I walked over to the school and grabbed Nya from my shoulders and gently placed her down. A lovely woman saw me dropping off two children. The woman had a lovely shape and her wear matches with her personality. She had curly brunette hair, green eyes wearing a flowery-white dress tucked in a beige skirt and brown shoes. She walked over to us with a sunny smile on her face.
"Hello, my name is Ms. Julian," she introduced herself, "Who might you be sir?"
"I am Michael Gilliganson Jr, ma'am," I introduced, "And these are the children, Nya, one of mine, and Thames."
Ms. Julian took a great interest in Thames, "Why it’s funny, it's like I've seen him before," she said.
"You have?" I asked.
"I'm not sure, but...I don't know, my memory can get jumbled up at times," she said.
"Do we all," I said.
Nya gave me frightened glance, "Michael?"
"Nya, I am going to be gone for a few hours okay. I'll be back just before you know it," I reassured.
"I'm scared," she said. As scared as I was letting her go here, I felt the same way. I never went to school and I cannot say, "there's nothing to be scared of" because I never experienced it. What can I say? What can I do? Nothing that's what I can do. I couldn't say anything about it - until Ms. Jullian stepped in.
"Everything will be okay," said Ms. Jullian.
"How would you know?" I asked.
"I just know," she said with a smile, "Your love for your daughter is most..."
"Oh, she's not my daughter, she's my sister," I said.
Ms. Jullian furrowed, "You're her brother? Where are your parents?"
I said nothing, I answered with a sigh. Ms. Jullian immediately led Thames and Nya to the playroom, "I'll meet you over to the playroom okay," she said to the two. Thames took Nya's hand and led her to the room, she looked back as Ms. Jullian led me out.
...
"You're parents died?" she asked.
I nodded, it's complicated.
"I see, I'm sorry to hear that," she said, "It must have been hard trying to raise your little..."
"No it wasn't," I intercepted, "Nya is a sweet girl, she won't do no harm - a little cocky at times, but she will do no wrong."
"I see that your bond is strong, that's rare around these parts."
"No kidding," I chuckled.
"But you don't have to worry, Nya and Thames will be in my care until you come back, you have my word," she said.
"Thank you."
EIGHT
MS. JULLIAN LED me out of the schoolhouse, I turned to see that Israel had not left - I wonder what he wanted. Ms. Jullian turned to my attention and began to speak.
"So are you her guardian?" she asked.
"Yes I am," I said, "She's the only sister I have."
"And the boy?"
"Thames? I just found him in the street while Nya and I were shopping for food in the market place. He was covered in gash wounds and was bleeding out so - "
"Gash wounds?"
"Yeah, nasty wounds," I said, "Some maniac must have attacked him or something. The Salesman and I are looking for his parents, I just hope to god that he's okay," I said.
"You're sweet," Ms. Jullian said, "But in this world, it’s full of sour trouts, so best be careful."
"I will," I said.
"Mr. Michael?" Mr. Dalton said, "The Duke of Washington is waiting for you sir."
"I'll be right there," I said.
"You best be going now," said Ms. Jullian, "I will ensure their safety."
"Thank you," I said. I turned away from Ms. Jullian to the carriage only for me to look back at the school to see Nya one more time. It was hard for me to turn away, it really was. But if anyone who has her back, anyone that I can trust was Thames. Not only a few days and he has proven himself to be caring for her. I hope that they are okay, I dear to my soul that both of them are okay - however, when Ms. Jullian was turning to go back to the school, I saw her pulling out a strange badge, the badge was glowing green, but stopped when she entered the school and closed the door. This rose a few questions.
"Michael?"
"Yeah, yeah...I'm...I'm coming," I said.
...
"I led poor Nya to the playroom where we saw the children play with their toys and blocks. Nya felt alienated. She didn't have toys for her to play, and even if she did, who should she play with besides me?
"'Nya?' I began, 'Is something's the matter?'
"Nya nodded. 'I'm okay, it’s just that - so many people here...how can I fit in?'
"'I don't know,' I replied, 'But it won't hurt just to try though.'
