to do anything useful.”

Carol didn’t hear him though, because she was already halfway out the door.

***

Taking her time, Carol hummed to herself as she strolled down the dirt road towards the river. Holding the content chiwawa Teddy to her breast she began to skip as the road veered off to the orchard and she began to move into the forest. She was in an upbeat mood and had already convinced herself that she’d be successful in approaching the two delinquents, regardless of what the others thought. She searched for another twenty minutes before she came across the two young men laughing to themselves and sitting on the riverbank.

“Those old coots are always talking about their god, I wish it wasn’t monks that had found us. Always making us do the most stupid chores…” Conner muttered aloud as he skipped a stone out into the river. He pushed a hand through his brown hair and sighed like the world owed him a favor, and like life was too hard to bear.

“Agreed,” stated Aaron as he turned to look at Carol approaching. The stocky, redheaded young man frowned. “Looks like we’ve got ourselves a nuisance to deal with Connor.”

Both boys groaned as she yelled out to them from afar.

Approaching them at a trot now, coming along the river under the overhanging trees, Carol stood holding Teddy and came to a stop looking down at them sternly. “What are you two doing? Aren’t you supposed to be doing chores?”

Laughing, Aron took a stone and skipped it into the river again. “I don’t want to do the chores, and nobody is going to make me do them either.”

Connor smirked at the retort and didn’t even bother answering the woman.

Frowning, Carol moved closer. She'd never have had to put up with little shits like these twirps back on Earth, and it really pissed her off that she had to deal with them here. Back home, if she said jump - everyone else asked how high. They knew how powerful her family had been, back before the world war started, and she was still adjusting to the complete lack of respect she'd seen since her arrival on this new world. “They’ve done a lot for us, you know. The monks. The least you could do is help out. Why do you have to be such twirps?”

Angrily, Aron stood up and turned around to face her with clenched fists. “Why do you have to call us twirps all the time? You act as if you’re superior to everyone and I don’t like it, miss lawyer.”

Turning red in the face, she looked at the pile of stones the boys had collected - and with a shove of her foot she pushed the majority of them into the river. “Stop messing around! The rest of us are tired of how you behave like brats!”

The months of her pompous attitude had been a lot to take for Aron, and at that moment when she’d pushed over the pile of rocks that HE had taken time to collect… it caused him to snap.

Aron lunged at her and hit her across the face with his knuckles. She was stunned, taken aback she staggered to her knees in shock.

Aron bent down, smiling to respond menacingly. “You will not call me names anymore. Do you understand me, bitch? Conner and I are, by age, legally adults too… just because we still attended high school on Earth doesn’t mean you can treat us like little kids.”

Regaining her composure, Carol stood up and shouted at him, “SLAP ME AGAIN AND I’LL…” She was interrupted by another harder slap to the face, this time knocking her completely to the ground.

“Connor, hold her down.” said Aron with a wide grin. He was completely serious, so Conner didn’t hesitate to act.

Dizzy from the impact, she had let go of Teddy - and as she turned to reach for the dog her action was stopped. Connor’s hands pressed her own hands down as he sat on her back, the late highschooler grinning down at her deviously. Teddy began to bark furiously as Aron moved towards her, but then he paused and walked over to the dog. Roughly taking Teddy by the scruff of his neck, he lifted the small dog into the air and turned to Carol.

“You know, I’ve been thinking about this for some time now Carol. This dog is responsible for the death of Nancy, you do know that... don’t you?”

The tiny dog flailed about in the air while it yelped, and Carol was beginning to get nervous.

“Let go of Teddy, right now.” said Carol with a quivering voice and trying to keep calm.

Aron let out a laugh while keeping eye contact. “She’s still trying to boss us around Conner! And because Teddy is your dog, Carol, it’s also your fault. So what are we going to do about this? Conner, do you have any ideas?”

