The Dreamer's Epilogue-Chapter 21: Death
Chapter 21 – Death
Emrys and the others immediately ran out of the meeting room, going straight to the small hut-like structure a little bit aside from the other ones.
They arrived in an instant, witnessing in front of them, outside of the hut, the sight of six children of the Tistis tribesmen lying down on their backs.
Their blank eyes were still wide open, but no life coursed through them anymore.
Emrys’s heart knotted into a ball, his brain and body still adjusting to seeing dead bodies.
He looked around, seeing other members of the Tistis surrounding the corpses in a wide circle, their expressions smeared by deep forlornness.
Some were already shedding tears, even though they made no sound, their heads ducked low, as if somehow it was shameful to weep for the dead.
Emrys and Elder and his companions walked towards the corpses, the Tistis making way for them with the shuffling sound of their reluctant feet.
Inside the circle, they stopped while Elder continued her stride towards where another Tistis sat cross-legged on the ground, in front of the corpses.
She was a woman. She was Healer.
Elder and Healer began to talk in small hushed tones, their expressions more and more solemn as time passed.
Emrys turned his eyes towards Victoria and Old Navy. Like always, the old man was smoking even in that situation, though his wrinkled eyebrows were frowned.
Victoria was somehow different. Emrys, for once, saw sadness through her mesmerizing purple jewel-like eyes.
As if sensing his stare, Victoria snapped her head towards him, then snapped it back as if unable to look at him.
Emrys winced at that familiar situation, then turned back his attention to Elder and Healer, finally unable to stop his mouth.
"How did they die?" Emrys’s voice was loud enough to cause a hushed silence through the small gathering of Tistis.
Elder and Healer turned their heads to look at him, lips pressed into a thin line.
"I don’t mean to disrespect," Emrys added, "but we need to know why they died. There has been no attack or anything of that sort. So how?"
"Lad, are your eyes blind?" Old Navy spoke, his voice gruff, his old eyes transfixed on the bodies, "Look closely at their bodies, lad. Look closely I said. Look at their bodies, and you will not see flesh but bones."
The words of Old Navy seemed to lift away a veil in front of Emrys, making him able to see things he didn’t notice before.
Old Navy was right.
These children have no skin. Only bones that could be perfectly seen through the mockery of their flesh.
But that was when Emrys turned his head towards the other Tistis members, and his heart pounded in his chest, seeing almost the same state on them in varying degrees.
Even Elder looked like a skeleton that could be broken with a touch.
Understanding dawned inside Emrys’s mind. And indeed,
"Climber Navy is right." Elder said, looking at them with her cold, icicle-like eyes, "You can see us. We are bones walking around, only at the edge of collapse. Soon enough, we will return to Harud’s embrace by starvation in the same way these innocent children did."
At her words, all of them closed their eyes and kissed the ground, "Harud’s Light upon us!"
They yelled with emotion, before stirring up.
Emrys, Victoria and Old Navy felt a chill.
"But that doesn’t make any sense." Emrys finally said, "you said there are beasts you can hunt outside. Beasts that do not attack you. How—!"
"We do not kill to eat." This time, it was Healer who spoke. She was like any Tistis, but her clothes were different, looking more healer-like. She looked older than Elder, but not by much.
Her voice was softer, but harsher.
"What...what did you just say?" Emrys said with surprise in his eyes.
Not eating meat?
"You have heard correctly." Elder added, caressing the face of a dead child, "The Tistis tribe does not kill beasts to eat. We only kill beasts to protect ourselves."
"Then, little lass, what do you eat?" Old Navy asked, his words accompanied by a stream of smoke out of his mouth.
"Weeds, fruits, herbs." Elder replied, "That’s what we eat. And even if we wish to eat anything else, we cannot. Our bodies are already accustomed to these foods."
Old Navy smoked even more intensely. Emrys felt like the old man was trying to calm himself.
Victoria was still annoyingly silent, though she was fidgeting constantly.
"But here..." Emrys began, looking around, realizing the core issue, "there are no herbs you can eat. Only stones exist."
"We know it, Climber Emrys."
"But then why?"
"Because we can’t!" Healer said harshly, voice rising in anger, "We have been forbidden by our ancestors to kill to eat. Harud’s eyes on us! We cannot disobey, for the ones disobeying the voice of god are stripped of Harud’s light!"
Healer’s words set ablaze the other Tistis, each one nodding, shouting. However, some of them said nothing, looking at the corpses of the dead children in pain.
"Foolish, foolish." Old Navy whispered, puffing harshly on his pipe, his voice only heard by Emrys and Victoria, "Do they not know? Foolish, foolish! Do they not know? The virtues of the past are always the vices of today! Oh, fools and even more! Do they not know?"
Emrys couldn’t help but agree with Old Navy’s words. The Tistis were accustomed to another way of life, perfect for the environment they surely were from.
However, now they had been robbed away from what they knew, sent into a whole new territory with a different set of laws.
And yet they refused to adapt to their new environment, clinging to their beliefs and way of living so hard they were dying.
At this point, Emrys realized, they did not even need enemies outside for them to die. They would kill themselves slowly by refusing to adapt.
As this understanding dawned upon him, Emrys couldn’t suppress a shiver down his spine.
"They," Emrys began, voice a whisper, voice tight, palms suddenly sweaty, "they will all kill themselves."
Old Navy let out a gruff humorless laugh, "Lad, your ears are ringing, I see. Your eyes are listening, aren’t they, lad?"
Emrys was not paying attention to the old man. His mind was racing, already trying to find a way out of this situation.
However,
"You,"
A soft, gentle, shy voice rang through the crowd of Tistis.
Emrys’s thoughts halted, looking at where it came from. His eyes widened seeing it was from Victoria herself.
"Y-You wish to see y-your people die?"
Emrys’s eyes narrowed at Victoria’s speech.
Her words were awkward, but they all watched her.
Victoria seemed to visibly tense, her body subtly trembling at all the attention on her. She clenched her fists, steadying herself, then continued her speech,
"I-If you do not eat... you will... will die. You will lose y-your family! Do you want... that?"
Emrys’s suspicion was immediately confirmed. Victoria stuttered.
However, even with that, the young girl tried to talk reason to the Tistis.
And maybe it was because of her awkwardness or her cute voice or even something else altogether... but somehow the stuttering voice of Victoria was more pleasing to the Tistis than Emrys’s voice.
They listened to her. Victoria talked about family. Only family.
And it seemed it worked, for no mother would wish to see their children die in front of them.
The first ones to visibly show acceptance to Victoria’s words were those who lost their children.
Some of them were still very much hesitant. Like Healer and Elder. But death in front of them seemed to soften their eyes to their current reality.
At the end of her motivational speech, Victoria looked like she was completely drained of energy. Her face flushed red in embarrassment, trying to disappear again into her comfortable silence.
However, all eyes on her, and Emrys and Old Navy saw something rising inside the blank white eyes of the Tistis.
Something—!
CLINK! CLINK! CLINK!
"ENEMIES!"
The guard at the door of the tribe suddenly bellowed, voice adorned with urgency and fear.
"ENEMIES ARE ATTACKING!!!"
The voice was followed by a deep rumbling, shaking and writhing of the earth.
Emrys snapped his head in the direction of the door, eyes narrowing.
The Quest had officially begun.
—End of Chapter 21—