"Then coming from behind me was the little girl we saw being escorted to the school with the Duke. Susie Dalton. She didn't look all that bad, but that was the bad part. Around here, people didn't wear these fancy get ups here and there. People here wore plain clothes made from their parents. This girl was wearing clothes made from a factory. As nicely as it was put together it did not equate as much effort and creativity compared to a man with a needle and a string. She wore her hair up and had that money-making smile; her teeth were as white and shiny as diamonds and her eyes glowed from what appears to be artificial at best.
"She presented herself lady like in front of us, that was respectful - but her mouth was just rotting with rot.
"'Good morning Unfortunates,' she said with a sunny smile. Nya and I furrowed. Did she said that we were unfortunate? 'My name is Susie Dalton, daughter of Viscount Albert Dalton of the Highest Order of the United Federal Nations and Vidame Ferris Dalton LII, ally of Israel Duke of Washington and resident of the kingdom of Boscualia. I attend that you all in a need of a much needed friend,' she said.
"Nya giggled, ' That is one long name.' she muttered.
"A few of the children walked over to the child praising her. Why? She seemed so...persnickety.
"'You're the daughter of the Daltons?" one boy asked.
"'Of course I am young friend,' Susie said, 'I am the upbringing of the most powerful.'
"The one thing I hate about people was that they will show off just about anything. Just be humble about who you are don't show off. Susie here was not humble by how she introduced herself. She was a persnickety individual with loads of pride and admiration for herself. It's not a bad thing to how I interpret it, you should be happy for yourself, but just showing off was villainous to some. You don't have to be some sort of spoiled turd to influence people. People who parry from those types of social ineptitudes happened to be influential to the masses.
"Susie was from a rich background, I understand that, but I'm afraid that she was a little ignorant on how to go around about introducing people without being a spoiled individual. I was about to walk over to her to educate her on the subject but Nya had beaten me to it. Heh, she's always quick on her feet.
"Hello my name is Nya Gilliganson, it's very nice to meet you,' Nya introduced politely extending her hand of friendship.
"Ms. Jullian after seeing Michael depart from the school grounds took a gander at the playroom as everyone was swarming around Susie, eager to touch her field of presence. Seeing Susie around the mass of children pondered at Nya who politely introduced herself rather than swarming around her because she's rich.
"The pleasure is all mine,' said Susie a little in awe but then got over it and shook her hand, 'Are you a native here?'
"I'm indigenous yes,' she said.
"'Why is yous talkin' to a Lowgal?' asked a boy, 'She's a sharecroppuh, just look at what she wearing! No gal do not belong to school or any othuh! Yous rich! Are yous gonna take dat?' It was not until long when the others were starting to jump on her. This boy was as big as a cow with a mouth that can fit a house. His nasty attitude reflected on the monsters that maimed me. This boy wore dirty long pants held up in braces and a brown-buttoned shirt underneath. This boy's mind is as empty as a void. Nothing intelligent or morality entered the boy's brain. I was so angry to how this barbarian was treating her. Susie did not do anything to stop this sort of bullyin
g. She was not used to this kind of thing. Ms. Jullian furrowed and walked over to stop it until I stepped forth and pulled Nya out of the way to face this boy.
"This boy was a wee taller than I was, that was a fact. He was fatter than I was, again that was a fact. But his heavy stature was a little more Neanderthal than it was manageable. He gave me a smug look as the others crowded around him, siding with this beast of monstrosity.
"'You leave her alone monster!' I stepped forward, 'She has done nothing to you!'
"'Who you?' he asked me.
"'Your worse nightmare if you won't leave my friend be,' I said.
"'Wait you sharecroppuh? You is dumb!' the boy laughed.
"'I'm dumb but I can say a sentence properly?' I asked earning no applause or jeers.
"'No dat means dat I could say yous sharecroppuh and everyone knows day sharecroppuhs are dumb!'
"'But it does not gives you the right to make fun of her!'
"'Yeah it is!' the boy hollered, 'I'm de king and yous a slave dummy!'
"'I am no slave.'
"Yeah can yous read?' he said, ''Cause I can!'
"I refused to answer.
"'Hah only a yellah-eyed sharecroppuh with a black farmer a slave if he cannot read!' he laughed.