Connor, who was still holding a struggling Carol down, just continued to smile evilly. “I think we need to punish them both. Don’t you? Letting Nancy’s killer get away without any consequences would be a terrible thing.”

Nodding in agreement, Aron kneeled before Carol. Carol’s heart was racing now, and she was beginning to panic.

“You know,” muttered Aron coldly, “I think I got some ideas on how to punish you two after watching what those bandits did to Casper.”

Turning to a still furiously barking, yelping Teddy, Aron put his hands around the little dog’s neck and began to squeeze.

“STOP! STOP PLEASE STOP!” screamed Carol with tears streaming down her face as Teddy let out a more shrill yelp and began to squirm around violently, “PLEASE STOP, I’LL DO WHATEVER YOU ASK JUST PLEASE DON’T KILL TEDDY!”

With a sudden jerk from Aron and a loud snapping of the creature’s neck, the dog went limp after a final high pitched yelp. Slowly he brought the pet’s corpse to the ground with a large grin on his face, mocking her all the while. Beginning to sob, Carol tried to flail out of Conner’s grasp - crying harder than she had ever done before and filling up with hatred geared towards the two boys. Knocking one of his arms away she managed to get free for a moment, getting to her knees before she was tackled by Aron back to the ground.

“We still haven’t given you your punishment Carol! And a good looking thing like you should have extra -special punishment at that!” Aron sneered while groping her left breast as Connor scrambled back. Screaming as loudly as she could for help, Aron snickered. “Connor, hold her down. Now!”

Holding her at the wrists as she writhed about sobbing and screaming, Aron struck her across the forehead with a stone he had picked up off the bank. Becoming dizzy and lightheaded Carol struggled less as the two boys removed her robe, bra and thong.

‘This can’t be happening,’ thought Carol as she lay naked and pinned to the ground.

Turning her over roughly, Aron mounted Carol and yanked her hair back saying, “Don’t worry Conner, your turn with miss lawyer is up next!”

Conner cackled and bent over to whisper into her ear, holding her arms down as Conner spread her asscheeks. “Time to play cowboys and indians Carol! We’re the cowboys, and you’re the horse we get to ride into town!”

***

After it was all over, Carol lay on the ground softly crying to herself and trembling as the two boys got up and stretched. Teddy’s lifeless body was only a few feet in front of her on the riverbank.

“Well!” Conner said with a laugh. “That was fun! We should do it again sometime.”

Aron looked down at the naked, bruised and sobbing woman, “We can’t let her go back you know. She’ll tell the others what we did.”

“So what do we do? Kill her? Where would we put the body?”

Carol’s heart began to race again. They were planning to kill her? Why? What had she ever done to them?

Aron looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, “Well we could throw her in the river, the body will wash away if I had to guess. If we leave her in the forest they might eventually find her.”

Looking down at Carol, Aron bent down and grinned maliciously. Bending down even further he got up next to her ear and whispered to her: “It’s been fun!”

Then Carol’s mind went dark as a stone was brought up and back down to the back of her head with a loud *CRACK.*

Throwing her motionless body into the river, Aron sighed. “Well that settles that, wish we could have kept it going for a couple hours but we have to get back to the temple soon.”

He then kicked the small form of Teddy into the river as well.

Connor nodded. “Yeah. There are other pussies out there though, I’m sure we’ll make due.”

“Not in this Temple there’s not. We need to move into a larger city, more women there and less monks. Perfect combination.”

Connor laughed and began to put his clothes back on. A few minutes later, the two teenagers were headed back towards the Temple without a trace of guilt.

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Name: Naomi Funai

Level 1

Class: None

Name: Aiko Funai

Level 1

Class: None

Name: Tanner Robert

Level 1

Class: None

Name: Aron Newmon

Level 1

Class: None

Name: Conner Orclid

Level 1

Class: None

Name: Itunu Chuke

Level 1

Class: None

Tanner waved the younger man down from where he sat on a stone bench in the courtyard, smoking a pipe. “Hey Aron, have you seen Carol? Last I saw her she was headed down to the river to find you and Conner.”

