Eote - Chapter 16

After Rykar was force fed some recovery medicines in liquid form, he quickly regained consciousness although being in a dazed and heavily weakened state. As he opened his eyes, he was greeted by the sight of his brother leaning over him attentively, refusing to leave his side despite having only recently been released from isolation himself.

As he began shifting his body and feeling the pain in his bandaged fingers, the attendants around him rapidly staggered backwards as though he had arisen as a ghost. Their gazes resembled the looks the villagers had given him as they had returned to seek out their mother. His eyes narrowed as he returned their stares with a poisonous glance before asking his brother in a raspy voice, “Where are we?”

“We got out of isolation not long ago, were in the infirmary now which isn’t too far from the food hall. They’ve said we have twelve hours before our shift starts so we can eat and rest up until we are called out.” Loki’s voice reflected the same chill that could be seen in Rykar’s eyes as he filled his brother in on the current situation and the state they had found him in earlier.

Listening to Loki’s description, Rykar felt nothing but hate. The level of suffering he had gone through had broadened his horizons multiple times over as he felt his body literally eating away at itself over the space of three days. All of this pain had been directed towards those around him as he reflected. Due to this association, just by looking at the faces of the people around him caused him to be greatly incensed with his heart speeding up as he withheld the urge to attack everyone in sight.

Without wasting time, he called Loki over and asked him for help standing before they both made their way over to the dinner food hall. Walking through the streets, they could see houses everywhere. It wasn’t anything like the shabby wooden huts that the village had comprised of. Each of the houses had uniform wooden walls with pitched roofs and framed windows. They gave off a sturdy and organised feeling as the rows presented themselves in blocks, forming wide paths for people to make their way through the camp unimpeded.

Despite these wide streets, no one could bee seen on these streets, not a single soul. They walked the short distance towards the food hall slowly and warily, casting glances around all corners. The atmosphere made it so that they couldn’t help but expect someone to jump out at any moment.

Finally reaching the entrance to the hall which was easily four metres wide, the twins were both equally shocked to realise that the ‘food hall’ that they were expected to eat in was actually big enough to accommodate the entire village they had grown up in! Just like the other buildings, it was made of wood, yet the ceiling was at least five metres high with row after row of tables lining the interior and a raging fire in the very centre, billowing heat into the surroundings.

The cosy feeling of the huge room caught them off guard as they strode down the centre, towards the back end where there were multiple tables set up all along the back wall. As they skirted away from the fire to avoid the sweltering heat, the smell of the various buffet stations began to assault them. As they continued, they increased their pace until they were practically sprinting the last few metres. By some miracle, or gluttony, Rykar had long since left his brothers support as he moved with renewed vitality, reaching the counter simultaneously alongside Loki.

They both looked over the tables ferociously before demanding a plate from the startled staff on the side of the counter. Most of the foods they had never even seen before, without asking to be informed of the names, they simply pointed out all the dishes they wanted. A short while later, two dark figures could be seen making their way over to one of the hundreds of empty tables while struggling to carry a mountain of delicacies each.

Finally seated, they let out a long breath before reaching for their plates. Not bothering with cutlery, Loki picked a chicken drumstick while Rykar emerged with a beef and a kidney pie in his right and left hands respectively. Placing the food to their mouths, their teeth only just sank in before they heard a clatter directly opposite them.

Taking a cursory glance at each other, they shifted their over-stuffed plates slightly to the side, giving themselves an opportunity to see the guest who had placed themselves opposite them without invitation.

“How’s it going? Well that’s a dumb question, you’ve just been in isolation haha. Looks like the rumours were true, you’re just as beat up as I’ve heard. Damn your hands must hurt huh?” Taking a seat, the young man began a monolog without waiting for a reply from either of them, paying special attention to the wounds and bandages which covered Rykar’s hands, lips and forehead.