"'You are not one to talk,' I said.
"'Admit it! Yous poor!' he yelled. Ms. Jullian pulled on the boy's arm to confront him, finally.
"'Mr. Brusque Barnes I am losing my patience with you,' Ms. Jullian firmly told the boy known as Brusque Barnes.
"'It ain't my fault I ain't a sharecroppuh! SHARECROPPUH!' he taunted encouraging the class to chant. Nya walked by me to try to comfort me as I tried to hide my anger for this ignorant soul - if he had one. Tears slithered down my face, but as I tried to bottle it up other parts of me did not. Scales were now forming in my skin giving the boy more fuel and shocking Ms. Julian in the process.
"'My god,' said Ms. Jullian with a soft tone.
"Finally, I had had enough.
"'I CAN'T READ! YOU HAPPY!' I screamed.
"'So yous can't read things, I knews it. But yous a freak!' he yelled pointing the others my face, 'Look at his face!'
The children laughed as Ms. Jullian tried to calm the children down. She pulled Brusque to the side and tried desperately to stop the kids from bullying him. Just before she was about to put the class on timeout, Nya stood up.
"'He might not know how to read but at least when he talks he does not sound like a cat being castrated. And oh before you insult someone try looking at yourself in the mirror you gluttonous pig because you have no say...'
In the most cruelest of acts, this barbarian punched her in her face. everyone laughed all except for Susie who recognized this type of violence. Ms. Jullian had enough.
"That's it you are at time out for the rest of the week for doing such foulest things!" Ms. Jullian said picking him up and throwing this laughing clown in the farthest corner away from the people. She then sentenced the children to get to their desks and lay their heads down.
Nya cried on the floor, I immediately reached over to comfort her. That impact from the pig's mammoth fist to her face was earth shatteringly painful. It could be heard from across the room it was that painful. Susie came to her rescue after observing what had unfolded carrying a box of tissue and water.
"'I'm so sorry about that heathen,' she said helping me picking her up.
"Why are you sorry?' I asked suspicious of her behavior.
"'Such acts are barbaric where I'm from. No one should hit anybody,' she said, 'Even if they are a sharecropper. My family were sharecroppers until the day my ancestors made enough money to invest in a successful business in stocks. I'm mighty sorry for what you all had to go through,' she said wiping Nya's face.
"'This is not your fault,' said Ms. Jullian, 'People are just sheep.'
"'What is wrong with that fellow over yonder at the corner?' I asked.
"'I wish I knew,' said Ms. Jullian as we tried to assuage Nya. Poor, poor girl, if only I had done something to protect her from this beast.
...
"So you walked for 14 kilometers from the farm to the schoolhouse? How can you bare it?" Mr. Dalton asked.
"Just years of hard work can make your feet as mighty as steel," I said.
"Amusing, say have you ever visited Ft. Tasmin?" he asked.
"No."
"Well you should sir," said Mr. Dalton, "You clearly should. You will admire the vivacious scenery, its lush greenery and its daunting wealth. A fine fellow like yourself will fit mighty well along the crowd," said Mr. Dalton.
"Mr. Dalton I'm not sure that Mister Michael here would be comfortable to my estate," said the Duke.
"Ah nonsense Duke of Washington," said Mr. Dalton, "For a fine fellow like him he will fit in quite nicely."
"Thank you but no thank you," I said, "I'm comfortable to where I live," I said.
"The farm?" Mr. Dalton was shocked.
"Yeah," I said, "It's a home that belonged to my father," I said.
"And who are your parents, if you don't mind me asking?" The Duke of Washington asked.
"Samantha and Michael Gilliganson Sr," I said earning their blank looks - well mostly from the Duke of Washington.
"What?"
"N-nothing it’s just that I was having an episode that's all," said the Duke.
"Mind the Duke of Washington and his fairy tales," said Mr. Dalton, "It was clear as day that there was a civil war between the privileged and the underprivileged. It’s the kind of barbarisms that can depreciate the value of society."
"Why do you say that?" I asked.