It was nearly two hours after Carol’s body had been thrown into the river.

“No man, I haven’t seen her.” Aron shrugged, doing his best to act casual and exiting the stables where he’d finally finished his day’s chores. “Maybe she took a walk or something, but we never saw her.”

Tanner frowned, put the pipe down and looked around the courtyard again. There weren’t many visitors here today, and it was growing late. “Yeah, maybe you’re right. Guess I won’t worry about it for now.”

Tanner got up, turned around, and walked back to pass through the door leading out of the courtyard into the monastery’s main building.

Conner’s face wore a nervous expression as he continued working on cleaning out his side of the stables. Brushing his hand through his brown curls, he began to shovel the horse shit and pile it off to one side. Conner had done a lot of things that went against the norm in his past, but he had never helped kill anyone before. He couldn’t help thinking that maybe Aron had gone a little too far this time.

Yeah… that’s right. It was all Aron’s fault.

Aiko walked over from the main gait and called out Tanner’s name, prompting the tattooed man to poke his head back outside. “I checked down by the river, but she wasn’t there either!”

Tanner blinked a couple times to comprehend this new information. “Maybe she’s just taking a walk or exploring like Aron suggested. We’ll worry about it if she doesn’t show up by dinner, but it’s a little premature to worry about it now.”

One of the horses nearby Conner began to shit again, and cursing as he had just cleaned up that area - he threw down his shovel and angrily walked away.

“He seems a little on edge…” said Aiko with a puzzled look. “I know he doesn’t like to do chores, but that was a bit of an overreaction.”

Dusk was fast approaching now and it was time for dinner to be eaten. The three moons shone above their heads as a flock of geese flew by in a V shaped pattern. The forest was growing gloomy from where the monks and companions waited at the gate for Carol’s return.

A monk named Abu, a man of about sixty years of age with a long knotted beard, approached them from the rear while they stood looking down the hill from the main gate.

“Has Carol still not come back?” Abu inquired in a worried tone.

Itunu looked back at the old hunched man, his strong african features rigid. “No Abu, she has not come back. She has never been out this late before. We should send out a search party to look for her soon if things don’t change.”

Naomi agreed. “Yeah, I don’t think Carol would just leave and not let us know where she was going…”

“She did let us know where she was going.” said Aiko, turning to Conner and Aron while folding her arms. “Are you two sure you didn’t hear or see anything earlier? She was supposed to be looking for you. Were there any other people in the area that you didn’t recognize on your way back? Any strangers? I’m afraid something might have happened to her…”

Aron shrugged impatiently with an uncomfortable grimace. “I didn’t see anyone. Did you Conner?”

Conner looked thoughtfully downwards for a moment. “No. Can’t say I did.”

Abu loudly cleared his throat. “Well it’s getting too late to go out into the forest ourselves, and we’ve searched everywhere else. If Carol is still around this area, it would probably be somewhere out along the river…”

Walking to the stables he unfastened a horse and saddled it. Mounting the horse and trotting over to the gate, he looked down at everyone with a worried frown. “I’m going to go over to the next city and get a tracker. We can use his hounds to find Carol, it’s our best shot. Hopefully she just got lost in the woods.”

With that, he snapped the reins of the horse and it took off in a dash down the hill. He followed the dirt road out eastward, winding around another hill until he was lost from sight.

One of the monks bowed his head. “May Quemen watch over Carol in her time of need. Let us pray to the father and ask him to guide her to safety.”

The monks turned as one and headed towards the altar. Kneeling before it they began to pray, much to the amusement of Aron as he snickered to himself.

Conner stopped Aron’s advance as the others went in to eat, after the prayers were done.

“They’re getting hounds, Aron. What if they find her body?”

