Not a step later, Tar tripped, fell face first onto the ground and ate a mouthful of dirt. “My leg’s condition must have worsened,” he thought as he tried to pick himself up. But he couldn’t. Something was pushing his head downwards. No matter how hard he tried, that force was still overpowering him. He realised. It was the palm of a person.

“Eat dirt, you shithead,” a very familiar voice called out to him. It was the boy he talked to a moment ago.

A face filled with bruises and wounds appeared in front of him, smiling. Tar recognised he was another boy from the group. The boy grabbed a small fistful of dirt from the ground and shoved it into Tar’s mouth, before laughing maniacally.

Suddenly, Tar felt a sharp pain in his stomach. It felt much worse than that time he broke his leg. Much, much worse. The boys were kicking him in his lying stomach. Tar reflexively tried to cover his stomach, but one of the boys grabbed his right forearm and pulled it away from his stomach, in the process leaving five bloodied claw marks on his forearm. Another boy seized the opportunity to step on his right upper arm. That boy not only stomped Tar’s arm heavily, but also twisted his foot after each stomp. A painful screech was followed by each stomp, which only got heavier as if Tar’s screams were fuel to that boy’s anger, encouraging him.

Time for Tar felt long. Very long. As if a single second was stretched to a year, a decade, a century… And in this centuries-worth of time, his face didn’t get wrinkled, his hair didn’t grow bald, and his teeth didn’t turn yellow, but instead, he felt all the pain there is in the world. Sometimes, his stomach; sometimes, his back; sometimes, his cheeks and nose. Tar slowly lost the will and ability to defend himself. He simply laid there and prayed that all would end soon.

“Hey, the two of you,” shouted the older boy. “Pin him down.”

Tar felt something warm on his shoulder, and it was moving down his back to his waist. It was urine.

“Hahaha! Take that you mongrel!” The older boy wheezed. “Treasure my piss well because that’s the only thing you mongrel would be drinking today! Hahaha!”

After the older boy let everything out of his system, he said, “Argh, my waist hurts. Those filthy grey rats. Screw this, I’m going home,” and walked away. The other boys followed suit one by one, leaving a strengthless Tar on the ground. Unable to gather enough strength to even stand up, he just laid there.

Soon enough, he saw two figures approaching him. They were the two girls among the group of children he saved.

“Are you alright?” The taller girl asked, as she helped Tar up.

“Thanks… I think my left leg is broken, can you please help me on my left?”

The taller girl smirked and suddenly released her grip on him, letting Tar fall to the ground once again. She circled from his right to his left and inspected his left leg as if it was the rarest gem in the world. She then kicked his left leg with all her might. A shrieking wail pierced their eardrums. The taller girl covered her ears and shouted at Tar, “Shut the hell up!” Before kicking his left leg again.

“Look at his face, big sis!” The younger sister cheered. “He’s crying!” And excitedly clapped after witnessing such an amusing scene.

The younger sister walked up to him and crouched in front of him. Tar saw a cute and tiny face smiling charmingly, with very noticeable dimples on her cheeks. Still smiling, the younger sister spat on Tar’s face. “It’s so fun! It’s so fun!” She exclaimed, before looking at her sister with sheepish eyes.

“Fine…” As if understanding her sister’s intentions, the older sister pried open Tar’s mouth. Tar tried to resist but he was far too weakened. The younger sister gargled for a bit and spat into Tar’s mouth. The thick phlegm landed on the base of Tar’s tongue. The older sister immediately shut his mouth close and pinched his nose. Tar was suffocating. Tears and snot were flying everywhere and he swallowed the phlegm long before.

“Are you done playing?” asked the older sister.

“Yes!”

“Let’s leave then.” The older sister turned towards Tar, “Give my regards to your father. Oh wait… He’s dead. Hahaha!”

Laughter slowly faded away and now, only Tar was left in the alleyway, sobbing in silence.

“Why did this happen? Do I deserve this? What did I do wrong? Should I not have helped them? Why is Dad so hated? Is Dad a bad person? Am I born sinful?” Hundreds of questions wandered in his mind.

“I should’ve kept my mouth shut. I should’ve lied. I should’ve never let people know who Dad was. I… I… I should’ve never been born. And I wish you were not my Dad.”

“I’m tired. I want to sleep. I want to be in bed. Not in the Compass’, no. The Amber Manor. And I wish you were here, Dad.”

With darkness and dirt accompanying him, Tar fell asleep in the alleyway.

Occasionally, some people would notice Tar in the alleyway. If they were Eustacians, they would avoid him and hurry away – no Eustacians were dumb enough to get themselves tangled with the Tzappians. And if they were Tzappians, they would laugh at him. One even gathered their friends and called him names, before boringly walking away.

It was dusk when he woke up, and he found himself being carried by Vidi. Each stride Vidi took gave Tar a comforting bump, as if reminding Tar that he still existed in this world, and there was someone else out there in this world too, alongside him.

“Tar, you’re awake right?” Vidi asked.

“Yes.” Tar uttered. Even a simple word took too much energy for Tar, and when his mouth moved, his facial muscles carried the bruises and swells around, which only made it more painful.

“You’re a true hero, for being able to take all of that,” Vidi spoke to him like how one would to a sleepy child.

During the journey to the Compass’, neither of them spoke a word. It was tranquil, and it was peaceful. Tar glanced at Vidi’s face. The face he saw had deep wrinkles between his well-defined eyebrows, and underneath those were a pair of very determined eyes. The stern image of this man moved Tar a bit.

Tar looked up at the blood-orange sky. “I want to be up there and look down on the Kingdom of Eustacia. What would it look like? How far up in the sky do I have to be for people to become undifferentiable, little dots?”

“We’re here, Tar,” Vidi carefully put Tar down on the ground. “Tar, I promise you. One day I will drive away those Tzappians. I won’t let any Eustacians suffer, and I sure as hell won’t let you suffer. I promise you’ll be able to smile, and walk in the streets carefreely, and play with others, and do all the things you want to, and…” Vidi stopped.

“Anyway, you should probably get inside. I’ll visit every few months. Be prepared for good news!”

Vidi quickly turned his face around and walked away. “Was there something on his face he didn’t want to show me?” Tar wondered. When Vidi’s back shrank to the size no bigger than Tar’s thumb, he saw Vidi wipe something off his face. It was then that Tar knew what Vidi did not want to show him. Gritting his teeth and enduring the pain, Tar got on all fours, and bowed his head to the vanishing figure.