"He believes that ancient monsters had risen up from the grave to retake this world. It's rubbish son; as intelligent and poised as the duke maybe, his mind is absent from reality. He has a great imagination - a great story teller I might add. His mind is as gifted as it is dangerous."
"I'm not making conspiracies Mr. Dalton. You should know me better since Mister Gilliganson here is the offspring of a Badgette," said the Duke of Washington, I furrowed, "So as you may know my words are not vacuous or 'stories'. My words are as prosaic as they are fact. Case in point: there is no imagination in fact, only observation."
Mr. Dalton shared a giggle. As they continued talking about - well arguing about what happened, my mind was still wrapped around at what the Duke just slipped out. What is a Badgette? I finally tapped on the Duke's shoulders only for him not to acknowledge me until Mr. Dalton got distracted at the village yonder in the valley.
"So these monsters, who and what are they?" I asked.
"These monsters are unlike any we had ever had to face. These monsters had conquered lands beyond our reach: cities had crumbled, nations had fallen, armies had vanished as if they had never existed. They are scaly mighty beasts sent from the devil to kill us all in one swipe. The devil, King Mungfalme is that evil."
"Who is King Mungfalme?" I asked.
"Just think of God with no conscious or reason," he said, "That will be your king."
"Another one of your mythologies Duke?"
"It is not a mythology when a neighboring country is being invaded by an undead force, Mr. Dalton," the Duke of Washington snapped scaring Mr. Dalton, "Sorry, I just had an episode. If there is something I deem is fact then it's true. These eyes cannot tell a lie, but a mouth can say a million words. A circumlocution is accursed spell to cast to evade the truth that needed to be told. The eyes have more wisdom than the mouth because the mouth is a bastard to the truth."
NINE
"KING MUNGFALME, MY lord and God, we are days away from the rich land's coast. We sail along the river banks on this accursed ship. This ship led and ruled by this tyrannical nut you call an Earl. With respect sire, I do not think that it is a good idea to place such a lowly worm to be on a higher rank.
"I stood by my window pondering as I watched the swamps of the neverlands fester past through the imaginary point that no world has ever returned. Just a day ago I wrote you th
at I had come across a human, a beautiful starlette. I know that it is against our laws to ever have such a creature in our midst, but with such beauty encased in a noir she'll always finds a way to tug my soul away from my body. Is it a wrong to love or is it right to hate? For I love you, but for what is worth I cannot fight the urge to what I am feeling at this moment.
"I am as loyal to you as a slave is to me. I am your noble servant thick and thin my lord. To I pledge to my great nation of the Neoworld, home to the strong, hell to the weak. We conquered numerous of lands beyond our reach establishing ourselves as a global empire. We conquered the north and the south, the east and the west, hungry for more land. Our starving capital needs more food for its eternal belly.
"This human interests me. She possesses a strange badge. The badge that I hold in my hand looking at the shiny black metal as the sun glares its white light into the black metal. This magical badge belongs to a Badgette, beings to whom we thought were extinct along with the Sky Titans.
"Your forever enemies had been vanquished by time; 100 years of the reclamation of your reign, sixty million years since your birth my lord, since the days the lands had conjoined to the days the lands had ripped. You had ruled the world before the creation of man. And when they came you went and burrowed. Your kind had been vanquished by time...you are the only one left. The only one of your kind until you gained a universal gift precious to life...imagination.
"You thought big before you thought small and when you thought small you created things that became big - an entire race of Neomen. As a fellow Neoman myself I am proud to be your servant.
"This woman's beauty was not a thought to be just measly human. It was not Neoman-like, it was something sent from the Gods. If you seen her you will wed her no sooner than your eyes could blink.
"She cannot speak; her mouth is more of a peaceful taciturn as the wind rushing in the air. Her defined hips, her firm breasts, her shiny brown skin, her golden aura, black flowing hair was the art of an angel...an art for the heart.
"Watching the land pass by this large ship, I cannot stop thinking about her...this may sound piggish of me to say but it’s true. Am I in love? No; my heart is silent but my body is loud: crossing my legs as my breath hyperventilates upon seeing her. My eyes captured and caged the memory of her smooth defined body.
The Son of Alpha (The Legend of the Sky-Titans Book 1) Page 5