“Well, it isn’t really much of a guess, more of an observation. I’m going to say that you in the bandages is the demon and you’re the clever one.” He continued without minding the silence of the twins. Loki and Rykar had long since continued their meals, quickly demolishing the pies and drumstick while currently looking for their next victim among their plates. They didn’t feel any particular bad will towards this young man, hell it was even nice that he didn’t seem weirded out by them. However, it would be stupid of them to have not learned their lesson by now.

Just because they aren’t afraid, it doesn’t mean they mean well. They price for this lesson had been unexpectedly high.

“Where are my manners, you can call me Chance. I’ve been here a while now so if you need any advice, feel free.” Hearing his odd name, Rykar paused for just a moment before burying the desire to make conversation once again and reached for his plate. “Damn, tough crowd huh. Well either way, what I’m about to say will help you out so, even if you don’t want to reply, you should listen, or you’ll have to learn it the hard way.”

Chance stopped for a moment as though he was waiting to see if either of them would take the bait and actually ask a question, yet he was sorely disappointed. He was a handsome young man with short brown hair, freckles and a charming smile. His face gave off a friendly impression, yet his dark eyes were clear and steady without any hesitation. Despite the odd colour of their eyes, he never averted eye contact from either Rykar or Loki first, causing them to look down at their food with a sense of nervousness.

“The camp is split into four groups which operate in cycles, four hours work and two hours rest. Every hour, a bell will ring with a different tone, corresponding to the groups that have to either get to work or stop work. Do not be late. Energy is the most valuable asset here. Two hours to eat and sleep is not nearly as much as you think it is, you’ll just get used to always being tired.

“The work we complete is harvesting essence fruit. These look like little berries, BUT they are actually pretty heavy. Each of them weighs around ten kilos and the stems holding them are really tough to cut through so it will wear you down quickly. My advice is to collect around four of them before handing them in, rather than loading yourself up till its overly heavy or you’ll burn your energy faster.

“Every time you submit them, they will be counted and quality checked. If the essence fruit are blemished, damaged or haven’t been cleaned properly, they will be taken in but won’t count towards your quota. Make sure you check the quality and ripeness before picking them and be even more careful while doing so.

“If you finish collecting a hundred before the time is up, you can either leave early to get food or you can collect more which you can then get bonus points for. There are loads of little things you can get like alcohol and clothes and stuff but its not needed. Hence me being here, I finished my shift and skipped the dinner queue by coming early.” Expelling a long breath, he looked at the twins expectantly.

“I mean, it’s nice talking by myself and all but don’t you have any questions? Like, none?” He coaxed.

“Why are you talking to us?” Loki finally asked in between bites. His question was well placed and made sense, yet his voice betrayed the fact that he had no real interest in the answer.

“Haha, now that makes it more interesting! See, were having a conversation now!” Chance smiled broadly as he threw a potato into his mouth before continuing. “To be honest, I was really curious about what kind of person would have to be in the pit to scare Jamie half to death! After he got out of there, he begged all the other guards to switch with them before finally admitting that he heard a demon in there!”

Chuckling to himself for a while, Chance then continued with a similarly soft yet more serious voice. “But then after bumping into you today I can see you’re just kids. I mean, I guess I’m not much older since I’m only eighteen, but I know how difficult it can be to end up alone.”

A sad smile was left on his face as he finished the last of his plate. “Another word of advice, friends aren’t so easily found in here, so your current attitudes are perfect. Don’t miss me too much, you’ll see a whole lot more of me by little amigos.” Standing up and walking towards the side, he placed his plate on a rack before walking out of the entrance of the hall.

Just as he left, a loud and low-pitched bel rang throughout the space, causing both Loki and Rykar to jump. Before the reverberations of the bell even faded away, a massive tide of people flooded into the tent chaotically rushing up to the stations at the far end. Men and women equally strove to make it to the front of the crowd before barking out their orders at the staff which began operating overtime as the requests came rolling in.

Hundreds of people immediately crowded all of the tables within the hall as Loki and Rykar watched on blankly from their corner.