Pulling away from Conner’s grasp, Aron gave a mocking smile. “Are you getting cold feet Conner? What is it? You can rape and kill a girl but lose your pair of balls when her friends decide to look for her?” Moving in closer, he stood eye to eye with his friend. “They will not find her body. By now it’s probably been washed miles away, or caught among the river bottom somewhere. Hounds cannot track people through water.”

Conner put his hand on Aron’s shoulder, giving his friend a meaningful glare. He knew Aron wasn’t strong in the thinking department, so Conner would have to do that for him. “What happens when those hounds reach the spot where it all occurred, and realize it’s exactly where Tanner told her to look for us?”

Aron’s brow furrowed in thought at the other young man’s words.

Conner continued on when he realized Aron was taking the hint. “They will think that we had something to do with her disappearance, and they’d be right to think so. When we did it, I had no idea that they’d get hounds involved. We should have thought this through better.”

Aron looked back towards the dining hall where one of the monks was calling out to them, wondering if they were to join everyone for dinner.

“What do we do then? Any ideas?”

Conner laughed. “It was your bright idea to rape her in the first place. Then you had the even better idea to kill her so she couldn’t tell. Why don’t you come up with a plan, since you were the mastermind of our predicament to begin with.”

Conner stumbled back as Aron gave him a hard shove. Aron’s face was turning as red as his hair, and he was visibly angry.

“You took part in it just as much as I did, idiot.”

Sighing, Conner glanced over at the stables. “I guess we don’t have much of a choice. We should probably make a run for it. Steal some horses, and get out of town.”

“And do what?” asked Aron. “We don’t know what’s out there and we have barely learned the language. We don’t have any skills that would help us get jobs.”

Conner grinned. “Wasn’t it you that wanted to go to the city? Something about less monks and more women?”

Silence.

“Touche. Alright Conner, we’ll do it whenever they get back with the hounds. Let’s go eat and get our stuff ready to go. Grab some supplies if you can.”

Aiko rushed out of the dining hall flapping her arms around, “Guys! What are you doingggg?!!!?! Come on and eat, we’re waiting for you!”

With fake smiles lighting up their faces, the two teens marched their way over. After all, they didn’t want to keep the others waiting too long.

That would have been downright rude.

The next morning Abu returned with the trackers and hounds. Swiftly a search party was formed and articles of clothing taken from Carol’s belongings were given as a scent to the dogs, who began to track her immediately as they left the compound.

“Are you two coming?” Itunu called out back towards the compound where Aron and Conner were pretending to be inspecting their horses.

“Yes, we will be right behind you! Go on ahead, and we’ll catch up!” Aron yelled back.

What morons.

As the company disappeared out of sight into the forest down the hill, Aron motioned to Conner with a smirk. “Time for us to go.”

***

It took them an hour before the hounds stopped along the riverbank within the forest, barking towards the river and circling back and forth. Tanner dismounted along with the rest of the group.

The tracker, a lean man dressed in green and brown leather with a strong jawline, inspected the ground as if finding something none of the others could see, then he whistled to get their attention and turned to everyone else. “Looks like something was dragged over to the river, and from what I can tell there was a struggle here too. See those markings,” he said pointing to the ground not far from where they stood. “Those claw marks are made from human hands. The dirt is disturbed and the rocks are pushed out away from this area.”

Lastly the tracker pointed to some darkened soil. “ If I had to guess, that’s blood. Your friend Carol was murdered and tossed into the river. It’s pretty easy to see from where I stand.”

The assessment was a quick one. Blunt, brutal and to the point. The monks and earth born stood shocked, not knowing how to reply.

“How can you be so sure!?” Aiko said weakly, “You were only here for a few moments and you’re already telling us she’s been killed?”

The tracker got up and sat back on his horse. “Whoever did it isn’t experienced enough to hide what they did very well. It’s... pretty obvious... unfortunately I’ve seen things like this before.”

The silence that lasted the next few seconds was a terrible thing to endure for the friends Carol had left behind.

Itunu was the one to break that silence. “Are there other scents here you can track? Can you track whoever did this and find them?”

The tracker shook his head solemnly, calling out to his three hounds so they’d shut up. “I’m sure there would be many scents here that we could track, but I couldn’t tell you which one would lead us to the killer. If we had a piece of their clothing I’m sure we could then, but we don’t have that.”

Naomi scoffed, brushing by one of the dogs as she stepped forward. “I don’t believe it. Abu, are you sure this tracker is any good? Could we get a second opinion here?”

Insulted, but understanding of how she felt, the tracker responded softly. “I assure you, I am reliable. Abu has used my services before.”

Abu nodded in agreement, though his face had fallen into despair.

Aiko, now teary eyed and frantic, tugged at the tracker’s sleeve. “Can’t we look on the other side of the river?”

“There is no need.” said Tanner, frowning as he gravely pointed down the river. Down his line of sight not even 15 yards away was Teddy’s corpse caught against a rock and a low hanging branch in the water.

Itunu’s expression changed to one of great sorrow as he sat down and covered his face, grieving for the woman he’d come to like as a good friend over the past few months. The two sisters, Aiko and Naomi, began to scream and rushed over to the corpse. Tanner stood like a statue as he told Itunu to get up.

“I told Carol that those boys would be right around here,” Tanner said in a hushed whisper. “And now she’s dead.”

Abu looked surprised, raising his eyebrows and pushing his hands into the pockets of his robes. “Are you saying that they killed her?”

“Who else?” asked Tanner bluntly. His features were cold and filled with hate. “They told us that they hadn’t seen anyone around here when she disappeared, including Carol. But this is where her scent led us, and this is where her dog’s body is. They were here too, so there can only be one explanation.”

The accusation didn’t take long to hit home.

Itunu was furious as he hurried to get back on his horse. “Let us go ask them again, we will see what they say!”

He turned the horse around and galloped back towards the temple with Tanner, Abu and the tracker close on his heels.

But by the time they had reached the enclosure, Aron and Conner were long gone.

***

Carol’s things had been gathered alongside Teddy’s body and placed at the altar of Quemen, The Dragonblooded, for a ritual that the monks said would ease her passing and help Carol’s spirit find its way to Quemen’s domain. They talked about how Quemen’s afterlife was one of peace and prosperity, and that he would watch over her as his own child with love and compassion. That Quemen was a servant of Iseliaz, Fairborn - one of the old gods who was known to be kind to mortals in the afterlife. That Carol would be happy there. After encircling the altar and setting her belongings to flame, the monks chanted in concert and raised their hands upwards towards the heavens.

“Back at the grocery store, I thought Carol was a real bitch...” laughed Naomi as she wiped tears away from her eyes. “I’m glad I got to know her though. She was a very kind person when you got past her hard outer shell.”

“Yeah, she was...” agreed Itunu. Tanner remained silent and bowed his head. Aiko had refused to attend the ceremony and had gone bawling to her room where she had shut everyone else out and barred the door from the other side.

Naomi tried her best to suppress her own sobs. “I hope those two find a horrible death awaiting them. What they did is… is unforgivable.”

Suddenly the chanting of the monks stopped, and Carol’s belongings that lay burning on the altar erupted into brilliant blue, white, and green flames... then vanished to leave no trace whatsoever behind them. Astonished, the Earthborn continued to watch not knowing what had happened. Why had the flames changed colors like that?

One by one, the monks took their turns bowing to the altar of their numen, murmuring to it and departing back to their chambers.

“What just happened…?” asked Tanner as Abu approached them.

Abu looked confused and cocked his head. “We already told you, Quemen was directing her spirit as she passed into the next life. What you just saw were his holy flames. But now is not the time for questions, I must go dwell upon what has happened and decide what to do next.”

Leaving the others in the courtyard to dwell upon what he had said, Abu gave them an apologetic smile and quietly entered his quarters to shut the door.